Features archive

May 2022

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94 articles

May 31
- Volbeat’s Kaspar Larsen: “We go from pop-punk to rockabilly to Black Sabbath on this album, and the bass is a big part of the sound”
- Big Wreck’s Ian Thornley on chasing new frontiers of “fuzzed-out, messed-up” sounds with Page-inspired riffs and super-heavy slide guitar
May 30
- Why guitar companies owned by pro players are on the rise: 5 influential guitarists share their stories
- Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek on the tunings, techniques and gear behind their expansive indie-rock sound
- John Frusciante and Johnny Marr recall their collaborations on The Empyrean
May 29
- Xavier Rudd: “I am very connected to Country in a way that speaks through my music”
May 27
- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 359
- Porridge Radio's Dana Margolin on how a budget offset and lashings of feedback built their mesmerizing new album
May 26
- Vikki Thorn: “I need to be in the moment when I record”
- 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
- Why Gibson PAF humbuckers remain the most revered and elusive of all pickups
- Alex Lifeson on life after Rush and finding a new sound with Envy of None
- Nashville Pussy’s Bonnie Buitrago talks live albums, Larry Taylor’s influence, and playing through Kyuss’s Welcome to Sky Valley Ampeg SVT
- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 336
- Surviving as a woman guitarist in heavy metal: players detail the sexism they face online
May 25
- Evergrey: “We're such different guitar players – our solos on this album feel like conversations we're having together”
- John Frusciante names his favorite modern-day guitar players
May 24
- Spotlight: Lewis Matte of Sophisticated Dingo
- 10 pro guitarists who broke strings onstage – and how they recovered
- Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster on his 5 best bass albums
May 23
- Sergio Vega on his exit from Deftones and new "revolving-door" project
- John 5 shares his love of instrumental guitar music and names his favorites
- Lo Moon’s Sam Stewart: “I do session work in LA for producers and artists, and they always want me to bring my Gretsch”
May 22
- Thornhill: “I basically wrote every song to soundtrack a different movie or TV show”
May 20
- Cave In share how recording with Kurt Ballou and building a Covid-safe talk box helped them craft their biggest-sounding album yet
- Nandi Bushell on her meteoric rise, playing with Foo Fighters, and her aspirations to collaborate with Slipknot and Metallica
- Mike Campbell: “When the Heartbreakers started out, we had 100-watt Vox Super Beatles – I don’t know how Tom Petty sang over those, but he did!”
- The secrets behind Jeff Beck’s guitar tone on Freeway Jam
May 19
- Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers: “Now that we’ve got this platform, we’re really going to tell people what we think”
- Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder on reuniting after nearly 60 years to pay tribute to blues legends Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry
- Meet Rowan Robertson: Ronnie James Dio’s lost prodigy
- Pete Townshend: "I was at an art school where the course was dedicated to breaking the rules, and I just drafted that into my work as a guitar player"
- Opeth guitarist Fredrik Åkesson on his role on the new Ghost album: “There are a lot of Brian May-style parts”
May 18
- Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil dissect Soundgarden's masterpiece, Superunknown
- Find the right instrument for you for an amazing price with 15% off all Donner acoustic and electric guitar bundles, ukuleles, and more
- 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”
- Bryan Adams: “My most prized guitar is a D-18 Martin acoustic that once belonged to Johnny Cash”
- Will Lee: “A groove is a groove is a groove. If it feels good now, it’s always going to feel good!”
- Remembering the Creation’s trailblazing guitarist Eddie Phillips, pioneer of the bowed guitar and feedback whisperer
May 17
- Spotlight: James McKendrick of Void Of Vision
- John Frusciante shares 7 tips that will make you a better guitarist
- 30 instrumental guitarists with something to say
- 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”
- The Lottery Winners’ Katie Lloyd on making indie collaborations officially a thing, bass heroes, and why the stage is in her blood
- Live Review: Camp Cope, Melbourne 13/05/22
May 16
- The Warning's Dany Villarreal on songwriting with her sisters and the videogame that kickstarted her guitar journey
- Les Paul Standard vs Les Paul Studio: what's the difference between these celebrated Gibson singlecuts
- Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger on the restorative power of Gibson guitars, Marshall amps, and volume
