First discovered by many when his explosive NPR Tiny Desk Concert aired on YouTube back in 2015, Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz- or Fantastic Negrito, as you'll more likely know him - has one of the most incredible and unique musical life stories imaginable. Indeed fantastical at times, and calamitous at others, it would probably be deemed too implausible by even the most fanciful of Hollywood movie directors - if it weren't entirely true, that is.
After growing up in an Orthodox Muslim household in Massachusetts, Xavier's cultural horizons exploded into full technicolor when he relocated to California in the 1980s, settling in "beautiful, grimy old west Oakland", as he calls it. He learned to play and write music on multiple instruments by infiltrating classes at the University Of Berkeley, and by 1993, had landed himself a million-dollar deal with Interscope Records. Around this time, he met Masa Kohama - a Japanese self-taught guitarist who was living and working in L.A. at the time, and they began making music together.
Then in 1999, Xavier was involved in a near-fatal car accident which left him in a coma for three weeks, and robbed him of almost all mobility in his right hand and wrist. His future as a musician seemed doomed. “I remember waking up from the coma," he says. "It was three weeks I had a full beard, long fingernails, I weighed about a hundred pounds - and I remember, in my weak voice, I said, 'Are my hands okay?' and the nurse didn't say yes or no, she just shook her head. It was the first thing that I thought of."
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"You Can Imagine a Song in a Completely Different Genre" - The mysterious Lord Phobos, guitarist for TWRP, has covered everything from disco to Def Leppard in his collaborations with tongue-in-cheek duo Ninja Sex Party.
The mysterious Lord Phobos, guitarist for TWRP, has covered everything from disco to Def Leppard in his collaborations with tongue-in-cheek duo Ninja Sex Party. He explains what makes a great cover version - and reveals the one guitar and the one pedal he couldn't live without...
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Into the groove with Giacomo Turra, the Italian guitarist who made his name covering classics by Stevie Wonder, Bruno Mars and more... Born in Milan, his funk guitar sensibility can be traced back to the dance studio where his mother taught, and the tunes he heard blasting out of her boombox. "I like to experiment with a lot of genres, but the really interesting thing for me is I really grew up on funk, and a little bit of jazz and fusion music," he says.
- Try out these creative tips and make your cover versions stand out
Try out these creative tips and make your cover versions stand out
BEAUX GRIS GRIS & THE APOCALYPSE
Heavily requested on rock radio stations thanks to their unique twist on bluesy Americana, Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse are the kind of band that thrive in front of large crowds on hot summer days just as much as more intimate performances inside sweaty underground basements.
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The most powerful amp modeller for its size, bar none
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Yamaha's long-running doublecut finally gets a makeover
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