I never would have dreamed that by episode 5 I would be interviewing quite possibly my favourite guitar player currently tickling the strings, but here we are. For this episode I had the privilege of having a lengthy, and incredibly enjoyable conversation with the reputationally enigmatic, yet remarkably warm, Ben Chasny - the psych-folk, and at times, noisy musical adventurer of Six Organs of Admittance, Rangda, New Bums, Comets on Fire, and a plethora of other projects.

I'd suggest you just hit play on the interview right now, but in summary, we cover Ben's origins as an acoustic guitar wielding hermit after his dad introduced him to the breathtaking playing of Nick Drake, leading to the early days of Six Organs, which has blossomed into the sprawling, genre-defying catalogue of music the project has come to be known for today. 

We chat about guitars (it's a guitar podcast, after all) and specifically about Ben's somewhat limited guitar collection - across the entirety of his career he's only had three (!) acoustic guitars. Along the way, he mentions that the bad action on his first acoustic was a probable contributing factor to the adoption of open tunings, which ultimately became a defining characteristic of Six Organs' music. We also get a little nerdy and celebrate the "even-ness" of tone which nickel strings provide - seriously, if you are an acoustic player and you haven't tried them yet, get on the nickel string train!

As the conversation progresses, secrets are revealed! There's a lot in the pipeline, including a number of new albums, and some Hexadic developments, but most exciting (for me, anyway) is that Ben recorded an entire album with British guitar maestro, Rick Tomlinson (Voice of the Seven Woods, etc.) back in 2016, which is pending the final master before (a hopefully soon) release. Basically, Ben is a very busy man, gifting our ears with his remarkable and prolific output. Aside from his own music, Ben also takes a moment to turn me onto the incredible guitarist James Blackshaw, and that's been on heavy rotation ever since.

Those are a few highlights, but we speak about a whole bunch of other things (shredding, Mr Bungle, "spiritual" music, Leo Kottke, the piezo "tone of death", Fripp's League of Crafty Guitarists, etc.), and honestly, this was one of the most enjoyable conversations I've had in a very long time. I cannot thank Ben enough for taking the time to come on the show and talk guitar, and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed the conversation.