[ Bruce Adolph ] Jemm, you and I first met at a Summer NAMM Show in Nashville several years ago. Our Editorial Advisor Doug Doppler introduced us. You were friendly and had a fun time at some of the meetings we were hosting there for Christian musicians. Later as our friendship grew, I would tease you that you were my favorite Filipino Australian guitarist. And that is a true statement. I am impressed with not only your guitar skills, but also with your enthusiasm for all things guitar, all the while serving the local church.
Tell us how your musician journey began?
[ Jemmuel Magtibay ] Music has been a part of my life from the day I was born! My Mom is a worship leader, brother is a guitar player and he’ s the guy who got me into electric guitar and gear, my sister sings and plays piano, my cousins can sing and play an instrument so it’ s been part of my upbringing! The only person who isn’ t musical is my Dad but he loves his music too! I loved music so much as a little kid that i would even sleep with CD’ s like a teddy bear. I grew up surrounded with music from so many different genres ranging from being influenced by my parents music DVDs and CD’ s like Abba, Bee Gees, Eagles, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Kenny G, The Beatles, Journey, Country Music and Filipino OPMs and my older brothers music which ranged from rock bands like Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Muse, Relient K, and Switchfoot.
It wasn’ t until YouTube came about and when I got my first guitar magazine back in 2006 / 2007, that’ s where I was introduced to my guitar heroes like Eddie Van Halen, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Satriani, Doug Doppler, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Mayer, B. B King, The Edge, George Benson, John Petrucci and so many other guitar players that really inspired me. Also, since being in a Christian household, the Christian music that surrounded me were people like Don Moen, Ron Kenoly, Michael W. Smith, Hillsong, Delirious, Planetshakers, and kids worship like Psalty the Singing Song Bible were very influential to me.
Music has taken me places where I never thought I’ d only dream myself of doing, but to have actually experienced what I’ ve wanted to do and surprisingly still doing music as my career to this day when there’ s a lot of odds against me is pretty special.
My journey in music started out at home and in my home church Come To Jesus Church located in the Western Sydney suburb of Glendenning. Like I said earlier my Mom and brother were musicians so there was at least a guitar around. My brother was a big gear head, and he started out with an Ibanez RG320 and a Marshall valve state VS30r 1x10 combo and a Zoom effects pedal. Over time he got more serious with his gear and went into the eBay rabbit hole of buying effects pedals, selling pedals, getting pedals modded and so forth.
I didn’ t start learning guitar properly though until I was around 8 or 9 years old and it was such a great time to learn because the midlate 2000s were the last era so far where you had real musicians and organic instruments
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