Dn-dn-derrr. Dn-dn-der- nerr! Deep Purple - we owe you so much. Smoke On The Water may be the most over-played riff in rock history, but how many of us owe our playing roots to those fertile four chords?
Jam, the mononymous guitarist for skeez-rocking Londoners Cage The Gods, counts himself among that number.
"One of my mates from school had got a guitar," recalls Jam of his start. "He'd learned to play Smoke On The Water - surprise, surprise - and once I saw that, I was jealous, so that's what influenced me to pick it up."
With the dam busted open, Jam's spent the intervening years bathing in rock's dirty waters and studying Messrs Page, Young and Slash. "All of those guys brought something in, a sound, that wasn't
out there at the time," reckons Jam. "They all play through similar setups, but they all sound different to each other."
It's almost a given, then, that Jam favours a 1970s Marshall JMP paired with a Gibson Les Paul Custom to power his classic- tinged licks. With the band treading a path similar to their ancestors, MusicRadar can't help but ask if they've developed a taste for the same lifestyle.
"The millions of dollars is rare these days," says Jam. "But in terms of the excess, I think that's very much still possible. Some of the things that you read about guys doing in the 70s are done by most people on a Saturday night now!"
For more information visit the official Cage The Gods website, or connect with the band on Twitter and Facebook.
