Guitar wizard Luke Machin has released a debut solo album he described as labour of love – but the musician once voted one of the top five guitar players in the world has said his young students are baffled by the album’s CD format.
“Soulshine,” the new release from guitar wizard Luke Machin, (36), is an homage to soul, funk, jazz, pop, and a host of legendary musicians who have inspired his career so far.
“I’ve been in bands in the prog-rock world for about 15 years now,” he said.
“When you do one style of music so much, people think that’s all you’re into, but I hardly listen to it — I just play it.”
Growing up in Congleton and attending Eaton Bank School, Mr Machin said his passion for guitar started at a young age.
“Most kids were getting into Power Rangers or WWE wrestling,” he said. “But I was watching videos of Francis Dunnery going up and down stage with his long blonde hair, shredding these blistering guitar solos that no one else could play — it was awe-inspiring.”
Frontman of the 1980s prog-rock and pop fusion band from Cumbria, It Bites, Mr Dunnery and his band became an obsession for the young Luke, who said he played a VHS of their live show so many times that it broke.
“(Francis) was my guitar hero growing up, before I knew of people like Guthrie Govan,” he said.
It was a dream come true for Mr Machin when he was given an opportunity to study under guitar guru Mr Govan at the Brighton Institute of Music when he was 18.
Named Guitarist of the Year by “Guitarist” magazine in 1993, Mr Govan has worked on famous film soundtracks with composer Hans Zimmer, including “Interstellar”, “Inception”, and “The Lion King” (2019).
“Govan is an incredible player — I learned so much from him,” Mr Machin said.
“He’s renowned for playing all different styles and genres, and I was so hungry to learn anything and everything to do with guitar. He’s at that level where he’s like a god of guitar. I was so lucky to study under him — he just happened to be one of the faculty members at that time.”
Mr Machin showed so much talent in his audition for the course that he was accelerated a year ahead of the other students who applied at the same time.
“They handed me a piece of paper and told me not to show it to anyone else because they were putting me straight onto the degree course, instead of doing a diploma first,” he said.
Despite suffering a respiratory illness that meant he missed three months of his first academic year, Mr Machin still managed to achieve Student of the Year for his dedication to the course.
After graduating, he stayed in Brighton and worked as part of the faculty for a year, arranging music for budding songwriters.
“The students came up to me with sheet music, and I had to arrange it for them in the classroom — I could turn it into different styles,” he said.
“The person who took over my job was (singer-songwriter) James Bay. There were quite a few people from that course around the same time who did well, like Tom Odell and The Kooks.”
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Hero
But a highlight for Mr Machin was when, through connections of Mr Govan, he was asked to play alongside his hero Mr Dunnery on stage.
“Francis is a big mate of (Led Zeppelin frontman) Robert Plant — he was in his band for a few years in the ’90s — and at one point I was up on stage with both of them, which is pretty mental for someone at such a young age,” he said.
Mr Machin said he spent the next 15 years carving out his own career, touring with several prog-rock bands all over the world, including Tangent and Maschine, before settling back in Congleton where he now teaches guitar to students ranging from eight years old to 80.
He was listed in “Prog Magazine’s” top ten Best Guitarist category four years in a row, and was ranked fifth in the world in 2018.
“I really enjoy teaching — all of my students are brilliant,” he said.
“I still perform with my bands, but I’ve also been able to spend the last five or six years working on my album. I’ve managed to produce the whole thing by myself, and use what I’ve learned with music software, writing my own songs. Most of the people I’ve worked with over the years are on the album.”
Taking advantage of the covid lockdown, he said he had managed to get Mr Govan and German multi-instrumentalist Marco Minnemann to record pieces for him. Mr Minnemann has performed with Joe Satriani since 2013.
Mr Machin joked: “No one was touring, so they couldn’t say ‘no’!”
Working to his own schedule and without pressure from a record label had felt “freeing,” he said.
“The label I was signed to with Tangent, Inside Out Records — a sub-branch of Sony — was great for distribution, but you’ve only got a very small window because they have 60 to 70 artists on their roster. You’re the new thing, and then the window is gone,” he said.
He explained that the band had to “jump through hoops” and release content on social media to a strict schedule laid out by the label as part of the contract.
When asked if he felt platforms such as Spotify had made it more difficult for new bands starting out, he said: “There are pros and cons. It’s difficult with the number of bands there are now and everyone is trying to promote themselves, but at the same time social media has opened up more opportunities. CD sales obviously dropped massively when Spotify came out, but it does allow bands to reach people who otherwise wouldn’t have heard your music.”
He added: “Don’t get me wrong — Spotify is not a good thing, but as a musician you have to learn to adapt as the environment changes.”
He felt other streaming services such as Bandcamp, which allows a set number of free listens before users are reminded that it is time to “open their heart and wallet” by paying for a track or album, were more sustainable for bands and offered them a fairer profit share for their music.
But Mr Machin said his prog-rock style meant that his music often appealed to older listeners, who were still keen to buy CD copies of his albums.
“I can still sell physical CDs, which is helpful because that will go towards funding my next album,” he said. “When ‘Soulshine’ first came out I had boxes of CDs in my studio. When I handed them out to some of my younger students, they said the artwork looked awesome, but then they asked, ‘What do I do with this?’ I had to tell them they could play it on their Xbox!”
Soulshine is now available on Mr Machin’s website: lukemachin.com or at soulshinemusic.bandcamp.com.
