Interview with Troy Redfern Britain’s ‘King of Slide Guitar’

Photo: Troy Redfern by Rob Blackham

Explosive blues/rock slide guitar virtuoso, singer, songwriter Troy Redfern is burning up the airwaves with his upcoming album, The Fire Cosmic, out August 6^th on RED7 Records. Dubbed Britain’s “King of Slide Guitar,” Redfern is carving out a name for himself by blazing a trail across the main stage festival circuit in the UK, Europe, Scandinavia and Russia. He’s shared the stage with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Dr. Feelgood.

With fiery and authentic performances, Troy Redfern released five full length albums in 2020 alone, all receiving worldwide airplay and critical acclaim. The Fire Cosmic was recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios in North Wales, Queen’s home for recording all their early albums. For the recording of The Fire Cosmic, Redfern enlisted one of the best rhythm sections in the UK including the legendary Darby Todd on drums (The Darkness, Robben Ford, Martin Barre, Paul Gilbert), virtuoso bass guitarist Dave Marks (Hans Zimmer), plus guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal (Guns ‘N Roses, Asia, Sons of Apollo) on the song On Fire, in what Troy describes as “the ultimate dream team” and what is arguably the British guitarist’s most compelling release to date. The album was produced by Paul ‘Win’ Winstanley.

Troy Redfern is a natural slide player who found himself when he first discovered open tunings and the bottleneck. He has his own signature glass blown slide made by renowned slide manufacturer Diamond Bottlenecks.

Rock & Blues Muse
You recorded and released five albums in 2020. You certainly put the pandemic to good use. Did recording and releasing five albums in one year stem solely from inspiration?

Troy Redfern
When the pandemic hit at the beginning of 2020, I had just released an album called This Raging Heart to take out on tour with me. Unfortunately, that tour got cut short when the first lockdown happened. When I realized that we were going to be in lockdown for quite a while, I set to work writing an acoustic album which ended up being Island.

A few months after that album had been released, I searched my archives. Because I have my own recording studio, I have lots of music already recorded and I put together an album called Deep Cuts which were the tracks from the This Raging Heart session that didn’t make it on to that album. I released that on Bandcamp as that platform were waiving their fees for bands once a month.

Later, that year I thought it would be interesting to record an improvised thirty-minute Resonator guitar improvisation that I recorded using my National Triolian. It was basically an experiment in concentration, to record a one take 30-minute piece of music. It was a nice contrast to the more structured albums I had released previously.

The final album of 2020 was an instrumental guitar record called Thunder Moon, this was music I had recorded over the past 5 years and showed a different set of influences. It was more in the vein of Joe Satriani, Frank Zappa and Edgard Varese. Despite Thunder Moonbeing a deviation stylistically from what I normally put out, I was pleasantly surprised that this album sold well, and was accepted by my audience that would normally expect straight-forward blues/rock.

Rock & Blues Muse
How is The Fire Cosmic different from your other albums? Did you go for a heavier blues/rock vibe with it?

Troy Redfern
With The Fire Cosmic, I wanted to record an album that had leaner, more concise songs and that would also incorporate a more modern rock production but still have the underlying roots influences still at the forefront.

The players I hired to record this album; Darby Todd on drums and Dave Marks on bass, gave it a particular sound due to their unique styles of playing. The drum tracks always define the style of an album and Darby’s Jon Bonham-esque’ playing really stamped that kind of personality on the recording.

Every other album I have released I’ve recorded myself in my home studio and I have always gone for a more open, slightly rockabilly blues sound, but with this album I handed the reins to producer Paul Winstanley and let him work his magic on the mixes. He took it into a modern rock direction.

Rock & Blues Muse
Did you have a clear concept for all 10 songs before you went into the studio with Darby Todd, Dave Marks, Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal? Or did some songs come to fruition with the other musicians before the recording process?

Troy Redfern
I had written the songs for The Fire Cosmic in early 2019 over about a four-month period. I’d made complete working demos with all the drums, guitars, bass parts and vocals. I sent these demos to Dave and Darby before we went into the studio and they really did their homework, not only learning the songs but improving on them by adding their own take and stylistic stamp to the tracks.

When we went to Rockfield Studios we only made a few small adjustments to the arrangements, but those really helped to enhance the tracks.

Rock & Blues Muse
Who are some of your guitar heroes?

Photo: Rob Blackham

Troy Redfern
I have so many guitar influences across lots of different genres, one of my earliest influences as a kid was Brian May and Jimi Hendrix and Richie Blackmore. When it comes to Blues players, Son House and Blind Willie Johnson are two of my favourites along with RL Burnside, Fred McDowell, Skip James, and Johnny Winter. I am also a big fan of seventies fusion music. Guitarists like Allen Holdsworth, Frank Zappa and John McLaughlan had a big influence on my musical landscape.

I also love early Appalachian music, Levon Helm’s album Dirt Farmer is one of my all-time favourite albums.