- Tracii Guns: “Everything I played on the new L.A. Guns record was recorded direct through a HeadRush – I didn’t use a mic’d-up amp for anything”
- Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford answer your questions
- Khruangbin’s Mark Speer: “Don't be afraid of space. You can spend your time either filling up every section of the sonic void, or you can embrace that space”
May 15
- Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: “This album was definitely liberating”
May 13
- David Knudson on how sobriety, home recording and an unending love of the Line 6 DL4 helped him create his first-ever solo album
- Warpaint’s Theresa Wayman reveals the secret to her ambient tones – and it features less reverb than you might think
- The Flower Kings’ Roine Stolt on taking the Swedish prog-rockers back to the future for the uplifting By Royal Decree
May 12
- "Everybody was going flat out": Keith Richards on the trials and tribulations that formed The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St.
- Psychedelic Porn Crumpets: “That dread turned into a bit of angst, and then we put that to the heavier stuff”
- Fender Play vs Guitar Tricks: which is better?
- Digging the new Polyphia? Here are 10 trap and lo-fi beat-loving guitar players you need to check out
- John McLaughlin: “For me, music is a form of meditation and self-discovery, especially if you’re improvising”
- Kurt Vile: “What you’re trying to do when you’re writing a song, with vocals, lyrics and guitar, is to not think at all. Just lay it down fast”
- Why Buddy Guy loves polka dots
May 11
- 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”
- Kim Thayil names 11 guitar players who shaped his sound
May 10
- Spotlight: Callum Robinson of Semantics
- Meet Otoboke Beaver, the Dave Grohl-approved Japanese punk-rockers influenced by everything from Manzai comedy to the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
- Ghost’s Tobias Forge: “I can proudly say ABBA are one of my favorite bands of all time... I’ll always feel like I’m in the shadow of their legacy”
- How the Line 6 DL4 changed the game for digital modeling effects pedals
May 9
- Tame Impala's Kevin Parker: “I've rediscovered the joy of trying random chord shapes and seeing what happens. That's how so many great guitar parts were written”
- Bauhaus' Daniel Ash: “I don’t really pick out guitar players in bands – I listen to something for the whole package”
- John Frusciante: “There’s an appreciation of the chemistry I can’t say I had last time – when you get so used to something, you sometimes take things for granted”
- Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen and Rob Caggiano on chasing away pandemic anxiety with a Boss HM-2 and the rush of a new album
May 8
- Joe Satriani: “It’s important to really identify with the subject matter”
May 6
- Bonnie Raitt: “I didn't see anybody play slide, so I just figured it out in my room – and I put the bottleneck on the wrong finger!”
- Joe Satriani: “There's got to be 100 guitar players out there who I love watching every day because they do things I could never do”
May 5
- Keith Xander on his one-armed guitar technique: “It takes a lot of time to learn an instrument, maybe even more so in my case”
- Chris Cheney: “Even the darkest songs, I’m proud of the way I allowed myself to wrestle with them”
- Animals As Leaders’ Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes on taking the maximalist “more is more” approach to their spectacular new album, Parrhesia
- Ian Hill reflects on 50 years of Judas Priest
- Mark Holcomb and Misha Mansoor on returning to Haunted Shores for a pissed-off djent-thrash record
- Dave Keuning on Johnny Marr’s enduring influence: “We talked about countless Smiths songs in the early Killers days”
May 4
- Live Review: Polish Club, Melbourne 23/04/22
- Live Review: Groovin The Moo, Bendigo 30/04/22
- 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”
- How Korn changed the face of guitar music
- The 50 greatest rhythm guitarists of all time
- How the war effort shaped the history of Gibson acoustics with the LG Series
May 3
- Deaf Club: "We have a little language as far as chord voicings go – they’re definitely anxious chords!"
- Troy Sanders: “The Teardrinker bass solo turned from a silly joke to an interesting moment that I’d never done in Mastodon before”
- Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce: “I’m a big believer in pushing the simplest of ideas as far as they can go... you only need a chord to write a song”
May 2
- How luthier Roger Rossmeisl shaped the look of Rickenbacker guitars with the legendary Capri series
- Joanne Shaw Taylor: “I phoned Joe Bonamassa and was like, ‘You do know I’m not bringing s**t to this session?’ Who goes to Nerdville and takes their own gear?”
May 1
- Body Type: “This album symbolises us really coming into our own”
- How we test at Guitar World