In his first interview in five years, the elegant and gifted guitarist/songwriter Gem Archer is this episode’s guest on The StageLeft Podcast.

In an open, honest, and at times hilarious interview, Gem goes into great detail about his own career, his view of the music industry, and what it was really like when the Oasis tsunami finally broke.

Gem talks about his early influences and details the shift in the creative process from singer in his own to right to writing songs to be sung by Liam Gallagher. He also gives advice to young guitarists, and tells us what the future holds.

He talks candidly about the fainting episode that resulted in a fractured skull, the emotions of playing Don’t Look Back in Anger at the Manchester Arena, and how he helped Liam develop his song writing

He gives us the low down on the NiN rumour, the Death in Vegas sessions, and tells us the common personality traits of those who have made it against those who have not.

“Don’t give up.”

We hear the often-asked question on how to decide which guitars to take on tour, and a rather frank reply on dealing with pressure on stage:

“…If you’re thinking on stage you’re fucked…Look… within reason nothing matters, everybody fucks up…”

We hear about the rock ‘n’ roll voyeurism that is seeing U2’s dressing room, and the in ears vs wedges debate rears its head again.

“…Noels got super ears man, he prides himself on that… he has some supernatural shit going on…”

In this fascinating interview, recorded the day before he flies off to Mexico, we hear also discuss trapdoor chords, knee chords, and hitting Trent Raznor with ping pong balls.

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