Rodney Branigan is an ambidextrous musician who not only handles two acoustic guitars with aplomb, he also sings, creates a range of percussion sounds and is a one-man band. This London-based Texan performs country, blues, acoustic rock, alternative and folk music as well as world music, spending most of his time in a van touring the world. He often performs with local artistes on new instruments, drawing on all these influences to create his own brand of music. In town to perform at the relaunch of Virgose at HHI, t2 caught Rodney in action as he kept the audience rivetted with his slips and slides and skillful fingerwork.

Tell us about your musical journey?

I started off as an engineer. Somewhere in my second year in the middle of a class on differential equations, I realised that this was not what I wanted to do and that music was my calling. And well, that is when I took it up professionally. I’ve been playing music for nearly 20 years now. My family comprises a bunch of talented musicians and I trained under my dad, Rick Branigan, and studied a lot of different kinds of music, from classical guitar to Latin jazz. Though I never went to a music school, I picked up a lot of different instruments like the piano, mandolin, bass, drums and harmonica. I also work with the two-hand tab and used that technique on two separate guitars.

I started out by writing country music at Nashville. Starting out as a solo artiste is not very easy and I have travelled across America, playing at different shows and festivals to try and develop my own sound.

What is it like to travel the world with your guitars?

I have always been on the move. When I started out, I bought myself a van and lived in it for two years, travelling across the country. Then I lived in motels for the next three years. My music takes me all over. I moved to London because there is a lot of exciting new stuff happening there vis-a-vis America, especially for the kind of stuff I want to do. But I don’t really have a ‘home’ even now. There is a flat that I have in London but I don’t see it too much. China, Mongolia and now India, I keep travelling.

What inspires your songs?

I sweat over all my songs. I write in my journals wherever I go and keep writing things in them. This provides the material for my songs.

Who are your musical influences?

I have always liked innovators who have been at the forefront of things, from Led Zeppelin to artistes like Jimi Hendrix to acoustic guitar guru Michael Hedges.