Az Samad Lessons

It’s been 4 years since I actually did an interview feature on this website!

But recently, I received a message from Elliott Klein, a wonderful guitarist who I found out via his video with guitarist Bryan Baker. Since then, I wrote a review of his previous EP in 2020 and we’ve keep in touch via social media and email.

He told me about his new EP and asked whether I’d be open to writing a review of it. Listening to the record, I felt like I wanted to find out more about the artist (since I thought it was a really cool EP).

So, here we are, with this interview feature exploring more of Elliott Klein’s world.

Let’s get started!

1) What was your musical experience like before you went to Berklee? Could you share how your early guitar influences shaped you? I read that it included listening to Steve Vai, Tommy Emmanuel and Eric Johnson?

I did not have a lot of musical experiences before Berkee actually. I started playing guitar at 16 after downloading (on Napster or Limewire or whatever) random rock songs from video games. A lot of them had the same name but were Steve Vai, Joe Satriani or Yngwie Malmsteen songs. Each of those guitarists were a universe away from the music I had heard before. I read every interview of theirs and found my way to the G3 tours, Eric Johnson, SRV, Tommy Emmanuel, etc. Every interview with those guitarists included the people who inspired them and the rabbit hole deepend, leading to Joe Pass, Bireli Lagrene, Jason Becker, Jeff Beck, Andrew York, Chet Atkins, Dream Theater and more. 

All of those people had a vision of how they wanted music and guitar to sound and that was my favorite part of listening to all of them. A lot of the rock bands I liked sounded sort of unique and sort of similar, certainly in comparison to how Buckethead sounds versus Django Reinhardt. The biggest impression all of the guitarists I mentioned had on me was that if I was going to try and make a life as a guitarist, I wanted to be as thorough as I could possibly be. That desire led me to try to attend Berklee after only a couple years of playing. 

2) What was your experience going to study at Berklee, especially since it was just two years after you started playing guitar?

The first semester (and to an extent the first 2.5 years) was pretty overwhelming. I was self-taught in the two years I had played and turns out I wasn’t a very good teacher at that point either, haha. Every week after my private lesson was spent laying on my bottom bunk staring at the mattress above me for about 15 minutes thinking, “What the hell am I doing here?”. 

I played “The Boy From Seattle” by Steve Vai for my audition piece which I learned from tabs and I’m guessing the teachers thought I knew more than I did. The entire time at Berklee and to be honest the next decade after Berklee all felt like playing catch-up to the people who started playing at 10 and had teachers. While I’m generally content with my ability now, the feeling of meeting some prodigy who started playing at 3 and got a full ride to a college at 12 or something isn’t uncommon, especially after YouTube became a wealth of information for young musicians. 

3) Moving on to your time in New York City, what was your most memorable experience there? How was it different from Berklee and Boston in general?

I honestly wish I could pinpoint one experience, but for the majority of my time there I did the “say yes to everything” approach which led to a lot of memorable experiences. I think one of the most valuable things for me was living with Adam Neely and Shawn Crowder – who have a wildly successful band called Sungazer – as we were able to hire ourselves out as a band for many singer/songwriters. Similar to my friends at Berklee, they both have high standards for themselves and love pushing themselves musically. It also made me conscious of nuances in players.

They both can be chameleon musicians, but I did notice the difference between a jazz musician who could rock, and a rock musician who could jazz…me falling into the latter and them falling into the former category. I didn’t – and still don’t really – care about whether or not SRV trying to do something jazzy was “jazz enough”. If the playing is good then I’m all ears. 

Kind of got on a tangent there, sorry. I think the biggest difference between NYC and Boston/Berklee was the near immediate drop in opportunities to play complicated music. Musical focus became more about what tone to use, writing parts, and really applying what I had learned at Berklee in real situations. At that point life became less about Giant Steps in 7/8 and instead asking myself, “is this solo right for this song?”. 

Although my musical life in NYC was a lot of sideman and wedding/corporate stuff, I got into music for creative reasons as well so I made sure to always have a few original projects going as well. Adam and Shawn’s band was Sungazer, and before that Inside/Outside which I played on some tracks for. Bright and Loud was my band that they played for. The three of us played for a friend, pop songwriter Micky Blue, as well as indie artist Jae Soto. Basically everyone in the friend group led a band that everyone else played for. 

