Eric Stekel (ericsteckel.com) was one of the headliners at MIGS 2023. A perfect opportunity to finally interview this energetic American guitarist, who delivered an incandescent concert on the shores of Lake Geneva during the festival. Eric Steckel interview Audio version available on The Guitar Channel Radio for premium subscribers Until the next interview or gear
The American guitar player Greg Howe has played with huge pop stars from Michael Jackson to Justin Timberlake, Enrique Iglesias and more. His career as a solo artist or within a band has also been very rich. Here is a guitar in hand interview from his home in Oklahoma. The two other interviews with Greg
Mike Campbell is the American guitarist who accompanied Tom Petty for decades. He has just released an excellent album called Wreckless Abandon with his band The Dirty Knobs (thedirtyknobs.com). The second guitarist of the band, Jason Sinay, was also interviewed. At 70 years old Mike Campbell still has the drive to release an incandescent Rock
Jason Sinay (jasonsinay.com) is a Los Angeles studio musician who is playing and singing in Mike Campbell band The Dirty Knobs. They have just released their debut album Wreckless Abandon which is full of cool songs and great dual guitar tones. Jason Sinay interview The Guitar Channel podcast The audio version of the video is
The Dead Daisies (thedeaddaisies.com) will release Holy Ground their 2021 album with Glenn Hughes as a lead singer and bass player. Here is a Skype video interview with Doug Aldrich to talk about the whole process of composing and recording the album. We also touched base on his participation to the United Guitars Vol.2 project.
On February 13th, 2020 The Guitar Channel joined the band Soho Riot (facebook.com/SOHORIOTRock/) at Studio Luna Rossa in Paris, France where they were rehearsing, doing an interviewing yours truly and recording sessions. The songs below are compositions by the band which is releasing their EP in March. Soho Rio is composed of Edouard Dornier on
On March 1st 2020, the Marcus King Band played in Paris, France in the Alhambra concert hall. The Guitar Channel was onsite to record an interview with Marcus and to capture the band during the soundcheck with Marcus blessing. Marcus King Band soundcheck Marcus King amps Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar!
Marcus King (marcuskingband.com) is not even 25 years old and already asserts himself as an incredible talented singer guitarist. In collaboration with Radio Perfecto Rock (radioperfecto.fr), here is a guitar in hand interview carried out in his dressing room at the L'Alhambra concert hall just before his Parisian concert on March 1, 2020. As a
Tyler Bryant is the singer guitarist of the band The Shakedown who rocks the stages with a very effective and powerful Rock Blues. They have recently been opening for AC/DC and Guns'N Roses. Tyler was visiting Paris to promote their new album Truth and Lies. It was an opportunity to do an interview guitar in
Thanks to the connection of the bassist Laurent David (whom I warmly thank you for this), The Guitar Channel offers a Guitar in Hand interview with the guitarist Gary Lucas. Not only Gary Lucas was one of the discoverers of Jeff Buckley with whom he co-wrote Grace and Mojo Pin, but he also worked with
Guitarist and singer Jim Carthage (www.jimcarthage.com) came to The Guitar Channel showroom to answer a Guitar in Hand interview. The opportunity of this meeting is the release of his excellent EP Ebb & Flow I highly recommend listening. Jim Carthage interview Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre Journel.
Here's a guitar in hand interview done at the Gibson France headquarters with the one and only JD Simo who was in Paris to promote his latest album Rise & Shine. As a bonus for this interview, JD played a gorgeous 2min30s improvised solo alone on the guitar: a rare and precious moment! JD Simo
During the 2017 NAMM there was no time to record an interview with the one and only Andy Timmons even though we met during the great X-Jamm concert so a couple of weeks later we organized this Skype interview to catch up.
JD Simo was in Paris for a concert at the New Morning, a great opportunity to do an interview with this gifted guitarist with incredible energy on stage. During the last interview with him he had a splendid Les Paul vintage around his neck, this time it is armed with his 1962 ES 335 that he answered my questions.
Oscar Rosende is the lead guitar player and singer of the Dire Straits tribute band, Brothers in Band. I met him through his guitar tech Francisco Rodriguez who is also a luthier. Brothers in Band were in Paris to play La Cigale, a big concert hall. The way the band has mastered the Dire Straits repertoire is truly amazing.
Colin James was part of the 2015 Montreal Jazz Festival to play several nights. We did this interview Guitar in Hand right on the stage of the Théatre du Nouveau Monde (www.tnm.qc.ca) right before the concert. It's always a lot of fun and much more interesting to do the interview Guitar in Hand. The concerts given by Colin James during the festival were excellent, the sound quality was really good and the band behind him was excellent.
