2012 The Guitar Note | Issue 2

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Photograph by Ingrid Hertfelder/Courtesy Ted Associates

Guitar Virtuoso:
Julian Lage
Interviewed by Matthew Richter
TGN: Tell us about your origin story. How did you get started?
Julian: Well lets see. I actually got interested in music because my

father picked up the guitar when I was about four years old. He had played
a little bit when he was a boy and then when Eric Claptons Unplugged
came out on MTV my dad got really inspired. I asked for a guitar and my
parents said that if I were still interested when I was five they would gladly
get me one. And thats exactly what happened.

My parents got me a Stratocaster, which was awesome. My dad thought if

it was easier to play Id be more likely to keep it up and he was totally right.
He would show me things from his lessons for about the first six months
to a year. What was cool about that was that I learned to mostly improvise
before I learned any songs. I remember the first day he showed me an A
minor pentatonic scale in five positions and he said, Anything you play is
right as long as its in these scales, and he would play different progressions and Id improvise. Thats kind of where it started. My curiosity really
began because my Dad was into it.

TGN: Your music has a heavy classical influence and of course youre a

jazz guy. At what point in your childhood did you say, Thats the kind of
music I gravitate toward?

Julian: I never thought about it too deliberately, but youre right, there

totally is. Its funny, I think the underlying mechanism that kind of drives
all the stuff Ive done has been a curiosity of structure and architecture
and a kind of balance. So when I was first starting I was really a blues
guitar player. I was obsessed with T-Bone Walker, Stevie Ray Vaughan,
and Muddy Waters and that was what I wanted, but in the interest of just
becoming more of a balanced guitar player everyone would say, Study
jazz. Learn about jazz theory. And I thought okay, cool, and by the same
token theyd say, If youre doing a lot of improvisation and whatnot you
should really check out these classical composers like Ravel or Shostakovich. So I always felt like I bounced around from genre to genre just
trying to find some equilibrium and get a bunch of peoples opinions on the

2012 The Guitar Note | Issue 2

same issues. So yeah, though I say nothing was deliberate I think thats
just kind of the way of the modern musician to know as much about a lot of
things as possible.

TGN: Did you go to a conservatory or were you self-taught?

Julian: I had a bunch of teachers. I went to the San Francisco Conser-

vatory when I was seven for about a year, learned how to read music, and
studied theory and sight singing, but then I also took lessons from so many
people in the Bay Area. The longest relationship was with Randy Vincent,
whos an incredible guitar player and kind of the guitar guru that I grew up
with. So from 8 to 12 years old I had two three-hour lessons a week with
him.

TGN: At what point did people start to realize, Wow, this guy can play?
At what point were you noticed?
Julian: (Laughter) Im still wondering if people think that. I feel like

such a kid. I can remember being 11 or 12 and noticing that things were a
little different. I guess it started maybe when I was younger. Theres this
documentary that was made about me when I was seven called Jules At
Eight. To be honest I dont have the best perspective on it. I think people
took note and a lot of opportunities started coming to fruition pretty early on.
Just growing up in the Bay Area theres a really vibrant creative scene and
coming from a really wonderful supportive family I had a lot of good opportunities to play and study and take it as seriously as one could at that age.
Then at 11 or 12 I started to realize, Wow, this is kind of a career thing.
This is maybe a little bit more widespread than I thought. I am still amazed
that anyone comes to shows sometimes, not in an overly modest way, but
its amazing because I feel like Id be doing this regardless of anyone elses
interest, and maybe especially because its my own thing Ill do it more.

TGN: How does becoming a performer especially in your adolescent and

teenage years affect the family dynamic?

Here is a video of
Julians Etude #1. For
the other three, check
them out on YouTube.

does the leader, like Gary or you

do one of you step up and say,
Heres what I see for this?

