Gregory Adams
Gregory Adams is a Vancouver-based arts reporter. From metal legends to emerging pop icons to the best of the basement circuit, he’s interviewed musicians across countless genres for nearly two decades, most recently with Guitar World, Bass Player, Revolver, and more – as well as through his independent newsletter, Gut Feeling. This all still blows his mind. He’s a guitar player, generally bouncing hardcore riffs off his ’52 Tele reissue and a dinged-up SG.
Latest articles by Gregory Adams

King’s X stalwarts dUg Pinnick and Ty Tabor take you inside Three Sides of One, the prog-rock trio’s first album in 14 years
By Gregory Adams published
Pinnick and Tabor open up on the magic that makes King's X, talk aging and songwriting, while Tabor explains why solid-state amps work so much better for his sound

Ian Crichton on rediscovering his mojo with Six by Six – a power trio that offers the perfect platform for his blazing prog guitar style
By Gregory Adams published
The longtime Saga guitarist lets his inner shredder off the leash with Six by Six, and no one will be asking him where the guitar is when they hear this

Big Wreck’s Ian Thornley on chasing new frontiers of “fuzzed-out, messed-up” sounds with Page-inspired riffs and super-heavy slide guitar
By Gregory Adams last updated
The Canadian Suhr-slinger talks 7.1, the first of a trio of new EPs, the band’s new rhythm guitarist and the constant struggle to keep stuff simple

Rudolf Schenker: “We tried all our equipment from the ‘80s – the Marshall stacks, all this equipment – to find that original, old ‘80s sound”
By Gregory Adams last updated
The Scorpions founder on how the hard-rock institution is looking back to a brighter future with Rock Believer, and why you must put your body into it to play like the “King of Riffs”

I Built the Sky’s Rohan Stevenson on breaking out of the shred-metal box for an acoustic guitar album that makes space for banjo, xylophone and more
By Gregory Adams published
Stevenson is a prog-metal player who lights up the fretboard, but for The Quiet Place Away, he follows the inspiration of Tommy Emmanuel for an intimate, all-acoustic album

Charlie Griffiths: “Everyone knows the blues scale – just move it up a semi-tone from your root note and you get a whole new lease on life”
By Gregory Adams published
Well of course the Haken guitarist wants to talk scales; his debut solo album is inspired by a fish! And it is a stylistically omnivorous work that sees him swap eight strings for six

Pattern-Seeking Animals’ Ted Leonard on how he struck guitar tone gold with a ‘Franken-Tele’ rescued from the junk pile
By Gregory Adams published
The prog-rock supergroup’s freewheeling new album has Andean stringed instruments and orchestral strings but as Leonard explains, that ol' Tele holds it all together

How Coheed and Cambria embraced pentatonic riff slams and a Deftones 8-string to create prog guitar epics for a new generation
By Gregory Adams published
Claudio Sanchez and Travis Stever deliver you deep inside their latest sci-fi journey, Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind

John Browne on how Doom composer Mick Gordon ended up on the new Monuments album – and why they're moving forward as a one-guitar band
By Gregory Adams published
The prog-metal mainstay discusses the making of devastating new record In Stasis and why nothing cuts through like his Mayones Qatsis

Alex Lifeson on life after Rush and finding a new sound with Envy of None
By Gregory Adams published
The legendary Rush guitarist is taking a scaled-down approach to his new project but, as he explains, making “ear candy” that suits the song takes focus – and lots of it
![[L-R] Paul Marc Rousseau and Josh Bradford of Silverstein](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/z87XYMycnvaCokX3EpZ93m-320-80.jpg)
Silverstein: “We are still very much a heavy guitar band, but we love seeing what other creative things we can do that don't fit inside the original box”
By Gregory Adams published
Guitarists Josh Bradford and Paul Marc Rousseau talk blending blitzkrieg-style hardcore with synth-driven pop flavors on new album Misery Made Me, and how Kanye West became an unwitting mentor during its composition

Alex Edkins: “I was open to getting basic with Weird Nightmare – I was like, ‘Oh, an open D chord? That feels awesome!’ I hadn’t done that in 10 years”
By Gregory Adams published
The Canadian alt-rocker talks embracing traditional rock and pop tropes on his self-titled Weird Nightmare debut, and how the METZ fan community came together to support the band after the theft of their gear last year

