With a strong focus on the Australian music scene, Australian Guitar is a rich source of information on playing techniques, styles, the wide range of instruments available and all the technology that guitarists have to consider in the 21st Century.
NEWS Spotify is set to announce the most significant changes to its royalty model since the streaming service launched in 2008, Music Business Worldwide reports. Taking effect in 01 2024, the most controversial of these changes will see Spotify demonetizing tracks that receive less than 1000 plays annually. The streaming giant is planning to apply a minimum annual threshold to all songs on its platform, meaning that every track will have to generate 1000 streams before any money is paid out to the artists and rightsholders behind it. Until this point, every song played on Spotify for longer than 30 seconds generated a royalty payment: this will no longer be the case. MBW reports that sources dose to Spotify have said the company’s objective with this move is to reallocate…
Resurgent U.S. high-end guitar amp brand Magnatone has pulled off one of the biggest coups in electric guitar history, announcing a partnership with Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, who will have a new-look backline when he tours the States with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. But don’t worry: Slash’s longterm partnership with Marshall has not come to an end. Indeed, after a few days of uncertainty last month, Slash was compelled to release a statement confirming that the Magnatone deal won’t affect his arrangement with Marshall. It certainly would have been a significant shake up of the status quo. Slash was, after all, Marshall’s first-ever signature artist, and has been loyal to a suite of Silver Jubilee heads over the years, as well as his AFD100 Appetite For Destruction model. In…
After speculation recently surfaced on the internet, The Edge has now confirmed he’s ditched his suite of tube amps in favor of digital amp emulators for U2’s ongoing string of Las Vegas Sphere shows. Rumours of the U2 guitarist’s significant rig shakeup began circulating earlier this week, with Ultimate Guitar sharing snaps of what looked to be a new-look version of The Edge’s pedalboard that housed the Universal UAFX Audio Ruby, Woodrow and Dream pedals. For those unfamiliar with the UAFX range, these three units are all pedal amps based on British, American and Tweed amps, all of which offer onboard speaker cab options. It was a curious picture indeed, with many suggesting that the Edge - a long-term loyalist of the tube amp contingent and champion of a Vox…
INTERVIEW At age 13, Chris Shiflett made a decision that would forever alter the course of his life. He had been playing soccer for two years, but decided to change his career path to music. As a big-haired heavy metal kid, Shiflett idolised Ozzy Osbourne’s legendary shredder, Randy Rhoads, and learned to rock on a black Takamine Explorer. He joined his first band at the age of 14, in 1985. Another 14 years later, in 1999, he auditioned for the role of lead guitarist in Foo Fighters during his four-year tenure with punk rockers No Use For A Name. In his 2021 memoir, The Storyteller, Dave Grohl praises Shiflett as “the man who saved our band in our most desperate time of need”. Three months after the tragic and untimely…
INTERVIEW From a dressing room in Idaho, Cosmic Psychos’ bassist and vocalist Ross Knight, AKA ‘Knighty’, reflects on his band reaching their remarkable 40th anniversary in 2023. “They forgot about that bit in the farming manual”, he explains, with his trademark dry irreverence. “There’s a bit at the back that says you gotta play in a punk band”. While still working as a farmer in central Victoria, Knighty’s parallel career as a frequently-touring punk rock larrikin continues to be the integral force behind the eleven studio albums, three live albums, two EPs and one compilation released by the Cosmic Psychos between 1985 and 2021. Best known for their unapologetic drinking anthem ‘Nice Day To Go To The Pub’, other fuzzy Psychos live standards include ‘Lost Cause’, ‘Pub’, and ‘Custom Credit’,…
INTERVIEW She has a bold, arresting voice, a history of interesting instrument usage, including flute, cello and pipe organ, and eight albums of uniquely layered compositions. Sarah Mary Chadwick’s sunny disposition is definitely at odds with the deeply personal songs she is known for, which often describe familial issues and mental health struggles, written through an artistic lens clouded by complex feelings and viewed through hindsight. As the creator of many slow-burning songs, which hold their listeners through lyrics that veer from being questioning to confessional while offering moments of wry humour and motivation, Chadwick has worked as a solo recording artist for over ten years. Since her 2012 debut, Eating For Two, she has recorded albums in band-ensemble settings, such as 2020’s Please Daddy, as well as solo, such…
