The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast

Episode 057 - Devlin Jack Guttridge - The Interview

• ALEX GADD • Season 3 • Episode 57

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This week, I talk with 16-year-old guitar prodigy Devlin Jack Guttridge. Devlin shares his musical journey from picking up the violin in third grade to falling in love with the guitar thanks to his mom and Ozzy Osbourne's 'Diary of a Madman.' He discusses pivotal moments like joining the School of Rock, and moving to Miami where he started jamming with gigging bands and jumping up onstage at open mic nights. We dive deep into his influences, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Led Zeppelin, and his aspirations of becoming a session guitarist learning to build his own gear. Join in to learn how Devlin balances playing with his "family band,"  evolving his practice regimen, and staying passionate about music. Don't miss out on his insights on why rock and roll music continues to inspire him and how he plans to navigate his future in music.

00:00 Welcome to the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast

01:02 Devlin's Musical Journey Begins

02:29 Finding the Right Teacher and Early Performances

03:57 Family Band and First Real Concerts

08:22 Influences and Musical Evolution

11:54 Moving to Florida and New Beginnings

15:39 Playing with Bands and Gear Insights

21:16 The Art of Performing and Stage Presence

24:19 Learning and Mixing Music

26:33 Future Plans and Aspirations

28:36 Speed Round: Concert Experiences

35:49 Rock and Roll Passion

38:47 Conclusion and Farewell


Podcast Playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7yy8GS9AUFCe2jok7SzYo0?si=4cd84920bf42412d


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Alex Gadd:

Welcome to the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast. We're here to share the thrill of experiencing music together strangers and friends, and to get to know our guests a little bit better through their musical experiences. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and I do this because I love talking about music with people. Finding out what bands someone likes and how they got into music allows us to get to know and understand one another better. Today we have a great guest for you. His name is Devlin Jack Gutridge. He's a 16-year-old guitar player from Florida who's quickly gaining a following in his area and online, So stick around for my conversation with Devlin Jack Gutridge. Coming up right now, devlin, thanks for joining us.

Devlin Guttridge:

Thank you for having me.

Alex Gadd:

It's great to see you. Now, when we start these and I'm talking to a musician, I really like to start just at the beginning of how you first got exposed to music. I know your parents, I know your mom from high school, so I know that they're big music fans. How did you first get exposed to music and, and start reacting to it or acknowledging it as not just something in the background, but something you actually responded to?

Devlin Guttridge:

I picked up the violin third grade for no other reason than why not? I can't tell you what made me pick that thing up, but I just decided to one day, and I remember throughout that school year or so, my mother was telling me, oh, you should try playing guitar guitar's, a really cool instrument. So I did and I spent, I wanna say the better part of a year, learning how to play classical guitar at a book, which now that is far from what I'm doing now, but it's a start. And one day, like my mother has these, she still has them a lot of CDs and among them are. Two Ozzy Osborne albums, blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman. I remember Diary of a Madman was the one that she'd play a lot when she was working out downstairs in the basement. And one day I just heard it, the song was either Flying High Again or Over the Mountain. I can't remember which one it was specifically, but I think it was probably Flying High again. That was the first song that I heard and I was like, how about I do something with this guitar thing that I'm quite hating and make it something that I'm actually gonna enjoy? So I was like, okay, we try playing that. And my first teacher absolutely helped me out. Um, but we realized that I wasn't really getting anywhere. So we want to look to someone who's doing it professionally as I'm playing guitar. And it's a very odd story or a very odd relationship rather. But my mother's hairdresser's husband was in a, um, he was in a band, absolutely phenomenal drummer Mr. Miles Evans, if he's watching, God bless you. Phenomenal at what he does and great guy as well. He was in a band called the Beatless, and as you can guess by the name, it was spinoff of the Beatles. They did CCR, just generally classic, rock in that sort of country-ish vein. And he had a guitarist named Mr. Mike Essex. Awesome guy. First lesson I had with him was more productive than any lesson I had ever had before, and I quickly started getting a bit of a grasp on music theory and such. We stayed with him until I left Maryland. By which point I had done a school talent show and done a, the biggest thing I'd known. School of Rock, led Zeppelin sorta cover camp type thing where we would have practice once a week and we would do two live shows. Those two, um, venues we played with that Led Zeppelin group and I still have a lot of good friends in that group. Still talk with them every now and then'cause I'm not the best thing in contact. Hi George. Hi Phil. If you're watching, which by the way, they're also great musicians. Really good. But that was my first sort of real concert. I mean, there are definitely clips of stuff before them that I'm not as proud of. Um, but the Led Zeppelin concert was really when I started getting a grip on playing live. After moving down to Miami. My current teachers, Mr. Sebastian Lands, who works at um, Walt Grace Vintage, if you're ever in Miami, gotta stop by a place. Vintage cars, vintage guitars. It's just heaven. It's heaven on earth. It's amazing.

