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Juha Ruokangas interview – Builder of the Captain Nemo guitar
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Juha Ruokangas was one of the guitar builder I really wanted to meet during the Holy Grail Guitar Show, that's why I was thrilled to do a 45min video interview with him. Juha has established a brand so highly regarded in the guitar world that I had a tons of questions to ask him.
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Back in May 2014, Robert Cray was in Paris to promote his latest album "In My Soul".
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Michihiro Matsuda interview – A living legend of guitar building
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
There were so many great guitar builders in Berlin for the Holy Grail Guitar Show that it was a tough job to do a selection. Here's a Michihiro Matsuda interview.
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Jersey Girl Homemade guitars: interview with luthier Kaz Goto
Monday, 17 November 2014
During the first Holy Grail Guitar Show I had the great pleasure to meet the luthiers from Jersey Girl Homemade Guitars from Japan Miss Akiko Oda and Mr Kaz Goto.
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Here's the interview with Matt Schofield recorded in Paris on December 13th 2013 while he was doing some promotion for his "Far As I Can See" album.
Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar!
Pierre.
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The ukulele is an instrument we see more and more these days. And that's a very good thing. This summer during a guitar festival called Graines de Guitare I had the pleasure to meet Taimane Gardner, one of the big star of this instrument.
She gave a great performance during the festival.
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Stephan Forte interview: Enigma Opera Black, his latest album
Wednesday, 15 October 2014
Stéphan Forté is one of those French musician who is more famous in the rest of the world than in his home country.
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Doug Redler is one of the top guitar tech, he has toured behind countless musicians. From Brian Ferry to K.D. Lang to the Black Crowes. He is currently working with Rich Robinson from the Crowes.
He wrote a great book to share his experience on the road.
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The video above is an extract of an interview of John Cruz, Fender Master Builder, done in Paris on September 29th 2014.
The full interview is available with the Backstage Pass.
Subjects discussed
His first guitar
How he became a master builder
How he deals with his orders
Why an old guitar is usually good
The relations with tthe other master builders from Fender
The impact of the master builder work on the production line
What he would say to Leo Fender
And more !
Enjoy,
Pierre.
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On the interview above Judge Fredd presents the Money For Nothing pedal he has developed with JMB Experience to obtain the famous Mark Knopfler sound on the Dire Straits song Money For Nothing and more.
Last year Fredd introduced also with JMB a great overdrive pedal called the Riff Shooter, the Money For Nothing has some great potential to produce not only the trademark tone but also plenty of other cool tones.
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Grover Jackson interview – A legendary guitar builder for GJ2 Guitars
Friday, 19 September 2014
At one point or another we all have fantasized on the Jackson guitars during the 90s. The brands Jackson and Charvel were synonymous for high performance guitars.
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Riccardo Gioggi contacted me in February 2013, and each time the shuffle mode on my iPhone offered me a song from his album Theory of Dynamics, I took my phone from my pocket to check-out who it was: a very good sign! I had to do an interview with this great musician from Rome, Italy.
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Mark Tremonti interview from Alter Bridge during the 2014 Hellfest
Thursday, 04 September 2014
Here's the interview with Mark Tremonti at the 2014 Hellfest right before he went onstage with Alter Bridge.
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Here's the 20min interview with John Petrucci done in Paris right before the Dream Theater concert at the Olympia on July 7th 2014.
Subjects discussed in the interview
His first guitar, his training, his influences
The recording of the last Dream Theater album
How it was composed and recorded
The details of the gear used on the record
His approach to a concert with G3 compared to with Dream Theater
His word of wisdom to progress
Pierre.
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Do I need to write an introduction for Warren Haynes? He was in Paris for a concert with Govt Mule so I jumped on the opportunity to interview him guitar in hand to talk about Shout!, the latest Mule release, about his career so far, about his approach to guitar and many more.
Extracts from Shout!
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Tanabe TV, pedal builder for Robben Ford, Larry Carlton and more
Sunday, 17 August 2014
In July 2014 Premier Guitar released a cool Rig Rundown of Larry Carlton gear shot in his studio. The video is cool despite the fact that we don't get to hear Larry play except at the very beginning. Anyway, it's in this video (see below) that I first heard about the Zenkudo overdive pedal from tanabe.tv.
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Here's Greg Howe interview. Greg is no newbie, he has been around for a while in the guitar world. I was thrilled to see him involved in a vocal project with the band Maragold with the lead singer Meghan Krauss. Their debut album is super cool. I highly recommend it.
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Hey Pete Thorn titled his solo album Guitar Nerd so I guess it gives me the right call him that right? If you are a gear addicts (as we all are at one level) you must have viewed one of the numerous videos Pete has on his YouTube channel.
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Bernie Marsden is one of those guitarists found in the lineup of bands from UFO to Whitesnake not to mention countless collaborations.
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Nils Lofgren has released a retrospective of his music in the form of a box set of 9 discs! Given his career, especially playing with the Boss, Bruce Springsteen, in recent years, an interview was required.
I admit to not being an expert of his music, so I dove with curiosity in this huge mass of music that reveals very different facets of the musician.
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Jonathan Kreisberg interview, one of the hottest Jazz player around
Sunday, 20 July 2014
Jonathan Kreisberg was in Paris for a tour with Doctor Lonnie Smith.
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Interview of Serge and John, luthiers extraordinaire from Tao Guitars
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
Here's an interview of Serge and John, guitar builders from Tao Guitars. They are based in Brussel in Belgium.
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Andy McKee interview, one of the hottest fingerpicker (@TheRealMcKee)
Friday, 11 July 2014
Andy McKee has been on my radar for a while as he is one of the hottest fingerpicker at the moment.
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Steve Stevens interview, awesome guitar player with multiple talents
Friday, 27 June 2014
Steve Stevens is one of those guitarists who have many strings to their bow. Indeed, not only is he an outstanding soloist but also a composer who has signed several tubes Billy Idol among other things, not to mention movie soundtracks, his solo projects, etc..
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Here's a Skype video interview recorded in February with Zane Carney, the awesome John Mayer guitar player. Zane has been playing with John on stage and in the studio for some time now. He also has a busy solo career with 2 very cool albums we talked about in the interview.
Note: sorry for the audio levels on the video recording.
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I believe I first heard about Chris Sherland on the Six String Bliss guitar podcast. I read his book, Lead Guitar From The Inside Out and spent quite a lot of time with my iPad to get the most out of it. Here's an interview I did with Chris.
I really enjoyed reading this e-book with my guitar in hands.
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Derek Trucks was in Paris with the Tedeschi Trucks Band for a show at the Olympia. I jumped on the opportunity to do a video interview of Dereks. Above is an extract of the video.
Free version
A short version of the interview is available in audio below and via a downloadable podcast (iTunes link).
Backstage Pass version
The full length of the interview is in this reserved article for the Backstage Pass owners.
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Here's the full length interview of Derek Trucks done right before the Paris concert at the Olympia of the Tedeschi Trucks Band.
Pierre.
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William Grit Laskin interview at the 2014 Holy Grail Guitar Show
Thursday, 15 May 2014
Here's a William Grit Laskin interview done at the 2014 Holy Grail Guitar show. Grit was one of the special guest for this very first edition of the show.
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The band Yes was in Paris for one night to play 3 legendary albums in full at the Grand Rex, I took the opportunity to do an exclusive video interview with Chris Squire right before the show.
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