In our first episode of My Guitars & Me, we spent an afternoon with singer, guitarist and Last Shadow Puppet Miles Kane in his London flat to explore the instruments that mean the most to him.
Along the way we meet the guitars that helped him craft his latest album, One Man Band, including his most cherished vintage ES-335 – a guitar that by Miles' own admission, he ruined the value of in the pursuit of getting it just right. Along the way we also encounter a lovely vintage Gibson that forms the bedrock of his recent solo tour, and his very first guitar – straight from the pages of the Argos catalogue.
Along the way we meet the guitars that helped him craft his latest album, One Man Band, including his most cherished vintage ES-335 – a guitar that by Miles' own admission, he ruined the value of in the pursuit of getting it just right. Along the way we also encounter a lovely vintage Gibson that forms the bedrock of his recent solo tour, and his very first guitar – straight from the pages of the Argos catalogue.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 Hello, I'm Miles Kane and this is My Guitars and Me.
00:02 (guitar music)
00:05 I've always loved vintage guitars.
00:16 I can't play new guitars.
00:17 So I got this when I was like 20, something like that.
00:21 I think it's 1969.
00:23 And I couldn't find one, like a 60s one with a Bigsby,
00:26 so we put this old Bigsby on it.
00:28 We found an old one.
00:29 So I completely devalued it, but it's it's me baby.
00:33 It's like, it just feels like me.
00:35 I've tried other guitars.
00:37 I've got other vintage guitars and stuff like that,
00:39 but this is me core for sure.
00:41 (guitar music)
00:44 It's like putting on your favorite top
00:53 or something that makes you feel good.
00:55 When I hold it, I feel good, you know?
00:57 And it's like, I've may have ventured off it
00:59 for a moment, but I've always come back to it.
01:01 Does that make sense?
01:02 I'd especially even more so lately with this new album,
01:05 we've like, we made basically the whole record
01:08 on this album, you know, it was like,
01:10 let's make this the forefront of this,
01:12 of where I'm at in my life and this record.
01:14 And for me, it's like.
01:15 (guitar music)
01:18 You know, I love that like surf sound and you know, like.
01:21 (guitar music)
01:22 Like Batman and stuff like that.
01:24 And you know, Link Wray and.
01:26 (guitar music)
01:29 You know, all that stuff that's kind of like
01:32 that sort of spy sound tracking stuff.
01:34 That's always been my thing that's inspired me.
01:37 And like, you know, that's my sort of style, I guess.
01:40 (guitar music)
01:42 I'm not a technically good guitarist for a start,
01:58 but I've got my own little weird style, I think.
02:02 And I think if you could hear me play,
02:03 you know, it's probably me playing.
02:05 The only thing I can think of now is,
02:07 I think I've probably used it the most,
02:10 most recently on what we're doing.
02:12 And it's kind of a conscious effort.
02:13 And I don't know, it's kind of like,
02:15 I feel like it's got at least a life
02:17 and all my riffs and stuff are like written on it.
02:20 Do you know what I mean?
02:21 Like.
02:22 (guitar music)
02:24 (guitar music)
02:27 You know what I mean?
02:33 And all like, you go like more fuzzy.
02:35 (guitar music)
02:38 (guitar music)
02:40 You know what I mean?
03:02 I don't know.
03:03 It's just like, yeah, it's kind of,
03:05 I can do anything I want in it, aren't I?
03:07 (guitar music)
03:09 I got this, this is in 1965, I think it is.
03:19 And I got this in Los Angeles
03:21 when we were making "Coup de Grace" album,
03:23 which is my third solo album
03:25 after we'd done the second "Puppets" album.
03:27 And the album was super punky.
03:31 And I was looking for a,
03:33 (guitar music)
03:34 it was more like for them chords,
03:36 you know, like the punkier stuff.
03:38 (guitar music)
03:41 Don't know, yeah.
03:47 (guitar music)
03:50 It's just like you can dig in on it,
03:58 it sounds pretty cool on the chords.
04:00 And all them punky records,
04:02 like all them bands like the Damned and stuff like that,
04:04 they sort of use these guitars.
04:06 So I guess like, yeah, them,
04:08 they're like, you know, when you crank up an amp and that,
04:10 it's like a guitar like this,
04:11 when you're doing chords,
04:12 you don't really need pedals, you know?
04:14 I quite like that pure,
04:16 if you've got the boss guitar, the boss pickups,
04:18 you can sort of avoid that.
04:20 I do quite like to avoid that as much as possible, really.
04:24 This is gonna come on the row with me now.
04:25 I'm just gonna take these two.
04:27 (guitar music)
04:29 (guitar music)
04:32 This is a guitar that my manager bought me
04:40 for my 30th birthday.
04:42 Certain guitars, you sort of give you a certain mood
04:45 or you're in the head space for it,
04:48 if that sounds so over the top.
04:50 But it sort of does,
04:52 or if you don't play it for a bit,
04:53 it's like you feel sort of new again
04:55 and you get like a buzz
04:56 or you'll start playing it different.
04:57 But it's right good for like strumming,
04:59 doing all that shit.
05:00 (guitar music)
05:03 Yeah, so like load of tunes
05:11 have just been written like this.
05:13 I mean, the first acoustic I had,
05:15 the first guitar I've got is what me auntie got me
05:18 and that's upstairs,
05:19 it's a three quarter length Spanish guitar when I was 15.
05:23 Do you wanna see it?
05:24 I'll just show you.
05:25 You can't play it 'cause it's that,
05:26 it's like an Argos guitar.
05:29 But I thought like I was kinda gonna get it set up
05:31 'cause I thought it'd kinda look cool.
05:33 It's a bit Ed Sheeran now,
05:34 but it's, I do buzz off Ed Sheeran actually,
05:38 but it's a cool guitar.
05:39 That was what me auntie got me when I was 13.
05:41 So I sort of started learning on the Spanish guitar.
05:45 It's cool though, and it's kind of like,
05:47 and if you can't play it,
05:48 it just goes out of tune so much, but.
05:51 (guitar music)
05:53 But you could, you know what I mean?
05:56 You could do, kinda wanna get it looked at
05:58 and maybe use it 'cause it'd be kinda,
06:00 it's got a cool story, you know what I mean?
06:02 When you have a little play for a bit,
06:04 like I'm learning like the tunes
06:05 for this acoustic tour I'm doing now,
06:07 hence the set up in the house.
06:08 But yeah, it's like I get like a,
06:11 I get a buzz, do you know what I mean?
06:13 It gives me a buzz, it still does now.
06:16 Even playing my songs, you know,
06:17 even sat here doing this practice
06:19 and it gives me a buzz, you know.
06:21 (guitar music)
06:23 (drilling)
06:26 I'm a very limited player.
06:42 (laughing)
06:44 I think I just know what I like
06:49 and I know what I'm into
06:50 and I guess it's a clear identity of who I am.
06:53 (guitar music)
06:56 That's been my guitars and me.
07:09 I hope you've enjoyed it.
07:10 I've enjoyed having you in my living room,
07:12 playing you a few riffs.
07:14 Hope I didn't fuck 'em up too much
07:15 and hopefully see you soon.
07:17 (guitar music)
07:19 (cheering)
07:22 (car engine revving)