Perfect 10
He’s an awesome sessioneer and the guitar power behind prog popsters Supertramp, but how will he handle the 10 questions we ask everyone?
1
What was your first guitar and when did you get it? “I got my first guitar and my first lesson on my 11th birthday; it was a Japanesemade guitar, nylon string, called a St George. Then I got an electric guitar a year later and I don’t even remember the brand of that, it was pretty funky. But a few years after that I borrowed a friend’s dot neck 335 – it must have been a ’60 335 – and they lent it to me for a year and then asked if I wanted to buy it for $300, but I didn’t have the money and so I eventually got myself an SG, then a Les Paul and then I switched to Strats very soon after that.”
2
If the building was burning down, what one guitar from your collection would you save? “I would probably grab my 1961 Sea Foam Green Strat; I do have about 70 guitars, but that one’s really important to me. I’ve got a ’58 and a ’65 Strat as well, but that ’61 is of the most sentimental value to me.”
3
What’s the oldest guitar that you own? “A 1936 Gibson L-00 acoustic, that has to be the oldest one. It’s the Robert Johnson style acoustic and it really does sound like that, too, it’s a pretty amazing guitar and you can even play slide on it and it doesn’t fret out. It sounds great with slide or fingers; it’s very hip, a very cool guitar.”
4
When was the last time you practised and what did you play? “Let’s see… I practised yesterday and was using the Real Book app called iReal Pro and I was playing John Coltrane’s Giant Steps in my hotel room; it’s just a little puzzle to unlock once a week, it’s good for your brain and it’s fun to challenge yourself to make it a little faster than the last time. It’s got nothing to do with the show I’m out on the road doing at the moment, which is pretty much blues-based, but it’s just fun to do.”
5
When was the last time you changed your own strings? “It was probably four or five shows ago – about the middle of last week – but I’m due to do it today and that will cover me for the last five shows of the tour. I’m using DR strings, I use 9-46, light top, heavy bottom, but with an 0.037 gauge A string; with my balanced bridge set-up with the Stratocasters it really adds the right amount of tension to make the whole thing play perfectly in tune.”
6
If you could change one thing about a recording you’ve been on, what would it be and why? “I’ve been on hundreds and hundreds of records and soundtracks and TV shows and things like that. There’s a few that stick out where I didn’t have anything to do with the final mix and I really don’t like the guitar sound. I’m embarrassed by it, y’know? But of my own records, there’s one called Atlas Overload, it’s a trio record, there are no keyboards on it, and I think in retrospect keyboards would have been a better thing. I often listen to it and go, ‘Hmmm, yeah…’ Shoulda, coulda, woulda!”
7
What are you doing five minutes before you go onstage and five minutes afterwards? “Five minutes before, if I have a guitar in my hands I’m running over some of the ideas in the first song. It’s in the key of D and it’s a fast blues, so I’m playing dominant seventh mixolydian lines, thinking, ‘Hey, maybe I can incorporate this into my solo tonight’. Five minutes after I’m opening some red wine and towelling off!”
8
What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you onstage? “With Supertramp I was out on what we call the ‘ego ramp’ – one of those ramps that went out from the front of the stage – I was out there, my eyes were closed, I was playing a long improvised solo and all of a sudden the guitar went dead and I looked down to find that somebody had thrown their t-shirt and it had wrapped around the neck… that was pretty weird.”
9
What aspect of playing guitar would you like to be better at? “I abandoned tapping at the end of the 80s – I just walked away from it and said, ‘that’s not musical…’ but I’m starting to see some value in it now and I’m starting to work on it again. So that’s one thing.”
10
What advice would you give your younger self about the guitar if you had the chance? “It would be more about the business. My advice would be to try to find a way to get out on the road and establish yourself across America, Europe and Asia in your 20s because I waited until my 30s to do it and by then I was married and had a house and car payments and all that, which makes it more difficult. I wish I’d started touring earlier.”
“I was playing a solo and the guitar went dead. Somebody had thrown their t-shirt and it had wrapped around the neck”