Life as a pro guitarist: an interview with John Emsley
"You don’t need to be Slash or in Coldplay to make a good living as a musician”
Note: the following is based on a recent interview, which will be uploaded to the YouTube channel in the coming days.
“You don’t need to be Slash or in Coldplay to make a good living as a musician” - John Emsley on life as a career guitarist.
Let me whisk you, momentarily, back in time. It’s 2004 and I’m a music-hungry teen wondering where all the rock n’ roll bands have gone. There was a chasm between the bands I could listen to on my stereo and the bands I could see live — my CD collection being made up of GnR, Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, but any new band to be found on TV or magazines looked, as John Bender so eloquently put it in The Breakfast Club, like “a parent’s wet dream.”
If beige had a sound, it would be an early-2000s indie rock band.
Then late one night, I’m watching TV and something unusual happens. There’s a rock band on. An actual rock band — with members who look like they’re enjoying what they’re playing instead of staring at their feet wishing they were anywhere else but here. They’re loud and sweaty and engaging with the audience. There’s a Les Paul and Marshalls. And crucially, they still managed to not seem to be yet another throwback band.
There was something else, too. Those Marshalls were pumping out not only killer riffs, but delectable melodies as well. Something you can tap your feet to, guitar lines you could sing along with. I later learned that was the work of lead guitarist John Emsley, who was about to rapidly climb up my list of favourite guitarists.
This was what I had been searching for. A rock band of my generation, instead of my parents’ record collection. This was The Glitterati.
I wasn’t the only one paying attention. The Glitterati came from seemingly nowhere and suddenly were on TV, signed to Atlantic Records, and flown out to LA to record their debut album with Mike Clink (and have a stint as the house band for Playboy TV for good measure). They enjoyed Top 40 singles and toured with everyone from The Killers to David Lee Roth, Avril Lavigne to The Wildhearts (“Ginger is the songwriter of his generation” says Emsley).
It’s that life on stage under the bright lights with adoring crowds singing your songs back at you that aspiring players dream of, and all the associated glamour that comes with it. Well, adoring crowds and bright lights maybe, but glamour? Not so much.
“The very first tour manager that we had would always say ‘Oooh, the glamour!’ And that’s something that I still find myself saying a lot. I’m happy that people perceive those two hours on stage as glamorous, because it’s like a little suspension of reality for that time. But the fact is you could be eight hours in the van then getting changed in an industrial container.
“We were once even given a first aid room to change in, on the proviso that there wasn’t a medical emergency! As an indication of the lack of glamour I expect nowadays, we were given free tea and coffee and packets of crisps at a recent show, and I was like ‘I love this place, we should come back here!’”
Nor was climbing the ladder from obscurity to chart success an easy journey. Before Atlantic offered a deal, the band lived in a house so cold that during the day they’d all get into one bed for warmth and watch TV. “Rather than having a meal we’d watch Ready, Steady, Cook. That became like a meal replacement service.”
But life can change quickly. One minute you’re the coldest band in the street, the next you’re the hottest thing in town.
“We certainly had what you’d consider glamorous experiences, being taken to really fancy restaurants or super cool bars. We went to [Mike] Clink’s for Thanksgiving and had dinner with his family, where he offered to introduce me to Mark Hamill.”
And the small matter of Playboy TV? “We’re all young men surrounded by nude and semi-nude Playboy models and porn stars all around us. I’m just playing guitar going ‘This is brilliant!’’”
As it turned out, being in a band that was signed to a major label, worked with the same man behind Appetite for Destruction, and enjoyed chart success was only the beginning.
Life as a hired gun
In 2011, the band called time and went their separate ways, and John has spent the last 12 years as a guitarist for hire. “It was an adjustment from being an angry young man who would only play music he’d written, but I realised that I’d learned a skill, and I was able to make a living from it. There’s so much sacrifice when you’re in a band. At 15, 20, or 25, we were happy with a loaf of bread and a bottle of cider. But as you get older, your expectations of life change and I realised that I needed to find another way.”
Starting as a freelance guitarist, more professional opportunities arose, including a Queen tribute act and a Motown cover band. Gradually creating a network of other professional musicians, he was offered his current gig: sole guitar player in an 11-piece production of the Chicago Blues Brothers.
