Latest articles by Mark McStea
Judith Hill on her journey from backing singer for Michael Jackson, Prince and Stevie Wonder to fronting her own band
The 20 Feet From Stardom singer worked with – and learned from – the biggest names in pop before she seized a six-string and formed her own group
Wunderhorse turned up to Nirvana's In Utero studio, borrowed guitars – and made one of 2024’s best alt rock records
What started out as a solo project is now a proper band with ties that go back to childhood, and Midas is the sound of an indie collaboration in full bloom
Jontavious Willis has become one of acoustic blues’ most exciting voices – just don’t says he’s the future of the art form
Straight out of West Georgia with stories to tell and songs to sing, Willis tells us why the time is now for acoustic blues and how the British Invasion brought good and bad for the art form
Robin Guthrie on how he conjured the haunting (and monstrous) tones of Cocteau Twins
With The Moon and the Melodies remastered and reissued, the architect of the lushest sounds committed to tape reflects on the effects experimentation and accidental magic of the quintessential 4AD band
Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell on playing Rory Gallagher’s Strat and why a spring reverb is the best overdrive
One half of the Fontaines D.C. six-string machine talks songwriting and influences, and admits that he, too, is a disciple of YouTube’s Kurt Cobain tone guru Aaron Rash
Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik on the legacy of Iris, Dizzy Up the Girl and those weird tunings
When Rzeznik and co set out with Goo Goo Dolls there was no Plan B. They were all in. But when it came time for album number two, that gamble was about to pay off in a big way…
Why every guitarist owes something to the first rock 'n' roll guitar hero, Duane Eddy
The man with the twangy guitar changed the lives of millions and left an indelible mark on tone, and how we play the instrument. We look back on the life of a bona-fide legend
Lime Garden’s Leila Deeley is refreshing indie-pop with a heavy-strung Jaguar and $30 fuzz pedal
Lime Garden's pop sound is lush and heady but at the heart of it lies a secret shredder who got a taste for the instrument listening to Black Sabbath and the Doors. We'll let Deeley explain it...
How Kid Congo Powers fused jazz and punk with the Bad Seeds, the Cramps… and Ry Cooder’s amps
Powers reveals how drugs, jazz and lessons from the Cramps’ Poison Ivy were all brought to bear on Gun Club’s seminal 1984 album, The Las Vegas Story
Pat Beers honed a one-handed, five-string guitar technique so he can cause more onstage chaos with The Schizophonics
With Hendrix, MC5, and Stooges influences, these antsy San Diego rockers put on a show you’re not likely to forget
Rich Robinson on why he reunited the Black Crowes – and revitalized their guitar lineup
Toxic band member behavior drove the Robinson brothers apart – but it also brought them back together. Rich Robinson details the challenge of playing in 15 different tunings, how a flood made his Les Paul Goldtop sound better, and why Nico Bereciartua is just the guitarist the band needs
Robby Krieger on honing his Doors guitar tone, and why slide guitar is the ultimate way to express yourself as a player
Robby Krieger breaks down his new album with the Soul Savages’ new album, and details his struggles to come up with his own sound during his time with the Doors
Vivian Campbell talks Dio’s guitar solo advice on the 1984 classic The Last In Line
How do you follow Holy Diver? That was the question facing Ronnie James Dio and his young band. The answer: is you double down on the metal anthems and record a stone cold classic
Mike Ness on fighting cancer and the roots influences behind Social Distortion’s 1990 LP
Ness and co hit us all with a curve ball as the ’90s dawned, covering Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire and bringing blues into punk, but as Ness explains here, it's all related – it’s all punk
“I didn’t see myself as a professional instrumental guitarist”: Steve Vai on game-changing debut Flex-Able
Flex-Able was the sound of a young Steve Vai following his musical obsessions. That it changed everything for guitar – and Vai's career – was just a happy accident
“Adam wanted to completely change everything. His band had hit a brick wall”: How Marco Pirroni teamed Link Wray with Les Paul Juniors to make Adam and the Ants’ ’80s-defining Kings of the Wild Frontier
Kings of the Wild Frontier found new wave icon Adam Ant at a crossroads, and with Marco Pirroni's raw rock 'n' roll guitar and Burundi drumbeats, he found a sound that sold by the millions
“We just tuned to whoever’s guitar sounded most in tune. That’s how green we were in the studio!” Jake Burns on Wilko Johnson, mistranslations, and Stiff Little Fingers’ punk classic, Inflammable Material
Stiff Little Fingers set the world alight on their 1979 debut album, bringing the sound of Belfast punk to the world and working through troubled times with high-volume guitar
![The Buzzcocks live in 1978: [From left] Garth Smith, Pete Shelley, Steve Diggle](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/umKgJgJYmL7qY7VuzgCrGS-840-80.jpg.webp)
“Tony Hicks from the Hollies popped into the studio and said, ‘That’s my guitar.’ I thought, ‘F**k me, I’ve bought a stolen Les Paul!’” Steve Diggle of the Buzzcocks on the making of their 1978 punk classic, Another Music in a Different Kitchen
Fast-paced, big hooks, and one almighty left turn, the Buzzcocks’ incendiary debut is one of the most important punk albums of all time. Here is its story
“Wherever we travel, people say how important we were in terms of influencing them. When I was growing up, there was only Suzi Quatro to look up to”: Girlschool’s Kim McAuliffe and Jackie Chambers on 45 years of a great British rock institution
Girlschool is still in session after 45 years, and as McAuliffe and Chambers explain here, there will be no turning down anytime soon
“I played a Japanese Les Paul copy on Teenage Kicks but, ironically, I still think it’s the best sound I ever got on record”: The Undertones’ Damian O’Neill looks back on the making of the band’s defining anthem – and the lost classic that followed
The Undertones’ out-of-left-field 1981 album, Positive Touch, was an about turn for the Northern Irish rockers, after Teenage Kicks gave a generation an anthem to rally to. This is its story
“We’ll play up to 200 songs over the course of a tour… it would drive me crazy to play the same songs every night”: Warren Haynes on what drives Gov’t Mule – and why he’s focusing on writing guitar epics
Gov’t Mule return with Peace…Like a River, a work of long-form rock ’n’ soul inspired by John Lennon, the Doors and the complex masterpieces of Kansas and Queen
“Mick came in with his Les Paul, plugged in to my amp and fiddled with the controls. All of a sudden there it was, the full Ziggy Stardust tone”: The post-Bowie career of Mick Ronson, rock ’n’ roll’s most quietly spoken guitar hero
Sure, he made a massive imprint on David Bowie’s classic early ’70s albums. But Mick Ronson also worked with Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Elton John, Roger McGuinn, Morrissey, Ian Hunter and many others
“Jimmy Page and Jim Sullivan were getting a lot of work, but I was always getting plenty of calls – and that increased after I did the Jack Bruce sessions”: The confessions of session pro Chris Spedding
The British session ace on being asked to audition for the Rolling Stones, producing the Sex Pistols’ early demos and recording Robert Gordon’s final album
“What you don’t play is as important as what you do play. You need the space, as it makes the small things that you do seem bigger”: 5 questions with McKinley James
The soul/blues/rock ’n’ roll aficionado on how he fills out a duo – and why guitarists using pedals to replicate classic sounds are “shooting themselves in the foot”
