You're in Guitar Player ?

MattS GP Flick, a photo by mattstevensguitar on Flickr.

This month in the US magazine Guitar Player there is an interview I did about Relic and what gear I use and using the web to build an audience. It's kind of a big deal for me because when I was growing up I used to read all the guitar magazines I could get locally in Rushden. Guitar World, Guitarist, Guitar For The Practising Musician and most of all Guitar Player. Guitar Player was the most highbrow one, it had the interviews with Joe Pass and John Mclaughlin and articles about Chord Substitution when the others focused on "whos faster Satch or Vai?". Of course I still loved the other magazines but I always had lot of respect for GP. I used to sleep with a big stack of guitar magazines by my bed, next to my stack of heavy metal vinyl and SNES games.

Just before Christmas I got the issue with the interview in it, I was stupidly excited. It was something I'd wanted to do for years. I remember working in a shop that sold the magazine thinking one day wouldn't it be amazing to do an interview with them. It seemed impossible, people from Rushden aren't in guitar magazines, this was another world. The interview seemed to go well and certainly got people interested in the music from the messages on my Facebook page and on Youtube.

I also used to think once people were in magazines they made a lot of money from music. Sadly this turned out not to be true! However this year I have felt like some validation for my music, even thou I've turned down "credible" record labels that this is worthwhile music, music that people like. I know from talking to the audience online this seems to be true, that it wasn't vanity publishing. All my albums turned a small profit. I remember being terrified of spending a few hundred pounds to make the first record in a proper studio, unsure if we would ever see that money again. You have to be brave to get anywhere.

Total sales for my records are around 4000 now so that shows people are interested. I am very grateful to this audience, it means a lot to be able to pay for recordings and earn a living from music.

When Loop Baby was christened we put 'Musician" as my job, something I never thought would happen.