One of Drooble’s experienced statesmen, Graham George has spent most of his life with a guitar in hand. A naturally gifted player, Graham was there when rock, fusion, and funk blew up with raucous stage performances and an electrifying distorted sound that left audiences dazzled. His words are some of the most interesting and inspiring pieces of prose ever put in a Drooble interview. Cheers to Graham, read on, and rock on!

Hello! Tell the world about yourself. How did you grow up to become the musician and composer you are today?

I guess I’m no different to thousands of other musicians, in that music somehow provided me with an escape from my childhood. Although I wasn’t an unhappy child, I was adopted and I was aware that I didn’t belong. I think the search for meaning, in my younger life, came through music. Growing up with listening to The Shadows, Beatles, Rolling Stones etc, and being introduced at school through a friend whose father was a professional musician, to the blues, for me personified a life that brought fulfilment and interest in those people by others. I suppose I wanted the same. It never occurred to me at the time, of course, that this need was there.

Having a natural talent for music and never a lesson in my life, I put all my energy into playing. After school, and later when studying at art college to be a graphic designer, I spent all my free time, practising and rehearsing, when I reached sixteen I was playing professionally. Lucky enough to have a reasonable voice, I sang too, and this helped me form an even closer bond to music. I lived it, and that has never changed within me. Throughout my life there have been a few gaps of not playing, some sadly when I even had to sell my instruments to live, only to purchase more gear again later on.

I look at those times as reminders of how strong the need to play within me is. I always, without question, return to playing the guitar. In those early years I don’t think I had ever realised just how my playing was developing. Last year I had a reunion with members of my old school band, we hadn’t seen each other for fifty years! They flew all the way to Spain to see me, as I am unable to travel far now. I have a degeneration of the spine and discs that wasn’t discovered until a couple of years ago, which is why they came to me. I was absolutely amazed when they told me that the entire conclave of musicians where I lived, were in awe of my ability to play guitar.

At that time I was playing mainly Jimi Hendrix and Cream numbers. In hindsight I now realise that those formative years must have given me the recognition I had looked to from my parents. Of course, once I was hooked into the music, that was the furthest thing from my mind, the joy of seeing an audience so enjoying music and its performance continued to fulfil me. I played live gigs right up until last year when I retired from live performance, the hardest thing I’ve musically had to do! I’m still playing and composing even today, but now it’s from my small home studio.

Introduce your current musical projects and tell us what makes each one special for you!

Current projects are mainly with Drooble members, as collaborations, although I have a few in the pot at the moment of my own. I never settle into one genre though, so I think that as a fusion player it’s this that makes my music slightly different from others. Fusion as a genre is limitless, and inspiration can come from so many different directions. Hopefully, each piece that I create embodies this boundary-less aspect. I like that I can take as my inspiration, any instrument or any genre, and write whatever I like without feeling that I’m somehow held or constrained by mainstream musicality.

What is it about the guitar that has kept you playing for so long?

Ha ha! that’s an interesting question, seeing that after the first twenty five years of playing guitar, I came across an article that said the guitar was one of the most difficult instruments to play! I’ve played bass and drums, some percussion too, and professionally, but the guitar was my first love, and I’ve always returned to it. With an electric guitar there are so many variables to its sound, this too keeps me wholly engaged with the instrument. Pedals, computer effects when recording and so much more. Just three years ago, I took a huge leap of faith and I decided to change my tuning from standard to ‘Perfect Fourths’ and a new world opened up to me as a soloist. As a non-reader of music, to be able to see the patterns of notes on the fretboard more clearly was like starting all over again, but in a better way. I also like to experiment with tunings and even dissonance, so I’m just as enamoured with the guitar today as I ever was!

*Thanks to one of Spain’s most famous live-performance photographers Goio Villanueva, for the use of these photographs.

What is your opinion on modern guitar music? Are there any new guitar heros out there, or has it all become a shred fest?

Well, I guess that I don’t have an opinion on guitar music today, in that there are so many ways to express oneself through this instrument, that all of them are viable according to the musicIan, the genre, and ability to transmit something that connects with listeners. Despite my age, I never look backward in music. I’ve developed what I do as a musician, in the way that time has changed the music we listen to. I’m hungry for the new and interesting and always fascinated by new players on the scene. Oh yes! there are loads of guitar heros out there that people don’t listen to, or have never heard of!

Shredding is great, I love players like Guthrie Govan, both a musical and technical monster player, and the technically sophisticated genius of Tom Quayle, but unusual guitarists like Julian Lage, and Sylvain Luc, who fuse genres in their extremely textured way of playing are just as exciting to me! If you want a surprise as to what I listen to, check out Brice Delage too and his number, What about you Mom “Hangin’ On”, insane guitar sound and player, I absolutely love this number!

How is the local music scene in your perspective? Do you feel like you belong there?

