Unplugged

Interviews

Edis Mano Exclusive Interview

“The Guitar Is Everything”  The Ellis Mano Band came about after an inspirational late-night chat about Americana and Southern rock between singer Chris Ellis and guitarist Edis Mano in 2016. Ellis was a regular act on Swiss and German television while Mano packed stadiums in his youth; and they decided that evening that their shared...

Gary Lucas Exclusive Interview

“The guitarist who plays like Dali paints” At a moment in history when Nasa is flying the first helicopter on another planet and returning rock samples from the primordial asteroid Bennu, Gary Lucas is appropriately releasing an anthology of his extraordinary other-worldly work. The double album provides an overview of over four decades of...

Ayla Tesler-Mabe

Ayla Tesler-Mabe (7th March 2001) is a Canadian-based guitarist and songwriter who by the tender age of 15 had uploaded covers of Pink Floyd’s Time, and Led Zeppelin’s Since I’ve Been Loving You, to YouTube. ‘Nothing too unusual about that’ you might think; until you hear that those songs alone have since clocked up well over seven...

Ayron Jones

Seattle-born guitarist and songwriter Ayron Jones (August 23, 1986) is currently riding high on a wave of positivity and success. His explosive single Take Me Away, which tells the story of his childhood abandonment at the age of four, draws on a variety of genres from rock to R&B, but adds a new twist to the tale.“I felt stuck in my own...

Carly Jo Jackson

Carly Jo Jackson (23 August 1993) is an Austin, Texas-based guitarist and singer-songwriter who has a string of hit Youtube songs and heavily watched videos, including Sleep in My Car, You Can’t Love Me and Wildflower. Her singing voice is powerful and rich, her lyrics have depth, and she is brave enough to take considered risks in her...

Phil X

On January 22, 2020, Gibson announced that guitarist Phil X (Theofilos Xenidis,born March 10, 1966), an integral full-time member of Bon Jovi since 2016, has joined as brand ambassador. Before that, in 2012, Phil X received a signature guitar from Yamaha and in 2015 followed the release of a signature XG model made by...

Alan Gogoll

When a kitchen knife cut off the top of one of guitarist Alan Gogoll’s fingers, the wound forced him to adapt his guitar playing method as he recovered, and led to him discovering ‘bell harmonics’, which has opened up his career.   Gogoll (17 January 1988) is now considered to be one of the leading acoustic guitar players in...

Noa Drezner

Noa Drezner, flamenco guitarist, composer and producer, one of the few women in her field in the world.  She lived for a decade in southern Spain, where she studied flamenco guitar, played alongside leading artists and participated in countless events and festivals in Spain, Israel and abroad.   Noa brings the warm and...

Steve Hunter Interview

American Steve Hunter (14 June, 1948) first played with Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, before working with Bob Ezrin, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Aerosmith, and Tracy Chapman, among many others. He played guitar on Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill and wrote and played the introduction for Reed’s Sweet Jane on Rock ‘n’ Roll...

Orianthi

Orianthi Penny Panagaris (22 January 1985), normally known as Orianthi, is an Australian guitarist, singer and songwriter who performed for several years with Alice Cooper, and was slated to be Michael Jackson’s lead guitarist on his final This Is It tour.   Orianthi’s 2009 single According to You...

Chuck Morrongiello

Chuck Morrongiello was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 19, 1960. We met on the occasion of the release of The Greatest Love (2016), the last album by Marty Balin (January 30, 1942 - September 27, 2018), the legendary American musician who is known for being the lead singer, composer and founder of the band Jefferson Airplane. Chuck was the last...

Erja Lyytinen

Erja Lyytinen (7 July, 1976) is a Finnish guitarist, vocalist and songwriter.   Lyytinen’s debut record was Attention! in 2002, and since then she has released a further 10 studio albums, including her current record Another World, which she describes as “stepping into new territory, musically and spiritually… discovering the...

Don Felder

Don Felder (21 September 1947) is an American guitar legend who was a key member of The Eagles, with whom he played for over a quarter of a century. Among his enormous contributions to the band, he cowrote the huge international hit Hotel California.   Felder also played and toured with Crosby and Nash, among many others, and in 2008...

Wilko Johnson

THIS INTERVIEW WAS RECORDED AND PUBLISHED IN MARCH 2019Wilko Johnson (12 July 1947) is an enormously loved and respected guitarist and singer. He was a founder member of Dr Feelgood in the 1970s and played rhythm for Ian Dury and the Blockheads in the early 80s, before forming The Wilko Johnson Band around 1984.     In 2013,...

Emily Wolfe

American guitarist Emily Wolfe (11 May 1990), who has just released her eponymous debut album, is light, warm, and open in conversation; but there is also a darker side to her personality. And these two extremes are strongly expressed in her music, to powerful effect.   If you haven’t heard her yet, take a moment now to listen to...

Caroline Jones

Participating in the NAMM Show (Anaheim, California) is always an emotional occasion. And for a European it is even more so. To the fascination of the innovative musical instruments, is added an almost uncontrollable curiosity to discover new sounds and voices, which do not always reach the other side of the ocean.    In fact,...

Eve Monsees

Eve Monsees was born in Houston on 12 October 1983, but moved to the ‘Blues Mecca’ of Austin, Texas, aged eight.   Monsees got her first guitar at 12 and soon began hooking up with her schoolmate, Gary Clark Jr., to regularly practise playing the blues. At 15 they began sitting in on jams at Austin clubs, and within a year they...

Xtatic5

The online magazine AltFloyd called Xtatic5’s debut album ‘a diamond in the rough’ and said that “Do You Want to Play? surprises us at the same time as it brings names like David Bowie to mind”; while Rock y Punk described the band as having “complex harmonies and high quality lyrics full of human and social content. Bands like...

Frank Gambale

Frank Gambale, born on December 22, 1958, is an Australian jazz fusion guitarist who has made many innovations in his field, such as the techniques known as 'sweep picking' and 'economy picking'. He has released over 20 solo albums, from his influential debut Brave New Guitar in 1985 to Soulmine in 2012 and Salve (2018), in addition to having...