Josh Gooch Interview: Up and Coming Blues Sensation

By: Brad Conroy
Photo Credit: Robert M Knight

Josh Gooch is a driven and very talented up coming guitarist based out of San Diego California. You may not be familiar with his work yet, but his career is beginning to take off, and with a few more years under his belt, this nineteen year old might be one of the top guitarists on the national scene.

Gooch already has a string of credits to his name, including being named a finalist in Guitar Center’s “King of the Blues” contest, recording credits with the acclaimed Southern rock group Highly Kind, tours around the US and an upcoming tour of Japan, studio work with legendary producer Johnny Sandlin (Allman Brothers, Wide Spread Panic, Highly Kind), jobbing work, teaching, and the list goes on and on.  All of these accomplishments would garner attention for any player, let alone one who hasn’t even celebrated their twentieth birthday yet.

Gooch certainly seems to have found his passion and is beginning to make a name for himself as a guitarist. He plays with an incredible touch, with melodic bends, interesting phrasing, and he produces an extremely rich and creamy tone from his mainly used Gibson Les Paul. He seems to draw from a multitude of influences and has the desire to always be learning and pushing the boundaries of his craft. He doesn’t fit as neatly into the blues guitarist category,  as being a finalist in the “King of the Blues” contest may suggest. His playing varies and he often applies a rock edge or funk groove, while mixing in some fast scale licks which are not often part of the traditional blues repertoire.

Gooch already seems to have a professional mindset and is dedicated to building a career in the guitar world. With this amount of dedication and drive, at nineteen his future certainly seems like it will be bright.

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Brad Conroy: What made you decide to pick up the guitar and drove you to pursue it with such a strong passion for the instrument?

Josh Gooch: It was just one of those things. My dad had been an acoustic guitar player since he was a teenager and had a couple of guitars lying around the house. It was one of those days where I got sick of skateboarding, because in San Diego it’s kind of just what kids do, and I ended up grabbing one of those acoustic guitars. I must have played for at least nine to ten hours, until three in the morning. It has been an addiction, a love, and my passion since that day, which was about five years ago.

BC: Was there a particular song or band that inspired you to pick up the guitar in the early days?

JG: That’s the funny thing, it wasn’t like that. At the time I was only listening to punk rock music, and I had a couple of friends that were randomly playing guitar. I was really getting into music and I decided that I wanted to become one of the guys on stage, not just someone in the crowd. So I learned a few punk rock songs, but after a while I began to lose interest in punk music because the guitar parts weren’t very interesting.

For me, it got boring to just be strumming power chords. It was a great way to get started, but I began to become interested in deeper and more challenging music. And this love for all kinds of music is what keeps me pushing and expanding my craft, even today.

BC: Did you ever have any formal training, private lessons, music school, that sort of thing?

JG: No, not really. I had a few random lessons where I would do one lesson with a guy, but I felt it wasn’t working or worth it. I always had my own list and ideas of what I wanted to work on and I never really felt like I needed a teacher to achieve what I wanted on the guitar.

BC: You must have practiced a lot, what did you work on to develop your technique.

JG: I just thank the internet for everything. I would spend time playing guitar all day, and when I took breaks from playing, I would be reading about scales, guitarists, theory, and all things music. I would do this for hours a day, either on the internet or with a guitar magazine. I was absorbed in it.

Sometimes I used to figure out Jimmy Page licks and then somehow try to decipher what he was thinking. I never really got into learning songs note for note. I got into learning the ideas and concepts, and then tried to apply them to what I was already doing. I would take one lick and then learn seven other ways I could do it.

BC: You have really nice control on your bends, any advice for our readers?

JG: I think the biggest thing is that it’s going to take time, but I also think listening to the right players is a big part of it. For me, it was Albert King, because a lot of times he was doing these bends that were two steps, and having that control to do it over and over again, eventually the muscles in your hand remember. At this point it’s just sort of a feeling. You know what it feels like in your hand, what it feels like to push the string up a step.

When you do big bends and hold them you have to use a lot of vibrato, if you don’t it will lose that evenness and punch. Bends have to fit with the groove of the music. If you play random bends it isn’t going to flow. In the ideal situation you aren’t thinking of anything. It’s just a free flow of energy and you are just letting it go.

BC: I read that you also teach too? What are your thoughts on teaching the guitar? Does it enhance your playing?

JG: I love it. It’s very interesting and it allows me to understand and see things in my own playing, things that I never new existed. I have so many students come in and ask, “Well what are you doing right there?” and I have no idea, so then I have to sit there and analyze it. I teach in a very unorthodox fashion. I deal mostly with creativity and I rarely take the books out.

A lot of times I just like to challenge my students creatively. Once they learn the pentatonic scale, I’ll say lets learn to communicate back and forth through music alone. I’ll lay down a groove and have them play their whole solo on just one string. At first the look in their eyes is worried, but eventually they begin to discover how important creativity is.

BC: How did you end up playing the blues, you know being a kid from California?

