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Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy: “When you pick up a guitar, you have something of your own even if you don’t realize it”

By Jonathan Horsley

With a new documentary about the great Buddy Guy soon to air on PBS, we spoke to the world’s greatest living bluesman about a life bending those strings and chasing people’s blues away

Photo of Yngwie MALMSTEEN; Yngwie Malmsteen in New York City on October 14,1988.

Yngwie Malmsteen critiques 14 tracks from his guitar-playing peers in this Guitar World blindfold test from 1994

By Joe Lalaina

The Swedish speed demon doesn't hold back in this classic GW test, which conjured up some surprising, and classically Yngwie, results

Nathan Williams of Wavves

Wavves' Nathan Williams on why he took a stylistic left turn on diverse new album, Hideaway

By Chris Schwarten

From country licks to doo-wop rhythms, the LA trio have made some bold moves on their new Dave Sitek-produced record

Deryck Whibley

Deryck Whibley on mental health: “Life can be really hard, but it can be great, too. We just have to work at it”

By Alison Richter

The Sum 41 leader teams up with fellow mental health advocate nothing,nowhere for a new take on the band's single Catching Fire, which tackles his wife Ari's suicide attempt

[L-R] Martin Courtney and Francis Lung

Indie-rock trailblazers Martin Courtney and Francis Lung wax lyrical on the gear and songwriting behind their new albums

By Sam Roche

The Real Estate guitarist and Manchester native sit down for an exhaustive, in-depth conversation about the guitars, recording techniques and solos that fuel Half a Human and Miracle

Nels Cline

Nels Cline: "I had no desire to gyrate and hump my amplifier and set my guitar on fire – I wanted to take a modest path"

By Jacob Uitti

The guitarist's guitarist on his musical beginnings, favorite guitars, the secret to Wilco's longevity and his stunningly diverse 2020 solo album, Share the Wealth

Kathleen Hanna

Kathleen Hanna: “I love that really sparse guitar sound so much – that’s how I write and that’s what I want to hear”

By Jacob Uitti

The punk icon talks working with viral rockers The Linda Lindas, her love of “more amateur-sounding stuff” and why she started a T-shirt business to help send Togolese girls to school

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney: “I figured out my own way of doing fingerstyle – that’s really how I learned every instrument I play”

By Harold Steinblatt

In this classic 2007 interview, Macca discusses his greatest acoustic songs, his unique fingerpicking style and the musical influences that shaped his playing with The Beatles and beyond

BIG|BRAVE

BIG|BRAVE's Mathieu Ball: “Whenever we play something too musical, I feel it’s almost a cop out. We have to get rid of any traditional guitar playing!”

By Gregory Adams

Ball talks open tunings, eschewing leads and using a hand-built guitar on Vital, the Montreal trio's biggest and bravest drone-metal offering yet

Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman: “I’m not a shredder. My guitar on this album was the feedback and the messiness!”

By Jonathan Horsley

For his first solo album in decades, Big Mess, the composer grabs an electric guitar and takes a deep dive into his mid-pandemic psyche for a challenging ‘chamber punk’ metal sound

Voodoo Glow Skulls

Voodoo Glow Skulls' Eddie Casillas: “This record is the most ska we've ever been – we've never had clean guitar tones on any of our albums before this”

By Gregory Adams

Nine years after their last album – and one vocalist later – the Riverside, CA outfit take aim at a host of topical issues with new ska-heavy effort, Livin' the Apocalypse

Neon Christ

William DuVall: "That conception of basic musical competence as punk… I wasn’t one of those people. I was on a quest for the truth and jamming to everything"

By Amit Sharma

The Alice in Chains vocalist looks back on his early guitar years as he revisits cult hardcore outfit Neon Christ for a deluxe reissue of their 1984 recordings

Luke Gruntz of Cleopatrick

Cleopatrick's Luke Gruntz: “We want to try and give kids something enticing to belong to in guitar music”

By Matt Parker

The hard-riffing six-stringer talks mosh pit meltdowns, his “fighter jet” pedalboard and why he loves “stupid” guitar parts

Andrew Watt

Andrew Watt: “I’m making music with no deadlines – It’s a lot freer. Because of that, cooler choices are being taken”

By Gregory Adams

A year-plus after his debut GW cover appearance, we find out how the Grammy-winning producer/guitarist goes from working with Ozzy Osbourne to Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber – and back again

Dino Cazares

Dino Cazares: “I built up my picking hand speed by hanging weights off my wrist”

By Greg Prato

The Fear Factory guitarist on his machine gun-like technique, compliments from Dimebag Darrell and making the band's long-awaited new album, Aggression Continuum

Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast

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”

By Jacob Uitti

The Japanese Breakfast mastermind talks tackling grief with her new memoir, why she used to be intimidated by the Jazzmaster and new LP, Jubilee

Joe Trohman

Joe Trohman: “Mental illness isn't a problem. The problem is the shame, the lack of information and the lack of teaching”

By Alison Richter

The Fall Out Boy guitarist details his mental health journey and how he injects humor into dark discussions with his I Hate Myself podcast

Juliana Hatfield

Juliana Hatfield: “There’s some biting stuff on this album – the Fender Mini Twin is cute, but it makes really great fuzz sounds”

By Gregory Adams

The veteran singer-songwriter details the unconventional recording techniques behind her 19th solo album, Blood

Mdou Moctar

Mdou Moctar: “I really like the Stratocaster sound. Whatever tone I need, I can have it in that guitar”

By Jonathan Horsley

Strat in hand, the Nigerien phenom is taking Tuareg guitar music global and putting an electric twist on traditional arrangements

Henry Flury of Butcher Babies

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!”

By Alison Richter

The Ibanez endorsee on his love of eight-strings, adopting Meshuggah's tuning, and how the pandemic changed his mindset as a songwriter