Julian: Gary is the leader, so he

Julian: Oh, thats a great

question. Well I think it depends

on the family at hand. Im the
youngest of five children and I have
three sisters and a brother and
they are all super highly achieving,
talented people, and not in music
necessarily. Our family dynamic
was such that for me playing music
was a necessity for having my own
thing. It was very beneficial to the
family dynamic that I was occupied
and so were they. But there can
be challenges with that too. Once
playing music became such a big
thing, it was very important for my
family to help me remain balanced.
It was paramount for me to focus
on school and have other interests
outside of music so that I never
felt like this novelty that was being
exploited. And also that balance
was important as well for the sake
of the music itself. It starts as this
thing that you just love. Youre
curious about it and you think it is
the coolest thing in the world to
play guitar. That feeling never goes
away, but sometimes it gets a little
covered up. You feel like you have
responsibilities.

TGN: How did your parents help

balance you?
Julian: Oh, my parents are just

so balanced to begin with. Theyre

incredibly passionate and loving and
I feel like the way they did it was
almost indirect. They didnt force
anything. They never told me to
practice they encouraged me to
be responsible if anything. It was
very much, Thats wonderful, and
Do you wanna go outside? Do you
wanna do anything else? They had
this nice way of being supportive
but not overbearing. So I dont
really even know how they did it,
but in retrospect I know that they

2012 The Guitar Note | Issue 2

did something, and I saw with my

other siblings too, theyd give us a
lot of space, no pressure, but were
also very much an active part of our
lives.

TGN: Sounds like a wonder-

fully stimulating and nurturing

environment.

Julian: Yeah. Nurturing is the

key word. It was so much about the

person rather than the skill set and
Im really grateful for that.

TGN: In your teenage years you

met Gary Burton?
Julian: Yeah. I think I met him
when I was 12 or so.

TGN: Is it accurate to say that he

became a mentor of yours?
Julian: Yeah. Oh, absolutely, I

mean in the most unobtrusive way.

It was such a seamless kind of
relationship the way it began. He
saw me at the Grammys when I was
12. He was in the audience and
I performed as part of this young
children in music thing and he wrote
me a letter a week later and said,
I saw your performance. Im very
interested in performing with you.
Do you wanna do this gig together?
We did our first gig actually at the
TED conference, and then we did a
small tour after that.
Yes, very gradually he kind of
became this beacon in my life of just
what I wanted to do, a role model
musically, but also in the way he
handled himself as a professional
musician. Hes very balanced.
Hes not one of these reckless,
irresponsible types, not that thats
a bad thing, but hes almost to
the essence of just taking care of
business, helping people out, and

being a total badass musician. So

by that accord absolutely he was a
mentor and he continues to be in so
many ways.

TGN: And youve made three

albums with him, is that correct?
The newest one, Common Ground?
Julian: Yeah.
TGN: Whats it like being a part
of a group of players like Gary or
Scott Colley or Antonio Sanchez?
How do players of that caliber, of
your caliber, come together and find
a way to work collaboratively while
maintaining your own personalities?
Julian: You know I think its kind
of a reflection of the fact that theyre
professional, stellar musicians.
What makes them so great is their
ability to kind of meet with you and
look at music together and very
effortlessly find the balance and
figure out whats gonna make the
best record. So in other words
there is a selfless nature that seems
to permeate from all those guys.
Its really about whatever sounds
the best, whatever makes you
comfortable, which in turn usually
sounds the best.
So all I could really say is any time
working with guys of that caliber
it seems like its the easiest thing.
Its absolutely the easiest thing
possible, and weirdly when youre
playing with players that are a little
less experienced theres a lot more
pressure to do something or be
great. I dont know what it is about
that dynamic that changes, but its
definitely a team effort.

TGN: When youre playing with

guys like that, do you sit down
collaboratively and say, Okay,
whats the vision for this album? Or

has the most direction in terms what

should this record be, and thats a
challenge for someone whos done
so much because theres just not
that there arent a lot of things to
do, but theres just only so many
possibilities. Its hard when the
band comes in to play. Its usually
with the vetting process. Its Gary
saying, What about these things? I
was thinking these songs. Do you
have anything to contribute? We
all end up being a part of this kind
of democratic thing, but it requires a
leader for sure and thats Gary.

