13 QUESTION METHOD: ADAM LEVY
Adam Levy is — well, you know.

1. Which was the first record you bought with your own money?
That’s tough to say. When I got my first job as a young teenager — a paper route — I went sort of record crazy. I was an avid read reader of Guitar Player magazine, and was learning about many of the great players. I remember buying Joe Pass’ Virtuoso, the Dixie Dregs’ Freefall, Dave Edmunds’ Repeat When Necessary, and George Benson’s Cookbook all around the same time. I bought a couple of Chuck Berry singles as well.

2. Which was the last record you bought with your own money?
Does iTunes count? If so, then it would be Homesongs by Adem. The last actual CD I bought was Richard Thompson’s Rumor and Sigh.

3. What was the first solo you learned from a record — and can you still play it?
George Harrsion’s solo on the Beatles’ “Let It Be” or maybe Jimmy McCulloch’s solo on “Junior’s Farm” by Wings. I think I can still play the “Let It Be” solo.

4. Which recording of your own (or as a sideman) are you most proud of, and why?
With My Guitar and You, which I made with my grandfather George Wyle, who was a pianist. I’m proud of this one for a few different reasons. First, simply that I got to make a record with my grandfather, who was my musical hero and my teacher. Also, there wasn’t a lot of improvisation — he and I both wrote arrangements, and we stuck to the page most of the time. The guitar usually carried the song’s melody, or some variation on it. I had to make melodies really sing on the guitar, just by way of touch and dynamics. I gave a lot of thought to my tone, and was very conscious of when and how I used vibrato. It takes a lot of thought to play so simply and straightforward. I’d be proud of my work on With My Guitar even if it weren’t a record I made with my grandfather.

5. What's the difference between playing live and playing in a studio?
Playing live, I rarely get too precious about the notes I play. It’s more about the overall vibe than about nailing everything with mechanical perfection. Also, on stage you have an opportunity to entertain people, or cast a spell, to do something beyond merely playing notes. In the studio, you’re mostly dealing with just the notes — though you still need to work some magic with them.

6. What's the difference between a good gig and a bad gig?
A good gig is when you connect with the audience and with your fellow band-mates. On top of that, if you can get a good tone and can feel that you’re able to express yourself on the instrument, that’s a very good gig. Bad gigs? Pretty much the opposite of everything I just said. Besides real troubles — bad music, bad vibes, equipment failure, and so on —I have many so many “gigs gone wrong” stories I could tell. Fires, clowns, trains, lost car keys, and so on. In hindsight, though, even the worst gigs can look pretty good. A friend of mine was riding in the van with Marc Cohn recently when Marc got shot on the way home from a gig. That’s a whole other level of badness.

7. What's the difference between a good guitar and a bad guitar?
Any guitar can be a good guitar, if all the parts are working and the intonation is passably accurate. More and more, I’m drawn to guitars that have strong personalities. Bland is bad.

8. You play electric and acoustic. Do you approach the two differently?
I use a lot of bends, vibrato, neck vibrato, and other “touch effects” on the electric, which I hardly use at all on the acoustic. I approach the acoustic more like a piano, I guess. That’s the biggest difference, for me.

9. Do you sound more like yourself on acoustic or electric?
Electric, for sure, because of all the touch stuff I just described. I sound the most like me with a Gibson ES-335 my hands, plugged into a mid-1960s Fender Princeton Reverb. That’s because that’s the first rig I ever had — I had a 335 and a Princeton when I was 13. It just feels like home.

10. Do you sound like yourself on other people's guitars?
For better or worse, yes.

11. Which living artist (music, or other arts) would you like to collaborate with?
In music, I’d love to work with Tom Waits. He’s such an incredible songwriter. Some of this songs are simple and pretty, some are real ugly, some are bizarre — and all are infused with wry humor and unforgettable imagery.

12. What dead artist (music, or other arts) would you like to have collaborated with?
Silent-film stars Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd.

13. What's your latest project about?
Oh, there are so many. Most recently I’ve been writing songs with words, and performing as often as possible — wherever there’s a microphone and a crowd of 2 or more. Also, I have a solo-guitar concert coming up in November, where I’m gonna play music by guys named Bill — Bill Evans, Bill Frisell, Bill Strayhorn. Sorry, no Billy Idol or Billy Laswell. Big Bill Broonzy? Maybe.

Web site: http://www.adamlevy.com/