Features archive

May 2025

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25 articles

May 10
- “I will use mattresses for isolation and try not to bother the neighbors too much… I was just following the songs to see what happens”: How Jonathan Hultén channeled Nick Drake’s Pink Moon and recorded an entire album in his walk-in closet
- “Paul Simon called Stax and said, ‘Who are those Jamaican musicians?’ They told him, ‘Those are some white boys from Alabama!’” David Hood on being starstruck by Aretha Franklin, what Otis Redding taught him, and tales from golden age of Muscle Shoals
May 9
- “Even today, there’s little nuances that Eddie did, and I can get close, but it’s about trying to capture the feeling”: Why George Clinton’s P-Funk All Stars never shined so bright as when ‘Kidd Funkadelic’ and Eddie Hazel joined forces on Maggot Brain
- “A personal crowning moment for me was having Lemmy ask me to play on a Motörhead record!” Alice in Chains’ Mike Inez on why Cliff Burton ruled, Paul McCartney's influence – and what John Entwistle told him (that he already knew)
- “Listening to Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert… all kinds of crazy-fast players. And you tried to keep up with them”: Andy La Rocque on why he is no longer a 120mph soloist – and what we can expect from the long-awaited King Diamond album
- “This was specifically wanting it to have the sort of grandiosity of a Comfortably Numb-type guitar solo but without really referencing that vocabulary”: Randy McStine reveals all behind his cosmically epic solo on Steven Wilson's The Overview
May 8
- “I play the double-neck and trade solos with Joe Walsh on Hotel California. It’s a bit terrifying, but it’s the greatest thing ever”: Chris Holt landed The Eagles without an audition – but his gigs with Mike Campbell and Don Henley might have helped
- “John Lennon hated doubling his vocals. The chief engineer at Abbey Road came up with a way to add a delay and put it onto another track. That’s what that pedal does”: The Cars’ Elliot Easton on the secrets of his pedalboard – and the wizard who made it
May 7
- “I wasn't familiar with PRS. If anything, I was like, ‘The birds are too flashy!’ But the moment I played one I was like, ‘Whoa, I can play faster now!’”: Meet Mei Semones, the Berklee graduate reimagining New Orleans vibes with an intricate indie flair
- “A lot of modern guitarists want to get all the notes right but if you listen to Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page, it’s beautiful playing, with loads of mistakes”: Peter Brewis on Field Music’s ‘collage rock’ – and why he owes his career to Robert Zemeckis
- “Iggy left the Stooges and had a career – ditto Lou Reed with the Velvet Underground or Morrissey with the Smiths. Where’s Biafra’s solo career?”: East Bay Ray explains why the Dead Kennedys’ chemistry hit its peak on Fresh Fruit... and why it fell apart
May 6
- Faced with the loss of their founding guitarist and creative leader, Night Flight Orchestra are persevering with the big melodies and sonic largesse of rock's golden era
- “There’s a sleek look to bands like Loathe, Spiritbox or Knocked Loose. Spiky shapes are engrained in our values – we want to wear our influences on our sleeves”: Employed To Serve are re-embracing metal guitars – but dropping amps
- “Tokai’s LS series are probably the best-built Les Paul-style guitars that have ever come through my shop”: How the Japanese guitar market came of age with ’80s Fender and Gibson clones – some that would rival the originals
May 5
- Played by everyone from Magic Sam and Otis Rush to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robbie Robertson, Noel Gallagher, and Robben Ford, the Riviera remains Epiphone's semi-hollow superstar
- “Smashing Pumpkins taught me that music doesn’t have to fit neatly into a box… it’s not as easy as pie. It’s pie with a side of metal!” Billy Corgan asked Jenna Fournier to go back to bass, and she says the timing is perfect
- “I always used it with Whitesnake, which was perfect because it sounded like John Sykes' Les Paul”: Doug Aldrich on how Randy Rhoads’ inspiration helped him find a “killer” Les Paul – that was owned by the man who co-wrote Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven
May 4
- Klon Centaur creator Bill Finnegan once said that the hype around his pedal was “ridiculous,” yet originals still fetch $10,000 or more on the secondhand market. With plentiful, far cheaper clones, why does the Klon remain a holy grail pedal?
May 3
- “Norm was like, ‘Do you want to play with Joe?’ Before I could say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ he brings Joe over and tells him, ‘Jason wants to play a set’”: Jason Sinay on jamming with Joe Bonamassa – and why his early sessions with Mike Campbell were a struggle
May 2
- “I remember there was a video of Gary Moore and he played Red House on this Fiesta Red Strat, and I thought it was just the most incredible thing”: Is Toby Lee Britain’s next blues-rock superstar?
- “I love the guitar, but essentially it’s an instrument that belongs to the 20th century in many ways. So it’s a question of, what can you do to try to reinvent that vocabulary to make it seem relevant?”: Steven Wilson on the making of a cosmic prog epic
- “I had big shoes to fill, but I knew I had a lot to offer on my own. I think Billy Corgan saw that in me”: From Veruca Salt to the Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage, Nicole Fiorentino has become alt-rock's go-to bassist
May 1
- “We both wanted to shred. Joey wanted to be as crazy on guitar as he was on drums”: Wednesday 13 on getting his guitar confidence back – with help from some heroes – and the Murderdolls future that never happened
- “I still use the Strat and Big Muff sound here and there for overdubs, but when I watched Eddie Van Halen play 3 feet in front of me, I learned that it’s about the hands”: Billy Corgan on critics, tone secrets, and how he keeps Smashing Pumpkins fresh
- “I subsequently became the world’s most famous guitarist with The Police. I wanted to play with somebody else to see how I’d do, like an experiment on myself”: At the height of his ’80s success, Andy Summers needed a challenge – he found Robert Fripp