Charlywood launches ‘Charlytalk’ with interview with lead guitarist Fabian Lewey
Andy Charlewood, lead singer of Austrian indie pop rock band Charlywood, kicked off a new YouTube series last week.
Called ‘Charlytalk’, the ongoing video series will feature interviews with Austrian and Austria-based musicians (predominantly, although there is no telling who he might grab for a chat as the series continues). The main topic of conversation will be why and how these artists got into making music in the first place, what their music-making process is, who their influences are and a helluva lot more.
The first interview in the ‘Charlytalk‘ series is an easy one. Well, at least for Andy Charlewood.
That’s because he decided to interview Fabian Lewey, lead guitarist of his own band.
A smart move I would say as, when you are starting a series of interviews, it always makes sense to go with a subject you know as, that way, you know what to ask.
In this case, Andy has been making music alongside Fabian Lewey for a number of years now so, yes, the things he wanted to know about came easy to him.
For me too, this was a cool interview. Not just because I know Fabian, but also because of my interactions with him and the band in the past.
Because I first met Charlywood back in 2016 when I moved to Vienna, and set up an interview with them as I thought their music was brilliant.
I have seen all the guys a slew of times at various Vienna concerts since, as well as hung out with Andy, a fellow-Brit, to talk about some business goals we have in common.
But what has always struck me every time I see the lads of Charlywood together, or apart, is how quiet Fabian Lewey tends to be. Easily the quietest member of the band.
In this, the first ‘Charlytalk‘ video, however, German-born Lewey has a lot to say. And what he says is interesting.
Interesting, because there was a lot I didn’t know about him.
For instance, he started playing guitar because:
“A guitar just showed up at our house — it was like a nylon string acoustic guitar. I think my mom bought it and wanted to take guitar lessons, which she never did. I grabbed it — I was like 12? And I just started fooling around, tried to figure out chords and tried to figure out songs I was interested in playing, which at that time would have been a lot of indie stuff like when the first Mando Diao record came out, it was like The Kooks. Then pretty quickly I went into classic rock. My major first real guitar interest was probably Angus Young of AC/DC”.
Lewey then moved on to an electric guitar when he convinced his parents he needed one. By the time he was 15, he was in his first band playing cover songs with his friends from school.
“Then we started to come up with our own stuff, which was alright. We did a couple of gigs, nothing super serious. But we used to meet every week. It was good times“.
His big influences, though, and much of why he now plays as he does, started when he discovered John Mayer.
“That led me to all the blues stuff, and that was a whole new world. I became obsessed again, and was trying to figure out “Where does it all come from?” Then, through John Mayer, I discovered the old Eric Clapton stuff, BB King, Albert King, all that kind of stuff“.
Which, as Andy immediately pointed out, makes a lot of sense when you hear the definite blues sound Fabian often incorporates into the music he plays with Charlywood.
Lewey also introduces a country sound on some of the tracks he plays, and that also comes from a number of American country guitar players he discovered and loved.
For the rest of what Fabian Lewey had to say about getting into music, why he moved from Germany to Vienna, what type of lead guitarist he thinks he is, and to hear his in depth information about the pedals he loves and the pedal board he uses, (you know, all that cool detailed musician stuff we don’t get to learn about often) watch the first Charlywood ‘Charlytalk‘ below.
Then, if you like what you hear, (and I think it’s fabulous that someone is finally interviewing Austrian and Austria-based musicians in-depth about what they do and why), make sure you follow Charlywood on YouTube.
They already have a second ‘Charlytalk‘ up with Austrian-based singer songwriter Mark Peters, and there will be a lot more of them coming soon.
Related: Charlywood’s self-titled sophomore album is authentic, high energy and really really clever