GT: What is it about guitar instrumentals that appeals to you?
JL: I think inherently the guitar is an orchestral instrument. It has a wealth of possibilities and combinations, harmonically, rhythmically, timbrally. It makes so much sense that there could be almost a distinctive vocabulary of writing, something that's distinct to the guitar that the composer is using. What I love about it is the marriage of the sounds that guitars can make and what the guitar asks of the player; the techniques and approaches. In other words, writing on the guitar is one of the ways I practise the guitar.
GT: What can an instrumental provide a listener that a vocal song can't?
I'm a fan of abstract art and there's something abstract about instrumental music. It's not literally saying the intent. The trouble with that argument though, is that often the best songs with lyrics aren't literal either. So instrumental and vocal songs can deal in abstraction.
