World music day is on 21st June. It celebrates music and folks who celebrate music. Music is a passion that transcends boundaries and barriers. Akshat Bhatt, an architecture by profession, has a staggering collection of more than 60 Vintage Guitars and amplifiers. From owning guitars as old as time to playing the ones that are as tiny as 5mm thick and play like a dream, living with Akshat can get genuinely rhythmic and loud! All his instruments are uncommon collectibles and are really specific to him. He says that every and every single guitar that he owns has some story to inform, a story that is deeply connected to him. They all are exceptional and valuable in their personal specific way. In conversation with TheSpuzz Online on the occasion of World Music Day, Akshat Bhatt talked about his abiding passion for Music, Design and Guitars and how he became an artist and a Guitar Geek. Excerpt:
When did you find out your appreciate for the guitar?
I picked up the guitar at about 13, when we got cable Television. Before that, I used to play a couple of other instruments, shifting from a Hawaiian guitar to the bongo and then the keyboard. I keep in mind the very first moment when the guitar caught my fancy to this day — a Guns N’ Roses music video was playing on MTV, with Slash playing the solo to November Rain. He was standing in front of a chapel with the wind blowing via his hair — it was an certainly glorious sight. I got straight away fascinated and told myself that I have to get a guitar.
So, I picked up the guitar and the Guns N’ Roses song purely mainly because it looked cool at very first. In time, I found other greats like Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Dream Theater, Megadeth, and realised my very first influence (Guns N’ Roses) was not superior adequate. In order to make up for lost time, I would invest a handful of additional hours every single day practicing on the edge of my bed. That took my count to an typical of 18 hours a day of repetitive scales, modes, and music theory, and resulted in a 5db hearing loss in my correct ear (which is exactly where I utilised my in-ear monitors I can not blame the drummer).
When did you start collecting guitars and why?
I have been really fortunate – from time to time when you want some thing, the entire universe conspires to give it to you. Rather than me obtaining them, guitars in fact come across me, usually at the finish of a lengthy wild goose chase. There’s a guitar that I chased for 17 years, that I had sold in Delhi and located later in Germany. There is an instrument that my mother supplied to invest in for me in 1994, which I lastly purchased in 2013 right after an eBay bidding war.
Then there are other pieces that I located by possibility, like the Silhouette I pointed out earlier. Yet a further guitar that I saw in Singapore in 2006 was located by a pal in 2012 in the really exact same retailer — six years later, preserved safely in their vault.
The oldest guitar that I have is 15 years older than me, but I also have pieces that are as thin as 5mm, play like a dream, and are the future. I have about 80 guitars, amplifiers, pedals, and all sorts of stuff (attempt living with me, it genuinely does get loud)! Almost every single instrument that I have is specific. I located most of them by possibility in random guitar shops or fairs, or via folks who had a specific piece and didn’t know its worth.
Could you share an fascinating anecdote about your guitar collection?
In 2009, I was in Hong Kong for work, and on my way back I chanced upon an instrument that I fell in appreciate with – a Music Man 20th-anniversary Silhouette. I in no way believed that I’d ever get to play a Silhouette or even take pleasure in playing it, but it resonated with me in a way that no other instrument had. The salesperson supplied to sell it to me for a princely sum, but he would only take money in Hong Kong Dollars. As a dollars-changer converted my US dollars, I relayed my story to a pal who known as up. She dissuaded me from shopping for the exorbitantly-priced piece mainly because I was, nicely, broke, and I relented.
I went on my way with no getting the guitar, hailing a cab to the airport to return to Delhi. She known as me once more, saying, “On the other hand, you only live once. This is something you’re really passionate about, so why don’t you go and get the piece?” But now, I was stuck in one-way website traffic, genuinely close to missing my flight, so I didn’t go back.
But I couldn’t get it out of my head – two days later, I known as up a pal who went to Hong Kong, providing him the store’s address and the name of the salesperson and asking him to go look for it. I also known as the retailer to let them know about my pal, which was when they told me that they couldn’t sell the guitar to him as the key salesperson wasn’t at the retailer. My pal had to leave for India the exact same day, so he as well came back with no the guitar.
Two years later, I was in Singapore to attend a friend’s lecture. I landed early and had a handful of hours to kill, so I headed to the Peninsula Plaza to browse via some guitars. Hanging on the wall in a retailer there was the exact same 20th-anniversary Silhouette. I was thrilled – I forgot all about my plans, and asked if I could invest in the guitar. And I lastly did – right after waiting for two hours for the owner to show up, inspecting the piece, and providing every single penny that I had to invest in it. I walked all the way to my friend’s lecture with the guitar in my hands and no cab fare, but with a wide grin on my face.
How do you procure your guitars?