4) Could you share about your experience in your indie rock band, Bright & Loud and the album “Light Echoes”? 

That album was recorded in maybe 5 days, maybe less. Being the frontman for a rock band let me know that I would rather just play guitar, haha. Really though, I love writing and arranging and that entire album was written just me and an acoustic guitar, then arranging everything afterwards with the band. I don’t like telling other musicians how to sound, opting instead for playing them a demo and saying “alright any ideas?”. The musicians I played with all had their own opinions and we all trusted each other, so it felt safe to take that approach. I still enjoy that album, although I remember even when making it feeling as though I was putting myself in a bit too small of a box (and for a rock album it’s still pretty unusual – violin solos and electronic breakdowns and whatnot). I loved the way that album pushed my writing and arranging, but wanted to push myself more in my playing in the future. 

5) You then moved to Los Angeles in 2015, what led to that? I know it’s quite common to move from coast to coast, but what was that like for you? Also, you played country and Americana, was that deliberate or how did that happen?

I felt at the time that I had sort of hit a wall. Similar to what I mentioned earlier about the difference between jazz-rock players and rock-jazz players, I was curious to see how LA would fit for a rock-jazzer. Basically upon landing I ended up realizing that there is a lot of country/Americana music in Southern California and those genres gave me tons of opportunities to grow as a soloist. For a lot of my NYC time, solo sections were pretty quick and not super important to the songs. With country and Americana the guitar solo should be good and even lift the energy of the song in a way that would be a bit too much for a singer/songwriter or indie soul band. Playing largely pentatonic would be a short term solution and a long term suicide in a band that plays 2-4 hour sets with guitar solos in nearly every song. It was during this time that I was really able to push myself as well as have a place to apply the influence I got from my guitar heroes. Thankfully the bands I was in didn’t mind if I tried to sound like Eric Johnson on one song, Tim Miller on the next, and Derek Trucks on the one after that. 

6) You went on to study at USC and do your Masters of Studio/Jazz Guitar. What were some highlights of that experience, especially if you were to contrast it to your time in Berklee?

USC has a much more regimented and conservative approach than Berklee. For instance, when it came time for my first recital I saw a classical piece was required. I didn’t have a classical guitar nor was that something I assumed would be in a Studio/Jazz major. Although I initially felt some friction with the approach, I think in the end it was beneficial for me to have a different atmosphere when I returned to a collegiate space. For that classical piece I did end up getting a classical-ish Godin and playing Claire de Lune, which pushed me in a completely different direction than the Tommy Emmanuel solo pieces I was used to. I can say for sure that my playing solo guitar would not have happened without Frank Potenza’s teaching style and vast knowledge, and even if it had my arrangements simply wouldn’t be as good. 

7) I first knew about you because of the interview you did with guitarist-composer Bryan Baker — which is an amazing series of videos by the way. What’s the story of how that happened? 

When at Berklee I took lessons with David Tronzo for a bit and he mentioned I had to check out one of his student’s shows. That student of his was Bryan. Why he came into my mind over a decade later while I was sitting on the couch, I don’t know. After pacing around the living room saying out loud, “His name started with a B? D? G?” I finally remembered his name, looked him up, found out he gave lessons and immediately signed up. We got along really well and after a couple lessons I asked why he didn’t have much of a presence online. While he and I disagreed about the usefulness of the internet, he was open to a long-form interview. I would have liked short clips but was just happy to create something to share his perspective to a wide audience. 

Since I started playing guitar later, I always enjoyed hearing those 3 year old prodigies talk about music and guitar. Chances are if I got bored or hit a plateau at 26 years old – 10 years in – and found a way to re-inspire myself, that they must have gotten bored/hit plateaus and re-inspired themselves so many more times since by 26 they had been playing for 23 years. When I heard Julian Lage talk about putting a stethoscope on his guitar like it had a cough and seeing where it resonated the most I thought, “Right, that’s something a prodigy who mastered bebop at 9 year old would do, tell me more”. Bryan solos almost like a 90’s dial-up internet connection and every time I hear him I think, “How are you making this work? How did you even get here?”. So one afternoon in Santa Monica we sat down in a rehearsal studio and shot it with no breaks. I was really happy to find out he came out with a series of podcasts the last year or so, I think they were recorded Zoom masterclasses but released on Spotify as podcasts. I would highly suggest anyone take a listen. Even if you don’t agree, listening to musicians whose minds work like a philosopher’s is always recommended. 

