Steve Hackett: Beyond the Shrouded Horizon interview

After 24 albums, does it still feel fresh?

It does. I still get a thrill out of making music. I also get a thrill out of making it right. I don’t have too much time, because the clock is ticking, I suspect. I don’t mess around with the things I don’t love. I jump in with two feet these days. I’m thinking of the guitar work on “The Phoenix Flown." Recently I saw — at a Joe Bonamassa show — and then when I was talking to him — during playing — he played one of my tunes, “Los Endos” from way back. He was very much Joe, who plays blues guitar, but he played with this sort of commitment, and he brought a freshness to it, even though we’ve all heard changes in blues guitar at the time. It’s what the solo does within that landscape, within that fixed perimeter.

So when I was playing this part on “The Phoenix Flown,” I was thinking of a tone that he had at one point where he played a bit fast but within that played slowly and a bit sweeter with an upper harmonic on it and a bit of reverb and I thought, I recognize myself in these sounds, where the guitar starts to walk and get a little more fiery, where it’s a little more voice-like. Lots of guitarists are always trying to chase “the woman’s voice.” It’s where you go, “That note — that could be a voice.” I sometimes hear it from a distance, and I realize that could be an opera, where someone’s in the next room calling you. I look for the soprano. more

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