FIVE MINUTES ALONE ANNA CALVI

The London-born singer-songwriter on scoring Peaky Blinders and controlling the urge to play fast.

- Amit Sharma

Got my first real six-string

“My first guitar was a Strat that belonged to my Dad. I don’t know exactly what year it was from, but it was probably an 80s model. I must have been around eight at the time. In the beginning, my Dad taught me a few things, some blues and rock ’n’ roll stuff. Like a lot of players, when I learned the pentatonic scale I was suddenly able to jam along to a lot of my favourite records... That was probably my first big moment on guitar as a kid.”

Castles made of sand

“I’d say my initial guitar hero was Jimi Hendrix. I saw some footage of him playing at Woodstock, I must have been around nine years old and I thought he sounded amazing. It got me really excited. If I could meet any musician from history, it would definitely have to be him. Just to be in the same room and see him play would be magical. When I was a bit older, I got into Jeff Buckley, I really loved his approach to guitar, as well as [jazz and] fusion-style players John McLaughlin and Django Reinhardt.”