I begin usually with a guitar riff.
Sometimes there will be a melody in my head that comes out
of nowhere and I’ll start writing down a whole song before
I touch a guitar. It really never
happens the same way twice.
Yes. I wanted this album to
push guitar music forward
and challenge some other
guitarists to come into
my world.
I kept my playing a secret and basi-
cally taught myself. I was afraid to
let people know that I was doing it.
As the son of the best guitarist in the
history of Mali, I needed to be careful.
Had you ever worked with
Eric Krasno before this?
No, but we knew each other.
It felt like a perfect fit from
the beginning.
Was it a conscious decision
to have a guitarist produce
the album?
Speaking of other guitarists,
you have a few guests joining
you. How did you decide on
whom to invite?
My manager put a list of possible guest guitarists together
that I approved. Then Krasno
invited them and they said yes
right away—it was that simple.
What an honor it was to play
with these great musicians.
I have enormous respect for
John [Scofield]. Though we
only played together for a short
time, he showed me a kind of
patience on the guitar that I
really appreciate and I will carry
with me from now on.
What did Dave Matthews
bring to “All the Same”?
He brought his own soul to
the song. He understood what
I was expressing in it and he
developed that idea into something that larger audiences can
