BRIAN MAY
“When it comes to Nuno’s playing, we have to start with the new single, ‘Rise.’ Nuno sent it to me a few months before it was released and, Jesus, I was stunned. I clicked the button as I was doing other stuff, as you do, and I sort of had it in the background and I just stopped dead when he got to the solo. I thought, What the hell is he doing? I had to go back and listen to it about 10 times. It’s awesome. It’s incredible. After all this time, he still comes up with stuff that you would never dream of.
“As for other songs, obviously ‘Get the Funk Out’ is a classic song of all time. That’s an absolute tour de force. There isn’t anything that isn’t in that solo, really. It’s insane.
“In general, I think Nuno’s just a glorious player. He’s so colorful, and obviously his dexterity is extraordinary. There’s plenty of fast, accurate guitarists, but what he brings to it is this amazing spirit. It’s energetic and it’s lyrical, and he doesn’t lose sight of the fact that there are tunes. I don’t know where that stuff comes from. It makes my jaw drop, in a very good way.
“He’s also a great friend and the sweetest guy, and he’s always very complimentary. He says, ‘I think of you every time I do one of those things, because it has to speak, it has to be a tune that people have in their heads and it has to be relevant to the song.’ But, you know, his technique is so way above what I could imagine myself ever doing. But he’s always been very beautiful toward us, which means a lot to me.”
Kittie - Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara Mcleod discuss the canadian metal powerhouse's unexpected rebirth — by fire!
Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara McLeod explain that making new music was “not on their bingo card” when the band regrouped in 2022 for a few festival appearances, preferring to think of the sets as more of a “final lap” than a new beginning. But drilling into old favorites — whether the nu-flavored teenage slams of 1999’s Spit or the more venomously groove-thrashed tunes of their late-’00s period — revealed that despite not having raged together in years, there was something undeniably special about Kittie’s musical connection. “Playing with these girls is like putting on an old pair of pants,” Lander says. “It’s very comfortable — and it looks good too.”
McKinley James - Why all you really need is a guitar, a drummer and some serious low-end six-string skills
Nashville-based blues rocker McKinley James came flying out of the gate in 2022 with his Dan Auerbachproduced EP, Still Standing By. His momentum screeched to a halt, however, when his keyboardist split, leaving only him and his drummer, Jason Smay (who also happens to be his father). “For a moment, I was like, ‘What are we going to do?” James says. “But then I thought, ‘Well, other bands have succeeded as a duo. Maybe we can, too.”
TC Electronic TC 2290P Dynamic Digital Delay
THE MID EIGHTIES was a golden age for digital delay, thanks to the proliferation of pro- and studio-quality rack effects units from Eventide, Korg, Lexicon, Roland and Yamaha.
Danelectro Doubleneck
WHEN I THINK back to the Seventies, the famously coined “Me” decade, it seems the only surefire way you could leave audiences awestruck was to strap on a doubleneck guitar.
CARLOS ALOMAR
The former David Bowie guitarist talks Young Americans, Station to Station and the Berlin Trilogy, plus recording (and co-writing) \"Fame\" with John Lennon
GEORGE TERRY
It turns out Eric Clapton's Seventies guitarist (and co-writer of \"Lay Down Sally\") also played on ABBA's \"Voulez-Vous.\" Below, he looks back on a decade-plus of E.C., Bee Gees, Diana Ross and more
FRANK MARINO
The Mahogany Rush frontman charts the band's Seventies lows and highs, plus SG's, pickups and how he was definitely not visited by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix
DEWAYNE "BLACKBYRD" MCKNIGHT
The jazz/funk/fusion veteran on his smooth segue from Herbie Hancock sideman to full-on Funkdaledic member -plus his '70s gear and what he learned from Shuggie Otis
PAT TRAVERS
The Canadian-born virtuoso discusses the rise and fall of the Pat Travers Band, witnessing the U.K. punk revolution and the riotous roots of \"Snortin' Whiskey\"
JOE PERRY
The iconic guitarist looks back on Aerosmith in the Seventies, the decade that literally made and temporarily broke apart those Bad Boys from Boston
