We had the pleasure of chatting to the upcoming blues guitarist the other week about his recent UK shows, plans for more and what it’s like in the UK compared to back home. Check it all out below!

You’ve exploded onto the scene over the last year or so, how as that time been?

It’s been a great year! As a fan of this blues scene and UK blues players like Robin Trower, Philip Sayce and even Jimi Hendrix, it’s been a real thrill actually getting to have a stab at it myself!

How did you get into the blues scene? It’s not something as mainstream as it used to be!

Honestly, my answer for that would be that when I was in highschool, I took a music history class. My teacher took a special interest in me, really helped me get into this stuff and turned me onto the blues specifically. That’s where I went down the rabbit hole, right there. From there it was straight Stevie Ray Vaughan!

Definitely a good place to start!

You were over in the UK at the start of the year, right? How was the tour?

Yes, I just got back here Sunday last week [at the time of recording]!

It was the best tour of my life, man! I definitely feel like it was the most significant part of my career so far. It felt like a monumental experience for me. The Cluny [Newcastle], that crowd, the amount of love I received was unreal. I literally jumped off the stage into the crowd on the last song!

What’s the scene like back home compared to over here?

I mean, I don’t want to talk bad about my local music scene, but I would say for me personally that the scene in Scotland and the North East of England is incomparably better for me. I have better results.

Is it a case of it being a bit more saturated out there for that kind of music?

I guess so, yeah.

Your band for the tour were called The Yorkshire Puddings, how did that name come about?

Well, I met the guys on my last tour back in August with my band from America, we came and played like six shows in England and Scotland. These guys were opening for me in Newcastle. I met them there and we were borrowing their drum kit. The name came from… I wanted to have a way to separate the bands. One day when we look back on it, I didn’t want everything to be under the same name, I wanted the backing bands to be documented. The same way Jimi Hendrix had the Band of Gypsys and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, I wanted to do something like that! We wanted it to be something that people could look at it and instantly tell that it’s a British band.

And then you’re back over here in September, right? I saw you were announced for a festival!

I’m actually back in August! September is the last date of the run. I think we already have like eight shows in August. Then we’ve got Europe too, we’re playing Berlin in July.

Have you done much out in Europe before?

Never, just England and Scotland. I’m so excited to get into the German scene! It’s been a real privilege getting started in England and Scotland, I have a serious appreciation and love in my heart for both. The way these countries have embraced me has really helped my early career.

In terms of studio stuff, are you sticking to singles for now? Is there a longer release on the way?

We plan on something longer, of course, but for now we’re just trying to write songs, record them and put them out, you know. We’re recording one right now, actually!

I feel like it’s quite hard to put out these days. It’s geared towards singles but it’s so hard to keep up the grind sometimes!

Yeah! I’m going to put out some live recordings, too. I love live recordings; if I ever get one I really like I’ll put it out! From our last tour we got some, just takes a couple of weeks, you know!

Do you have a dream tour lineup you’d want to be a part of?

I mean, not so much a dream lineup, more so a lineup of countries. There’s so many people I’d love to tour with, I could list 30 people right now! You know, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, the guys who are still standing! A tour with Eric Clapton would be great!

If you could have written a song from history, what would it have been?

Low key actually, ‘Johnny B. Goode’. I was saying this just the other day, that I can’t believe Chuck Berry made that song. Like he’s not covering it, he made that song. How someone wrote something so good is amazing. So I think I’d go with that!