Alex Gadd:

We've covered a lot of ground here. I wanna make sure we get it all. Uh, clearly started playing violin when you were younger. You got into your mom encouraging you to play guitar. Ozzy was, and Diary of a Madman. Was your first music that you heard that really inspired you to maybe think that guitar might be something you, wanted to try? You took some lessons and you, think you're about

Devlin Guttridge:

you, yeah. By the time that we started working with Mike, I was probably in, fifth grade, so I would say 11 or so.

Alex Gadd:

My point is, you've been playing guitar for only six years from

Devlin Guttridge:

Yeah. But there, there are very formative years. They very important years.

Alex Gadd:

100%. I think it's the easiest time to learn to play an instrument and to really absorb it. And when you try to learn things as an adult, it's much harder from what I learned as a kid, still comes back to me as second nature and the things that I'm learning now as a guitar player, I really have to practice a lot more and it's not as easily recalled. So I, I, I think it's great. So you played you started taking lessons, and then you played in a group at School of

Devlin Guttridge:

Yes.

Alex Gadd:

the first time you played with other people?

Devlin Guttridge:

Pretty much. Well, I do need to give credit to the family band here. I think the very first time I probably played with another group was, funny enough, my own father and my own mother, And I remember my father saying to me that if he was to get me an electric guitar, he would get the bass as well. I remember specifically thinking, oh yeah, if we get this guitar at the 4th of July sale, it's gonna be a lot less I was like trying to convince my parents, I'm still doing that now. Um, and I ended up getting this, I wanna say twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen, Epiphone Les Paul Standard sixties, and that guitar, sadly, I don't wanna have it with me, it's in Michigan. So it's still a great instrument. There are some upgrades, uh, due to it, such as finishing out the pickups and such, and obviously other guitars, I prefer more, but that thing has stayed with me and likely will stay with me for forever, because at the same time it doesn't like, it's not like I can sell the thing off because a sentimental value. There's not much to be gained from selling it off even in monetary

Alex Gadd:

Right.

Devlin Guttridge:

But that guitar's basically gonna be stuck with me for forever and is a very solid instrument. I'm very happy to still have it. Um, my father ended up getting this Epiphone Thunderbird bass, which we have. He ended up buying, I wanna say three of them, not the tase,

Alex Gadd:

Oh,

Devlin Guttridge:

the pase here. He bought from Walt Grace. That was, I'm pretty sure that's the one that he had while we had a condo in South Beach. And my mother said, oh, I wanna be involved. And her father played drums so my mother decided, okay, you'll, I'm gonna get lessons from my, hairdresser's husband, who's the same guy who introduced us to my guitar teacher. So she ended up taking, um, lessons from Mr. Evans and she's come to own his kit. Actually, I'm going to turn this around. That is Mr. Miles Evans former kit. Still loved, still played, still used on a damn near daily basis.

Alex Gadd:

So your first, your first band was playing with your mom and dad.

Devlin Guttridge:

pretty much, I mean, as far as I can remember, there was like a Beatles camp I did for a week in summer, like 2020 for School of Rock. And there's a, um, like classic rock thing I did later that summer, maybe a summer later for about a week as well. But those were not like serious groups. I practiced with quite a bit, um, at least for any significant amount of time beyond a week. My mother and father though, I mean, I literally was playing with'em about an hour ago, so still playing with them quite a bit. And it's been cool to see the evolution of, um, playing and of the gear. It's very, very cool actually. It's made this room, made this room pretty awesome.

Alex Gadd:

as you started playing, how did you progress and what music were you playing that inspired you to progress in different directions? So, can you talk about the, the connection between the music that inspired you and how you developed your guitar playing?

