I want to figure out how I can make the most important statement with the least amount of information, so I don't run out of ideas by the time I get to my second or third chorus.

My first love in music was jazz, but I like it all," "I reacted emotionally to Art Blakey and, of course, to Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery. I was all of 16 when I had my first guitar lesson with Joe. But I never focused on being a bebop player. I loved the harmony, rhythm and phrasing, but I wanted to apply them to my own concept and sound.

There are any number of players with extensive jazz backgrounds who haven't been able to fit into other styles," "It all boils down to taste, to playing what's appropriate for the context in which you're working.

It's the opportunity to play something completely different, responding to what happened just before you started to play, and I love that.

I want to figure out how I can make the most important statement with the least amount of information, so I don't run out of ideas by the time I get to my second or third chorus.

Back in the day in my teens I was listening to Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery a lot; before that I was listening to what I would call now the more 'simple' jazz players (but still very valid), like Barney Kessell or Johnny Smith; I learnt a lot of voicings from Johnny Smith records. Now, I listen to the old blues players; that's what you'd hear in my house if there was music on. It would be Albert Collins or Albert King.

People ask me to describe how I play, and the most obvious answer is that I'm a jazz influenced guitar player. But I'm not a jazz guitar player. Wes Montgomery was a jazz guitarist, Joe Pass was a jazz guitarist (laughs).