Those formative years bled into a lifelong obsession with music and playing guitar. I went on to study music performance at college and then University, which connected me with likeminded professionals and granted me an opportunity to record at Abbey Road Studios in London, 2015. During these years at college and University, I really started to open myself up to different styles of music. Everything from funk, jazz, blues, and pop… which is where I discovered John Mayer. I was drawn to Mayer the same way I was obsessed with Slash. His playing was bluesy, raw and fluid - something I was striving to achieve since I began playing guitar at 13. After diving down the Mayer rabbit hole on YouTube, I began really learning about guitar tone. The glassy Stratocaster bell tone seemed to be where I would find all of the answers to my questions, if I could get that tone I would be as good as Mayer. Right?…
I believe every guitar player goes through this. Dreaming about the ultimate guitar rig, scrolling through Reverb.com in the hopes of catching a deal on a ridiculously priced pedal no working class musician could realistically afford. I decided early on I wasn’t going to focus on acquiring expensive gear, instead I would work on what made these guitar players so enticing to me as a listener. I did this by learning their back catalogues note for note and later by looking at their influences.
This is where I discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan. I was instantly hooked. Mayer made it known that he was heavily inspired by Stevie. I scoured YouTube for every video I could find so I could fully absorb myself into his playing. I watched Live at the El Mocambo religiously week by week and learnt as much as I could by watching and listening to Stevie play. It seemed that everything I had imagined a master guitar player would be was personified in Stevie Ray Vaughan. Im still blown away every time I watch him play and learn his solos, I always pick up something new.