Devlin Guttridge:

here's my, uh, imaginary graph of how heavy something is. The top is heavier, the bottom is lighter and not as heavy. Basically, I started around Aussie, went up to hair metal, and it got to the point where I was listening to a bit of Megadeth and a lot of Metallica but eventually, I think, I wanna say the winter of maybe 2021, I discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan. That is the one artist who until even until now, he's, that influence is totally stuck with me. I don't listen to him much nowadays, but it's because a lot of his music is repetitive. It's blues and there's only so much you can do in a blues form. And then when you break outta that blues form, occasionally get a, uh, gem crossfire, which is just an excellent song. But besides that, like it's very monotonous, so you gotta listen to some other stuff. Now on the other end, in terms of creativity is Led Zeppelin, who, another huge influence of mine, it's the Jimmy Page type sound. Him and Billy Gibbons have this thing where they, it sounds like they're playing really close to the string and that's largely'cause they use really light, string gauges. Paige and, Gibbons, both. I mean, at this point, equal influences. If I mess up a note, I'll say I've, I'm influenced by Jimmy Page, and if that has a reason for my sloppiness, which is partially true, I mean, I've never focused on running scales, none of that. I, I would bore myself to death with it. I just can't. And there may be a day when I say, okay, I need to, to properly get better, but my recent practice has been focused on, call and response comping. What I've been trying to practice and what I've been listening to recently, Jerry Rafferty, specifically City to City, it's a great album. Um, all Things Most Fast by George Harrison. There's few songs on there that I absolutely love. Um, a lot of Tom Petty, a little bit of U2. Um, one that is absolutely not, um, Blues in any way, shape or form. Celebrity Skin by whole, which is, I mean, for me it's blues Rock, specifically led Zep and all that. The, these guys kind of continue that on the nineties for me, like Hole is, that album particular is just everything I love about the nineties. And on top of it, there's Sound Garden. I love Sound Garden specifically. Um. Your big album, which was, if I can remember the name of it. Yes. Super note. I love that album. Listen to it front to back, every now and then. Um, Foo Fighters were a huge thing. And of course, Oasis, I love Oasis. So that's my sort of niche of music. It's a very weird niche, but it's a niche nonetheless.

Alex Gadd:

No, it's great. I, I mean, look, everyone you know is influenced by what they're influenced by. you can't always choose what hits

Devlin Guttridge:

Oh, totally.

Alex Gadd:

What you can do is follow that influence and see who influenced them and what other influences you can find along the way. It's a fun, that's part of the journey.

Devlin Guttridge:

The only time that's ever worked for me is Albert King.'cause I found Albert King by listening to Stevie Ray. And I have to be honest,

Alex Gadd:

Mm-hmm.

Devlin Guttridge:

King, like I would not have discovered by myself. Maybe I would've heard it a little bit, but his phrasing and such has been a, that's been a huge effect. That's a huge test as well for tone.

Alex Gadd:

Okay. So we're now at about 2020. You've moved to Florida, you've played with your family's band. You've been in School of

Devlin Guttridge:

Slight correction. We moved down, I wanna say the summer of 22.

Alex Gadd:

Oh, okay. Got it. So you're in playing your family band. You've been school of Rock, then you moved down to Florida.. so how do You, take your playing to the next level?

Devlin Guttridge:

For starters, we have to find new guitar teacher. Um, but we had been fortunate'cause in about 20 22, we a condo in South Beach. Very fortunate to have that great times in that condo. Um, because of that, we are in Miami and that allows to sort of figure out, okay, what's the best music store around here? We found it pretty quickly. Walt Grace Vintage, I mean, it's. One of my favorite YouTubers music is Win. He did a 50 state guitar tour, or a guitar store tour. He went to the best guitar store in each state or one of the best. And of course he went to Walt Grace in Florida. It's an excellent shop. And, um, it's like, okay, we kept going back and ended up getting, uh, recommended to Sebastian who's working there. He still does their photos for their website. He still does all the videos for the channel and you can occasionally see him on the floor but the summer before, like my average guitar, like my average lick was something like or my average solo was Just walking up and down the scale doing, um, like a little, some kind of bend like that to make it sound special and walking back down and just generally over the summer there, I taught myself a lot of blues guitar. By the time I got to Sebastian, I was a fairly confident player. The biggest thing that Sebastian did for me is allowing me to play with his band. Um, I still have videos of me up there and my khaki shorts with my Floyd Rose equipped Strat playing blues with his band. And, um, Sebastian definitely targets areas of my playing that are weak. Like it's expanding my vocabulary really. And during that time, of course, I practiced quite a bit. My fastest time of progression was when I was spending 15 minutes a day before school playing my guitar in the morning. Um, but perfectly frankly, my, my practice schedule fast years has been terrible. I would've made more progress. It wasn't for that. And admittedly, there is a part of me that feels like I haven't made much progress. And I'm sure from an outside perspective it's like, oh yeah, you totally have, but it's like not what it was before. And it's a frustration of not putting my a hundred percent into it now for granted. These are, I did not putting my a hundred percent for very valid recent school and I wanna have a social life. And the fact that standard practicing is just not fun with me, but I. It's important to at least give yourself the opportunity to have a good practice schedule, to have that time. You just grow a lot and then you can keep building on from that. Once you have the very basic stuff, you're pretty good.

