Maneli Jamal Interview | International touring Fingerstyle Guitarist

Maneli Jamal Interview | International touring Fingerstyle Guitarist

Show Video

hi everyone welcome to this video this is an  interview with maneli jamal who's in toronto right   now he's a finger style guitarist and uh well  you're i guess you could say your professional   uh performer right how many years have you been  doing this uh minelli um probably since 2006 so   close to 15 just just more just a yeah a year  six 16 years yeah i can do that wow so full   time basically full-time yeah um full-time now  for sure i mean when i first started out i was   you know i was working at a copy center doing some  restaurants uh gigs and stuff like that uh before   it kind of took over i guess i could say i was  doing it professionally maybe about 10 11 years or   so i'd say okay and uh and uh what what uh what  light what led you into this kind of a career   um both of my parents are actually musicians  and artists that's my my dad's painting so i   grew up with a very heavily artistic influence  around me and i'm also the youngest of four boys   um so i think just being around artists who  were always better than me and musicians were   always better than me i was very inspiring  and i guess i didn't realize that i would um   you know take what what knowledge and wisdom  that was around the house and take that into   my own version and try to make music in my own  light as well of course it wasn't until i moved   to canada that that really started to pick up  personally but um that's definitely a huge i think   like uh a tribute to me being a professional  musician right now now.- I'm curious how did you   end up sort of zeroing in on solo performance  fingerstyle guitar? what was it about... i mean you   when did you start playing guitar?   yeah so i was 16 years old i was started with  metal music, metal and punk you know the classic   like metallica, iron maiden all that stuff  then went into punk and emo and eventually   went to blues guitar because i was living in  austin texas at the time so blues was very   very big then especially stevie ray vaughan and  eric johnson that was the style that i was kind   of really liked listening to and and was hard  to replicate for me at the time because i wasn't   really that good back then so uh but i was very  inspired by that so yeah 16 years um and as far as   zeroing in on like finger style guitar um that  probably didn't come until me having just gone   through a whole bunch of genres so at that point i  was already i think 18 years old already in canada   because we immigrated here um and then i think  it was i saw a video of don ross playing with a   thumb pick and i was just just blown away that what  he could do with one guitar uh and uh that thumb pick   idea just kind of stuck with me i took that from  him and and uh thankfully i've never really left   so because i was really heavy into picking you  know punk and metal music typically there's a lot   of pick use- plectrum use -so i didn't want to lose  that so when i went to fingerstyle i wanted to   make sure that i could have a tool that allows  me to do fast picking and technical you know   sweeping and stuff like that while also having the  fingers free to do finger style at the same time   so that's kind of the best of both worlds ------okay so  you um you do that uh all the time now? you always   have a thumb pick or is that just most of the  time? i would say most the time yeah i think uh   right now i'm definitely liking just the regular  thumb and and with nails on my writing because i   have acrylic gel on my nails uh so i think i i'm  liking that sound especially on nylon guitar so   i've been doing a lot more nylon guitar work which  i really like the soft sort of more feminine sound   of the instrument which has been great and that's  just kind of me tapping into something that's   different than the whole technical you know trying  to make one guitar sound like as many instruments   as possible thing which i was really into because  right i mean right now i'm definitely more i think   melodic focused and more mood focused rather  than technical virtual so type style playing   right right so that i'm sure evolved over time  your own style of composition you mentioned Don   Ross- i'm familiar with Don  i saw him, i met him and i saw him perform at   the canadian guitar festival near kingston  ontario- have you ever been to that festival  ? yeah i played there a couple times actually  oh awesome yeah yeah really good so i mean   with those festivals i i feel like uh because it's  just it's just finger style so it's like if you're   not a finger style fanatic uh you can get bored  pretty quickly i think but other than that it's   just a blast for us artists especially  because we get to hang out with each other   yeah it was a judge there's a judged event at the  very end of it right like a competition which we   were all part of yeah--Now how many - i've been  to your website i'm going to put a link below the   the video when i upload this, and