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 | Phil Hilborne - Rock Monster
Phil Hilborne's bio reads like the wish list of every kid who plays electric guitar and wants to do it professionally when he grows up. Apart from constant touring and recording with the Phil Hilborne band he's been part of Nicko McBrains (drummer - Iron Maiden) touring clinic band for the past 20 years and has been the music editor for Guitarist and Guitar Techniques magazines. |
| Add to this the Curriculum Director - Brighton Institute of Modern Music, and has an engineering and production credits list as long as your arm including Adrian Legg, The Hamsters, Eric Roche, Zakk Wylde, Ty Tabor, Ritchie Kotzen, Vinnie Moore, Shaun Baxter, Paul Gilbert, Dave Kilminster, the BBC, Channel 4 etc, etc and he also often jumps in the pit and plays guitar for the hit Queen musical, 'We Will Rock You' and is also the current MD of the National Youth Rock Orchestra (NYRO) No wonder he's known as 'the hardest working guitarist in London'.
Danie Steinhardt : I'm knackered just reading that list, when do you sleep, and where does this energy for all things guitar related come from?
Phil Hilborne : I just love anything guitar related and so to me it isn't really like work at all. I feel privileged and very lucky to be able to do what I do for a living. Plus I get to stay up late lots and I never get up before 11.30 in the morning unless I really have to - which is great!
DS : What does a normal working week include for you?
PH : That's a tricky one to answer because it varies so much. This week for example I have done a fair amount of teaching but I have also done 'We Will Rock You' a couple of times for Laurie Wisefield and had sessions here at my studio for a couple of days as well - one was just a producing thing for a single which was just piano and vocals and the other was a full-on metal track. On top of that there are the things like writing magazine articles and up dating the website and all that sort of usual day-to-day stuff.
DS : You also have a reputation as the guitar teacher's guitar teacher. As someone with such a huge amount of teaching experience, what's the most common thing that experienced players need help with?
PH :I think one of the most common problems is being able to apply or re-apply what they already know in an organised manner that makes musical sense. I fortunately realised a long time ago that you need to access the information you know quickly on-the-fly and you need to have a solid system in place to be able to do that well.
Funnily enough, another very common issue that crops up is confidence. A lot of players I meet seem to never feel that they are 'good' enough and appear to always be waiting for a day when this will suddenly happen for them. I always tell them not to worry about this at all - guitar playing isn't a sport and in the grand scheme of things how good or bad you or others think you are is not remotely important - what is important is simply becoming the best you that you can be.
DS : When a young rock guitarist comes to you to get better, do you focus at all on theory, playing the changes?
PH : Firstly, I should point out that to me no two pupils are the same - everyone is at a slightly different place from each other and therefore has different needs and desires. To my mind, it is vital that as a teacher you find out what someone's aims are and offset that against the time they have to work at it and what their current skill level is - then you can design a course of tuition to suit each individual. Although there is obviously certain vocabulary and technical things that every guitarist really does need to know in order to be effective and this would include playing over changes, essential scales, techniques and so on. A big part of learning is also finding out what is actually physically and mentally possible. For instance, when I was younger I can remember being astonished when I realised that you can know all of the notes in every chord and all of the notes in every common scale - you just need to learn how to do it and then commit it all to memory. So yes, theory is certainly a part of things for me. Having said this I have no problem at all with people who don't feel the need to digest that kind of knowledge - as you know there are lots of great musicians that don't have a clue about what they are doing in terms of theory - for them it is an instinct that has been simply gained through experience. The bottom line is - all a good teacher can ever do is save you time in getting the right skills together to do an effective job - the rest is down to the student who needs to practice and play lots, be creative and keep an very open mind to what is going on around them.
DS: How you meet Nicko McBrain?
PH : I met Nicko about 20 years ago through our mutual friend guitarist Geoff Whitehorn. He was looking for a guitarist and bassist to go and play with him for a week at the Frankfurt Music Show. Geoff suggested myself and Andy Frost and so we got together one afternoon and jammed through tons of old classic rock tunes - Cream, Led Zep, Deep Purple, Hendrix etc and we just got on great right from the off both as musicians and as friends. Since then we have done literally hundreds of gigs and clinics together and it will hopefully carry on until we drop! - It's lots of fun.
DS : Your new Treble Booster is amazing. I've been using one for a few months now. How did this come about?
PH : The Spanish company Thunder Tomate got in touch through my website and just asked if I fancied trying out one of their version 2 treble boosters and in return they asked for my opinions and comments. I of course said yes please - send it over. I really liked the pedal but for me there was a few things I would have liked to see changed so I sent them a list of suggestions and they got back to me and saying that they liked my ideas and so suggested that we work together on a signature model. Up until that point I had not even thought about that as an option at all but it has been a great learning curve and we are both very happy with the end result.
DS: You've been using TheGigRig for about 12 months now. How's it working out for you?
PH : I have probably been through more gear than most - I do love a good gadget! In the past I was always very frustrated by the signal and tone loss and noise that came from using too many pedals chained together. I tried the rack route and that didn't really work either - I hated the way the signal became digitized - the gain structure was never right and all the harmonics seemed to become very confused! Then last year my friend and Jamiraqui guitarist Rob Harris suggested I check out the GigRig. I can honestly say that I am so glad I did because it has proved to be so easy to set up, so versatile and so clean sounding that I really wish I had owned one years ago. It is brilliant both for gigs and sessions - I use it every day.
DS : So what's coming up in the near future for you that we have to look forward to?
PH : As I have already mentioned I have been working with Nicko on and off for about 20 years and in that time we have done some recording together but not a lot that is commercially available. So this year we have started to work on tracks for an album that hopefully will be finished by early next year. We actually played a couple of the new tracks at this years London Guitar Show and they were well received which is very encouraging. Plus the band is now bigger with the addition last year of stunning Vocalist and co writer Peter Eldridge who I met at We Will Rock You and keyboardist Chris Teeder. It's a very good band - it feels proper - it's like a family when we work together which is what it's all about for me. |
| Phil Hilborne's Top 5
Top 5 Guitars
PRS Signature - I love mine it really is so versatile and it just feels like and old friend to me.
Fender Strat - It's a classic isn't it!
Fender Telecaster - Same as above
Les Paul - Lovely fat sound another classic. I also have one made by my good friend the late Sid Poole - which is just brilliant.
Music Man Luke - This is another very versatile guitar - brilliant for teaching because it is so light you can have it round your neck all day without any backache!
Top 5 Amps
Marshall Jubilee 50/100 - For Classic British Rock/Blues grit.
Cornford MK50 - Big fat sound - I have used these lots - both here in the studio and live.
Cornford Harlequin - Brilliant recording amp - not too loud but great for lots of styles and tones
Ampeg Lee Jackson Head - I have 2 of these here at the studio and they are simply great American Rock/Metal Heads. I mean, Paul Gilbert and Zakk Wylde used to use them before their current endorsements came along.
Fender Amps - there are many good and not so good ones - I love old Bassmans , Black Face Twins, and I even have a couple of fairly recent Blues Deluxes that sound great too.
Top 5 Pedals
Phil Hilborne 'Fat Treble Booster' - sorry had to do it - but I do love it!
Keeley Modded Boss OD1
Voodoo Labs MicroVibe
Roger Mayer Modded Cry Baby Wah
Digitech Whammy - yes I know it's noisy and it buggers up your tone - but I do love some of the things it can do - just don't leave it in circuit when you are not using it!
Top 5 Albums
Ah Via Musicom - Eric Johnson
Gretchen Goes To Nebraska - Kings X
Friday Night In San Francisco - Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia
Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix
Van Halen - Van Halen
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