The Flower Kings’ Roine Stolt on taking the Swedish prog-rockers back to the future for the uplifting By Royal Decree
By Gregory Adams published
Expansive, psychedelic, humane, Stolt and The Flower Kings’ return is a triumph of imagination, and thinking outside the box with a wah pedal

Ludic: “Groove is something that should exist on every instrument you’re playing – it’s a side of guitar playing that can easily be neglected”
By Gregory Adams published
The Vancouver trio on the Latin American influences that flavor new coming-of-age-themed EP, Grown?, and how guitarist Ayla Tesler-Mabe came to lay down tracks on Willow Smith's latest album

Mark Holcomb and Misha Mansoor on returning to Haunted Shores for a pissed-off djent-thrash record
By Gregory Adams published
New album Void is the first Haunted Shores record since 2015 and 100 percent a knuckle-twister

Pink Mountaintops’ Stephen McBean: “There are a lot of tones on this record where I might have been like 'yuck' before, but now I like it”
By Gregory Adams published
The psych-rock mainstay on his newfound love of Charvels, balancing Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops, and jamming with J. Mascis

Deaf Club: "We have a little language as far as chord voicings go – they’re definitely anxious chords!"
By Gregory Adams published
Tommy Meehan and Brian Amalfitano dish on their unique brand of pedalboard nastiness, covering the Pixies, and their shared love of ring modulators

Mark Engles: "We wanted the sound to evolve, but you’ve got to keep those roots. It’s still big and heavy… we still love that"
By Gregory Adams published
The Black Map and Dredg guitarist on his tonal predilections, switching from Teles to Ibanez Artists and SGs, and the slide tricks he learned from David Gilmour

Snail Mail's Lindsey Jordan: “I’m a perfectionist – I will rip a song apart until it is done”
By Gregory Adams published
Jordan details the making of her sophomore full-length, Valentine, designing custom Fender models, and undergoing vocal cord surgery just days before she was due to tour in support of the record

At the Gates on creating new nightmares, orchestral influences and the evolution of an iconic death metal sound
By Gregory Adams published
Three albums into their reunion phase, The Nightmare of Being finds Swedish death metalers At the Gates addressing their legacy while pushing off into wild new horizons

Joshua Travis on his love of rhythm guitar: “I’ve always wanted to hit you hard. Lead playing doesn’t hit me like that – it doesn’t punch you in the face”
By Gregory Adams published
The Emmure guitarist talks tackling the lower registers with 7-, 8- and 9-strings, and how his all-out work ethic inspired pummeling new solo EP, NO REST

Star One’s Arjen Lucassen: “I really felt I needed to do a heavy, guitar-oriented album again. That’s in my blood”
By Gregory Adams published
The prog-metallers’ new album, Revel in Time, finds Lucassen joined by an all-star team of guitar heroes including the likes of Michael Romeo, Steve Vai and Adrian Vandenberg

John Reis details his approach to guitar playing: “Rules are important – you need to know how to do something in order to know how to f**k with it”
By Gregory Adams published
The Hot Snakes guitarist on why he dubs new supergroup PLOSIVS' upcoming self-titled debut “distance rock”, how he recovered his stolen gold sparkle Gibson Les Paul Custom, and his latest solo outing, Ride the Wild Night

The Black Tones' Eva Walker: “We would start our sets with a heavy blues instrumental. It locks people in, like, 'Oh s**t, that Black girl's actually shredding'”
By Gregory Adams published
The Strat-toting rocker on the four-note sequence that set her on a quest to conquer the blues and the duo's raucous new Sub Pop single, The End of Everything

Spoon's Britt Daniel: "My playing is all about the right hand. That’s my way of being expressive, by establishing a feel and rhythm"
By Gregory Adams published
Daniel discusses his role as a rhythm guitarist, why a Vox Pathfinder is his go-to amp, and dissects Spoon's latest LP Lucifer on the Sofa, from its back-to-basics approach to its "fuckin' ferocious" leads
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