With his instrumental power trio The Aristocrats sounding more 3D than ever on this year’s release with the Primuz Chamber Orchestra, Guthrie Govan checks in with TG to look back on his career so far
Chances are, if you’ve ever been stood anywhere remotely near a discussion about the greatest guitar players on earth, you’ll have heard the name Guthrie Govan. Though he would never describe himself in that way, the English fusion wizard is widely regarded as not only one of the most technically sophisticated players to emerge since the likes of Shawn Lane and Allan Holds worth, but also one of the most tasteful, with a sense of melodic phrasing that’s just as dynamically exquisite as Larry Carlton or even Jeff Beck himself. His 2006 solo debut Erotic Cakes raised the bar for instrumental guitar music, arguably becoming the most important solo album for shredders since Steve Vai’s game-changing Passion And Warfare masterpiece of 1990. Pushing six-string boundaries is something he continues to do in The Aristocrats, who have released a handful of highly acclaimed studio and live albums since forming just over a decade ago – including their latest collaboration with the Primuz Chamber Orchestra.
That alone would be enough to make for a remarkably impressive resume, but the Chelmsford-born 50 year-old has plenty more in his list of achievements – from briefly joining progressive rockers Asia early on to eventually backing UK grime hero Dizzee Rascal, later recording and touring with progressive rock mastermind Steven Wilson and, in more recent years, performing in composer Hans Zimmer’s live band. Then there’s his work as a guitar instructor, which has included stints at various music colleges, articles and transcriptions for magazines and a host of breathtaking video lessons/performances for companies like Lick Library and JTC. It would fair to say his life would have been very different without those stringed blocks of wood we all know and love...
“They tell me I was three years old when I started,” says Govan, talking to TG in between arena dates with Hans Zimmer and an ever so slightly more intimate session spot with Polish pianist Tomasz Bura at London’s Jazz Cafe. “Early on I was just trying to achieve this impossible feat that I saw my Dad doing, which was getting through an Elvis song! It quickly became clear to me that the guitar is a typewriter, it’s a machine you use to make music. My instincts led me towards trying to copy anything I heard, rather than just guitar stuff. So anything from a TV theme to a Christmas carol at school was fair game. We all hear technical music in everyday life – you might turn on the TV and hear some virtuosic violin thing or a jazz piano or a bluegrass player burning on a banjo. I always felt if things like that were possible, w
