My 2021 Jake Kiszka

Voted the number one guitarist of 2021 by TG readers, the Greta Van Fleet star discusses the art of the five-minute solo and explains why playing live is all the practice he needs...

- Jonny Scaramanga

You have been voted Total Guitar readers’ favourite guitarist of 2021. How does that feel?

Wow! That’s very sweet. I’m grateful for the amount of support that was provided. I’m grateful to have been nominated for something like this.

Greta Van Fleet’s second album, The Battle At Garden’s Gate, saw you expanding your sound. What songs on the album are you most proud of?

Well, all of them to be honest! But there are certain ones that stand out because of the guitar, like The Weight Of Dreams, where there’s a linear or progressive solo at the end of the song that spans maybe four or five minutes. I think it’s an achievement for guitar playing in the contemporary world because there aren’t really records where you can put a five-minute guitar solo in there. The Barbarians is really cool too because it’s a really interesting approach to riff writing. It was written on keys first. Most of our songs are written on guitar, so I had to approach it very differently. I’m quite proud of that one. I suppose there’s really something interesting about each track on that album that if you listen to the guitar.

What’s your favourite riff on the record? I

don’t know that I can select a specific one! Caravel is one of my favourites.

How do you approach writing a five-minute solo? It’s an achievement to keep it interesting for that long.