Rock & Blues Muse
Once you started playing slide years ago, your guitar playing fell into place. Tell me about that progression with your guitar playing and what the experience was when you started playing slide.

Troy Redfern
When I was about 17, my partner at the time, her father, showed me how to tune the guitar to an open tuning and it was around this time that I started experimenting with slide guitar. I immediately felt comfortable playing the guitar in this style. It just felt natural.

Over the years, as my guitar collection grew, I set up different guitars in different tunings and now feel more at home playing guitar in an open tuning then I do in standard. The whole album The Fire Cosmic was written in open tunings on my National Triolian. I feel that an open tuning can inspire you to think outside of the box when it comes to writing guitar parts instead of just going to the familiar places that I would naturally go to in standard tuning.

Rock & Blues Muse
What does your album title, The Fire Cosmic, mean to you?

Troy Redfern
The title of the album The Fire Cosmic comes from the artwork I created for the front cover for the album. Originally, before I decided to use it as the album cover, I released it as a print that you could purchase from my website. The artwork was in the 60’s comic style and had a panel at the top, like the kind of thing you would see on a Silver Surfer comic page. That panel reads “Sentinel of the six string sonic highways, explorer of the inner worlds and dark harmonic realms, this lone figure searches the endless voids and quantum dimensions in his eternal quest for… THE FIRE COSMIC!”. This was kind of tongue n’ cheek, but really worked with the visual. When I decided to use that artwork for the album, it seemed only right to keep The Fire Cosmic part. I felt like that line really described the energy and vibe of the music that we’d recorded, the ‘fire’ being the passion.

Rock & Blues Muse
How did you arrive at your guitar tone? Pedals? Amps? And please tell me about your guitars. I know of your 1929 National Triolian Resonator, 1930 National Style Resonator, and 1962 Silvertone Jupiter. There must be more.

Troy Redfern
It has taken a lot of years of experimentation, different pick-ups, pedals, and amps to get the guitar tone that I have these days. On the Triolian I have a Barcus Berry High Tek pickup which allows me to have an overdriven tone on that guitar which is an unusual thing to do with a National Guitar. That Triolian was a gift from my partner a few years back. It is my number one guitar. It has got such as amazing vibe and plays really well. Most of the album The Fire Cosmic was written on that guitar.

The Silvertone is the guitar I use mainly for electric slide when I am playing live. The Silver Foil pickups are amazing. They have a real throaty, raw, open sound which is perfect for playing slide. Other than that, I have got about 30 guitars that I have set up in lots of different tunings. They are there ready for when I want to record.

Rock & Blues Muse
Who are your musical influences?

Troy Redfern
My influences come from across all genres, obviously blues music is a massive influence. I also love classical composers like Debussy, Stravinsky, and Webern as well as music from the Middle East and India.

Frank Zappa is also a massive influence, I discovered him when I was about 16 and still listen to his albums regularly, there a whole universe of music in his catalogue. Alan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, John Schofield, and Bill Frisell are also musical heroes of mine. Those guys are unique guitar players… that’s what draws me to certain artists, really.

Rock & Blues Muse
I really like “Waiting For Your Love,” “Lay That Love Down” and “Ghosts” on your album. They have a distinct groove, heavy blues/rock vibe. Tell me how they came about.

Troy Redfern
“Waiting For Your Love” started as a kind of John Lee Hooker boogie, but I really wanted to turn up the energy and take that ‘feel’ into the rock spectrum. “Lay That Love Down” started as kind of a mix between Lenny Kravitz and The Rolling Stones but with an added slide guitar vibe. Those influences seem less apparent in the finished version. We made sure we kept the tempo back on that one to give it a laid-back groove.

“Ghosts” started off on the Triolian and was originally an acoustic Appalachian style tune, but as the layers of production were added it ended up sounding more contemporary, distorted guitars etc. I am pleased that some of the originally vibe from the demo can still be heard in the finished track.

Rock & Blues Muse
Apart from “Saving Grace” (beautiful song by the way) most of your songs on The Fire Cosmic have a heavy, urgent, intensity. What are your thoughts on that?

Troy Redfern
That’s something I have always had in my playing, especially when I play live. I love to feel that kind of urgent energy and I really wanted to capture that on this album. It really helped having Darby Todd and Dave Marks as the rhythm section because those guys play with real passion and fire, they are the perfect musical wave for a guitar player to surf on.

I try and channel all sorts of negative and positive events in my life into my playing and music. Playing guitar is a great outlet for all the things you can’t release in normal life. One of my favourite quotes is by Gustave Flaubert “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

Rock & Blues Muse
What’s next for you?

Troy Redfern
The Fire Cosmic drops on August 6^th, so that’s exciting to finally release this album. I will be putting out my new single “Sanctify” a few weeks after the album drops. Then, in September, I will be heading out on a UK tour with the fantastic Robert Jon and The Wreck. I’ll be doing that run of dates solo, just me with the Resonator guitars. It’ll be exciting to play the new album in a really stripped back form. I can’t wait!

Watch “Waiting For Your Love”