New Research: Joe Gore

Joe Gore will tell you that he has no real allegiance to the guitar, but the guitar has been very good to him. As a player, Joe’s imaginative approach has earned him credits on important records by visionaries like PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Tracy Chapman, and John Cale. The diversity and quality of the artists that make up Joe’s discography should inspire any serious music fan, but Joe’s accolades as an unsung hero of outsider guitar are just one facet of an impressive career. Joe’s uncanny odyssey includes long stints editing Guitar Player magazine in its glory days, when insider magazines like GP actively shaped the culture and wielded real influence. Joe was a key figure in defining Guitar Player as the most progressive magazine of its kind.

More recently, Joe found himself at the intersection of guitar and technology as a consultant for Apple, where he was responsible for designing the digital guitar tools in GarageBand and Logic which have since been used by millions to make music. Joe’s experience recreating iconic classic guitar sounds in the digital realm would lead him back to analog gear and a venture designing a range of boutique guitar effects pedals with circuits that strive to provide new colors in a sea of rehashed ideas.

You might assume that versatility lies the core of Joe’s success when you look at the range of his career. From his perspective, it was embracing his unique voice that led to his remarkably charmed life as a discipline-hopping creative. Joe’s is a tale of talent and timing, but also one of authenticity. David Von Bader and Joe sat down to look back at his incredible career, unpack the lessons he’s learned from collaborating with uncompromising artists, and to clarify just what kind of knife he used to play his guitar with PJ Harvey at Glastonbury.

David: The range of people you’ve worked with is remarkable, but it’s the diversity of different disciplines you’ve explored that I find really interesting. It’s rare to meet someone that is not only good at a craft, but is also good at analyzing that craft as a journalist and developing tools used for it.

Joe: I’m the luckiest fucker ever to draw breath and I still occasionally get hired—which is amazing to me. That range was partly a matter of necessity; I’m really a classical musician gone bad. I came to Northern