8) Now you’re in Amsterdam. How is it like there and what is your life like now as a musician in Europe?

It’s generally very nice here, I like it quite a lot. When I arrived I would take guitars in for repairs as a way to meet the local musicians and one of those locals who goes by the name Ulrich de Jesus liked what he heard and decided to help me out. I could not have been luckier to meet him. For the first few years I found my way into quite a few projects, getting to play festivals like Zwarte Kross, Kwaku and others as well as venues across the entire country (to be fair it’s much easier to get across this country than the US). 

Doing that all while speaking intermediate Dutch (English if it was an emergency, but mostly Dutch only) was certainly a fun new challenge. I will say, the culture here doesn’t seem as “everyone subbing for everyone else” like NYC or LA, and that has been tough to get used to. While I have done my best to assimilate by speaking Dutch on gigs and even teaching in Dutch as well, it’s still quite clear that I haven’t been able to make a close knit community like I was able to make in NYC and LA. For that reason, relocating to the US might come sooner than later. 

9) Your new solo guitar EP, “Together, Finally”was just released. Could you talk more about that? 

It’s a quick little EP, but also an expression of finally getting to a place with my solo arranging and playing where I feel good enough about my skills to share it. Recording and mixing everything myself was a fun and reasonable challenge as it’s just one instrument, haha. After starting with the joke of “well, guess I have to learn solo guitar” during covid, thanks again to Frank Potenza I fell in love with making solo arrangements. I released nearly all of the arrangements on my YouTube channel, which was helpful because I got to see my comfort with this style grow over the years. It was also helpful because as I got better the comments became much nicer, haha. 

After my NYC band Bright and Loud, I only had minor efforts when it came to leading a creative project as I found being the one taking all the risk not to be particularly fun. When people like Julian Lage speak about the musicians they play with, it seems to me that they at least know and trust each other, and even if Julian is the draw that everyone is very invested in the project working. I didn’t feel that connection when hiring people and I’m honestly not even sure I knew what I wanted to sound like. My songs would seem to be too jazz for the rock/folk crowd or too blues/rock for the jazz crowd.

Looking for that balance led to some interesting playing and songs in the original bands I was in, but I still felt I wasn’t where I wanted to be yet. These arrangements feel like the most personal expression of what I wanted to hear all along as far as harmony, chops, risk taking, etc. 

10) Ok, last question. Now what is lined up for 2025? What’s next for Elliott Klein?

Well, my wife and I welcomed our child a little over a year ago. Over that time we decided we didn’t really want her to grow up without her grandparents or cousins, so we’ve started to consider moving back to the US (there are a handful of reasons, really). Also if the reception to this album is good, I could see finishing a full length album of solo guitar by the end of next year as well as getting back to uploading the solo pieces to my YouTube channel. 

I’ve also decided to push myself in an area where I’ve gotten a lot of unsolicited encouragement, and that is writing. It would be nice to complete a handful of short stories by the end of the year. I know Bruce Forman and Les Claypool have written books (and that’s about all they have in common) and I thought it may be fun to branch completely out of my comfort zone creatively. 

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And that’s it!

Thank you so much to Elliott Klein for being open to this interview and for sharing all the photos and videos to help give more context to his musical journey so far!

Do check out his music and updates on his official website here: https://www.elliottkleinmusic.com/

Listen to the new EP, “Together, Finally” on Spotify here.

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[About Elliott Klein]

Elliott Klein started playing guitar at 16 years old after listening to classic guitar gods like Steve Vai, Tommy Emmanuel, and Eric Johnson. He was so dedicated to his instrument that he was able to attend Berklee College of Music just two years later. It was here that Elliott formed his first band that played over 100 shows a year up and down the east coast.

Upon graduating with a double major in performance and business, Elliott moved to Brooklyn, NY, where he spent time working as a session guitarist. While in New York, he also wrote his own original music and formed the indie rock band, Bright & Loud. His last release in 2015 was the album “Light Echoes” that showcased his guitar playing, producing, and songwriting abilities. 

Elliott moved to Los Angeles, CA in 2015, where he has established himself as an in-demand session musician and made his way into the Country and Americana scenes. He teaches privately online and received his Masters of Studio/Jazz Guitar from USC’s Thornton College of Music.