TGN: And one of your songs,

Clarity, came out of the collaboration with the quartet. How did that
song come about? Thats one of
yours, right?
Julian: Well Clarity, thats from

my band and I recorded it once with

Gary I think on our first record, its
like the last song of the record.

TGN: I was wondering about

the evolution of that song. Was
that something that you worked on
and then brought to Gary or was
that something that the two of you
collaborated on? How did that
come out?
Julian: I think at the time of that

recording I was maybe 15 or so.

It was just one of the handful of
songs Id been playing a lot with my
own groups in the Bay Area. So I
brought it to Gary for consideration
and he liked it and we recorded it,
and then the version I did with my
band years later was really a way
different arrangement with different
parts and bigger orchestration. I
almost consider them two different
songs.

TGN: Yeah. Its a really cool

song. On the Sounding Point CD
its almost a perfect example of
counterpoint and harmony. What
goes through your mind when youre
composing a song like that? What
are you thinking about? How intentional are you about the counterpoint and harmony or is there a
base melody in your mind that you
then orchestrate around? Whats
your composition process?

From Left: Dan Blake, Julian Lage, Tupac Mantilla,

Jorge Roeder, Aristides Rivas
Photo by: Ingrid Hertfelder/Courtesy Ted Kurland Associates
defined parts it takes five minutes to
say, Add three bars there or Can
you do that down an octave in the
cello part?

Julian Lage, Rhode Island, Winter 2009 (photo by Michael Kurgansky)

Julian: Well its different from

case to case. With that song it was

definitely based around this melody
that was relatively simple. Then
upon working with that particular
band with cello, sax, bass, and
percussion, I felt that it needed
some sort of filling out. So I guess
its just that guttural sense of, hmm,
it could be better. Thats really just
the motivating factor. So once we
started meddling around with it, we
started realizing that we could just
have some cello counter lines here
and then the sax could take over
there. Honestly its just something
you know when you hear it, more
so than going in intentionally and
saying, If you inverted this
My pieces, I think, could benefit
sometimes from a certain type of
logic that other friends of mine
compose with. Motivic development
and retrograde and all these
concepts, they work for a reason.
But with Clarity and for most
things I write it starts with an
impetus. Either I need to write a

2012 The Guitar Note | Issue 2

piece in this style or it is a cool idea

on the guitar. I write pretty much
everything on the guitar or have so
far. Then from there I just kind of
plow away and try every possibility
until I start to see more or less what
the piece is gonna be, whats the
essence. Is it a fast tune? Is it a
slow tune? Is it a kind of melodramatic tune? So its really kind of a
whittling away process and a ton
of trial and error. Living with things
and going, Wow, that sucks or
Thats less than I think Im capable
of. Thats really important in the
writing process.

TGN: How much of the trial and

error occurs before you pull the
band together?
Julian: Not enough really. Often

with my band especially in my

group, nothing is written down,
none of the music. Its all kind of an
oral tradition thing. There are pros
and cons to that. The plus is that
its very flexible, so I can bring in a
song and because no one has any

More or less you start to figure out

very quickly what works and what
doesnt, and if its a waste of time
youve got four people staring at
you letting you know its a waste of
time. So thats one way. Recently
Ive been doing a little more trial
and error before just because like
I said its more ideal to just bring it
to excellent players and let them
render it rather than them feeling
like they have to somehow make
it better or change it. It should be
great when you bring it to the band.

