Martin Winch: Session Supremo Guitar Man
Author: Mark Bell (photography by Craig Bain)
| "I've gotta be busy and I've gotta play, otherwise I will just fade away or sit and watch television. If you don't play you get rusty very quickly and it feels awful..." |
His approach to recording 'Guitar Song' comes across as an interesting combination of casual and methodical. He may be just playing away in front of the TV, picking notes out of a chord progression or singing a loose melody over the top. If he gets on to something with potential, even two or four bars, then it's down to Canongate Studios for the acid test. He then plugs his Godin MIDI guitar into a Roland sound module, and voila, piano.
"If I think I've really got something, the next thing I do is use the MIDI guitar and I'll then record that as a piano, and then I can sit and listen to what I've done objectively."
The guitar/piano (which sounds disconcertingly realistic), is then fed into a rather ancient-looking notating device which acts as a sequencer and also nips out any short notes accidentally triggered by the guitar.
"I really did develop some of those melodies on the last album - they really were quite rough to start with, some of them. You just keep changing little bits here and there, and you end up with something you really think is quite good."
He says he's not particularly interested in keeping tabs on up-to-the-minute studio gizmos, gesturing towards a rather out-of-work-looking Emulator, and agreeing that it's more important to have a good grasp on the gear you have got. Recording proper is carried out on Cubase SX through a couple of PCs, augmented by a nice array of outboard rack effects and mainly AKG mics.
I'm a little surprised to learn that the guitar responsible for the resonant tones of 'Espresso Guitar' and 'Guitar Song' is actually a Matsuoko bought for $300 in 1980, but he explains the sound Doug Jane captured via a purpose-built stereo mic holder was superior to the actual room sound of the instrument. Whatever works works, appears to be the lesson here.
While 'Guitar Song' has not been selling as well as its illustrious forebears - a lot to expect from an album of original instrumentals, Winch believes it will continue to sell steadily for some time, being somewhat immune to the ravages of music fashion.
With the ability to create highly marketable music in the comfort of his bushy hideaway, you might expect that Martin Winch - guitar slinger - would have given away the constant gigging and session work that he has thrown himself into for 35 years. Yes? Naaaaaaaaaa! as the Tui ad goes.
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Martin Winch's Guitar Inventory - Re-issue Stratocaster from the 80's with bridge humbucker |
"No, I've gotta be busy and I've gotta play, otherwise I will just fade away or sit and watch television. If you don't play you get rusty very quickly and it feels awful and you go 'Grrrrr'. I don't practice now, I just, if anything, do a bit of warming up but nothing much compared to what I used to do."
To keep the rust at bay he does a fair bit of solo work such as opening for the 'Amici Forever' opera production in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch recently, and teaming up with brother Rob (himself a mean guitarist), and mates Billy Kristian and Stuart Pearce for their much vaunted tribute to Eric Clapton. There's also his pop outfit featuring three female vocalists with Winch programming up the backing and laying down that tasty guitar. He just contributed to several tracks on pop diva-in-waiting Yulia's new album and the covers band is off to Napier tomorrow, so it doesn't look like Martin Winch is going to be fading away in front of the telly any day soon.
