We know what you’re thinking: Dave Navarro is gonna talk about the onstage brawl. But Cory Wong starts this episode of Wong Notes with an important caveat. This show was recorded long before the awful breakdown and confrontation between Navarro and Jane’s Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell, so don’t expect any salacious gossip. But that just makes this episode all the more interesting.
Navarro talks Wong through his formative influences, from Hendrix, Zeppelin, and the Doors to Maiden, heavy metal, and goth. That melting pot, he says, became one of Jane’s Addiction’s calling cards: “Perry and Eric [Avery] ended up in a band that is influenced by bands they hate,” laughs Navarro, who geeks out on Rush and prog-rock.
Navarro discusses how Jane’s Addiction has a propensity for jamming live, a practice developed out of a mutual appreciation for nontraditional song structures. But the delineations can sometimes go wrong. “We do run into trainwrecks,” says Farrell. “Sometimes we’ll find ourselves in a part that we’re vibing on, and we’ll keep going, and Perry doesn’t know what we’re doing. He’ll come in and it’s in the wrong place, and we’re fucking him up.”
Tune in to hear Navarro talk his “rabbit hole de jour” practice style, how to exercise your fingers and your brain, and a lead technique he calls “the Navarro smear.” All this and more on this latest episode of Wong Notes.
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Keith Urban has spent decades traveling the world and topping global country-music charts, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the country-guitar hero tells host Cory Wong how he conquered the world—and what keeps him chasing new sounds on his 6-string via a new record, High, which releases on September 20.
Urban came up as guitarist and singer at the same time, and he details how his playing and singing have always worked as a duet in service of the song: “When I stop singing, [my guitar] wants to say something, and he says it in a different way.” Those traits served him well when he made his move into the American music industry, a story that begins in part with a fateful meeting with a 6-string banjo in a Nashville music store in 1995.
It’s a different world for working musicians now, and Urban weighs in on the state of radio, social media, and podcasts for modern guitarists, but he still believes in word-of-mouth over the algorithm when it comes to discovering exciting new players.
And in case you didn’t know, Keith Urban is a total gearhead. He shares his essential budget stomps and admits he’s a pedal hound, chasing new sounds week in and week out, but what role does new gear play in his routine? Urban puts it simply: “I’m not chasing tone, I’m pursuing inspiration.”
Wong Notes is presented by DistroKid.
Use this link for 30% off your first year.
Season of Stream Vol 1, Ep 11 | Kurt Rosenwinkel
Rosenwinkel divulges the details on his “softer, darker” attack, which combined with his approach to tone—including a fair bit of top-end roll-off—constitutes a big piece of his signature sound. Rosenwinkel’s forthcoming live record, The Next Step Band (Live at Smalls 1996), captures this sound in the place that formed it: New York City. Rosenwinkel takes Wong back to the halcyon days of the city’s kinetic 1990s “hardcore” bebop and free-jazz scene, where Mitch Borden’s legendary Smalls Jazz Club was an artistic hotbed (and crash pad) for players of all stripes.
Nowadays, more and more artists are forming their connections online rather in a jazz club. But can TikTok and Instagram replace an all-night jazz joint for up-and-coming players?
Tune in, and be sure to check out Kurt’s career-spanning new Ultimate Book of Compositions.
Wong Notes is presented by DistroKid.
Use this link for 30% off your first year.
One of Di Meola’s biggest projects is, of course, the guitar trio he shared with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía and their thrilling 1981 record, Friday Night in San Francisco, which elevated the acoustic guitar ensemble to the level of high art. Di Meola shares the behind-the-scenes stories of that tour and the 2022 archival release from the next night’s concert, Saturday Night in San Francisco. He calls the ensemble’s dynamic a “real healthy competition” and explains, “I knew I was up against two guys who were relentless in their delivery of phenomenal ideas. When they finished a solo, it was like, ’Oh my god, what am I gonna come up with.”
No chat with Di Meola, who famously opened up his kitchen in the post-lockdown part of the pandemic, would be complete without a survey of Southern Italian food. Why is sfogliatelle the maestro’s favorite pastry, and where does he get his? If he’s on tour and there’s nowhere to eat but an Olive Garden, what’s his order? And much, much more.