Here's Scott Holiday interview. I confess I only recently discovered Rival Sons and their guitar player. In fact the luthier Mikaël Springer listened to their music full blast while building my guitar for the Spartan Project so I had to eventually check-them out! Thanks to another luthier, Doug Kauer who builds most of Scott's guitars, I was able to get in touch with him to organize this interview in Luxemburg City.
I already did a cool and long interview with Greg Howe but for the first time I had the pleasure to do it in video during the 2015 Musikmesse.
Subjects discussed in the interview
His comparison between the Musikmesse and the NAMM
The new amp developed with DV Mark
His new guitar with Carvin
The lastest update on the next Maragold album
His current projects
Pierre.
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For the release of the his previous solo album Beyond The Shrouded Horizon in 2011 I did an audio interview with Steve Hacket. Here's a new one for his latest work with the album called Wolflight. This album is full of the epic music Steve is so good at composing.
Extracts of the album before the Steve Hackett interview
Earthshine
Loving Sea
Black Thunder
Heart Song
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While I was at the NAMM show I almost did a video interview with Adrian Belew. It did not happen because of a delayed plane so we did it via phone a couple of weeks later. I hope you will enjoy this interview with this eternal brilliant experimentator.
Adrian played with so many people and bands that it's impossible to list them all.
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.
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.
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.
I decided to contact the builder, Toshihiko Tanabe, to do this mail interview to learn more about this great Japanese boutique pedal builder.
The interview with Toshihiko
PJ: What is your training?
TT: I am not from electric engineering background, I started as a hobbyist. I am self-trained.
PJ: Are you an electronic engineer?
TT: No but I made them by myself, alone.
PJ : Why did you start to build pedals?
TT: I struggled with some personal problem in 2006. One of my friend advised me to build a pedal with new old stock parts such as Japan Radio Company OP-Amp that called gloss version 4558D. I found that building a pedal was fun.
PJ: What is the inspiration behind the different pedals you produce (Zenkudo, Dumkudo, etc. )?
TT: I build them with the sound I wanted to hear.
PJ: How do you fine tune a pedal? Do you have a Dumble amplifier at home to compare the tones for example?
TT: No, my final goal was not the sound of the Dumble. After I completed my first pedal a few of my friends told me that the sound was like the Dumble.
PJ: How did you get in contact with Robben Ford?
TT: In the year of 2011, when he was looking for a new overdrive pedal, the president of Vertex effects recommended him my Dumkudo pedal. Robben liked my pedal and I was contacted form Vertex effects to have some pedal orders. In 2012 February, while Robben was in Japan, I met him and his tech. Rick.
PJ : How did you get in contact with Larry Carlton?
TT: Rick (technician from Robben Ford) is also taking care of Larry’s gear and he found the pedal on eBay. He bought it and recommend to Larry. I was told from Rick that Larry liked it very much. So, I made the new one from scratch for him.
PJ: Any interesting stories you can tell about the famous users of your pedals?
TT: Paul Jackson, Jr. is my first famous user and I went to see him in 2010 in L.A. I was very anxious about his late appearance, I was not sure if he was to come or not. But we finally met at restaurant and became friend, we had a fun time. Henry Kaiser liked my pedals very much and he is my best friend now. I built him a lot of new pedals such as Fuzz box and various of overdrives. He brought them to Antarctica and played just for fun. Then I got a order from Antarctica. And he introduced me to a lot of his friends.
PJ: Are you going to develop a signature model with one of those artists?
TT: Every pedal is my signature…
PJ: Does your pedals have to be plugged in a tube amp to perform the best?
TT: It sounds great on a tube amp but my pedals are also suited for solid state type amplifier.
PJ: What are the future projects you are working on?
TT: I am planing to build a tube amp.
Thanks a lof for your time Mr Toshihiko Tanabe, I sure hope to try one of your pedal in the near future.
Pierre.
The Zenkudo and Dumkudo overdrives
I haven't tried (yet) a tanabe.tv pedal but no doubt that if Larry Carlton and Robben Ford are using it, it must be a pretty sweet sounding overdrive. The pedal has 3 modes, Marshall, Dumble and Zenkudo. Many people seem to say that the Dumble mode comes pretty close.
The conception of both pedals is identical. The Dumkudo has more gain is more suited to single coils when the Zenkudo is better for humbuckers.
Larry Carlton small pedal board
The Zenkudo pedal is bottom right.
Tanabe TV, pedal builder for Robben Ford, Larry Carlton and more
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.
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.
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.
