Today is the birthday of Adrian Belew who, for years, has managed to make complex music (Zappa, King Crimson, his own) seem easy and fun. Here are some great sounding, relatively recent, beautifully shot videos of his latest band. The man keeps growing and evolving, while magically making digital guitar sounds that are warm and human.
To hold you until my Guitar Player interview comes out (where we focus more on the new record), here is a great interview with Mitch Gallagher at Sweetwater.
On October 22nd Adrian Belew begins a North American tour with The Adrian Belew Power Trio, featuring Julie Slick on bass and Tobias Ralph on drums. Before leaving Adrian invited Guitar Moderne to his home, north of Nashville, to discuss Flux , the new music delivery system he has labored over for four years. It will be hopefully released in November and will receive full coverage here. He was also kind enough to give a video tour of the gear he will be using on the road and a peek at the “toy” closet that provided many of the sounds for Flux. Enjoy!
In November of 2011 Adrian Belew performed and spoke at the Chicago Humanities Festival series on the history and future of guitar sound. Great stuff here including midi instrumentation, layering and combining effects such as echo lengths with pitch shifts, loop pedals, compound rhythm structures, and time signatures. For the few that don’t know, Adrian’s career spans from the 70s to present day and includes collaboration with the Talking Heads, David Bowie, Frank Zappa and Nine Inch Nails in addition to his solo work.