Onstage,
Westerhus
becomes the
ghost in his
music—the
human pilot of
a raft of gear
that transforms
his singular
vision into
unpredictable
sound.
You said you picked up guitar because
of Jimi Hendrix. What was it about his
playing or sound that inspired you?
My dad tried to teach me guitar when
I was a kid and it didn’t work. Later, I
was home ill when Hendrix came on
TV playing “The Star-Spangled Banner”
at Woodstock. It was his energy and
expressiveness that caught my attention.
I picked up the guitar that minute. I was
quite young, around 10.
What happened to your recent band
project, Stian Westerhus & Pale Horses?
We were happy with the album and it
got a lot of publicity in northern Europe.
Our booking manager got really ill, so
we hardly did any gigs, but the process
with Pale Horses inspired me to go
further with my solo work. There are
things on my new album I never could
have done if I hadn’t done Maelstrom. I
figured out how to mix song-structured
writing with my style of guitar playing
so I can sing and play at the same time.
It was challenging because, with Pale
Horses, I initially got pushed into a
rock trio corner, where I would sing and
play like a normal guitar player. It didn’t
feel as free as I wanted until toward the
end. Eventually, the tunes could travel
anywhere, because we all understood
where they were going. The next step
with Pale Horses is to keep that freedom.
The tracks on Amputation flow into
each other very naturally. Was it
conceived as a single composition?
No, it wasn’t, but when I started working
in the studio, the tracks all blended into
each other. I love the process of putting it
all in context to see how the tracks work
together. I had so much material it could
have been three albums. I just started
cutting and it was “kill your darlings”
time. The last three tracks are an extreme
112 PREMIER GUITAR SEPTEMBER 2016
Photo by Thor Egil Leirtrø
How did Amputation evolve?
Some tunes, like the opening track, were
originally written to play with the South
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and
some were written as new Pale Horses
material. But I found it inspiring to do
these tunes on my own.
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