Alex Gadd:

so you had moved to Florida, you met your current teacher he gave you some practice approaches that have worked for you.

Devlin Guttridge:

I would modify that statement. He has given me practice approaches and such. I just haven't done them. I've not been a very good student in that regard. I've not been, as I said, I've not been good at practicing.

Alex Gadd:

So the other thing you said though is that he gave you access to his band and he let you come up and play with them.

Devlin Guttridge:

I mean, gigantic. Um, for one, it definitely made me understand the importance of specific gear, like right next to me. I have, I'm not gonna move it, I'll put the, uh, light on it. This is my beloved 19, I wanna say 66 fender basement. This is the, it's the sound. It's what you expect from a vintage tube. May have cranked up the tent, which I've had the luxury of doing. Um, I actually bought this from Sebastian earlier this year the importance of having an amp that can actually push air, it's gigantic. Like my boss Gaana, which is a, honestly a great sounding amp. It's still good. Like I plugged in the other day because I had just gotten my new delay funnel. I won, have fun with it through an actual amp, and I was surprised by how it sounded. It is a very solid amp, but it just doesn't push air. It doesn't do what a tube amp does. If you, I have this thing on two and a half right now, and this is still it's still loud, man. I mean, I'm not allowed to play through this thing normally because of how loud it's, but there's a level of fun with that and a level of it's like, oh, I get to play through the two band today. Woo. It's, it's awesome. Um, because you get that sort of inspiration from the gear because you aren't using it every single day.

Alex Gadd:

But then you got up on stage and you learned how to listen and, and. Interact with a band and I don't know, could you even compare a school of rock band to a band that's gigging out? It it to me, that's a whole different level.

Devlin Guttridge:

It depends on the quality of players. Um, for example, my. Longtime friend and drummer, uh, Phil Run, who I mentioned earlier in this interview. Um, he is phenomenal, easily good enough to be professional easily. And when you meet people like that, it's a crap ton of fun. Like I met people who were better than me. Guitar, it's awesome. It's always good to have people around it who are better. I still think I'm not the best guitarist in my school. I mean, I am generally speaking, I have a fairly low opinion of my practice schedule and my overall playing guitarist. I just know when I, when I'm having fun and I sound good, and that's all I really care about. Um, besides that, it's about serving the song it's hard to pinpoint like, the exact things that was, that compelled me to really like, stay back, hang in the back, and try to be as modest as I can, as a well, I'm. Most of the time I'm the lead guitarist. So modest lead guitars don't really fit into the same sentence, but at,

Alex Gadd:

Correct.

Devlin Guttridge:

