G. Love has offered his soulful hip-hop blues for two decades, singing lyrics that relate life as it is.
Last year, the artist also known as Garrett Dutton released a record with the original members of his famed trio G. Love and Special Sauce for the first time in a decade. And this month, he begins a summer tour including both solo and full band shows. In this interview, G. Love discusses his songwriting methods, how his newest record Sugar came to be and the magic of playing live. He also shows us one of his signature guitars. Jonny Lang is best known for his blues guitar licks and vocals. So it may come as a surprise that he's not listening to that genre much these days. Instead, he says he goes for the likes of James Taylor and Stevie Wonder. Jens Erik Gould interviews Lang backstage at BB King's in New York.
It’s been a banner year for rock band Umphrey’s McGee. They released their eighth studio album, Similar Skin, and played their 2,000th show last month. In this video interview, keyboardist Joel Cummins discusses what makes the band so successful, including band members' relationships with each other, how they engage the fan base and even their exercise routines. And be careful, you might be exposed to some “rubbing.”
Primus bassist and singer Les Claypool tells Jens Erik Gould that he doesn’t want his “creativity to become to dead shark.” No chance of that happening with the band’s seventh studio album, which is out this week. Titled “Primus and the Chocolate Factory With the Fungi Ensemble,” the record is influenced by the 1971 film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A nod to Charlie’s golden ticket in the film, fans who find golden vinyl in their newly-purchased albums can win concert tickets for life.
But what of the lesser-known sides of Claypool? Want to know about the time he questioned the manhood of his fans, or when he says he begged MTV not to ban a Primus song? Claypool sat down with Jens Erik Gould to discuss his life, his project Duo de Twang, and Primus lore. |
JENS ERIK GOULD
Jens has more than a decade of experience covering multiple beats in more than a dozen countries across the globe, including covering Venezuela politics for The New York Times and Mexico’s economy for Bloomberg News. He covered music for TIME Magazine and time.com, interviewing artists from Skrillex to Danger Mouse. He is also a singer songwriter who has released three albums.
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June 2019
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