I have been really fortunate – from time to time when you want some thing, the entire universe conspires to give it to you. Rather than me obtaining them, guitars in fact come across me.. They take years to come across me, usually top me on wild goose chases. There’s a guitar that I chased for 17 years, that I had sold in Delhi and located later in Germany. There is an instrument that my mother supplied to invest in for me in 1994, which I lastly purchased in 2013 right after an eBay bidding war. The oldest guitar that I have is 15 years older than me, but I also have pieces that are as thin as 5mm, play like a dream, and are the future. I have about 80 guitars, amplifiers, pedals, and all sorts of stuff (attempt living with me, it genuinely does get loud)!
Then there are other pieces that I located by possibility, like the Silhouette I pointed out earlier. Yet a further guitar that I saw in Singapore in 2006 was located by a pal in 2012 in the really exact same retailer — six years later, preserved safely in their vault.
Almost every single instrument that I have is specific. I located most of them by possibility in random guitar shops or fairs, or via folks who had a specific piece and didn’t know its worth.
Who’s your all-time favourite guitarist?
To me, Eddie Van Halen is the greatest guitarist of all time. Ron Thal ‘Bumblefoot’ is my present favourite guitar player, as are Paul Gilbert, Mattias IA Eklundh, and Mika Tyyskä.
Could you speak about some of your pieces that are specific to you?
The very first guitar that I got, at the age of 13, was from an Indian business known as Echo Music which does not exist any longer. I got it and destroyed it fairly speedily, on stage or even though playing it in jam sessions. The very first true instrument that I got was from a junkie – it was a uncommon Gibson Les Paul, and I purchased it for a handsome sum at that time right after begging and pleading with my parents. It was a heavy instrument (about 15 kilos) and it was my key instrument from 1993 till the 2000s that I spent my formative years playing. I would sit in a corner and play for about twenty hours in a day on this guitar. It was a specific piece to me, and considerably later, when searching up the history of this instrument, I found in 2000 that it was a really uncommon piece and had enormous worth in the collector’s industry.
The most current acquisition I’ve made is a Strandberg, a headless electric guitar which I acquired from the famed guitar maker Ola Strandberg in Sweden. I occurred to be there one Christmas and I reached out to him, asking if he could spare me a guitar from his workshop. He left two guitars for me in a guitar retailer to attempt on my way to the airport. I went more than, and had the privilege of acquiring a guitar which was personally dropped off for me by Ola Strandberg.
Yet a further piece that is really dear to me is the Peavey Wolfgang. In the year 2000, I chanced upon it in a music retailer on Denmark Street in London – a restricted release of the newly created instrument which the world hadn’t genuinely seen ahead of. It was also understandably high priced, so I moved on and browsed the retailer for a distinct piece. In 2004, I saw a pair of the exact same guitar in Singapore, but I left the retailer once more with no shopping for the guitar.
In 2009, a pal of mine was in Singapore and asked what I wanted, and as a joke, I asked her to invest in this guitar for me. I directed her to the retailer (the Swee Lee retailer in Bras Basah complicated), realizing totally nicely that the guitar had not been in production for a lot of years, and hence had no possibility of becoming there. The retailer manager also couldn’t come across the guitar in their directory! But on opening the listening space, they located a black Peavey case with a gold Peavey Wolfgang inside, and a handful of Post-Its reading “Akshat’s Peavey Wolfgang”. That was a sign that it was meant to be – I lastly bought the guitar that I very first saw in 2000.
How does music influence your work as an architect?
Music and architecture run side by side for me I have a music space in my studio with my guitars arranged on the walls. I think that beyond a point you do not have to have external influences to really feel inspired. You can engage in inventive dialogue the moment you seek the impetus to start off. For me, music is meditative, it cuts out the rest of the world. I do not listen to music to get the inventive approach going it has turn out to be a aspect of who I am.
When I was developing up, studying was restricted to reading some thing and then memorizing and regurgitating it — you have been in no way asked to analyse or post-rationalise it. Music permitted me to create that habit, which is some thing that has carried via into my work as an architect. Studying music also gave me a particular resolve to get to an acrobatic level of excellence in every thing that I do.
I have realised that my attitude to music and my quest for progressive expression was shaped by my engagement with the guitar as an instrument. Playing the guitar led me to progressive rock and metal music, which also shaped my socio-political views. Before I studied architecture formally, I was currently studying music and it gave me an insight on how to use a universal language to develop a regional or customized expression. Over the years, it combined with my education in architecture to cement my beliefs on progress, optimism, sustainable development, and a robust work ethic.
I style in a stream of consciousness. It’s like playing the guitar — from time to time your instrument speaks to you, from time to time it is your mood, from time to time it is your body, from time to time it is what you have heard, and from time to time it is what you are considering. It’s a reaction to some thing.
What would your excellent wake-up playlist sound like?
i) Effortless by Mr. Fastfinger
ii) Passive by A Perfect Circle
iii) The Fountain by Pendulum
iv) Great Blue Waves by Mr. Fastfinger
v) Sex and Religion by Steve Vai
vi) Imagine by A Perfect Circle
vii) How Many Say I by Van Halen
viii) New Day Rising by Von Hertzen Brothers
ix) Creep by Scala & Kolacny Brothers