with guitarists who lead guitarists, who have really good stage presence. I'm also a perfectionist, like all pure, oh hell, I couldn't have done that better. Why aren't I better at this? Like that type of thing. Um. Just generally it's, you do need to keep a song in mind. Absolutely. Like, I will know when I have too much gain on these GA days, I try to run with less gain than I think I need. And my school does these, shows called Evening of the Arts, and at Evening of the Arts last time, the only pedal I was using, I was using a clean pedal platform map, A Fender hot rod, which is best amp my school has gone yet because you put a good distortion or a overdrive pedal on there. The nobles, ODR one, famous for being a very transparent overdrive. I love this pen. It's amazing. Um, and that was all I had. I had that thing on 10, the drive on 10 and the amp on clean. He said, is there any way I get some more gain on this? I said, uh, no. Frankly, it sounded great. Like the guitar sound, even when he thought he needed more gain was really solid. Um, and there is also the thing of backing off your volume and working up, but specifically in a blues rock setting, it's incredibly important to have an amp that pushes air, a ideally a clean or at least lightly. You store it amp that if you roll your volume down, you can get a totally clean sound and to be able to have that flexibility on stage, you have different shades of gain. But also stages of gain is very important, especially for the music that I do. As long as you can have a good sound that you can sort of build off of in terms of overdrive, then uh, you're good. But getting back to the earlier point, if you have too much ex distortion, then you're too much in the mind. I'm a lead guitarist. No, that's not what you're there to do. You're there to serve the song and at the end of the day, you need to be able to pull back. And with too much distortion, you can't do that. And being able to sink into the mix and service song, that is incredibly important and you need to be able to do that. If you're playing with people, if you are out there all the time, if you're like stupidly distorted sound always in people's faces, especially for the genre I'm playing it, it's just not gonna work, man. You're not gonna get invited back. The only reason I've been invited back so many times is honestly, I could take more solos and still be well within, um, being respectful, but I deliberately, I'm always like looking over at an opportune. Whenever I think like an opportune times, then solos come up. Like the end of my four bars. I look over at Sebastian and if, and I'll roll back. I'm handing it off. I've had my time gonna step back and this is even more so in like Evening of the Arts, which They're very specific about volumes. Once you have your volume set, it's a show. Once you have your volume set, it's there. You cannot touch it because if you do, it sets off the whole mix. And most of the time during the show I was on about six on my volume, up on a totally clean amp with a, um, transparent over drive. I thought I didn't have enough gain. Um. And basically the way that my pedalboard was, I wasn't really able to get much more gain out of them unless I used the echoplex, which I didn't wanna do. So that's being able to pull back into the mix and roll up when it's your time to shine is really important. Another thing, playing with bands, um, that's great though. I love performing. I like to actually have some of my own space on the stage, feel like I'm not claustrophobic and I'm starting to get to that. But it's, I've really been able to do that with, um, evening of the Arts. It's really, really hard to explain performing. But when you're in that moment and you can just lose yourself, it's the greatest feeling. Every time I'm in the moment I'm like, oh hell, I could have played that note better, but I have to convince myself, okay, like, loosen up a bit, move around. I have to convince myself to be, to be, I guess a bit more showing of my ego when I'm on stage. Like wear more rock and roll clothing and all that.'cause usually I'm very conservative. I prefer to sing into the back. I prefer to, I can sit in the back and play rhythm all day. I don't want to, I wanna be a lead guitarist, but at the end of the day I do really enjoy playing rhythm as well. And because of that, it's, it's easy to sink back and just have fun. And if you can lose yourself in the music, if you can, like anytime you make a mistake, oh, just laugh or smile and it's like you hear that, okay, what's the next part of the song? Just keep rolling. You keep the show going.'Cause people wanna see joy on your face. If, if they see joy on your face, they don't immediately think, oh, you made a mistake. It's a great way to cover it up. Um,

Alex Gadd:

people want to hear real people playing. They don't want to hear replicas of, uh, you know, I used to go see bands like, yes. And it was such an a note for note performance of the record that. I didn't, I felt like I didn't need to go. I could have just gone home and turned up my stereo really loud. You know, I don't want to see

Devlin Guttridge:

There is a difference to me between live and studio. Like first example, Oasis Supersonics, one of my favorite songs, but I love that song. But live, specifically Live At Glen Eagles. Oh my God, it's incredible. It's a wall of guitars. It's got attitude, it's got this sense of, uh, kind of a sense of familiarity. I forget the exact word for it, but, you know, looking back in your memories, um,

Alex Gadd:

nostalgia.

Devlin Guttridge:

yes, nostalgic, there's that course, like it's just. It's something else, man. I mean, the songwriting and even that, to me, an album is an a, a bunch of songs that flow from one to the next. I think. What's a story? Morning Glory is one of the best albums in history, it is songs in there to fill the atmosphere, to keep the whole thing going. What's a story? Morning Glory is the sound of a billing guitar tracks with God knows how much reverb, and then Liam Gallagher just belting his heart out over the top. I mean, it's incredible. But live with two guitar tracks, a bass, drums and vocals. They actually do a better job of it. Oasis Live By the Sea, 1995 by South Loop Clips. I can't tell you how many times I've rewatched that entire concert. It's incredible. But those differences, like if you sounded good in the studio is its own challenges. I mean, I have been recently mixing, I've been doing, mixing my own recording. Um, I have come up with very few successes, the, the amount of failures within just the past few months because I've been taking a production class in my school and they gave us logical pro on our computer. So it's awesome to be able to do that. Um, and I'm lucky enough to have my own audio interface. I record directly into at home. But that's another thing about serving the song, because I've been, I've also had to learn to play bass this year. And I don't mean just like play a few notes. It's like I can, I could do that already, but properly learn, learn how to sit in the pocket, how to do runs that, add some color to the song, where to emphasize certain, certain things. And that sort of background gives you a lot of insight in how to best serve the song as a guitarist, I. Um, and also just mixing, knowing where the guitar sits in the mix. I've recognized, like I'm using guitars primarily for my, um, most recent, um, thing, but a pad to do everything together. The bass playing, the main melody, um, how the drums come together. I've been paying attention to all of that. And that's, it keeps you in the, in the right frame of mind because when you get up on stage, it's not about people saying like, oh yeah, get up here. You're 16. That's awesome that you can play. It's about the fact, no, you're actually fun to play with. That is an incredibly important school. You don't, that you're not gonna get anywhere.

