The following content is related to the January 13 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
This month, I’d like to address the sometimes tricky process of songwriting. Most of my songs start as a germ of an idea that comes to me during an improvisation. I’ll have a cool little nugget of “stuff” that catches my interest enough that I am inspired to investigate it further and perhaps forge a composition from it.
I think that for many of us, a new song idea springs from a moment of improvisation. From there, it becomes a question of how to take a cool little riff and expand it to something that can actually be played by a band. That’s the challenging part.
“We were out to satisfy our animal instincts onstage. I think we spent $40,000 on gear that we smashed on Lollapalooza”: Nine Inch Nails made their name with infamously destructive live shows – this is the true story behind their epic guitar smash-a-thons
“Phil Lynott said, ‘Gary Moore is out the band. Could you come over tomorrow?’ My initial reaction was, ’I’m not the guy you should be asking’”: When Midge Ure joined Thin Lizzy on a make-or-break US tour, he had just one day’s notice and no rehearsals
