Every great guitarist has their musical signature. Something that lets the listener know, beyond a reasonable doubt, who is working the strings and frets. Eddie Van Halen had his rapid-fire tapping; Jack White has his stuttering squeal. Succinct and unforgettable, Johnny Marr's distinctive guitar riffs have colored rock and pop for the last four decades.
"As a musician, I'm definitely searching for something," Marr tells GRAMMY.com over Zoom from a hotel room in Los Angeles. "There are riffs I want to find. And then those riffs lead to songs. And then those songs need decent lyrics and decent vocal. Just working at my craft, it makes me happy just thinking about it."
Many of Marr’s famous riffs were heard in the music of the Smiths, for which Marr was the co-founder and guitarist, with his bright and lively fretwork appearing on classics including "This Charming Man," "Back to the Old House," and "Bigmouth Strikes Again."
Marr's guitar-driven legacy is also driven by his time with Modest Mouse, Electronic, the Pretenders, The The and the Cribs, as well as session work for Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, Pet Shop Boys, and Talking Heads. The go-to guitarist for Hans Zimmer, Marr has contributed to soundtracks for Inception, Freeheld, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and the 2021 James Bond entry, No Time To Die where Marr’s guitar work was featured on Billie Eilish’s GRAMMY-winning theme of the same name.
All of this comes on top of leading his own solo project, with which he released four albums between 2013 and 2022. The most recent was Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, wherein Marr matches his electric prowess with other soundscapes like big synthesizer effects like on "Receiver" and adept acoustic picking on "Lightning People."
Marr’s legacy even has a physical form: a signature Fender Jaguar guitar. "Every single [Jaguar] is exactly the same as mine. Right down to the last screw," Marr says. "The idea was that I then give them what I think is the perfect instrument, and they duplicate it. So every one that anyone buys is the one that I play."
Marr has recently added two new additions to his long list of accomplishments. The first is Marr’s Guitars, a photography anthology of various guitars that have played a role in his career — from his first-ever guitar (a Gibson Les Paul), to guitars he purchased from the late bass player of the Who — alongside insights from the titular narrator.
The second is Spirit Power, a greatest hits compilation featuring 21 tracks from Marr’s solo project. The album includes hits "Easy Money" and "Spirit Power and Soul," as well as covers, outtakes, and even two brand new songs: "Somewhere" and "The Answer."
Yet Marr is no "greatest hits" artist. After 40 years, his story is nowhere near complete. "I think I'm 60 percent of the way through my journey. I certainly don't feel like I'm 100 percent of the way there," Marr says. "Hopefully, when I croak I will have got up to 95 percent."
On the eve of the compilation’s release, Marr shared stories from his legendary career — from the guitars he loaned Radiohead to write In Rainbows, to recording "Easy Money" on a tour bus, and how guitars communicate with him (and vice versa).
Two of the most well known songs on the new compilation are "Easy Money," and "Spirit Power and Soul," both of which have the strong, upbeat feel of many of your records. Does the guitar have a unique ability to enhance these kinds of danceable songs?
Well, first off, it's a challenge of source to be able to put a lot of guitars on electro music.
When I formed Electronic with Bernard Sumner in the late '80s, early '90s, I learned that it's much more difficult to not mess with the integrity of the machines and the direction of the music by putting too many guitars on it.
With rock music, I'm able to find spaces for acoustic guitars and slides, and all these different kinds of textures. It's a bit more straightforward with electro music. But I think over the years I've found a place for it.
"Spirit Power and Soul" is built on the [bassline] and that was a concept that I had months before I actually wrote the song. When we were on tour with the Call The Comet album, I got the idea that the next album, if I can pull it off, the first single should be an electro pop song.
The idea was that it would be a good thing for the band to surprise the audiences and to really write an electro banger. When it came out I had quite a few musicians contact me. To say how much they like it, which is for me is the highest compliment.
"Easy Money" was one that I came up with when I was on tour in the United States. I heard the whole tune in my head, and it was one of those songs where I thought, This song is either the most annoying thing I've ever heard or it's brilliant.
The record was actually made on the tour bus. When we got back to Manchester we put a real drum kit on it. But I wrote the vocal at the back of the bus. I would write a verse, we'd have to stop the bus, and then I’d record it with James, my co-producer, who's in the band.
I've been around so long now, and a couple of the bands I’ve been in, especially the Smiths, are so revered over the years. But there are quite a lot of people who come to see me now, who got into me because of "Easy Money."
The comp has one cover on it: "I Feel You," by Depeche Mode. This song's opening riff has a swing-blues feel, which is outside of the dancier style across the comp. How did you make that riff your own?
I was playing that riff in the dressing room in Philadelphia in 2015-16, and Ewan, who's the bass player in my band, said to me, "Oh, cool riff. Is that a new one?" and for a split second I considered lying to him, or stealing the riff and writing a song from it. [Laughs]
I started singing "I Feel You," and he's like, "Wow! Really suits your voice," So we worked it up and we sang it that night. The audience liked it. It was a bit of a moment. Conceptually I liked the idea of doing a cover version of one of my contemporaries. I think Martin Gore is a really class musician.
But the thing about the riff and the bluesy aspect to it is that the band I was in from '89-'92, The The, they're coming from the same place as Depeche Mode. Like a techno blues kind of thing.