Alex Gadd:

That's right.

Devlin Guttridge:

Being a good band mate is exactly that. Being able to step outta the spotlight and then think to yourself, okay, it's not about my solo time anymore. It's like, how do I best serve the song?

Alex Gadd:

So where do you want to take music right now and where do you want music to take you?

Devlin Guttridge:

I love that phrasing. Where do you want music to take you and where do you want to take music? That's awesome. it's hard to say. I mean, I have a lot of ideas on my mind. For instance, I'm going to a liberal arts school for college. I'm not doing music, anything for college. So my, uh, focus is gonna be on liberal arts and physics. Physics are important in that I want to be able to repair my own amplifiers, maybe even build my own pedals, amplifiers, mess around circuitry, all that, because I love the idea of being able to create your own gear, being a jack of all trades or having multiple skills is incredibly important. So there is the whole idea of building me as a brand, building my own gear, should I want at least understanding it, tinkering around. Like once I tinker with something, it's kinda hard to put it down. You keep coming back and it's like, oh, this is cool. Like for example, I got this, um, delay pedal recently. This thing is exceeding what I thought a delay could do already. Um, because an absolutely incredible delay pedal. Um, but the more I tinker with it, the more I find out about it. And to be able to tinker with it and have that freedom, um, to do what I want is awesome. Beyond that though, um, as a guitarist, we're gonna be spending a lot of time in Nashville. Nashville is sort of the ideal place I wanna be. I nerd it out equally over gear, over playing, over music, good music, all of that. And Nashville's a great hotspot for it. One thing I absolutely wanna do is be a session guitarist or at least have the opportunity to do civic. I think that's an incredibly interesting thing because at that point, it's not about you. Um, it's about what sound can you pull up, how quickly can you pull it up, and how, um, fast can you play or come up with a piece that fits the song perfectly. And once you learn how to serve the song, you'll figure out how to sound like you in the context of the song. But. Once we go to Nashville, it's really going to be about finding opportunities. Skiing my way into bands, and generally just playing as much as I can to learning as much as I can about music while getting by and where it takes me from there.

Alex Gadd:

That sounds good to me. Alright, well we're gonna wrap it up and before we go, I want to send a couple of fast questions by you, kind of a speed

Devlin Guttridge:

not with me. Nothing's gonna be fast in terms of answering questions

Alex Gadd:

got that. We'll figure it out. So these are questions about your, your experience with live music.'cause that's where this show started. I want my audience to get to know you because when you're a big star, one day we're gonna all say, Hey, we heard about that guy first on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast. first question is, what was the first concert that you ever saw?

Devlin Guttridge:

Oh God, this is a, this is a disgrace. I've tried my best to wipe this from my memories, but when I, before Ozzy Osborne, it was a KidzBop concert. I can't remember crap from it, but I was like, I don't know, seven, um, you know, the dark times and all that. But the only proper concert I've been to besides that last year is I went to see George Thorogood opening for Sammy Hagar and he stay through the whole thing.'cause he played on a Sunday night and I had school the next day, unsurprisingly, actually, sorry, it may have been the Thursday. I think it was the Thursday night. But I don't know why. Everyone loves Thursday nights around here. All the, all the gigs I've done, I've been on Thursday nights. Everything school relates. It's been a Thursday night. The open mics are Thursday night. What is, why does no one either wake up Friday? What's going on with that?

Alex Gadd:

I don't know, but we, we went out in college hard on Thursday night. Thursday night was our

Devlin Guttridge:

Oh really?

Alex Gadd:

Yeah, it

Devlin Guttridge:

then well.

Alex Gadd:

I understand your, your curiosity about it,'cause I never understood it either. All right, so, so Kids Bop was your first, and then you saw George Thurgood and Sammy Hagar

Devlin Guttridge:

My my favorite member in Led Zeppelin isn't even, um, Jimmy Page. Even though I love Page, I think the best player, their respective instrument is, um, or was, I should say rest in peace. John Bonum. I loved John Bomb. And to see his son in concert playing with Sammy, it's like I was think in the back of my mind, please do rock and roll. Please do rock and roll. They played it, man, that was awesome. That was probably the coolest part of that whole concert. I.

