Back in April we had the pleasure of hosting Greg Koch in Athens, Greece who along with his trio were the special guests of our 10th Anniversary party! We had an insightful sit-down with Greg and this is a good taste of the exchange!
(transcribed from audio recording)
How do you go about practicing these days?
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Itās a combination of practicing new tunes of mine, practicing different vibratos, working on repertoire and then iāll kind of flip flop. So if I really have to practice doing my blues vibrato, then Iāll just sit and play along with records: Albert King, Albert Collins, Cream-era Clapton, B. B. King is a big one, Ottis Rush. Iāll put them on and Iāll just play along, not because I want to be able to regurgitate what they do, but it influences how I approach vibrato. For me it doesnāt matter how much information as far as technique or theory knowledge you apply on top of something; if the vibrato and the phrasing isnāt right then all of this stuff is not as impactful.
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What is your approach to improvisation?
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I always make the analogy of a conversation. A lot of times what Iām about to play is influenced by what I just played as I build up this conversation, and certainly there are words in my vocabulary that I like to use to get the point across. āIndeed!ā, āGlorious!ā, āCome and feast!ā are things I like to say a lot, so musically I have those things as well. If you say the same thing over and over again, it would get redundant verbally; by the same token itās the same thing musically.
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What should we be expecting from the Koch-Marshall trio?
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The tunes that are on the new record ,āToby Arrivesā, thatās the first and second time we ever played together, so now weāve got so many songs and itās jelled even more. What is nice about the record deal, is it wasn’t just me that got signed, It was all of us and it is technically a four record deal – 3 studio records and a live record and weāve just got a ton of tunes so weāre ready to go!
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You have worked closely with many companies in the past, Fender, Martin, Hal Leonard to name but a few. How do you go about it?
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I try to find fun in anything Iām presented with because i just have fun playing guitar! So if somebody makes something fun and they have kind of the same attitude then itās like with us; you make great pedals and they sound magnificent and they look cool and they do great things, itās like – Cool! I can get into that! – and then we work together and everyone is mutually successful! That has kind of been my thing wether itās Wildwood or Fishman, things come together and I think to myself āI can have fun with this!” and as a result I am able to make a living and the road keeps going on. But truth be told now that Iām doing this thing with my son and this band itās so much fun to show up and play – I could just do that at this point, Iām ready to just play for a while!
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Who are you listening to at the moment that you find inspiring?
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I listen to a lot of old stuff for the most part, although I downloaded the new Michael Landau record – the very last track was my favourite – the sense of melody is twisted and I dig that. Derek Trucks for my slide thing has been huge- itās his attitude in that intonation. Iām also listening to old steel players; itās very haunting and bluesy in its way. I like doing simple pedal-steel-y things. I also like listening to old Clarence White material – the live stuff he did with the Birds was great. Just the other day I was playing along with Jerry Garciaās pedal-steel part on āTeach your Childrenā that CSNY thing – itās perfect, its the perfect pedal-steel part, that opened up a lot of new stuff for me in approaching bends. A lot of times it can be something old that Iāve heard 1000 times but Iāve never played along with.
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To sum up, who are you after all?
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Whatās bizarre and lucky for me is that people know me for different things; Iāll have people still to this day introduce me as the ambassador for Fender which I havenāt done in years or there will be people going āOh! The instruction guyā or some people just know me from band stuff, or some people will go āOh! The gear demo guyā, or theyāll talk about the comedy thing. I take them all as a compliment. Iām lucky to able to do what I do and make a living. The artist part of me might get my nose a little bent out of shape by āWell theyāre not respecting my artistryā (delivered in high-brow cork-sniffing voice) and that happens every now and again, especially when you are dealing with corporate structures and guys who are interested in selling stuff at a retail level, that can approach things in a way where you are just going āGuys letās do a quick recapā. But at the same time, I get it. You have to be able to put yourself in everybodyās shoes. Iām extremely lucky to be able to do what I do, thereās just no two ways about it. It doesnāt matter how good you are as a musician, as a songwriter or whatever; youāve got to be able to play nice with others. The biggest thing Iām grateful for is that I have fun doing everything. So if Iām showing up at Wildwood every morning to do their videos, I have fun all day long! āHow do you play guitar the whole day? How do you sit in that chair for hours on end just playing guitar after guitar?ā Iām like: āI get to sit in that chair and play guitar after guitar all day long!ā. Most of the time shooting videos Iām writing new tunes, Iām checking out a new technique; Iāve written 100 songs plus, shooting those videos. Or whether if itās going out to do Fishman clinics, well cool, I get to play some acoustic stuff and Iāll get my acoustic game together again! Whatever it is I just have fun doing whatever I do and as a result, stuff sells because if it didnāt they wouldnāt have me do it! There has to be quid pro quo at some point but if you are honestly having fun with peopleās products itās a win-win for everybody!
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Questions posed by Emmanuel!
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