As your guitar miss strings in the middle your music sounds very peculiar and fits well your style. I guess this wouldn’t happen using a traditional classic guitar?
"Yeah, at this point for me, the guitar is a 4-stringed instrument. I can play a 6-stringed guitar, but I don't feel (or sound) like myself. With all the strings, I find the sound is too dense, the harmonies either too meaty or mushy, and physically the extra strings get in the way- my fingers feel crowded and I can't move like I able to on the 4 string".
The noises recorded on ‘A New Way To Pay Old Debts’ in the background are part of your improvisation guitar playing style or it has a special aesthetic you want to deliver?
"They were part of the place that I was recording & practicing in- I could have struggled to find somewhere else to record or thrown out the takes that had background sounds (which would have been almost all of them), but I liked the noises- I thought they made an interesting counterpoint to the music and gave it a real sense of place. That's the reason I put the address on the cover- I thought since you could hear so much of the neighborhood, it deserved a credit".
I feel that Jimi Hendrix is a musical influence but Flamenco does it as a natural way in your music.
"I love Hendrix's music- I've been listening to it since high school and it's still a huge inspiration. My interest in flamenco started while I was recording the LP and looking into different solo guitar musics- it's appealing to me in many ways- the improvisation, the percussive attack and the dynamics, the rhythms, etc. It's big influence too, particularly on my new record".
What is the kind of musical work would you like to do not considering the ‘pressure’ of releasing a new record?
"I'm doing exactly what I'd like to do- play the guitar- I only wish that I had more time to do it. I just sent a new record off to be mastered so there's no pressure there".
Guillermo Escudero
June 2010
