Speaker 1hey welcome back to the james kennedy podcast what is up gorgeous people i hope you've all been awesome since we last spoke man it's been a busy time here at underdog hq ramping up for the release of the new album baby we also just launched a crowdfunder raising some shekels for the new tour and all the expenses that come with being in an independent punk rock band and man those things are always fun because we get to release exclusives that we wouldn't do anywhere else such as like handwritten lyrics custom t-shirts house concerts all sorts of quirky one-off goodies that we wouldn't normally do and i want to give a massive thanks to everyone that's jumped on that already in its first few days as always we appreciate all you guys support you guys are just the best man and i hope we'll be seeing all of you soon because james kennedy and the underdogs are hitting the road in a matter of weeks so head over to my instagram at james kennedy uk and check out all the dates and all the info and all the exciting album stuff that we got coming up because we got a ton of stuff coming up ton of stuff coming your way really soon man so that's what's been going on here but also i sat down last week and had a bit of a chin wag with an absolute guitar legend an actual bonafide one of the world's top best guitar shredders of all time a master of the instrument also a super fun interesting inspiring and funny dude and if you've clicked on this link you undoubtedly know who i'm talking about already so let's quit the foreplay and get down to business this is the one you've been waiting for my phone has been red hot all week since i announced that i had today's guest on the show and i am honored to introduce to you a literal guitar god a non-stop creative tsunami and an all-round awesome bloke i'm talking of course about the one the only mr paul gilbert how you doing sir well i'm doing really well after that great intro thank you well i'm not lying brother my phone has been smoking hot ever since i announced you were coming on the show i've had every guitar player i've ever known in my entire life all the time i've had every guitar player phone this week are you a guitar player as well i am that's my main instrument been playing you know for about 20 odd years but i don't really play that much now i'm mostly a singer in a punk
Speaker 2rock band now i've got a question when you sing in your punk band do you play guitar as well sometimes sometimes what kind what kind of do you use a straight stand or a boom stand
Speaker 1this is my stand right now i'm using the punk rock stand right now yeah straight gotta be straight because then you can swing it around like a prop and everything you know so i have
Speaker 2to tell you a story about the straight stand because i the straight stand looks cooler absolutely oh yes yeah um you know i can't use one because i have to manipulate it around my pedals but yeah i like the look of the straight stand so the uh the guitar that i play which is called the fireman began its life as as an as a guitar that i've been as ice man which is you know well known paul stanley from kiss played one rick nielsen from cheap trick and i always love that guitar and then i've been playing the straight stand for a long time and i've been playing the straight stand for a long time and then one day i had the idea to flip it upside down in photoshop and and then cut a little hole in the bottom for my hand and and i called it the reverse ice man and so you know i started playing on stage people saw it i got an email from a fan and he said he said you should call it the fireman because the fire is the opposite of ice yes which to me is very spinal tap you know fire and ice being lukewarm water kind of thing and so i loved it and and so i said i changed it it's not the reverse ice man anymore now it's the fireman just to thank him for for coming up with the name i sent him a fireman it and it was one of my for my personal collection i had modified it with with a slide magnet where there's a really strong neodymium magnet that's been mounted underneath the pick guards you can't see it but it's in there and it holds a metal slide now he is a singer as well and he's a cool singer because so he uses the straight stand of course you might have already predicted what's about to happen so he he walks up to sing and and the the magnet inside the guitar grabs the stand and you know mike hits him in the teeth i don't think he had any dental repairs you know i think he survived the crash but it's just a warning to everybody who's got the cool straight stand yes and the and the guitar with the slide magnet yeah beware because it will pull the stand towards you
Speaker 1paul gilbert ever gifts you a guitar be careful with metallic objects in the near vicinity
Speaker 2yeah i can i might be able to like you know erase all the memory on your phone if you get if you put
Speaker 1it too close to the guitar yeah beware of gifts coming from paul gilbert because they you know there will be a high level of risk involved as there is in being a musician generally i feel you know i mean i'm sure you've got your fair share of battle wounds as have i you know broken ribs smashed head mike stand hitting you in the face you know i mean not to mention the hearing loss and you know the jet engine roaring in our ears 24 7 it's all for the cause exactly and speaking of the cause you have got a brand new album drop in this very month the mighty wroc the singles have all been mind-blowing what can you tell us about the