The Marshall stack has been replaced with a Helix and the Les Paul gracefully semi-retired in favour of a Telecaster: “Nowadays I’m all about getting from the car to the gig in one trip, and the Helix is perfect for the gig. I really love the tones I get out of it and how simple it is to set up and pack down.”
Digital amps and modellers have rightfully risen in popularity as they’ve become ever-closer to authentic tones, but does the man who spent years in front of a Marshall stack think they truly compare?
“I sometimes miss the additional voice that a guitar has when you’re controlling the feedback from a 4x12, but each generation of guitar players perpetuates the idea that it’s this or that guitar, valve amps, the TS9, and all these Holy Grail kind of things. I’m sure they make a difference when you’re sat alone, thinking how awesome it would sound if you could turn the valves up loud enough to get cooking. And you go to a gig where you can turn it up loud enough, but now you’re fighting with all these other people making crazy loud noises.
“I think every guitar player sounds better in the context of the band they’re playing in. I sound better in a mix. Somebody would have to work real hard to convince me that, in the mix, you could tell the difference between a Helix or a Kemper and a valve amp.
“And aside from the negligible sound difference, I know that I thank myself when I’m carrying my Helix into the room and I’m sure that whoever’s tech will thank them when they’re not having to wheel in heavy heads and cabs.”
Approach to songwriting and making a contribution as a guitar player
Above all else, the main thing that attracted me to The Glitterati was their emphasis on melodies. “We were always into bands that had proper songs and I think we stole it from Aerosmith but we used to say ‘don’t bore us, get to the chorus.’ We were focused on hooky, memorable songs that were heavy as well.
“We had that realisation that we can be heavy and still have melodies, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. The best combination for me would be something crazy heavy but with beautiful melodies as well, they’re super complementary. I always look at The Wildhearts with their blend of melody, harmony and heavy riffs, they get it so right.”
“As a guitarist, I’d always been attracted to rock guitar players but the ones who knew where to place a note to make it a bit more unsettling or reinforce a certain part of harmony. A flat five or bending a six into a flat seven. I grew up listening to Queen and you can hear the education in Brian May’s playing. There’s something in his note choices that seeped into my brain — he wasn’t always going to play the most obvious harmony.
“Then hearing Slash for the first time was a really pivotal moment for me, that was the sound I wanted to make on the guitar. We all think of him as being predominantly minor pentatonic but he’s a lot more harmonically complex than maybe I thought at the time.
“I see music as art, not sport. As soon as I feel like someone is playing for sport, I lose interest. I can appreciate the dedication it took to get there but the songs with the hooks and choruses are more interesting to me. As much as it’s important for guitarists to have speed in their arsenal, generally I think that widdling only appeals to other guitar players. If you want to connect with people, it’s more important to play melodically and choose the right notes.”
Advice to aspiring professionals
The life of a working musician takes different forms. Being a touring rock band involved, for John, living with his bandmates and writing and rehearsing together. For the Blues Brothers, they take the stage without rehearsing first: “we get sent our material and we’re expected to know it.”
But in any scenario, it pays to be professional. To have your amp volume set for the best sound for the band, not ego. To know your parts and to know your instrument. “I broke a string on stage during a Blues Brothers show, and I knew the next song came in immediately. There wasn’t time to change guitars so I had to quickly think about where else on the neck to play it.”
Despite the generic hotel rooms and utilitarian dressing rooms, and 12 hours in a van to reach a venue where you’ll play for two, it’s not a life John takes for granted. “I’ve got zero complaints, I’m very happy with my life as a musician: I get to go to these really nice gigs, play lovely rooms, and work with talented musicians. I recommend it to anyone who wants to pursue it, but you’ve got to be prepared to take the rough with the smooth and you’ll spend a lot of time looking for work and travelling.
“I had an epiphany recently, during an interval in the show. When I was walking back to the stage, it hit me that I make a living from my hobby. I’m not going to gripe about being in the van for hours or being away from home. I’m in a very fortunate position. You don’t have to be Slash or play in a big band like Coldplay to make a living as a musician.”