uh you have a  website i noticed uh browsing through you've got   quite a few uh recordings you have uh you offer  uh one-on-one lessons through zoom or whatever i'm   assuming and uh and um yeah tell me a little about  sort of your hub of activity because obviously uh   we just got through this crazy pandemic a lot  of people a lot of musicians like yourselves   probably saw your gigs dry up. How did it go for you? that's a great question and uh   before the pandemic even started... i made a decision  to kind of take a little break from touring anyway   so it's just the pandemic habit and it was just  like just good timing um i just at that point   had done so much touring around the world and it  was just getting a little bit out of hand where   I was... i felt like i was losing myself and i was  just doing it all for music where i didn't really  

have that sense of that inner compass for myself  so i actually stopped touring and playing gigs   and that's still the case i'm kind of not taking  on any gigs right now i'm just trying to be   be prolific and and just write- i feel like that's  at heart i'm a composer- i'm not really a performer   at heart so um and it's been a great journey to do  that to get out of my comfort zone to do that but   the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise  because i released an online course a really   in-depth course called fingerstyle pro and it's  just focusing on fingerstyle music and especially   more in the percussive style of playing so that's  been a huge kind of dream of mine and it finally   came to fruition last year just just over a year  ago uh so that's been really cool and i've just   been able to write so much music now because  you know, as you know as like as a performer   you have to upkeep with the the repertoire and  you have to make sure that you can play them and   i was playing solo guitar so when you're solo on  and solo instrumental of all things on stage um   it's a lot of pressure it's a lot of pressure on  you to make sure that all the notes are there and   i'm really hard on myself so like if i'm making  a wrong note i would usually be upset about that   whereas now i don't really care as much but i  think that's that kind of relationship kind of   started with um just putting that pressure on  myself that wasn't necessary and now at home   being able to compose without  the need to replicate the music   so much has been really great because now i  can just get into different styles of music   and easily try to convey moods that i'm trying  to go for now i'm just uh i'm just admiring   that piece of art behind you as well you said  your dad did that yes yeah yeah my wife and i   my wife and i when we got married uh over 25 years  or 20 years ago uh we we began this little um   ritual it was just we were on our uh honeymoon  and we saw we liked to go to galleries we saw   a great piece of art so we bought a piece  of art and we decided to do that every year   we actually haven't kept it up but uh we love  the idea of having an original piece of art and   we're not into going to walmart and buying a print  you know and uh we want to support artists so uh   you're very familiar with the artist  lifestyle you've grown up with with the   with the family-- how how is it that you gravitated  toward music and not toward art?    actually wanted to be an artist before becoming a  musician um it wasn't until i moved to canada that   and i came here under pretty extreme situations my  whole family was basically deported and extradited   so we had to claim refuge in canada we only had 30  days to do that so it was a very dark time for me   i was 18 years old and i was just basically in  my room for the last the next six months just   drawing and playing guitar because at that point  my art skills were i think much better than my   guitar skills at that point because i just started  playing maybe two years of guitar at that point   uh where i was doing art kind of my whole life  already and that's kind of the direction that i   thought i was always going to go in at the visual  art world um but it wasn't until i went to high   school here my last year of high school here  in canada and then i met some people and then   the guitar thing kind of just picked up more and i  was in bands um and i really liked that lifestyle   and actually really liked the performance side of  it too of being with a group of people that uh we   were writing music together so i think that shift  probably happened um when a good friend of mine   was my manager at the time we were both just a  fresh out of high school and he pushed me to do   an open mic um with my own music just solo guitar  it was my first performance ever as a solo player   and i was doing you know the whole  two-hand tap stuff and percussive thing   and i had a hat so no one could see  me because i was so shy to be on stage   and i remember getting off the stage and just  people came up to me and said really nice things   and and i actually felt like that burden had been  lifted i felt like maybe some of the trauma had   been released from for letting it out on stage  and it was a glorious moment for me to uh an aha   moment for me to be like hey maybe music can can  can be more important now than visual art yeah so   what's uh what are you how are you looking to the  future now now that the pandemic has calmed down ?  