GALO: Stephen Fry (famous British television actor) tweeted one word about you: “Wow.” Please help fill in the blanks about that.

JG: I didn’t realize he was so famous around the world. It helped quite a lot. The main difference it made was [that] when people in England think of Twitter they just think of Stephen Fry straight away, because he almost singlehandedly popularized Twitter in England. I had a video on YouTube, which was doing all right, but as soon as Stephen Fry talked about it, [it] gave the mainstream media in England something to talk about. So, it meant I could get on TV after having him talk about it. Then he went on a BBC television show because he was presenting the Film and Television awards [BAFTAs] in the UK. It’s a bit like the British Oscars. He was presented with one award, like a joke they were doing, and they gave him one award for discovering new musical talents and that was me! [Laughs] They showed my video on the program as well, so that was quite funny. It’s been good for my profile over here, definitely.

GALO: Besides classical guitar, did you ever study Flamenco or other more exotic styles?

JG: When I was very young, four-years-old, my teacher played classical, but also flamenco guitar. So, the percussive element of guitar playing, which is a very old traditional element, has always been a part of my playing. Another section of the percussive sound is the blues element. The thing about acoustic blues guitar is it’s completely different from what most people think it is, because the most famous acoustic guitar player from the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s was Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson didn’t play like any of the other guys. They were all different. Robert Johnson was kind of all in his fingers, in detail and technique.

[At this time, Gomm took out his guitar and proceeded to demonstrate the Johnson technique for me.]

So, guys like Bukka White, one of my favorite guitar players, would [use the percussive technique], and the reason was because it was one guy standing on a box in a juke joint trying to fill the whole place with one guitar. People could dance to that, it is part of the style and there were no amplifiers, nothing. They just would stand next to a massive hot burning vat, of whatever was in the vat to keep the place warm, whether it was wood or petrol, whatever they could get their hands on, which is why they used to burn down all the time. They’d stand next to that sweating, shouting into the room. That’s a serious job, an amazing job.

I have many influences from more contemporary styles as well. On electric guitar, I was into the post Van Halen rock thing as a teenager. I was into Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. And, on acoustic guitar, I was into Michael Hedges from Oklahoma and Preston Reed, who’s another American guitar player. They pioneered the way of using some of those rock-taping styles, but on the acoustic guitar. Usually, it’s a more musical approach than the way [Eddie] Van Halen played really, really fast. It’s about making more sound than just playing faster.

GALO: I wondered, since so often you add your own percussive ideas and play them on your guitar, if you studied any percussion instruments.

JG: No. I’ve only really studied the guitar. I dabble in a couple of other instruments, but I don’t like not being very good on an instrument. [Laughs] I like to be really proficient. Like [with] the guitar, I’ve been playing for so long, I can play any kind of style and play in lots of different ways. When I pick up an instrument, I don’t know how to hold, I don’t really like it.

GALO: What about the electric guitar?

JG: Not so much anymore, [as] I don’t have a lot of time. I used to play electric guitar a lot. I play a big acoustic guitar and use really heavy gauge strings. On acoustic guitar, you touch the string and a sound comes out of the box. An electric guitar is just a plank of wood with some magnets and electrics and the strings are so thin, like they’re not really there, and then you have to plug it into some more stuff, amplifiers and pedals. It feels like a bit of a toy. So, when I pick up an electric guitar, it doesn’t feel like the real deal to me anymore. I used to play mostly electric guitar when I was younger, but now it’s like the music I’d play on it isn’t real. I can’t quite explain it. I still listen to loads and loads of electric guitar based music, but I don’t have any desire to play electric guitar anymore.

GALO: Please tell us about Wilma (name for his acoustic guitar).

JG: I don’t know how many gigs I’ve played [with Wilma], but we’re talking well over a thousand. It’s been with me for a long time. It’s totally anthropomorphized that guitar. To me it even sounds strange to call it, “it.” It’s not female, but I’ve called it Wilma, so it’s kind of female, but I don’t think of it as being female. I’m not like a guy with his car who basically wishes it was a woman [laughs] who he wishes he could get married to. To me, that guitar, I can’t think of it like an object.

Maybe you do a gig and it’s not very good. The audience doesn’t really care or there might be a horrible person there, who’s hostile to you, and so, you drag the guitar back to a little hotel room, and you’re either going through that alone or going through that with your guitar that’s like your friend, who can protect you. I just spent about $1,400 on a case for that guitar.

GALO: How do you deal with, or rather what is your reaction, if an audience isn’t responding to you the way you would like?

JG: I’ve learned how to expect different reactions, in different places, in different kinds of venues, in different countries. I never do set lists because I want the audience to inform me of what they want. Quite often, I know which song is going to work next from the reaction of the audience to the previous song, or the feeling in the room.

There are different kinds of crowds. In Italy, people will clap at the end of a song, if they really like it, they’ll keep clapping. They don’t clap louder or shout so much and cheer like in America, they just keep clapping and they won’t stop. They could go on for 10 minutes. Where in, say Northern Germany, the audiences are very reserved. The first gig I did there, I thought, ‘I don’t think they really dig it,’ but then the promoter said, “No, this is really good; a very good reaction.” I sold lots of CDs.

Right now I like playing in noisy English pubs, but I don’t get the chance to do that very often anymore because when I play a pub, there will be 400 people trying to get into a pub which holds only 100. I miss that. I also like playing in theaters where the audience is focused on the music, its dark like a womb and you can try to fill the theater with the sound.

My favorite thing is being heckled, if it’s funny, it’s great. I did a gig recently, the song is finished, and this guy stood up in the middle of the audience and shouted, “Please shag my wife!” And I just laughed. I went up to the microphone and said it’s really kind of you, but I don’t even know what she looks like, and then the woman next to him stood up and said, “I’m here, what do you think!” Just amazing.

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