Alex Gadd:

Excellent.

Devlin Guttridge:

but also how the songs sorta'cause Thorogood songs are very repetitive in certain regards. Um, they're great songs, but it's all blue stuff. So it's like, how does he wind that down, get the audience involved a bit, how's, and he make them feel like they are a part of the song. And it's like this rising thing, like he was the best at it, um, by far between him and Hagar because Hagar plays structured songs and fair enough to him, that's what rock is developed into. But thurgood's more rock and roll because he can dial it back. The songs aren't to a strict form and there's a certain level of easiness that comes along with that, that allows the song to be just more pure in the moment. And. My, um, one of my teachers, Mr. Gale, put it to me. It's like you get the audience on the edge of their seat by, um, dialing it back and then you punch'em right in the face when you roll the volume up and you just build it back to, or it's a crescendo. I mean that Hagar was great, but Thurgood was the one that really stood out to me.'cause the blues speaks me more than more modern rock. And for that reason, I don't consider myself to be a Van Hagar fan.

Alex Gadd:

Oh, I'm not either. Although I like Sammy Hagar. I'm not a Van Hagar fan.

Devlin Guttridge:

Hey, Bon Scott over Brian Johnson, any day of the week.

Alex Gadd:

Oh, see, I disagree. I, love Brian Johnson. Yeah.

Devlin Guttridge:

I,

Alex Gadd:

him.

Devlin Guttridge:

Brian's great, but I mean, I think Von Scott's writing was more creative and was more consistent. I think Highway to Hell and Powerage together match

Alex Gadd:

records of all time.

Devlin Guttridge:

the Powerage is an insanely underrated record Highway to Hell's awesome too. But

Alex Gadd:

Yeah.

Devlin Guttridge:

the fact that the writing's fresh, consistent, and to be frank with you, after Back In Black, it's like ac DC had a sound. They stuck to it. I mean, with rock and roll, it's either you stick to one specific sound, eventually people find it boring or you stay with the same thing and people find it boring and it well, it,

Alex Gadd:

what they like you

Devlin Guttridge:

yeah, and for that,

Alex Gadd:

of people,

Devlin Guttridge:

for that reason, you need, you need more bands, you need a lot of musicians to continuously come up with stuff like ac CDC, late into their career, they had some good songs. Thunderstruck is a great song. Of course, for those out The Rock was a great song, but. After Back in Black. It really did drop off for me with Von Scott. It just kept getting better. As you listen to the albums go on that, that's the thing that's enticing about that.

Alex Gadd:

You know, the funny thing is that for the rockers who died early. Every one of them you can say that about, because they never had a chance to get old and get

Devlin Guttridge:

That's a great point. That's a really great point.

Alex Gadd:

vibe and not, and get lazy about songwriting. Like Jim Morrison too, Jimi Hendrix. He just kept getting better and then died. and Bob Scott was that way. You know, I mean, Kurt Cobain, all of the, all of the young superstars who died And know, I read, I read a bunch of books about the classic rock era now, and there's a great writer named Chuck Klosterman who's written a bunch of really good books and some of them are all about music and, and he used to be a music critic and I just read one over the weekend and he was talking about how the best career move for a rock and roll artist to die early because then they can't criticize you for getting old

Devlin Guttridge:

Yeah, by the way, recipes, Malcolm Young, probably the greatest rhythm guitarist of all time. Absolute legend.

Alex Gadd:

Richards. Yeah. Maybe the second best rhythm Player of all

Devlin Guttridge:

I I don't know. anything. I don't know. Honestly, I'm not a Big Stones fan, so I'll I'll leave that up to you. But,

Alex Gadd:

there you

Devlin Guttridge:

um, I guess

Alex Gadd:

Young is incredible. he was

Devlin Guttridge:

Oh, totally.

Alex Gadd:

sound of AC CDC, for sure.

Devlin Guttridge:

And then you have Angus riding over the top of these distorted power chords. That's awesome. That

Alex Gadd:

is

Devlin Guttridge:

Oh,

Alex Gadd:

a great rhythm guitar player. He's the

Devlin Guttridge:

Yeah.

Alex Gadd:

player in AC CDC, but he plays a ton of rhythm and he's awesome. They're both great at it, and it must run in the family because their nephew Stevie now fills in for

Devlin Guttridge:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alex Gadd:

the same. Like they all have that vibe. It's just incredible. And

Devlin Guttridge:

It's cool.