uh i know in ontario i understand even today  they were saying as no more masks starting today   no more mandatory masks uh we're a little bit  slower in BC uh they did they did drop the mask there's still some restrictions and traveling  and stuff uh so what how how are you eyeing   the future now you said you've got your your your  amazing course there which is it sounds great i'm   gonna have a look at that and uh what what's the  future looking like for you? yeah um i think what   i'm trying to do right now i've got like the next  couple years already planned with releases i like   to think ahead with this stuff especially my music  career um i just get so much joy of thinking ahead   as far as the next projects and stuff i think  what i'm really liking is collaborations i've   been doing a lot of collaborations with other  players and i think that just brings a whole   different touch to the music that i'm writing  and i think that they're writing and so that's   been a really cool blessing i started a piano  project as well like a minimal piano project   um so again i'm really liking just being a little  bit more prolific right now in life as opposed to   like before i was doing one album every three  four years now i'm doing two albums a year   so and i'm really liking just just doing that and  again that that lack of pressure of not needing   to perform the music is even greater because  then i can do something record it right on the   spot because i've got my studio here and then go  to the next song and and continue that process   so as far as the recording uh do you often record  uh yourself are you self-produced or do you go   you go to recording studios how does that work  for you yeah i i used to do that um but nowadays   what i'm doing i have just i've got all the  mics and i've got the gear here to record it   here my apartment in toronto so that's been really  great um yeah and then as far as the mixing i will   usually do that myself um but if not i might get  a friend of mine to do it a high school friend or   even another canadian guitar player uh antoine  de four so he does mixing and mastering as well   i usually send my masters to him usually does the  mastering i really like his his touch uh the final   touches that he does is really great right right  that's great so are you are you self-released are   you associated with a record label no you right  now i'm self-released i only did that one album   um movement with candy rat records but we had a  falling out and uh something longer with them so   everything's just self-produced right now yeah  it's a lot of work i mean that that that's a   full-time job in itself releasing your own music  promoting it doing the social media stuff right so   yeah amazing so is this how uh you mentioned how  you had that traumatic you know experience uh   when you're 18 i can just imagine how difficult  that would be probably leaving friends behind   and things like that and coming to a new country  uh yeah that would be pretty traumatic i can just   imagine so um so how do you feel now you feel  nice and settled uh here in canada oh yeah yeah   it's it's hard to leave canada and i think part of  touring is that you start losing the sense of home   you know and then when you come back  you're like oh wow i can't miss this um   so yeah toronto is definitely definitely my home  and i guess broader thinking it's it's even canada   i'm very grateful my whole family is very grateful  that canada accepted us as refugees and now we're   all very proud canadian citizens um and it's it's  been great i mean it's really been a blessing   in disguise as hard as it was at the time as  you know with hardship and things like that we   oftentimes don't know that what meaning it really  has for us until later on in hindsight that we see   the importance of it and why it happened and  i've let i fee most of my music is fueled from   that it's healed from hardship that has been  overcome in some way right right so that comes   out in the music the whole um oh i forgot my train  of thought i had a question for oh yeah here here   cause you know there's uh i do have uh guitarists  who watch my channel um not everyone's a musician   necessarily who watches my channel but um um i  uh wanted to ask you a couple more things just   uh to round out the interview we'll get a little  bit to gear because of course the gear heads will   be interested what gear you use maybe uh also i  was curious if you've heard of alip Ba Ta because   that's what kind of triggered the reacts to  fingerstyle guitar on my channel i i had uh i   don't know how i got the request someone requested  me to react to this fingerstyle guitarist   and i used to do some fingerstyle guitar in the  late 90s i've been