Speaker 2record man okay well first of all the pronunciation is actually rock rock okay but as you said it's it's pronounced wroc which stands for washington rules of civility it's an etiquette manual written in france in 1595 according to my sources and then about 100 years later translated into english the english version found its way across the water and became a penmanship exercise for george washington when he was a school boy so he was you know copying the rules of civility uh in order to improve his handwriting and i guess he took them to heart and it it affected his his bearing you know how he held himself uh and so you know i i came across this the book 25 years ago and uh you know it although it left an impression i also completely forgot about it up until recently and uh i was thinking you know i had i had done the farewell tour with with mr big you know we had played the last show in japan i'm on the airplane flying home and thinking okay well mr big is over what should i do now i want to make a new album and uh you know elton john has bernie toppin writing lyrics for him this was my bernie toppin and uh you know and i would i would mold the lyrics in various ways i mean sometimes i could just pull it direct and it would actually work but often i had to you know repeat a line to make because repetition makes it sound like a song uh you know or i would maybe you know modify the the end of the last line so each verse was a little different from the next one you know there's various songwriting craft i would apply to make it work but uh boy was it fun and you know as i was doing it as i was doing it i thought you know people might think this is you know a really insane idea and it's just not working so i thought i should test it out on some on some unsuspecting unsuspecting victims and see if you know what they think of it so i invited uh two musicians overhead timmer blakely on bass and doug rappaport on guitar so i've got some new songs i want to make some demos will you guys come over and uh and i was you know as we played the music and i sang it i was watching them very closely because i wanted to see if they're if they're you know staring at the floor in embarrassment or or if they're you know smiling and making eye contact and it was fortunately the latter you know they seem to be having a really good time so i thought oh well i'm gonna do it i think this is gonna work so we just kept going i would write two songs a week we make demos i i played the drums on the demos and then sent those to nick because he doesn't live close by so you know he kind of prepared just by listening to the demos and then we did it all live in the
Speaker 1studio wow that is insane dude i mean the musicianship is is interstellar so the fact you guys did that live as well is next level stuff um the singles have all been amazing so i'm going to throw it at you anyway because you've done a lot of music in your time man you know and you're globally considered to be you know a master of your instrument so at this point how do you stay inspired how do you keep things fresh how do you keep things challenging how do you keep yourself interested when you've already done so much well it um it is it is fun
Speaker 2to try to find something that is that i know no one else would do because i actually i mean i love playing traditional blues rock guitar and i would have the best time in the world you know doing a bunch of songs in e you know with you know just traditional blues or blues rock grooves and just playing the solos you know in in kind of the style that all my heroes have and really you know not creating anything new stylistically just started doing my fingerprint on that yeah i could do that all day and be as happy as a clam but part of me goes like well i could do that but i would if but if i could find something that i know that that joe bonamassa would never do you know i know joe bonamassa is not going to sing a song from from the washington rules of civility and so it feels like it's not a secret you know i found some some secret treasure and and i'm the only one with the key to the treasure chest and i'm probably the only one who wants you know that's the thing is it's it's not there because it's locked it's there And then everybody else would look at it and go like, I'll just, you know, I wouldn't even think to open it. We'll leave that to Paul. Yeah. And so, you know, it requires some polishing. You know, to me, it's like an undiscovered gem to find that creative idea.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And so I get joy from that. And also, it's really helpful to have a band. You know, I mean, I could have done it on my own because, you know, I wrote the songs on my own. But to have that initial feedback of just playing it in a room with some other musicians and we're digging it and smiling and it's a good vibe in the room. Yeah, that's a good indication that it'll be a good vibe out in the world.
Speaker 1Yes. Yeah. And do you, when you, so many of my musician friends whose passion has now become their job, even so my like artistic friends and things, I had Derek Robertson on here, the illustrator for The Boys. Amazing. Amazing artist. One of my comic book heroes. And he said to me that he's learning to play guitar because now that painting, his original passion has become his day job. When he gets home, the last thing he wants to do now is paint. He wants to do something else. So he's learning guitar. And I said, I have the opposite problem because guitar is now my full-time job. Very lucky to have that. And I'm thinking of taking out painting as a new unexplored passion. Have you ever come into that headspace or are you still, you know?