TGN: With Sounding Point you

had a band playing throughout the
whole album. How did you put them
band together? Are they still with
you?
Julian: Yeah. That band is still

together. Were in a different phase

than we were at the time. That
band came together out of necessity
because I had this recording
contract and I knew I wanted to do
something unorthodox. It started
with the saxophone player, Ben
Roseth, whos the original player in
the band, and then it included bass,
Jorge Roeder. Then I knew I wanted
percussion and Tupac Mantilla
was the perfect guy for that. I cant
believe I found them! Then I wanted
cello on parts of the record, so thats
how I met Aristides Rivas. I just
called around and found a cellist
who I had heard about.
Anyway, yeah, the band just kind of
came together for this album and
once the album was done I think
thats when I realized how poten-

tially cool it was. We are touring on

and off until March of next year and
then everyones just kind of gotten
so involved with other things in their
lives and really for the better. So
Im starting to put together a smaller
version of that group with some
other attributes, kind of like the next
evolution.

TGN: Speaking of evolution, how

did you evolve into Gladwell, which
is a totally different album?
Julian: Yeah, a totally different

album. Gladwell was kind of the

product of wanting a real songbased recording. It was a really
interesting record because it took a
lot of shapes and it kind of turned
into something a little different than
any of us expected sometimes for
the better. I wouldnt say at all for
the worse, but there were certain
things where I went into it thinking,
well this will be a full band record,
but it was primarily my compositions. So we put together this story
that made sense of this town and
the music all related to that.
I think the record showcased again
this kind of unorthodox sensibility
that my band just shares. I couldnt
think of another group of musicians
who would be more willing to go and
play a whole record worth of music
based on a town, and so open with
open arms and open ears. I think it
really shows more of the chemistry
of the band than Sounding Point
cause its a little less arranged. It
was done very quickly, too. It was
basically done in a day and a half,
like a live recording, no edits I think.

TGN: Theres also a lot of solo

guitar.

Here is a video
of Julian playing
Autumn Leaves
as described in
the interview.
a little more raw and aggressive at
times. So the reason why its hard
to articulate is I think Im looking for
the right conduit for that. Typically
I think thats more successful in a
smaller ensemble because theres
less moving parts, so its easier to
develop everybodys characters.
Theres just two people over the
course of a show. You can get in a
little bit deeper than if theres five or
six people. But I think its going to
be something really different and Im
very excited about the prospect.

Julian: Yeah. The solo guitar

stuff weaves throughout that record

more as connections between
pieces. So yeah, that record was
kind of an interesting balance. It
was the last one for Emarcy, the
label. It was in this transition period
where I was their artist, so increasingly over the years, I felt the band
getting more into a band sound,
but struggled some with the this is
the Julian Lage group and this is
the kind of record that needs to be
done. Fortunately thats evolved
so Ive got enough other projects
that feature what I do as a guitarist
that the group is turning more into
what I think its designed to be as
a chamber group, kind of a fiveheaded monster, which is really
cool.

TGN: About two-thirds of the

way through Gladwell its really

awesome to hit this familiar tune
with Autumn Leaves. So youre
going through, its a very textural set
of music thats telling the story of the
town and then you get something
that everyone in the world has
heard with a completely different
arrangement. When you listen to
the first few measures you dont
know what youre hearing yet. So
what was your thinking in sticking
Autumn Leaves in there and then
doing it in such a unique way? And,
you played it solo.

Julian: I am going to refer to

how the recording session went.

We had two scenarios. We had
everyone more or less in a circle
with headphones and microphones
everywhere and then there was
another solo guitar setup, which
was in the corner of the studio. I
just came in one of the two days
and was just playing by myself and
the engineer set up four mics. Then

2012 The Guitar Note | Issue 2

the band basically sat around in a

circle and I just kind of played songs
for them and they recorded all of it,
no headphones.

TGN: Yeah.

TGN: Theres a I hope I say this

the right way theres a part of me
that kind of hopes you spend a long
time trying to get there so that we
get a whole lot of different things.

