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Katherine Paul is the singer and songwriter behind the Pacific Northwest-based Black Belt Eagle Scout. In her emotive, nuanced, and typically guitar-based songs, Paul touches on her homeland, her family and her Indigenous ancestors, interspersed with narratives from her own unique vantage point.

Black Belt Eagle Scout is signed to Saddle Creek Records, and has enjoyed quite the run of success of late, from an acclaimed KEXP in-studio performance a few years ago to, more recently, garnering a song placement in the popular television series, Reservation Dogs. Paul's latest accomplishment is Black Belt Eagle Scout's stellar new LP, The Land, The Water, The Sky, which is set for release on February 10. 

Here, Guitar World catches up with Paul to talk about the new album, her first foray into playing guitar, how she taught herself by watching old grunge VHS tapes and what she loves most about the instrument.

At the moment, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten is between two important musical points in her life. Van Etten released her latest album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, last May. 2022, though, also marked a significant anniversary – 10 years since the release of her life-changing LP, Tramp. So, she wonders, how to celebrate? 

Here, we caught up with Van Etten as she navigates some upcoming writing sessions – both solo and with her band – and, of course, enjoys her time as the mother of a young, music-loving son who recently began his own six-string journey with one of his mother's hand-me-down guitars. 

The New Jersey native has released six full-length albums to date, with We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong in particular taking her sound in new and fascinating directions. In conversation with Guitar World, Van Etten discusses her songwriting style, early guitar heroes, and her fondest early guitar memories. 

Trixie Mattel is everywhere. The drag star, musician, writer and entrepreneur has graced myriad stages, television screens, YouTube videos and more as she’s gone on her journey of selling her talents and her products to her adoring fans.

Mattel releases her latest musical work today, a double album called The Blonde & Pink Albums, each of which include seven songs. To support the release, Mattel has dropped a number of music videos for songs such as Hello Hello, and recently performed on the late night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!

We caught up with Mattel (born Brian Michael Firkus) to talk about her humble beginnings growing up in a trailer in the “middle of nowhere,” how she found guitar, her stint on RuPaul’s Drag Race, how she became a songwriter with the six-string, and what she thinks about when connecting to her vast audience.

When Foals first began, the Oxford, England-born band likely had no idea how their music would evolve over the next two decades. Today, they're known for their intricate sounds over bright, danceable music, making them a beloved name since their inception in 2005.

But over the years, the band have been forced to evolve, losing one of their original singers and shaping and reshaping themselves, maneuvering between math rock, traditional rock and even funk and disco.

Now, the band are releasing their latest LP, Life Is Yours, and with it comes a fresh sound, but one that continues to encompass many earlier elements. But on this new album, the band – particularly guitarist Jimmy Smith – sought to find cleaner, less “distracted” tones and aesthetics. Gone were mountains of pedals and in their place are a clearer sense of melody and instrumentation.

We caught up with Smith to ask him about his journey with his six-string, how he approached the group’s new album and how his own playing has evolved over the years.

Ceramic Animal, the Doylestown, Pennsylvania-born rock band, are one of the latest groups to collaborate with The Black Keys’ frontman and guitarist, Dan Auerbach. The band – along with acts like The Velveteers and Yola – have enjoyed learning from and working with the Grammy-winning bluesman. And that means, of course, a focus on guitar work.

The band, who released their latest LP, Sweet Unknown, in March, deliver a sound that jives with Auerbach’s aesthetic and history. Throughout the album, Ceramic Animal blend Americana, rock and blues with buzzy six-string sounds and poignant lyricism.

Perhaps the biggest standouts on the new record are the propulsive I Can’t Wait and shadowy I Love a Stranger. But whatever your pleasure, each has Auerbach’s fingerprints all over them.

Genessa Gariano is the lead guitar player for the Los Angeles-born band, The Regrettes. The group, who rose to popularity with a string of guitar-driven albums, now have a new record, Further Joy, under their belt that, unlike the rest of their repertoire, is far more selective with its six-string placement. It uses the instrument in tasteful, textured and subtle ways, as opposed to how a traditional garage-rock, guitar-forward album might with its buzzy, fuzzy smacks and punches.

The Regrettes imbue joy in their audiences. The chemistry and camaraderie among the members is palpable, and it’s a big reason why the group has booked gigs at Coachella and Bonnaroo this year, among many more.

We caught up with Gariano to talk to them about their guitar-playing origins, letting go of genre on Further Joy and what they love most about their chosen instrument.

On Friday (January 28), Toronto, Ontario-born alt-rockers Our Lady Peace released Spiritual Machines II, the follow-up to the group’s 2000 release, Spiritual Machines. Produced by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, the album is bright and sharp. Like its predecessor, the record also features “predictions” from inventor Ray Kurzweil, who muses on the concept of technology and its impact on humanity’s future.

Releasing a follow-up album some 22 years after the original takes guts. But Our Lady Peace, which began formally in 1992, passes any test with funky aplomb. And while Spiritual Machines offered 147 predictions to its listener (86 percent of which came true, the band says), the new album offers both thoughtful ideas and music to get your heels shimmying.