Speaker 2I love playing the drums. Right, right, right. I mean, it's still a musical instrument, but it's, I get this like spiritual rush from, you know, I'll do a lot of things where, you know, the secret of drumming is every limb has to coordinate with the other ones. You're doing all these complementary rhythms, but they're different from each other. And if it starts to get out of sync, I can tell, and I'll slow it down. And it's like this. Slow motion, getting everything to work together, you know, and pulling everything so it's locked in. Yes. And I feel this energy. It's, you know, I never would have predicted it, but it's, that's something I don't get from guitar. I mean, I get a lot of great things from guitar, but not that. And, you know, so, I mean, like I said, I played all the drums on my demos. Right, right. And sometimes I feel that, you know, I'm not nearly, my drumming technique. Isn't nearly as advanced as my guitar technique. But often I feel that, you know, in terms of just joy and choices that are a lot of fun, I have something.
Speaker 1That's interesting. Yeah, that's really interesting. And how about different styles of music? I mean, there's so many different styles that you've already really immersed yourself in. Is there any Uncharted Waters that you're excited by, that you haven't delved into, that you're fascinated by? Even on the guitar, given that you are an instrument, that you are a master. Is there still stuff that you look at and think, man, I don't know how to do that?
Speaker 2Well, I mean, there's plenty that I don't know how to do. A lot of it, I mean, there's a lot of things that I don't know how to do, that the reason I don't know how to do them is because that's not my favorite sound.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2You know, like hybrid picking, which to me is kind of snappy. It's got this snap to it. I don't, for whatever reason, it's a totally subjective thing. You know, it's like, you know. Do you like the taste of anchovies? You know, some people, it's not right or wrong. And to me, that snapping, you know, I don't want to get rid of it, but I also don't want to do it myself. Yes, right. But like vocals, I love vocals. And so, I mean, yesterday morning I got up and I was learning Mariah Carey's Vision of Love, her vocal line. I found the isolated track on YouTube. Wow. I put it in my amazing slow downer so I can get it really slow and hear the details. And I'm sitting there learning. And on slide guitar, having the best time in my life. Because she's got some licks in there. She's got some things with like, when I play that on guitar, it's like, oh, that's new. And I'm going to use that. Like, it's really, I mean, there's a treasure chest right there.
Speaker 1That is fascinating, man. What are some of the things that have surprised you that you might have learned through doing that then?
Speaker 2Well, vocals are incredible because it's a, well, first of all, it's a melody. And if you get a, if you get a note. Right. If you get a note wrong in a melody, it's really an obvious mistake. Right. Where if you get a note wrong in a fast scale, you know, nobody will notice, maybe including yourself. Yes. Yeah. So it's a lot, it's much higher pressure. It's high stakes to play a melody. And then, of course, it's not just playing the note. It's, you know, how, if you have to slide into it and the, how long does it last? Do you put the brakes on it or do you sustain it? What's the vibrato like? There's, there's all these little details that, you know, you could give the same melody to, to, to, to a hundred different guitar players and everybody's going to sound different. And, and that, that difference comes from, from both their limitations and their, and how they hear it. You know, and, and if, and if they take the, if they take the trouble to hear it, you know, it's just, and also from instrument to instrument. Like the way a piano would handle a melody where you were. Where you, you don't have any vibrato, but it might create it with a trill, which is still a cool sound, you know? So, you know, a lot of times when you translate a melody from one instrument to another, in the process of that translation, it can force you to do something that is, you know, is, is not the same, but might be really cool. And I mean, one of the things that, that on that Mariah Carey one is she goes from one note to the next. And when she goes to the next note, it's quieter. And then she, and then she brings the volume up and it's like, man, I can't do that. You know, I mean, because the, when I attack a note of the beginning of the note is always the loudest part of the note. I can only go loud and then it dies down.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2It's like, that's the nature of the instrument. I mean, maybe I suppose like use a volume pedal or, you know, something, but the, but that's electronic and, and, and to get it just out of my hands, I can never go quiet to loud.
