"I wasn't influenced much by as a guitar player. I didn’t listen to lot of guitar players, I’ve got together my own way. I never ever learn guitar, I didn’t want to because if I listened to other guitar players I’d play the same style."
"Time ago I met Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson and they all said: “Ah Martin, we used to listen to you”. They said they’re influenced by me but I just can’t hear it in their playing. It’s not so much about playing as about music."
"When i joined the Tull we were just starting from nothing, whatever songs were like no other music. We were starting from, I think, absolute zero. But I think it took not only my guitar playing but the way the music went. They all would be saying: “Why won’t you play like this or like that?” That’s why I never listened to other people, because I just feel what is the right thing. For example I can’t play jazz."
"Wath you hear on “Trick Of Memory” It’s not jazz, it just sounds jazzy. I can’t play proper jazz but I can make it sound like that. I just pretend to play jazz. I can’t also play country and western but I pretend, and I can pretend to play classical music. It’s just my version of it because I listened to jazz and I listened to classical music. So it’s easy to copy and I copy in my own way but I’m not playing it properly."
"Rearrangement of songs is a dangerous direction to go in. I try to stay within the guardrails, but we occasionally have fun. Some of the old tracks are a bit bland in today’s world. There are not many, so we may try a bit of rearranging. But I don’t rearrange as an exercise. We do have fun with it, example is we do a rearranged “Eleanor Rigby.”
"I think everyone my age was influenced but the Beatles. They were the best band, the most original, most inventive band, so everyone of that era thought they were hugely influential. Not many didn’t like them, at least in England. The Beatles were leaders, and I remember when Sgt. Pepper came out, they re-established themselves. Putting themselves right at the top again by blowing everybody away. They were artists and came out with albums that bypassed all the trends that were happening. I don’t mean to be disrespectful of “Eleanor Rigby”’s songwriting, but our arrangement is a bit of fun, and the song shines through. But re-arrangements, as a rule, can become a dangerous habit."
(Sources: VMZ, Culturesonars, Dmme.net, WJCT)
