Al Di Meola on the “big issue that doesn’t get talked about” that’s hindering modern guitar players
Has technology made us worse at practising and making music? Al Di Meola certainly thinks so.
Speaking on the new issue of Guitarist, the jazz fusion icon argues that smartphones and constant digital distractions have fundamentally changed the way musicians work – and not for the better.
Asked about the “big obstacles” that stand in the way of guitarists nowadays, Di Meola says, “Here’s the big issue that doesn’t get talked about. Back then, before cellphones and computers, we practised way more. And it was way more focused on the songs.”
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The virtuoso recalls noticing the shift while recording an album at New York’s famed Power Station around 15 years ago.
“I noticed, as soon as we were done with the track, which was killer, everybody ran out in the hallway,” he says. “Now, back in the day, everybody would run into the control room to hear their performance. But everybody was on their phone, like, networking, y’know? And I said, ‘This is not right.’ We went as far as to tell the receptionist to hold all calls.”
For Di Meola, the phenomenon is symptomatic of a wider problem.
“That phone is always right there, within arm’s length,” he says. “We got addicted to something that we can’t break. But back in the time when we didn’t need it because it didn’t exist, our focus on our work was phenomenal.”
He points to The Guitar Trio – his supergroup project with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía – as an example of that mindset.
“When I did The Guitar Trio with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía: the first tour, we were in our hotel rooms practising for the show that night because we knew we had to be up on our game,” says Di Meola. “There was no ‘let me check my phone’. And when I listen to those records, I cannot do what the hell I did back then now. Not that I want to, by the way. Velocity isn’t my number one desire. I’ve been devoting more time to composing.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Di Meola also reflects on how creative constraints can sometimes be more productive than unchecked freedom in the studio.
“My record company gave me, on my last record, as much time as I wanted,” the musician recalls. “And I went, ‘Boy, that’s a good thing and a bad thing.’ Because in the days when they had deadlines for shipments, you had to be done no matter what. In a way, it was good to have that pressure. Otherwise, you start experimenting, doing so many different things, and then you go, ‘Wait, let me listen to those early takes’ – and you already had it.”
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