JG: [Laughs] You know it’s funny, and it goes a long way back. It started with punk, then to Led Zeppelin, then to the “jammie” Cream stuff, then to Mountain, and it kept getting more obscure and going further back. I began to realize that when I was reading about these guys they were all giving credit to Howlin Wolf, BB King, Albert King, Freddie King. Then it was a path back from them as they were mentioning Lightning Hopkins, Sun House, and Robert Johnson, and it has just been a path all the way back to the beginnings of the music for me.

BC: What albums are you currently digging into?

JG: For me at this point, the majority of what I listen to is live music. The interaction within a band is a huge deal for me. My favorite band of all time is the Allman Brothers, and I’m listening to a bunch of their stuff that goes back to the early Duane days, all the way to the new stuff with Derek and Warren.

I just think that they’re so great, and what separates them from the other “jammie” type bands is that they write great songs, and have the ability to play for hours. I’ve been digging into some live bootlegs of Little Feet. I found an incredible record at the swap meet today with Billy Cobham and a young John Scofield, and I’ve also been getting into Indian music with Ali Akbar Khan, and Ravi Shankar.

BC: So you’re not just a blues man, do you think your career will touch on some of these other styles?

JG: I never really just listen to the blues. I think that maybe a lot of people get that impression of me because I did the Guitar Center “King of the Blues” contest. Which was great, but all of those different styles are a huge part of what I do. It’s been such a whirlwind of all this music that I’ve been hip to over the past few years. I’ll wake up in the morning and listen to Prince, and then a few minutes later I’ll be into Pantera, all of this is going to come out in what I do.

BC: I notice you mostly play a Les Paul, but I’ve seen you using a Strat too? What do you like and dislike about both of these instruments?

JG: I have a Strat that I play every once in a while. I do have a little bit of difficulty with the Fender necks because I don’t have the biggest hands. I’m mainly a Gibson guy. My favorite guitars are Les Paul’s, SG’s, and ES 335′s. The Les Paul that you see in most of the videos and pictures has been my main guitar since a year after I first started playing. It works for just about anything and that is what I love about it. I can go play a blues gig with it, a metal gig, and then a jazz gig all in one day. That’s a big deal for me, because being able to get all these tones and styles with one guitar makes my life a whole lot easier.

BC: What amps are you using right now?

JG: Up to this point I’ve been using a Fender Blues Junior, and it’s out of necessity for something light, on top of it being a really nice sounding amp. Most gigs I play straight thru the amp. I’m currently looking into the amp situation though, and I’m really digging the old Marshall Plexi sound, and Fuchs amps sound incredible too. I was blown away when I heard Jimmy Herring playing through a Fuchs, but they’re really expensive.

BC: I notice you have a lot of YouTube videos. How is using YouTube or other internet sites helping your career?

JG: Absolutely, it really enables people to find all of this music that’s out there. Without the internet it’s very hard, you have to know someone that knows someone and it’s just a hassle. I mean when you go look at an Allman Brothers video and then magically you get linked to a Sun RA video and you would have never found this exciting music if it wasn’t for YouTube.

It’s a beautiful thing, because people that have similar interests can all get together and share in them. It’s a connection that you couldn’t have in any other situation. It’s amazing how the internet can really link you world wide.

BC: What are some of the other things that you’re doing to make sure your career is heading in the right direction?

JG: Later this month we’re a doing a big show out in Las Vegas at the Hilton Hotel for the opening of Robert Knights gallery. I also just got a gig with one of the biggest and best selling bands in the world where we’ll be touring Japan for three months this summer. I’m not allowed to say who it is yet because it’s unreleased, but it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity that I’m very excited about, and have been preparing as much as I can for.

BC: Even though the blues isn’t extremely demanding technically, why is it so hard to get it right?

JG: It’s one of those things that’s almost unexplainable. I think that maybe with rock you can hide behind all kinds of reverb, distortion, and delay. With blues it’s just you, at times just three chords, and the audience, and if you aren’t feeling it and bringing that connection when you’re playing, then it’s going no where.

BC: Do you have a group together right now?

JG: I don’t at the moment. It’s been a real struggle finding guys as dedicated as me that are my own age. I’ve been working a lot on my singing and when I get back from Japan I’m going to work on getting my own group together where I’ll be singing the tunes, writing the tunes, arranging, and everything else, because I like to be as self sufficient as I can.

BC: What was it like being in the Guitar Centers “King of the Blues” contest?

JG: It has been fantastic. It was a good experience to have, especially with my family who was cheering me on. They are the most supportive people in the whole world and I want to thank them. Somehow I made it to the nationals, and everything that has happened to me since then I really owe it all to the competition.

This is where I met my manager Robert Knight, who was the photographer for the event. He’s the one that got me this gig in Japan and he has introduced me to all of these heroes of mine. It’s been so great and I’m very thankful.

BC: Do you have plans for the future, or do you just go with the flow?

JG: I have a general path, but the one thing I’m learning is that you can’t really plan. So many things happen in the moment, and happen so randomly, that there’s just no way of planning for it. I think that the best thing for me to be doing is to keep up all my preparation and keep developing my chops, so that when these different opportunities present themselves I’m ready to take them on.