Sixty Scales and the Truth | Niels Guns

Plini Writes It, Jake Plays It | Jake Howsam Lowe

1.5K views · 2w ago · 40:15

Guest: Jake Howsam Lowe

Jake Howsam Lowe is the first guest to return to Sixty Scales and the Truth. Last time it was a quick, unprepared chat. This time we go deeper. Jake has played guitar in Plini’s band for over ten years, co-founded Helix Nebula, and plays the hard parts Plini writes “just within reach”. We talk about growing up with a musical mother, why he thinks like a pianist on guitar, and how he got from AC/DC and Green Day to technical death metal.

Topics: Pink, purple, orange (and now black) Aristides guitars · A musical mother, ukulele & Joni Mitchell · Piano, drums, accordion... then guitar took over · Why guitar? No practice chore, just fun · Thinking like a pianist on the guitar · From AC/DC and Green Day to metalcore and tech death

Devin Townsend on Letting Go, Loss and Becoming a Different Person | Sixty Scales and the Truth

88K views · 1mo ago · 49:02

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Topics: The hug with Mike Keneally after The Moth · Why Mike's ideas felt like a threat during Empath · No plateaus, just another layer of the onion · Doing the work while the world watches · Music as an emotional loophole · Backstage: "I don't think I can do it"

Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) on Practice, Patience and Learning Guitar | Sixty Scales and the Truth

2.8K views · 1mo ago · 35:34

I did this interview a while back in June when Jordan Rudess played in my hometown Eindhoven. We mainly discussed his relatively new journey on the guitar, which I find fascinating. Furthermore Jordan shed some light on the way he thinks AI could be used and a new Dream Theater album.

Topics: Life after a 19-month Dream Theater tour · Always searching: from the Moog to new instruments · A creative life and the challenges of touring · Guitar every day and his brother's guitar · How Plini sent him a Strandberg · Why the guitar finally clicked

Larry LaLonde on Joe Satriani, Primus & Why Guitar Can Get Weird | Sixty Scales and the Truth

31K views · 1mo ago · 29:26

Primus guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde sat down with me backstage at Dynamo Metal Fest in Eindhoven, the same place he got zapped by electricity on stage back in 1991. We talk about his teenage lessons with Joe Satriani and how they taught him to build his own scales, finding space next to Les Claypool's bass, discovering Frank Zappa at the neighborhood weed dealer's house, and playing Xanadu with Alex Lifeson standing right next to him.

Topics: Getting zapped on stage at Dynamo 1991 · Taking lessons from Joe Satriani · Possessed, Grateful Dead and King Crimson · Family and support · Finding space next to Les Claypool · Unlearning: Charlie Hunter and Buckethead

Misha Mansoor: Periphery Built a Box to Stop Repeating Themselves

36K views · 2mo ago · 55:48

Guest: Misha Mansoor

Misha Mansoor founded Periphery in 2005 and, largely by accident, became one of the architects of djent. In this episode, recorded backstage at Jera On Air on a punishing summer afternoon, he talks about almost none of that.

Topics: Festival day: a tent, a heatwave and The Offspring · Playing when it's too hot or too cold · Why festival runs are harder than normal tours · Autopilot, muscle memory and a wandering mind · Brussels, the World Bank and moving at eight years old · Losing every friend and learning French in a month

Bryan Beller on the One Gig That Changed His Whole Career

4.5K views · 2mo ago · 35:58

Bryan Beller is the bass player fancy guitarists call: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dweezil Zappa, Mike Keneally, Nili Brosh, Mike Dawes — and Guthrie Govan in The Aristocrats. But he didn't burst onto the scene. He was, in his own words, nothing at 15. He arrived at Berklee thinking he was the best musician in the room and got humbled by European jazz majors.

Topics: Who is Bryan Beller? · Week nine of a van tour across Europe · The Aristocrats chemistry and 1,200 people in the Netherlands · New Jersey, piano and choosing the most obnoxious instrument · "I had to stay after school to learn how to cut with scissors" · Berklee: "I was nothing when I was 15"

Joshua De La Victoria on No Shortcuts, Sungazer and Hidden Complexity

1.9K views · 3mo ago · 46:07

Joshua De La Victoria writes some of the most quietly complex guitar music around — and he'd rather you didn't notice the complexity at all. And he's blunt about the thing his students keep asking him for: there is no shortcut.

Topics: Tattoos: Fleet Foxes and The 1975 · Joseph Anidjar's question: playing for others vs. yourself · Touring with Sungazer without being a sideman · Why playing pre-written parts would drive him crazy · A Toys R Us acoustic from grandma at age 10 · Obsession: addicted to learning, not to the outcome

Andy Timmons: Talent Is Overrated — Here's What Actually Matters

20K views · 4mo ago · 33:43

Guest: Andy Timmons

Guitar great Andy Timmons sat down with me post-soundcheck, an hour before a show on his European tour, for a wide-ranging conversation about how he actually makes music. We cover the mindset that gets him through a night when a string breaks in the first song, why he calls the work itself "the gift," and how his playing was shaped by three older brothers, two formative years in Miami, and a late-arriving obsession with Django Reinhardt and Chopin.

Topics: Backstage before the gig: the pre-show mindset · "Every gig is the most important gig" · Music as a safe place: growing up shy · Parents separating and three older brothers · A head start in music history · First gig at 13, going pro at 16

Alex Machacek: Why Streaming Doesn't Deserve My Music

591 views · 4mo ago · 53:57

Guest: Alex Machacek

Austrian-born, LA-based fusion guitarist Alex Machacek quit school at 16 after tricking his mom into letting him audition for the Vienna conservatory — and passed. Decades later, his playing has been championed by Shawn Lane, and he's shared stages and records with Terry Bozzio, Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati and Chad Wackerman.

Topics: Pronouncing "Machacek" & hearing music you can't hear · Parents fleeing Czechoslovakia, growing up in Austria · "I tricked my mom": quitting school at 16 for the conservatory · Discovering Joe Pass at 14 · Behind the magic trick: concepts, not licks · Big band lessons: "a guitar has to be felt, not heard"