Julian: Thats how that came to

Julian: Yeah. Exactly. Thats

I couldnt even hear my amp so

I was just playing acoustic, and
Autumn Leaves was part of that,
Freight Train was part of that.
These are pieces that were just
kind of incidental music in a way,
but when it came to putting the
record together though, there was
this very clear logic as far as the
storyline went There was something
about how that piece worked in
my opinion really well because it
goes with the question about the
arrangement. That was nothing
planned, it was just one time playing
through Autumn Leaves improvised. I think that just kind of spoke
to my sensibility about things being
seemingly unrelated, but somehow
it worked. Ive always been a fan
of that aesthetic. So yeah its a
standard, yeah its been done a lot,
but at the same time its just guitar
playing and thats really all I wanted
to convey and its a really beautiful
song.

TGN: A few minutes ago

you mentioned that the Julian
Lage Group is really a chamber
ensemble, but you are really finding
more and more that you can do your
own kind of thing. What is that kind
of thing?

TGN: The whole album is really

about reconciling irreconcilable

paradoxes.

Julian: Yeah. Thats a great way

to say that. Its like it somehow

works if you believe it works and
thats something I dont know if Id
wanna do for every record or that
should be done, but it almost seems
like it captured this beautiful time
when I was coming to terms with
being a little bit of a weirdo guitar
player. I have no desire to make a
jazz record per se and I cant ignore
that thats my upbringing. So let me
just play some music for you and
well talk about it later.

be.

Julian: Wow. Well thats a tough

one to answer at this point at least

in terms of how to articulate it. In
my gut I feel like such a genuine
music nerd in the sense that I spend
most of my days just listening to a
lot of different kinds of music, a lot
of pop music, a lot of electronica, a
lot of experimental stuff, and a lot
of folk music and bluegrass and a
lot of singer songwriter stuff, and
for the most part a lot of stuff that I
dont play. However, increasingly
Ive been doing more solo guitar
shows and kind of playing around
with different sounds and different
things, different instruments.
I find that maybe that is kind of the
signature thing that Im going for
right now, which is I dont know,
Id say pulling together all these
influences but in a very streamlined kind of way. Ive been very
excited about this project playing
duo with Nels Cline. I dont know
if youre familiar with Nels music
but hes a brilliant guitar player. He
plays in Wilco. Anyway, we have
this duo thats kind of more on the
avant-garde spectrum as far as
being more improvisationally based.
Playing with that really makes me
realize that I like living in that part of
the world a little bit more at least
right now. More improvised, a little
less about parts and nailing things,

probably what it warrants. A healthy

tenure of just trying things out.
But I think more now than ever Im
so obsessed with producers, people
like John Bryan or Brian Eno, these
kinds of people that are just really
amazing in terms of soundscapes
and orchestration. I have yet to
really explore that on the guitar. I
wouldnt say Im a purist in any
way, but Im happiest with an old
Martin and just playing solo guitar.
However I like being kind of on the
oddball end of the spectrum, so who
knows what Ill do with regard to
sound and whatnot.

TGN: Well you just mentioned all

the different types of music youre
listening to. How do you approach
listening? What are you listening
for?
Julian: Thats really interesting.

I always have this notion that

musicians are kind of screwed when
it comes to just purely enjoying
music because youve conditioned
yourself to on one hand understand what it takes to make the
music. So your opinion can be a
little skewed because you know its
really difficult even though its not
good or whatever the reasoning
may be. Then on the other end of
the spectrum, youre conditioned to
almost justify things. So you say,
Well, I dont get that much joy out
of listening to a dull jazz record in
terms of just the visceral, or I had
a long day, I wanna put on fill in the
blank, but I know I should. I should
like this. I should love it. And, you
do for the most part.
So to answer your question I think

a lot of my listening habits in the

last year or two have been directed
towards just what do I like what
do I really, really like. It doesnt
matter if its difficult or easy or what.
Thats almost step one, to say okay,
Im not gonna listen to anything Im
supposed to, only guilty pleasures
in a way. Then whats cool about
being a musician is that at a certain
point you have the toolkit to actually
suss out what makes it your guilty
pleasure.
Its maybe not the most amazing,
intricate thing Ive ever heard on a
tech level, but it feels ridiculous. So
then that can lead you down a path
of study, or melodies, like, Wow,
that is just so singable. I would
never think of that on the guitar.
So even though I try to go at it like
a normal person, at the end of it I
have the best of both worlds. I can
enjoy it and I can figure out why I
enjoy it and then hopefully replicate
that in some capacity.