Speaker 1Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2You know, a horn can't like any, anything that. Where the lungs drive it. Yeah. And so whenever that comes to that part of the melody, I'm like, damn, I, you know, I can't, I can't do that. Like Mariah can, and I just have to suffer.
Speaker 1That is something I never thought I'd heard said in my life, Paul Gilbertson, I could never do what Mariah can.
Speaker 2But I get the high notes, like all her, you know, like people, something that they, they're called the dog whistle note. Yes. Those are no problem.
Speaker 1Yeah. You get that slide off the magnetic holder and whap it right up there. Yeah, man.
Speaker 2Exactly. You know, the, the, the, the range, you know, the guitar is, is such a, uh, you know, almost a limitless limitless range compared to a singer.
Speaker 1I love the excitement. I, I, you, you still, you clearly still got that childlike kind of sense of excitement and, and, and wonder and all of the instrument. I love that. How do you feel about the, um, the changing music industry just to shift gears? We will come back to the record. I promise before we wrap up. Um, but I mean, you're someone that has seen you've been. Right to the top and you've seen the changing industries. You've done a variety of different projects, variety of different like band situations and things, but it's changed very much in the time that you've been, you know, doing your thing as well. How do you feel about it now? Obviously the people don't really buy records anymore. It's mostly streaming. There's AI coming into the situation. Now, should we be freaked out by that? What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2Well, I'm going to steal someone else's thought first of all, which was, uh, one of my musical heroes, Todd Rundgren. He was, was talking about the music industry and the changes in it. He said something that I thought was wonderful, which is Beethoven never sold a record. You know, there, there was, you know, Mozart never made, made a penny from a record. And so I think often people of my generation look back at the vinyl era as, as though that's like the, the, the, the golden period and, and, and the only thing that's. Ever existed. And anything that's not, that is somehow wrong now. I love the vinyl area and I, and I benefited from it both as a fan and, and as a, you know, as, as an employee or, or, uh, you know, a worker, but, you know, after, after hearing Todd say that, I realized like, you know, recorded music is a relatively new thing in human history. I mean, I don't know how long human beings have been around making music, but you know, a long time, 200,000 years. Or something or 2 million years, whatever, whatever it is, you know, the, the little slice of time when vinyl existed and you could make a, make a lot of money selling vinyl albums is minuscule. And so, you know, it's, uh, obviously, you know, there's a lot of technological changes and you just take what's there and do your best. But, uh, you know, I always think like, Hey, you know, Beethoven, you know, he figured out, you know, maybe I got to say something. Just sell, you know, I got to work for the local King or I have to, um, you know, work with the city, you know, you know, you just, you find a way with whatever your situation is. And, you know, as, as much as a lot of the advantages that were around in the vinyl era might be, might be gone. You know, I mean, certainly I remember those checks coming in when, when CDs were still something that people would buy at, at a high price. Um, but now there's, there's so much amazing. stuff. and you know and that's and that's you know you basically you look at what's there you do your best and you know if even if i did have the most amazing advice for this moment you know two years from now that's probably going to be different so the the real advice i have is on on top of doing your best with whatever's there ultimately you really just have to to keep a firm grip on the joy of being a musician because that's the only thing you can control you know is is like to me when i got up in the morning and learning that mariah carey vocal on my guitar i don't expect a dime from it i'm just you know i'm just like it was warming up my soul from from playing music that i love and you know that might you know i might add that to the show and then people will clap and then it'll that'll you know monetize itself somehow in the future but all but ultimately it all starts with you know the joy of being a musician and the joy of being a musician i just love this and you know and when i play it i'm i'm digging it and i think uh you know for any musician in any era that that has to be what you can never lose and and i think good things do
Speaker 1come from that i love it brilliant advice yeah brilliant advice i mean that is the real gift which i think we lose track of a lot of time because life is so fast now people got to pay to build somehow you know the nature of the industry is changing and the nature of content consumption is changing but if we strictly rip away all that noise you know and get down to really why we started it in the first place what have you picked up that guitar or that drum set or that paintbrush it is because of that magic and you know that is a real gift that we're so fortunate to be able to live with so yeah i mean i totally agree with you on that you put that beautifully as well um we've got to do a little bit of nerd talk because i know i haven't got you for too much longer and we have got to circle back to the album my guitar playing buddies would kill me if i didn't ask you the following question if you were kidnapped and stranded on a desert island for the rest of your life and you could only have three guitar pedals which three would they be oh well at the moment i would have the
