Features archive

May 2021

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75 articles

May 31
- Spotlight: Christopher Vernon of Belle Haven
- Jim Root: "My apologies to all the Tele purists, but I don’t play in a country band, so it’s not like I can use single coils"
- Damon Johnson on hard-rock heroes, the joy of independence and feeling like Bono when playing shows at his fans' houses
- South of Eden's Justin Young: "For me, the guitar has got to have a lot of grit"
May 28
- Why Albert Collins was the true master of the Fender Telecaster
- John Smith: ”The only way to cope with life is to write songs, for me. As soon as I picked up the pen, the songs started falling out”
May 27
- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 346
- Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr: “We wanted Typhoons to feel like a debut record”
- Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell and Joff Oddie: “It almost felt like we were having the ‘difficult second record’ on the third one”
- How much difference does your guitar string choice make?
- Michelle Zauner: “Music is a vehicle for expressing myself verbally. Pretty much the moment that I learned my first few chords, I was writing songs”
- Bootsy Collins: “It’s not about being the greatest bassist in the world – you want to do great, but learn some kind of discipline as well“
May 26
- Drown This City - Colours We Won’t Know EP review
- Joe Trohman: “Mental illness isn't a problem. The problem is the shame, the lack of information and the lack of teaching”
- Juliana Hatfield: “There’s some biting stuff on this album – the Fender Mini Twin is cute, but it makes really great fuzz sounds”
- Kele Okereke: "I'm making sounds I could have never made before. This record has made me think differently about myself as a guitar player"
May 25
- Teenage Joans’ Cahli Blakers: “I don’t think a song is ever truly done as soon as we’ve finished writing it”
- Red Fang: "It’s the question marks that get us really excited about the recording process – the happy accidents"
- Michael Schenker: “Doctor Doctor was the sound of me developing. You can hear it in the vibrato... I was always fascinated by vibrato“
- Shredding for dollars: how Fiverr is creating a marketplace for guitar playing
- 6 creative ways to use a wah pedal
May 24
- Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready on teaming up with Fender to recreate his prized 1960 Stratocaster
- Brian Bromberg: “Hendrix's presence as an artist was overwhelming, and that’s what makes his music so special“
- Keith Richards' guitars: a complete guide to the Rolling Stone's iconic instruments
May 23
- Spotlight: Josh Renjen of Drown This City
- The Small Calamities - Moments Of Impact album review
May 21
- Ayron Jones: "While there were all these holes to be filled in my life, the void was ultimately filled by my love of guitar"
- Eurovision's greatest guitar moments
May 20
- Waterparks’ Awsten Knight: “I wanted to make Greatest Hits sound more grand and expensive, and just massive…”
- Lily Cornell Silver: "Mental health is such a ubiquitous issue in the music industry"
- Armored Saint's Joey Vera: ”I heard Kiss’s Alive! and that was about it for me. I just wanted to play an instrument”
May 19
- Mannequin Pussy’s Marisa ‘Missy’ Dabice: “It felt like a lifeline to suddenly have something to pour ourselves into”
- Classic gear: Fuzz Faces
- Horace Bray: "I could never see myself limiting my art to one genre. Life is too short to worry about what box you fit into"
May 18
- Spotlight: Tyne-James Organ
- Mdou Moctar: “I really like the Stratocaster sound. Whatever tone I need, I can have it in that guitar”
- Best compressor pedals: tame your tone's dynamics with compression
- Bigsby vibratos: charting the history of the game-changing guitar hardware
- Eva Kess: "The sound of bass comes from the left hand. The right hand is important as well, but it’s how you press the strings that forms the tone"
- Justin Norvell on the past, present and future of guitar design at Fender
May 17
- Melvins’ Buzz Osborne: “We’ve written and recorded more than 500 songs – what can we do to keep it fresh?”
- Johnny Marr: “The first time I ever used a Tele was the day I recorded This Charming Man”
- Joanna Connor reveals her aversion to baseball-bat guitar necks and regret at trading in a ’64 Fender Twin
May 16
- Felicity Urquhart & Josh Cunningham - The Song Club album review
May 15
- You Am I’s Tim Rogers: “I was always writing – it was just that I wasn’t being a good friend or bandmate”
May 14
- Epica’s Mark Jansen: “I cannot stand when things stay the same for too long”
May 13
- St. Vincent: “I wanted to make something more grounded – more, like, from the guts”
May 12
- The Bamboos’ Lance Ferguson: “I found it far more enjoyable, because everyone was putting in more creative energy”
- Butcher Babies' Henry Flury: “I run all over the stage, so the last thing I want to do is dance on a pedalboard. I let my hands do the talking!”
- Nancy Wilson: “I painted myself intentionally into the corner by saying I was going to do an Eddie Van Halen tribute – because then I had to do it”
- Garcia Peoples walk us through their Tweed-powered, triple-guitar indie-rock attack
- Mike Rutherford: ”I covered a lot of ground with the double-neck and bass pedals – they gave the band an extra sound”
May 11
- NOFX’s Aaron ‘El Hefe’ Abeyta: “We’re older now, so there’s a lot more sad shit to write about”
- Jam buddies and neighbors Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen on swapping guitars, blues phrasing and the secret to successful collaboration
- Jason Isbell: ”I think the Telecaster is probably the best guitar design, ever”
- Noctule's Serena Cherry: “The leads on this album are a window into my personality – they're euphoric, but also heavy”
- Paul Chambers: the double bass great's best (and worst) albums
May 10
- Spotlight: Tynan Reibelt of Deadlights
- BRIDEAR: “The charm of this album is that it's not just heavy – it pushed us to play more melodic solos”
- Gene Simmons: “We are the hardest-working band in show business, but we do have an awful lot of fun. I have more fun than the Pope!“
May 9
- The Pretty Reckless’ Taylor Momsen: “It was very literally music that saved my life”
May 7
- The Black Crowes’ Chris and Rich Robinson unpack the story behind their timeless debut, Shake Your Money Maker
- Two-Rock Amplification: the tonal approach and philosophy behind the company's sought-after sound
May 6
- A Day To Remember’s Kevin Skaff: “We threw out the imaginary rulebook that never existed”
- Inside Black Country, New Road's freewheeling DIY guitar approach
- Taylor's acoustic guitar bracing options explained
May 5
- Reb Beach: ”When I was a kid, I took an aptitude test, and it basically said I had no aptitude for anything except music”
- Bass speaker cones explained
May 4
- Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite: “2020 was such a crazy year that we were just trying to get through it more than anything else”
- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 345
- Five Finger Death Punch’s Zoltan Bathory and new recruit Andy James on new beginnings and shred in the era of Covid
- Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal: “Every time I do an acoustic version of something, I realize how beautiful the song is at its core”
May 3
- The secrets behind Jan Akkerman's guitar tone on Hocus Pocus by Focus
- Kaki King: ”All the songs with love and drama that take you to the good, sad place are super-hard to play – it’s so hard to replicate that again and again”
May 2
- Tigers Jaw’s Ben Walsh: “This band has always had a really great sense of community around it”