TGN: Do you sing?

Julian: I dont. I dont sing. I

dont really have a desire to either,

which is funny. I like playing with

2012 The Guitar Note | Issue 2

singers, but I dont really feel

inclined to do that.

TGN: So given that this is a guitar

magazine I have to ask you about
your gear.
Julian: Please.
TGN: I know you have a Manzer.
Julian: I have a Manzer, thats
true.

TGN: So which one of her arch

tops do you have?

Julian: Its called the Blue Note

model and its a 16-inch laminate

top. Its a beautiful guitar. Ive had
that since I was about 11.

TGN: Wow.
Julian: Which is crazy to think

about. Its the main guitar I grew up

with. So yeah, theres the Manzer.
I play an Otto DAmbrosio arch top,
a beautiful 16-inch acoustic arch
top with a cutaway. Really beautiful.
Otto is one of the great builders
today, I think one of the greatest
builders. His sensibility is very

much aligned with the folk acoustic

world as well as the improvisational
world, so I think if I were a builder
Id probably try to emulate Ottos
guitars.
I have a 1932 Gibson L5, a really
beautiful 16-inch arch top acoustic,
no pickup. I play a 1939 Martin
000-18. Its a really beautiful old
Martin. What else? Im looking
around my room. Oh, I play a Tele,
a Nash Telecaster. I think its a
replica of the 62 Tele, kind of relicd
out but not too much. I love that
guitar.
I have a newer Martin, a Tim
OBrien, which is like a 00 style
body a really beautiful guitar. I
have three Telecasters in my room
right now, but I dont own them.
They belong to friends who said,
You should be playing this. But
yeah, those are the main guitars,
the Manzer, the Tele, the Otto,
the old Martin and the old Gibson.
Theyre phenomenal. I feel really
lucky to play these instruments.

TGN: And do you go through

a P.A. usually or do you have an
amplifier of choice?

Julian: I usually use a Fender

Deluxe, one of the reissues,

sometimes a twin reverb, but thats
it. Its pretty simple.

TGN: Theres a cool thing going

around the Internet, which has been
going around a while and its your
series of etudes.
Julian: (Laughs) Oh yeah. Right.
Thats great.

TGN: Theyre impossible!

Julian: [Laughs] Theyre doable.

I dont play them, so I dont really

know. I mean I havent played them
since I made those videos.

TGN: So other than sadism, what

was going through your mind?
Julian: Well its interesting;

those are all made around the

time of Gladwell too. I think I was
especially in this mindset of blowing
things out of proportion in the best
possible sense. With my band I
was trying to take little things that
were almost seemingly mundane
guitar figures and turning them into
pieces. I guess in retrospect I was

Clarity from Sounding Point. Used with permission.

just trying to do something that was

against the feeling that I had to go
back to school to study more before
I could do something of value. I
think sometimes I get caught up
in that like a lot of people do. The
feeling of, Oh, if I just knew more,
if I just studied orchestration I could
make the best record.
At the time I was saying forget all
that. I have what I have. Im just
gonna write these songs, were
gonna play them the way we play
them, and Im gonna accept that
thats where I am. With the etudes it
was really just a condensed version
of that mentality. There were certain
idiosyncratic things I noticed that I
was doing on the instrument a lot,
and so I thought if I did that, if I went
a step further and turned this into
little pieces, what kind of development would be possible?
So, there are four now. Im working
on some other ones because I
planned to have 13 eventually. The
13th one will be a match with the
first one like a guitar duet, but I got
kind of tired of doing them in all
honesty. [Laughs]
I felt a little bit like I started
exploiting myself and it weirdly
backfired, cause I could do those
things and Id work on them, but
each Etude was more or less
written in one sitting of just trying
stuff. Eventually, five hours later
Theyre just exercises, but the cool
thing is I think if anyone were to
learn them they would get some
insight into how I approach the
fretboard. Also the Etudes are
relatively musical. The goal is to
have them engaging to the ear so

2012 The Guitar Note | Issue 2

one wouldnt get too mindless while

playing them. A lot of exercises Ive
learned just feel like you could so
easily tune out.

