When creating a work, be it spontaneously improvised or more elaborately composed, it is desirable to use the sound inherent in – or in some cases more deviously procured from – an object or instrument in order to reflect the textures and hues of everyday life. Soothing cacaphony, disturbing silence, sheets of sound, the ethereal, intense, playful and unexpected can translate emotions, images, moments – a desert sunrise, the view through a windshield, the clang of the city, an argument, stop motion – into something tangible, audible, visible.
In performance, much is left to the transfer of energy between performer and listener. In humble respect to this, it is usually best to speak powerfully using an economy of notes and the fewest words possible.
When it comes to straight up guitar influence, a ‘favorite things list’ would include: Marc Ribot, Chuck Berry, Nels Cline, Bob Stinson solos, Steve Cropper chanks and riffs, wrenching Roy Buchanan cries and bends, strangely beautiful Tom Verlaine melodies, John Fahey tunings and fingerpicking, ignorant, raw blues riffs, children’s art and all great drummers.