It’s quite the mixed crowd at St George’s Bristol, but that’s nothing unusual for a Manchester Collective gig, and even less so for the young man sitting centre-stage, electric guitar in one hand, cello bow in the other. Yes, you read that right. To refer to Sean Shibe just as a guitarist is to do the Scot an injustice, however sublime his skills with the instrument. He’s an artist, plain and simple, with a magnetism and intellect to match. That said, there’s nothing grand about him, his adventurous creative streak being just part and parcel of what drives him as a musician. When we meet by the canal outside Kings Place in London, that driving force is something I’m keen to get to the bottom of, and it seems collaborating with an ensemble like Manchester Collective is a big part of it.
‘I think I’m interested in anyone who wants to engage in a really collegiate and collaborative way,’ he tells me. ‘The atmosphere that Rakhi (Singh) and Adam (Szabo) have fostered through the Collective is absolutely that; they’re fleixible and open minded, and they have a youthful