playing guitar most of my life   and uh i went through a phase and i learned  about don ross all these guitars and i was   really into finger style composing and alternate  you know detuning the guitar i mean that's part of   it do you find that you just uh detune into some  wacky tuning and just write a song in that tuning  ? usually yes in the past that's definitely  how a lot of my songs came out to be   um that open c voicing the cg cc is actually from  a don ross song um and so that's that's where i   took it but that Capo was my little touch on  it and then it just creates this whole really   more mysterious sound which i really was  gravitating toward so a lot of it is like   exploration and experimentation um it doesn't  help i mean it it doesn't hurt when um   when again when there is hardship and there  is difficulties in life that i kind of like   to channel that through the guitar and that  exploration is a way for me to deal with some   of the hardship as well actually because it's  like the canvas right that's the canvas and then   you're now deciding to choose how you paint over  that canvas with the notes that you're deciding   and the harmony and stuff like that so yeah so  i think a lot of it is that versus nowadays i   would say it's a lot more technical it's like i i  guess i understand harmony a lot better now i know   my theory is a lot better than it used to be so i  it's hard not to go into into theory land because   when you start playing you start to realize oh  that's the minor six of this and then you start to   overthink it and so you know sometimes i'll just  smoke a joint or something and just to relax   myself that really helps to detach from the theory  and just go more into an intuitive sense into   what the song is is all about writing that way  excellent now it's always uh instrumental right   you're not a do you ever sing no no it's all  instrumental yeah okay okay and uh do you ever   intend to get into uh partnering with uh a band  at some point? are you focusing on just being solo?   what i really like is having a percussionist with  me that is i think the most powerful connection   that i've had and there's a really great player  that that is here in toronto as well and he   uh adds so much with this percussion to my own  playing it's and it's so fun because we improvise   a lot on stage too um so if i were to get back  on the road i would i could see myself doing it   with a percussionist because it just the show  is just i think ten times better from that then   it's less pressure on me too to just constantly  focus on the guitar playing where i can let him   do his own thing and he's very versatile so yeah  i mean if anything uh and i've got a few songs   out with him already like el cielo and ziwa yeah  it's a really really fun journey um especially   sometimes we invite a saxophone player as well  so we got we got a different instrumentation   um i love guitar music and all but i think having  out non-guitar instruments is it just aids the   guitar a little bit more and it makes it more  musical it makes it a little bit more musical   better than just guitar focus right that sounds  really intriguing yeah so have you been uh have   you been influenced at all like myself personally  you mentioned you play some nylon string uh   i found uh when i had a nylon string i got into  playing uh kind of classical style and but then   i kind of heard uh some uh some latin jazz and  i started learning some more chords into the   so the latin jazz does that influence you  at all you mentioned the percussionist what   kind of percussion would you be playing yeah so  it'd be like a like a hybrid it'd be like cajon   with the snare with with all the basically  like a full kit but instead of him just sitting   on himself he's got extra you know whistles  and things like this and of course the cajon   adds that like flamenco touch as far as latin  jazz i'm i'm not too familiar too much with   artists or bands but i guess the sound yeah i  would say i could definitely be influenced by that   yeah yeah cool and so let's uh that's a good segue  into the gear if we could just talk a little about   what kind of gear you use when you perform do  you actually end up using pedals at all yeah so   uh my guitar is a Cole Clark guitar it has  a three-way pickup system so it's basically   plug and play if if this if the room is set up  and it's it's tuned to and it's it's nice and   the frequencies are all there um then it  basically is a plug and play thing as far   as the pedals that i use i tend to use strymon  pedals i'm in big sky and the strymon timeline   those are my two main pedals and other than  i just have a tuner pedal and also a tube   screamer from ibanez uh just in case i needed to  do a loop and then i want to solo on top of that   but that's it i mean it's a reverb and delay again  the guitar sounds natural enough that i don't   need too much and i think the more you process the  more you kind of lose that acoustic sound you know   which is kind of what i'm going for but also i  do like the