Interview Tommy Emmanuel
From honing your creativity to eradicating erroneous string noise, Tommy Emmanuel explains how to set the bar high for yourself in the studio and on stage
Tommy Emmanuel has been a working professional musician from the somewhat staggering age of six, when he toured his native Australia playing rhythm guitar in his family’s band, living on the road in their cars and rarely going to school.
He was inspired to play after hearing the Travis picking style of Chet Atkins on the radio, a lightbulb moment and one that he still remembers vividly. Six decades on, Tommy is widely regarded as one of the world’s finest acoustic fingerstyle players, a guitarist whose emotive playing and impeccable feel are matched by his sublimely dextrous technique. He sets the bar high for himself, and his incendiary live shows regularly wow audiences in venues across the globe. Who better, then, to offer advice on how to hone your technique, your creative processes and your entire mental attitude when venturing out to the studio and the live circuit?
Once you’ve got some material together and you’re thinking about going into the studio, what do you do to make sure that, when you start tracking, you’re able to freely express yourself with the music?
“Well, it’s all about the homework you’ve already done. I have to be absolutely in love with the song and know that this is a song that I want to record. I write songs and record them on my iPhone and that’s my demo. That song, in every way, has to stand up and once I’m certain of that, then when I go to the studio, I’m in heaven.
“It’s really all about the quality of the music and your belief that everything about the song is as strong as you can get it. Once I feel that every part, every minute detail, is right and that the song does what Ineed it to do, it satisfies me in every way, once I’m certain of that, then okay, ‘Boom!’ I’m ready to go. My guitar’s got good strings on it, it’s in tune, we’ve got good microphones, I’m wearing headphones, I can hear a little reverb or whatever. I’ve got the sound of my dreams in my ears.
“Now I’m going to play the song to the best of my abilities, with the best time, the best feeling. That’s really the bottom line. I never go into the studio unprepared.”
What do you do if or when you encounter a phrase that will make the strings squeak?
“You know what? All arrangements have that in them. What you’ve got to do is practise a lot more. You’ve got to play that thing a thousand t