**A couple stories in Marr’s Guitars are about your loaning and/or giving away guitars. You lent two to Noel Gallagher and eventually let him keep them, and you lended three to Radiohead for when they were recording In Rainbows. How do you know which guitar is right for a certain person or band when you’re loaning them out?**
Well with Radiohead it was a no-brainer. They didn't have a Les Paul; they didn't have an SG. I knew Ed had a Rickenbacker and obviously Johnny's got his Telecaster. I can't remember what Thom was playing at the time, but I knew what they didn't have.
I've given guitars to people who aren’t in the book. People like PJ Harvey, Alex Turner. This is just because I could do it. It's a sign of respect, and it might seem extra extravagant, but it's not. I've been very, very fortunate and over the years and it's come back to me. Nile Rodgers gave me one of his Stratocasters. The Edge gave me a Stratocaster.
With Noel, that story's been told in all these different ways, but I can honestly say as soon as I saw a picture of him with it, I thought, Oh, it's his! He just looked right with it.
No one had any idea at that point that Oasis were going to be even playing to more than 100 people, or even 100 people. They were only playing literally to 14. He was just a kid that I liked.
In the book there is a strong theme about how these guitars communicate with you. You write that you took the Gibson ES355 out of the case, and "Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now" arrived under your fingers complete. How would you describe that communication that happens between you and these instruments?
In some ways it's not esoteric or cosmic, and in some ways it is. The ways that it isn't esoteric or cosmic is that it felt quite like a jazz guitar under my left hand the way the neck is shaped. And it's from 1960, so it's essentially a 1950’s kind of instrument, and it feels expensive because it is expensive. It's beautifully made.
All of these things are quite tactile under your fingers. It doesn't make you want to shred. It feels sophisticated. So the chords in "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" are very sophisticated, particularly for a 20-year-old boy from Manchester. So maybe subconsciously the idea of this expensive, sophisticated, well made, beautiful luxury instrument made me play those expensive, sophisticated chord changes.
On a more esoteric and cosmic take, it may be just as simple as that the guitar had been used to be playing those kind of chords. Whichever musician had it from all the way through the 1960s, someone else in the 1970s, had maybe put a lot of good feeling into that guitar.
On the rare occasions when I've loaned my guitars to people who don't take care of them, they definitely come back with the wrong feeling. Now that might be flipped back again away from the cosmic. That might be because the guitar’s a machine.
When it's been loved and cared for, and nice music's been played on it, it gets used to it. I should say it's a machine that vibrates and resonates. That's the nature of it. It's wood and wire.
There's many musicians who will tell you that if they're lucky enough to own a few different instruments, they inspire you to find that moment and come up with a song or they just, as I say, they deliver it to you right under your fingers.
In this same regard, with the Fender Jaguar that has your name on it, what sort of energy do you want to pass on?
Well, when that guitar was developed I was doing a lot of running. I was like Forrest Gump with a Jaguar [laughs]. So it's a real daytime, healthy, awake, high tempo energy.
It's there in "Easy Money." That's a real riff that came out of that. It's pretty much there in the whole compilation album. All the songs started being written in 2011 when I was getting that guitar released, and that was what I was using all the time.
Although I gave one to Nile Rodgers and he thinks it's a really good jazz guitar, which it is. That's got to do with the sound of it. It is very, very versatile. I know one of the first known musicians to get one was Al Jardine from the Beach Boys, which was amazing. Taylor Swift has got one.
So it's right across the board pretty versatile. But the energy from it is a real kind of positive, wide-awake energy.
What was it like in the studio with Billie Eilish and Finneas for "No Time To Die"?
There was a hell of a lot at stake because it's the Bond theme. Hans [Zimmer] is orchestrating it, trying to make it sound like a Bond movie. But then Billie, quite rightly, is keeping her eye on it because her prerogative is that it keeps the same feeling that she intended when she wrote it. And that's very smart.
I know that environment really well. That's my world. Hans knows that environment. That's his world. Billie knows it. It's her world. So you get a feeling for someone real quick because I know that environment. That's my oxygen.
Billie Eilish is young and yes, she's a pop star, but she's not like some kid who just won a lottery ticket to go in and try and sing. It's very obvious she is a very accomplished and gifted artist, and the vibe I got from Billie and Finneas was they’re musicians that could have been around in the '50s, '60s, could've been around in the eighties.
She was kind of the boss, really, without having to say very much. She didn't need to impose on anybody. She reminds me of Pharrell, although her personality is different. Pharrell buzzes around quite a lot, but he's still pretty zen. These are people who have a vision. They let you express yourself. They let you make constructive changes, but ultimately you know that they've got this vision for how it should be.
In the case of the Bond theme, Billie wrote a really dead cool song, but she also knew that what was going to keep it powerful was making it sound like a Billie Eilish song.
You mentioned this idea of different worlds in the studio. Your world. Hans Zimmer’s world. Billie Eilish’s world. When writing a film score that’s not in a pop structure like "No Time To Die," what is it like for these multiple worlds to come together?
Inception is the best example because before we did Inception, guitars in movies were a complete no-no. They'd been overused in the '80s in a way that had really dated quite badly.
At a point when composers brought ideas to a director, they could suggest Himalayan flutes, they could suggest Aeolian harps, they could suggest synthesizers. But one thing they couldn't suggest on a movie soundtrack was the electric guitar. The electric guitars were out and because of what we did on Inception, guitars are now back in.
I like synthesizers and I like electronics. Over the last 10,15 years, getting to work on movies with Hans, I'm involved with the top sound designers and synthesizer players in the world. Hans being one of them. But sonically, there are things that you could do on the guitar that you just simply cannot do on keyboards. No matter how clever you are.
There's a whole world that you can live in with the guitar, and I'm very, very, very pleased and privileged to be in it.
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