TGN: Do you enjoy teaching, and

what about it do you enjoy?
Julian: Yeah, I love teaching.

Thats definitely been a passion of

mine for years. I feel like I just can
relate to the scenarios students
experience so well. Ive always felt
very lucky to be able to be in the
musical world. Ive also been dissatisfied with what I was able to do. At
times, I think I can be better, and I
think I can learn more.
So from this perspective, when I
teach I feel like I can understand
when a guitar student comes and
says their day is horrible because
they cant figure out how to play
over this one set of changes,
and I can reply, Okay, well life is
actually pretty good, but lets talk
about some possibilities. I feel
like I get to teach the way that Ive
been taught Ive just had so many
great teachers. I can pass that on
to other people. So I love it, and
I teach at Berklee in Boston and I
teach through the New School in
New York and I teach a lot privately
too. I love everything about it.

TGN: When you think about

where you are as a player now and
given how good you are and everything, how do you identify what it is
you need to still get better at, and
what do you need to get better at?
Julian: Its relative to where

you are obviously. Often on days

when I feel like I play terribly or

Im not playing the way I want, I

think, If I saw myself playing this
way ten years ago I wouldve been
really stoked because its more
advanced. But that doesnt really
help in the moment. I still need to
identify I what I need to do now.
I guess I feel like Im working
towards playing in such a way
where everything is very integrated
and where I can f lose myself in
whatever Im trying to play. So in
a lot of the work Im doing these
days I try to get things out of the
way more than I try to acquire new
information.
As of late Ive kind of noticed a
little bit of hesitation when it comes
to playing certain tempos. I cant
listen to it and totally relax. My mind
races even as I hear the playback.
What Ill work on is internalizing the
bigger pulse. So if its a medium
swing tempo you can set the
metronome down to like 20 or 15
or some subdivision where it only
clicks every two to four measures,
and then try to play within that,
speeding up and slowing down and
landing on the click whenever it
should come.
Things like that help to strengthen
your trust in your own sense of time.
So yeah, thats a good example of
the stuff I work on, realizing that
you leave an afterglow when you
play and you have an effect on
the listener. If you dont take that
seriously and responsibly you can
end up playing kind of topically,
playing all the right notes and being
really proficient, but Im way more
interested in how to go to that other

level lately. A lot of thats groovebased, a lot of thats time-based,

and a lot of its just technique,
being able to play smoothly and
comfortably without being frantic.

TGN: Do you ever worry at

this stage in the game of making
mistakes or being wrong?
Julian: No. I think Im trying to go

in that direction a lot more. I mean

the purgatory for any guitarist or any
musician is really feeling trapped
like you have to play a certain way.
To almost take it too seriously can
kind of kill everything thats fun
about it. Also I guess at the stage
I am at right now, people are less
inclined to tell me what they think.
Theres almost an air around any
professional musician where, wow,
they did something right. Theyre
doing fine. Surely theyll figure out
what they need to do.
Ive just kind of come to accept that
people wont always tell me things
they would have told me when I was
just starting out. People would say,
Well, have you considered this or
practiced that? Now I have to do
that for myself as much as possible.
So, for me, I keep saying mistakes
are fantastic, taking risks are great.
Theres nothing more depressing
than a really proficient guitarist
who does nothing, who wastes it
and does nothing with it. The only
reason to have good technique or
anything is so that you can jump
off the deep end and hopefully not
totally die. If you do, you go out in
a beautiful way. Thats my feeling
about that.