Alex Gadd:

brother was in a sixties band, the first Australian rock band,

Devlin Guttridge:

Oh, that's awesome.

Alex Gadd:

So

Devlin Guttridge:

really cool. I didn't know that.

Alex Gadd:

yeah, George Young and he ended up producing a CDC after he quit being a rocker. Anyway, um, want to get back to these speed round questions. Um,

Devlin Guttridge:

Look, I don't think there's gonna be speed at all.

Alex Gadd:

dig it. I understand. So the next concert you're gonna see, and I am cheating'cause I already know what it is, but what is

Devlin Guttridge:

Oh yeah.

Alex Gadd:

you're going to see?

Devlin Guttridge:

This is a hope, a strong hope, uh, Oasis. They have a solid lineup for Oasis as long as they have bone head back. And I was hoping for like Zach Starkey, one of the more punky straight ahead drummers rather than Alan White. But Alan's obviously excellent at what he does too. As long as they have bone head back, I'll be happy.

Alex Gadd:

All right, well then you go. I think he's back, so that's good.

Devlin Guttridge:

I I, you can't have Oasis without bone head. That attitude, that authenticity, as you said, that's extremely important. And if you don't have bonehead, you don't have that.

Alex Gadd:

Yeah. I agree. Last question for you and then we'll wrap it Is it about music that still gets you really excited and you're so clearly passionate about it, but do you ever think about what it, is it just about music and rock and roll music in particular? Because most kids your age are into a completely different set of musical influences than you are. So what is it about rock and roll music that really grabbed you and continues to get you as jazzed up as you clearly are? And by jazzed up, I mean rocked up as you clearly are.

Devlin Guttridge:

I think the thing about rock and roll is that, and I lean on the country side, the bluer side, sort of a little tiny bit of jazz in there. Blues a little bit of country and a lot of what became rock and roll. Um, there's a certain, just, it's really hard to describe when a rock song gets rolling, it's. It's this feeling of electricity. I mean, it's as simple as you can put it. It's heart pumping. It's, it just sounds like a bunch of boulder sliding down a cliff if it's done correctly. But rock specifically, it's, it's also hard for me to define because, um, I'm, not entirely sure what rock music refers to. And there is a difference between why I listen to and what I play. Absolutely. Um, I play Blues rock and such because it's more fun to play. I don't listen to much Blues rock at all. I mean, sure I listen to Lead Zeppelin. So I mean, what I listened to like Bitter Sweet Sym were my favorite songs. I love that song. Love it, love it, love it, love it, love. What I play is blues. Rocks is the most fun to play. What I listen to stuff that it's new, it's inspiring, um, but at the end of the day, the reason I love music is it's partially playing. It's partially listening. Um, I don't like, I don't want the patience to read books. I'll fully admit that I listen to albums instead and I do it while doing homework. It's a form, it is multitasking. Maybe I'd be more efficient at homework if I was just not listening to music. I. Focus specifically on it. But to have that going in the back of my mind, sort of being like a half days while doing my homework, I still get my homework done. Well that's certainly not an issue, but to be able to be, to have that going on in your mind is puts you in a happy place. It's a really cool thing. I've been fortunate enough to where I found something I truly enjoy doing. I'm not gonna get burnt out, didn't start at too early of an age, but you, at the end of the day, the only person you're being with is yourself. And if you are happy doing what you're doing and you are happy, if you're even content not getting better, then fair enough. Um, but for me, I, I need to keep getting better. I'm being competition with myself. The people around me are really just a framework for where I expect myself to be. And beyond that, it's just, okay, what can I do better? Put simply there's something in it. I don't know what it is yet. Maybe in 20 years I'll have a good reason for what it is. I'll be able put in the words, but right now I can't. And that's fine by me. I'm happy doing what I'm doing.

Alex Gadd:

That's a good way to wrap it up. Devlin, Jack Gutridge, thank you so much for being a guest on the show.

Devlin Guttridge:

Thank you for having me.

Alex Gadd:

I, I really can't wait to see where music takes you and where you go with it. That's it for today's conversation. Thank you all for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday, and if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you would like and either subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about every new episode, and please tell your friends. Also, a reminder that we release a playlist for every episode. This one's gonna be a doozy Look for the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast playlist on Spotify every week featuring songs from the bands that Devlin and I talked about on the show today. Additionally, we want to know what you think, so please leave us a comment. We'll try to respond to all of them. The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and Until next time, remember that life is short, get those concert tickets. Hey, do you wanna bring your mom and dad in?

Devlin Guttridge:

Oh boy,