effects because i do have an ability   to sustain the notes a core and then solo on top  that's really fun and i got an ebow that i usually   bring on stage so i'm trying to make as many  sounds as i can with the guitar and to not just   have it all plucked because that ebow adds a whole  new element uh which is like an electromagnetic   field that basically makes it sound like a  violin uh so there's no attack it's just like   ah it's really nice really beautiful it's very  haunting as well especially that in conjunction   with the sustain uh chords the ability to sustain  chords it makes it a really immersive sound wow   and uh again i lost my train of thought  that's so interesting what you were saying   oh yeah - you mentioned looper - do  you use one very much? um for like at home all   the time for practicing purposes it's one  of the best tools to get better as a player   because it really makes you hone in on your timing  as far as live goes it's rare that i use a looper   maybe a handful of times i'm still  exploring that if i really want to take it   to that next level with that but honestly i  just like doing at home um and i've got another   project that's basically like a loop pedal -the cd  that i'm working on right now- that's just loops   what kind of brand of looper do you use or do  you use a few? the boss... no- i just use the boss   rc30 it's the one that has two pedals it's really  minimal um again i don't i don't need the ones   that have like multiple uh um channels which would  be nice but again i just i like the the compact   size right i don't like to have these just a big  every you know it's kind of gets confusing so i   like to have everything in a close uh proximity  right right because if you i find that too   if you give yourself too many options uh it's kind  of uh i mean if you look back to the beatles they   were recording on a say eight track or something  you know nowadays uh on your laptop you could have   160 whatever channels if you wanted and there's so  many endless even after you've recorded something   you can reprocess it and change it and uh yeah  i find that's why i like going back to my   acoustic- i've got a nylon string i play mostly  i've got also a martin steel string but there's   something really comforting and grounding  about just grabbing an acoustic instrument   and dealing with the quote-unquote limitations of  that and obviously there really are no limitations   and i think uh you as an artist are and others  too there's a lot of uh artists out there who   are just demonstrating how there's there's  no limit to what you can do with it with a   simple instrument and it's a pretty marvelous  i love guitar and i'm really glad to have   interviewed you manelli and uh appreciate you took  all the time here to talk with me and the audience   and uh so i guess we'll wrap it up  and uh thanks again for your time and   i encourage everyone to check out the links below  check out minelli's uh minelli jamal's site get   some of his cds get some of his pdfs as uh i  guess you produce when you make a song you make a   a chart it all out so you can you can order for  most songs yeah yeah especially the more technical   stuff i do that just there's a lot of guitar heads  out there who want to learn the music uh yeah it's   my way of it's a lot of work but it's it's worth  it i think once it's done it's done i don't have   to and i think that's really wise because um when  i made i had about an album worth of fingerstyle   music but i didn't end up recording it properly  and i kind of lost track because of the songs   have all these different tunings had i done what  you do do a pdf and put it all in notes i could   actually remind myself how to replay my own songs  that i compose and that's that's one of the tricky   things about uh using an instrument where you're  re-tuning it all the time that's tricky isn't it   it is i mean because then you're basing it off of  really muscle memory a lot of it's muscle memory   that you're basing on so after a while as you know  the muscle memory starts to go away um and so what   i do is a mixture of recording with my phone  just the audio and then also the video so i know   what it looks like the shapes but usually i can  figure it out from the audio stuff then i usually   have in the audio files right tuning so i don't  ever forget that but again i'm not too adventurous   with tunings lately like i love standard tuning  that's i just been falling in love with it because   if i want to jam with others standard tuning  is is my go-to i don't jam in alternate tunings   with other people right right well thanks so much  maneli for uh this interview my pleasure and uh   hopefully we'll talk again and uh maybe i'll  even uh be able to see if you're touring in bc   or something or if i'm traveling to ontario and uh  yeah i look forward to following your career and   thanks very much for this interview.. yeah  thanks for having me really appreciate it   okay so you take care now  you too cheers okay cheers

2022-03-23 01:03

Show Video

Other news