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The great nimble finger picking style of an acoustic
guitarist inflames the body and soul, creating a warm and
soothing state of mind. One such guitarist is Eric Roche who
is swiftly becoming one of the World's new generation of
leading guitarists. Just before embarking on his UK tour
that will span the last week of April through to mid-June,
Eric found time to give me a little background on himself
and his love of the acoustic guitar.
Born in Kerry on the beautiful West-coast of Ireland,
everybody played music in
the rural area that Eric grew up in. He has been playing
guitar for over 28 years (starting in 1976). Eric explains;
"the first 15 years were mainly classical guitar, kind
of formal study with one teacher…lessons every week learning
Bach, Handle and all those boys. In the meantime I'm also
listening to the likes of the Botty Band and even as a young
kid I was going down and playing traditional Irish music
with fiddle players and flute players. Then also in the
background there is Roy Gallagher and the blues and all
that!" There were no real influences to encourage the
young Eric to take up learning to play the acoustic guitar,
his feelings are; "there was nothing really other than
the time and the place. I don't think my parents would have
tolerated an electric guitar in the house, which is part
of it. The local teacher was a classical teacher, so that
had a bearing on things. I'm a firm believer that you're
shaped by your whole environment early on, so if I was in
a different town in a different decade it might have been
a rock 'n' roll guitarist playing."
Moving to London after finishing university around 1990,
Eric found that the classical guitar scene was tremendously
competitive. Roche states; "I wasn't getting enough
of a kick out of it. I wanted to write tunes; I wanted to
be more expressive and I wasn't able to get that out of
the classical guitar, so I moved over to steel strings.
I've always found the electric guitar to be just too different,
though I love electric guitar players. But the transition
from classical to steel strings seemed to be a lot easier,
though it is different again. Different things that you
do and different size body…so that is what I've been doing
pretty much ever since!" In switching to steel strings,
Roche was somewhat encouraged by the influences of the likes
of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Roy Gallagher was another
performer that drew Eric Roche towards the steel strings:
"in the middle of his set  he
would almost always pick up a Martin guitar and play three
or four songs…just a solo acoustic guitar. I looked at that
and thought; I could be just that little bit of Roy Gallagher…I
could do what he does, but do it for a whole set, so that's
what I do now…Roy was a strong influence!"
With many fine guitars on the market Eric Roche has
found favour with Lowden guitars at the moment, though Roche
says that he is in discussion with Martin who are going
build a guitar for him. "Lowden from Northern Ireland
very much suits my style of playing at the moment…they
have a very wide neck, so just going back to the classical
thing, it was an easy transition. They have a big open
sound; whereas Martin has a very American sound...they are
bit tighter, brilliant for country, bluegrass and all that!
But I've been playing Lowden hand built guitars for many
years."
Eric has just released his debut album With These Hands
on theP3 Music label. 13 tracks of guitar instrumentals
with 9 written by Roche together with covers of Stevie Wonder's
"Higher Ground", Van Halen's "Jump",
Seals "Killer" and Miles Davis composition "Blue
In Green". The album has been produced by award  winning
guitarist and composer Martin Taylor. "Martin was a
hero of mine years ago. When I was growing up I saw Stéphane
Grappelli on the television and Martin Taylor was playing.
It was just when Martin had joined his swing quartet and
was a very young man then in his early 20's" states
Roche. He continues; "there was two things from that
TV show that I wanted to be…playing guitar when I was Stéphane
Grappelli's age and I wanted to be as good as Martin Taylor."
Taylor is well known as a jazz player, but Eric says "he
is a very broad musician and has a lot of strings to his
bow!" Eric started writing an acoustic column for the
international magazine Guitar Techniques a few years ago
and got to know Martin Taylor who also writes the jazz column.
Further to this Roche tells "I signed a record deal
last year (P3) and Martin's on the label as well, so part
of the whole arrangement was to get Martin Taylor involved
in production. Really he was just overseeing it. There are
different styles of production...some people get very, very
stuck in, almost to the point that they are playing the
instruments themselves, but in Martin's case he  was
very hands off. He would come into the studio, hid in the
control room and just come in. say a few words, give us
thoughts on something, maybe try to create a mood or atmosphere
and ask a few questions as to what I was trying to achieve
with the piece."
Eric Roche has several strings to his own bow. As well
as being a leading guitarist and writing his regular columns
for two magazines Guitar Techniques and Guitarist, Eric is
also head of guitar at The Academy of Contemporary music
(ACM) in Guildford. "I've always kept my hand in
teaching. Early on it was a way to make money. But I do love
it, even though I barely have time for it these days, I
still try to keep my hand in there, because I had a great
teacher for years in Ireland" Eric declares "I
learned to appreciate the importance of passing on what you
do! I know some guys are not made for it…I'm not saying
they can't teach…far from it, they're not made for it. But
when you can, you almost have a responsibility to do it. I
was asked to be head of guitar about four years ago…it's
only a couple of days a week." The ACM an international
college trains all kinds of musicians to a professional
standard, particularly in the pop/rock field and also jazz.
The ACM offer a degree and there are various diploma courses
that fulltime students can take over a year or two-year
period, sometimes even longer, covering everything from
theory, to performance and the business side of the
industry.
As well as his involvement with the ACM, Eric has given
music workshops and master-classes all around the world.
"I have set them up, or I'm asked to do  them…I
guess that is on the strength of my magazine column!"
Eric laughs…saying; "the funny thing is that you write
for a magazine and people have this perception that you
are better than you are! I've been playing a long time and
I'd have given it up if I wasn't getting anywhere with it."
Laughing again; "but with the magazine you get this
extra profile and people hold you up on this pedestal, so
I get asked to do some amazing things. This year coming
for example I'm going to Iceland, Taiwan…places that I've
never been before. I've done workshops in Turkey, Italy,
Sweden…it's endless and I feel fortunate that the guitar
can take me to these places. It's wonderful!!!"
Always promoting the advancement of the guitar player,
Eric Roche has a new book coming out soon. "I've just
been to the publisher and it looks like early May. It's
called The Acoustic Guitar Bible and has already received
numerous pre-orders. A few things fell into place last year
with this record company. The book company approached me as
well. They just gave me the title… they said we would like
you to write to this title, we want 100,000 words. I thought…that's
not so bad!" Laughing Eric continues, "The first
2,000 words were fairly easy, but the next 80,000 were a lot
trickier!" The book comes with two audio CDs. There are
158 examples of techniques or styles, tunings etc. There are
many music examples and photographs. The book covers
everything from the history of the steel string guitar,
through music theory and technique, how to play and
approaches to playing. The book contains chapters on how
best to look after your finger nails…an important point
for the finger style guitarist. There are chapters on
recording, performance and finishes with 10 acoustic guitar
tongue-in-cheek commandments in the last chapter.
Like so many musicians who have gone before, with
unflickering passion for the acoustic guitar Eric Roche is
certainly rich in quality and worthy to become one of the
future masters of the acoustic guitar. From my own
experience of just listening to his latest CD - With These
Hands, Eric Roche is certainly a musical force not to be
missed!!! |
