IF YOU’RE A gigging musician, or simply one who enjoys live shows, you know that some nights are just better than others. For Aristocrats guitarist Guthrie Govan, a range of variables are involved when it comes to performance.
“Obviously, it’s more inspiring when the venue has great acoustics and quality monitoring,” the British guitar virtuoso says. “Also, for me, the ‘cleanness’ of the electrical supply is a surprisingly significant factor. If the venue has a lot of in-house hum, that will be a major distraction whenever I’m using a high-gain tone.
“Then there’s the matter of how alive we musicians feel by the time we actually hit the stage, because a bumpy six-hour van ride on show day can take a toll on a band. On the other hand, great feedback from the crowd acts as a kind of fuel that can sustain us throughout a show, even when we’re heavily jet-lagged.
“But that’s just the obvious stuff,” Govan continues. “There are also some more bizarre, nebulous forces at work. It’s fascinating to listen back to recordings of shows and hear what really happened. It will occasionally transpire that a show that felt like a real struggle actually turned out really well.”
Luckily, in February 2020, just before the pandemic shut the world down, Govan and his bandmates in the Aristocrats — bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann — thoroughly multitracked a string of shows throughout Spain. The result is Freeze: Live in Europe 2020 (Boing! Music), a collection of live Aristocrats songs that allows you to hear in the highest fidelity those “nebulous forces”at work. Govan took time out to reflect on how one of the world’s most exciting prog-rock bands created one of 2021’s most exciting live instrumental albums.
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Denne historien er fra Holiday 2021-utgaven av Guitar Player.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
PRS
PREVIOUSLY PART OF PRS's Maryland-built guitar line, the SE NF3 was recently reissued in the company's offshore-produced SE series. The SE NF3 is so named for its Narrowfield Deep Dish (a.k.a. DD) \"S\" pickups. These unique PRS-design units have deeper bobbins to accommodate more windings and extra metal pieces between the magnets to yield a more powerful \"single-coil\" tone, while remaining noise-free because they are in fact humbuckers. A control set consisting of master volume, tone and a five-way blade switch allows the usual selections of bridge, middle and neck pickups by themselves and the neck-plus-middle and bridge-plus-middle combinations that allow the SE NF3 to veer into Strat-like territory in switch positions two and four.
EPIPHONE
Inspired by Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird V and 1959 ES-355
Dobro 101
A look at the iconic bluegrass slide box.
CERTIFIED GREATNESS
Fingerstyle master Tommy Emmanuel combines unique musical instincts and breathtaking technique to become an acoustic tour de force.
MASTER OF HIS OWN JOURNEY
For more than 50 years, David Lindley graced albums and concert stages with his singular talent on a vast range of stringed instruments. In this Guitar Player exclusive, his musical friends — including Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt - pay tribute to an original.
TRANSCENDENTAL MAN
Luther Dickinson interpreted a priceless work of art in music. In the process, the blues guitarist wrote his own next chapter.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Together with Tony Levin, Adrian Belew and Steve Vai join forces for a Robert Fripp-endorsed revival of King Crimson's groundbreaking 1980s music.
I'M 100 PERCENT HAPPY WITH THE WORK I'VE DONE WITH PINK FLOYD. BUT...'MY FOCUS IS DIFFERENT RIGHT NOW'
Leading a rock group and being a solo artist were \"not what I asked for,\" David Gilmour says. For Luck and Strange, he assembled a team that shared the weight of his creative efforts. The result? \"The best album I've made since The Dark Side of the Moon.\"
DOUG GILLARD IS INDISPENSABLE
His six-string genius has proved vital to the music of Guided by Voices, Nada Surf and other indie-rock favorites. But all he really wants is to make good music.
Sol Salvation
The genius of Sol Hoopii is preserved in 16 timeless cuts on Master of the Hawaiian Guitar.