Speaker 2exotic effects ac booster and it's it's the new one that's got the extra button and and and a little knob on it uh now besides that let me look down and see what i've got and then maybe a boss ls2 which is a line selector yeah and that would allow me to immediately switch over to a boss compressor and that way i can switch between having like that 80s queens reich trevor rayburn clean sound and then switch back seamlessly to my distortion because lately i've been doing a lot of that you know when when you see me in the in the on the videos from the new album and i've got the the double neck with the 12 string yes 12 string electric sound terrible with the 12 string electric guitar and i've got the 12 string electric guitar and i've distortion but they sound amazing with a clean compressed sound so i run all my amps clean and then you know kick on the clean sound with the compression for the 12 and then as soon as i go to the six string for the solo i hit that boss ls2 it sends me to the the exotic effects distortion
Speaker 1pedal and i'm wailing away on a rock solo wow that's fascinating i mean much more functional pedals than i was expecting you know but i mean i guess you're doing you're doing all the magic with
Speaker 2this thing because well it is i mean i i had a giant when i did this album i probably had the biggest actually had two pedal boards it was so big it wouldn't fit on one and a lot of it um you know some of it was switching to be able to seamlessly go from one sound to another sound because because it was live in the studio i knew i didn't want to do overdubs so you know i you know if you do overdubs you go i'll do that clean sound later yeah but i was like man i got to get everything live i even did a thing where i had a separate amp that i could turn on as a volume boost which is a little bit ridiculous because you know during the mix of course the mixing engineer can boost you up but i wanted to feel it right right you know and i wanted the band to hear it like this is the solo and i'm louder you know in the room love it love it and i would and i would be begging the universe for more than three but you know the question was three so i did my best yeah i mean as long as you got your fingers i think you're
Speaker 1for the rest of eternity on that island so paul we gotta round it up because i know you've got another one of these to get to thank you so much for doing this we've got to give a shout out to the album it is spelled wroc but as paul said it is pronounced rock which stands for george washington's rule of civility it is coming out on february 27th via music theories records it is a multi-genre fantasia of punk jazz blues and pirate hats as well it is available to pre-order and pre-save everywhere right now go and get your paws on it paul this has been a real blast thank you so much i got so much more i'd love to ask you but thank you for watching and i'll see you in the next video for all the great music over the years and all the millions of people you've inspired and for stopping by our humble show to spread your wisdom and inspiration with us we appreciate you brother right on thank you so much have a good one thank you paul best wishes mate speak to you soon bye paul gilbert ladies and gentlemen let's hear it for him man i don't know where to begin there was so many curveballs coming at me in that conversation i have to like go back and process some of that because uh mariah carey vocals george washington's handwriting practice beethoven didn't sell any records wow there's a lot of stuff impacted into that uh you know really short interview normally my interviews are about twice as long as that but we couldn't get paul for that long unfortunately but he dropped some pearls in that thing man and i always love it when you talk to dudes at his level who've done what he's done and they still got that childlike sense of wonder and love for the craft and for music and art they love it you can tell he's just as excited by picking up his guitar now as he probably was when he was 12 and i love that because we need that in these times man times are tough right now times are noisy times are dark times are challenging it to be able to lock yourself away and to just close your eyes and fly away to a different dimension with your six string in your hand that is a powerful and beautiful thing so i really hope you enjoyed that chat guitar players apologies i didn't ask him a load of questions about amps and technique and all that sort of stuff so i know he's talked about that before but i hope you still enjoyed the conversation and it gave an insight into paul's mentality and thoughts on the business after this it's long in the game and i'm sure you're as surprised as i am about his choice of three pedals oh my god i did not see that one coming but i guess when you're paul gill but you don't need all the toys that i need to sound good so top bloke amazing musician great chat i hope you enjoyed it if you haven't yet subscribed to the podcast please get on it help a brother out help this thing stay afloat just click the button give us a follow give us a star give us a subscribe and a share and i'll love you forever i'll be back next week with another interview with the guest thanks for listening have an awesome week take care of yourselves take care of each other catch you soon
PodcastTranscript AI