We caught up with the band’s lead guitarist, Steve Mazur, who took over in 2002 for Our Lady Peace’s original six-string player, Mike Turner – who was also brought back into the fold for Spiritual Machines II, since he’d had such an important role on the original LP in 2000.

On January 7, Seattle, Washington-based guitar stalwart Danny Newcomb revealed that a previously lost LP from his band The Rockfords, which features Pearl Jam guitar royalty Mike McCready, was set for re-release. Now, the self-titled debut LP, which had been long forgotten after its release on Epic Records around the turn of the millennium, is prepping for its proper unveiling on all digital platforms.

Last week, band released the lead single from the unearthed LP, Silver Lining. And another is set to drop soon ahead of the full LP release in late February or early March (the group and its team are still working out the details). Also featured on the album is Heart icon Nancy Wilson (one of the greatest rhythm players ever, according to McCready).

The Rockfords formed in 1999. The band comprises Newcomb, McCready, vocalist Carrie Akre and rhythm section, brothers Rick and Chris Friel. Newcomb and the Friel brothers have known McCready for decades and played in early bands, including Shadow, with the guitarist pre-Pearl Jam.

Demi Demitro, frontwoman for Boulder, Colorado-born rock band The Velveteers, has a unique voice on the guitar. She has a power with the instrument. It’s as if it becomes dancing fire in her hands when she wields it on the band’s new record, Nightmare Daydream.

The new 12-track album rattles and shakes, and was produced by none other than Dan Auerbach, frontman, of course, for the blues-rock band, The Black Keys. Lately, Auerbach has been discovering and producing a number of acclaimed acts from his Nashville studio, from Yola to Robert Finley to now The Velveteers.

We caught up with Demitro to ask her about her relationship to the six-string, developing her skills as a teen, and how she and her band began to collaborate with Auerbach in Music City.

If you say the name Carlos Santana to anyone passing by on the street, not only will they almost invariably know who you’re talking about, but they’ll also likely have their own fond memory of the prolific guitar player.

Whether that personal history began with early Santana hits like Black Magic Woman or Oye Como Va, or the bond was born later in the '90s with hits like Smooth, Santana is a legend due to his bright energy and wailing notes from his talented fingers.

Santana has a new 15-track album out this month called Blessings and Miracles, on which he recruited artists like Kirk Hammett, Chris Stapleton, Diane Warren and old friend Rob Thomas.

We caught up with the Mexican-born 74-year-old guitar legend to ask him about the new record, how he works with his cadre of famous singers, and what he remembers from the original Woodstock…

As a musician, Mia Berrin, who fronts the Brooklyn, New York-based punk rock band, Pom Pom Squad, is savvy, kind-hearted and compelling. With the release of the band’s new LP, Death of a Cheerleader, Pom Pom Squad has been the talk of tastemaker outlets all over, from KEXP 90.3 in Seattle to these hallowed digital pages of Guitar World.

Berrin – who is as capable of shout-singing into the mic while strumming a fuzzy “Jagmaster” (more on that below) as she is creating a dreamy fingerpicking soundscape – has much to say about the state of the world, and how that state could be improved or become just a bit more self-aware.

We caught up with Berrin to ask her about her relationship to the guitar, how she came to play the instrument and what she loves about it. We also pick apart her favorite pedals and discuss how she thinks about the six-string in relation to her propellant four-piece group.

Adia Victoria got her first guitar at 21 years old and, ever since, has had a fruitful love affair with the six-string. Truly, hers is a deep connection with the instrument. When she got her first acoustic guitar, the soon-to-be prolific songwriter had always lacked what the guitar gave her: something of her own to wield in the world.

Victoria, who grew up in a repressive religious environment in South Carolina, found in the guitar a way out. It was an object she could use to be both student and teacher, artist and narrative writer. It became her best friend to which she revealed her darkest secrets. It also became the window through which she saw the world in new and darkly historical ways.

All of this passion and education is laid out on Victoria’s new 11-track LP, A Southern Gothic. For the 35-year-old artist, the guitar is a tool she can use to reveal stories long hidden about the black American experience, her own childhood and stories about subjects like the magnolia and its sordid symbolism.

We caught up with Victoria to ask her about forging her bond with the guitar, how it influenced her musical sensibility and how it shaped her new LP.

Songwriter LP, is, in her way, one of the most compelling songwriters in the world right now. She plays guitar (mostly acoustic), ukulele, croons like an opera singer and can entertain crowds of thousands, as she did recently at Lollapalooza.

But what makes an artist great is not necessarily their ability to shred or turn the proverbial amplifier up to 11. Rather, it’s how well they’re able to access those personal places and moments in their creative hearts and souls that resonate in big ways for their listeners. Really, it’s about human connection. And that’s what LP is so deft at.

Before she was releasing songs like Lost on You and earning millions of streams, Pergolizzi was a songwriter-for-hire. She’s worked with giants, from Rihanna to the Backstreet Boys. During those occasions, she would sometimes remove herself from the recorded track and take her ukulele to a corner and strum it to come up with the best lyrics.

We caught up with LP to ask her about her history playing guitar and ukulele, how she wields it on stage (almost like a machine gun, at times) and how she considered the instruments when writing and recording her new, forthcoming record, Churches, which is out December 3.