Living as I have now for fifteen years in Spain, it has been both a joy and somewhat of a disappointment too. I originally had a superb jazz-funk quartet here, with some wonderfully fine players. Together we played many concerts, and had several hundred strong in listeners, who usually attended wherever we went. We even opened a brand new Jazz Festival in our own town, actually inspiring its inception with local townspeople who saw the musical potential. Sadly, there was a break for a couple of years, when the group disbanded and I was never picked up again, despite my attempts to re-initiate the origInal band or a new one.

How did it feel being part of the rock and funk waves when the groundwork was being laid, so to speak?

Fantastic! If you could play the latest Jimi Hendrix numbers and add your own thing to it, people were happy! The music scene was so much simpler then. Fender Strat, amp stack and fuzz box! It was all you needed. Trio rock was it, easy to arrange the numbers, rehearsals and the gigs in those days! I have no idea how I was able to play the music of that time. I’d been playing electric guitar for just two years, but it was in me I guess, put me on a stage with the instrument in my hands and it had to come out! I’m positive that the aggressive sound of the time, which it was, as Metal is today, reflected my childhood. So in reality I have to thank that experience, I guess in the same way that blues players of the years before rock, had played and sung about their sadness. When funk came along, I really enjoyed that James Brown rhythmic transition, as the music of the day changed!

What is your all-time favourite record and how did it change you as an artist?

Gosh, that’s a difficult one! I think I would separate that question, if I may, into two parts. “ What is my all-time favourite record and what record changed me as an artist?” My all-time favourite record is actually recent and doesn’t feature guitar either. It’s “Snarky Puppy” and their track “ Lingus” recorded at “We Like It Here” studio. However, when it comes to changing the way I played, it has to have been Jimi Hendrix. “Hey Joe” was so far from the pop music and even the blues that I listened to! The solo isn’t exactly riveting like many of his others, but it made you want more.

As an album “Electric Ladyland” was the icing on the cake and at that time it was all I listened to, until seeing Cream live in my home town! Jimi Hendrix certainly changed me as an artist. I knew that Jimi had no schooling on guitar, like myself, and I thought “What a sound and energy, I have to do that!”

What are your favourite software and hardware tools for music production?

Great, an easier question! I use Garageband for everything, my iMac is my control centre and everything is DI’d into it. Really simple! It’s still about the music and not spending hours of my life trying to create the perfect mix! My gear is the same, and I run that too into the computer. Seven Mooer pedals, one amp – ZT Lunchbox, and my heavily self-modded Fender Strat short scale Modern Player, and that’s it!

Out of all the live shows you played, which one was the most memorable, and why?

I’ve been so lucky, there are so many of them! However I will tell you a really funny story about an incredible experience, and I wasn’t playing guitar, I was playing drums! We were asked to play a huge concert with at least a thousand people audience. It was for a Carnival in the UK. A small town where people came especially to see the grand finale of music and fireworks live in the open air to finish the Carnival, from miles around. I was playing drums in a duo! Organ and drums called “Twinhead”, a cross between rock/jazz organ and funk drumming!

We needed a big PA for this concert and our roadie at that time said he could get one big enough for the gig. We had no idea how he was going to do that but he knew lots of people so we trusted he could come up with the goods. Earlier that day we arrived with our small van, one set of drums, one organ and a mic and stand. A sunny day, until a huge truck pulled up alongside our van and it all went dark! We stepped out to see a huge thirty foot container truck. Seats in the front for six people with quadraphonic sound. It was huge!

Our roadie was sitting inside, “I’ve brought your PA guys!” Long story short, it was Elton John’s PA system, which was at that time the biggest in the world, called “The WEM Wall of Sound”. It also came with sound engineers! To say the least we sounded incredible, and the concert was a huge success too! So, you want to know how we got this? Our roadie’s son was the then drummer for Elton John!

What would you have told your 30 years-younger self if you had the opportunity?

Quite simply this, and to my fifty years-younger self actually! “Don’t listen to parents and other older people, about “getting a proper job”, when all those musicians around you are saying go for it!”

How does a burgeoning guitar player cultivate the deep, natural connection with the instrument that you have?

I would say that “staying in the moment with my playing”, has been the secret for me. In the moment when I’m practising, recording, composing, and in the past, when playing live too. There are so many distractions around us, it’s crazy. The only time I look back, is when I remember how my all consuming passion was, to simply play the guitar. Bad day practising/recording? Stop, think, where is my passion at this moment? Is it with me, or is there something else that is driving this moment, because it shouldn’t be!

What is your biggest musical goal?

Musical goals diminish with time, especially if like myself, you have been so lucky to achieve so many of them. Now it’s about helping others achieve theirs. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still great to receive the recognition that I have from the Drooble members and the Drooble Team, but that alone now is enough to uphold my love of playing.

How has being on Drooble helped you as a musician?

Drooble is an amazing centre of musical activity. If there had been the internet when I was young, then I’d surely be here anyway! I was then eager to learn from others and Drooble offers so much of that. As an older player with experience, Drooble is allowing me to continue my passion for music, even though I can’t play live gigs anymore. It gives me a window on a musical world of diversity and young talent. To me, that is equally as valid as the passion I have within me.