Rachel Roberts - Journalist

Photo by Donatello Trisolino on Pexels

My Work

Featured Articles

Explore a featured selection of my writing work below. To take a look at my news stories (rather than features) across Guitar.com and MusicTech please see the news writing tabs on the side bar.

Guitar.com | All Things Guitar •

“Every time I’ve played that guitar, people turn around”: Portugal. The Man’s John Gourley on his signature Gretsch and the music that shaped his life

John Gourley proves that there’s no right way to become a musician. Having grown up in a family of dog mushers and carpenters in Alaska, he was somewhat of a latecomer to finding bands like Nirvana and Oasis. He didn’t truly get into guitar until he started his band Portugal. The Man either, but if a Grammy Award and now a signature model with Gretsch doesn’t show that none of that stuff matters, we’re not sure what will.
• READ MORE: These are Dave Grohl’s four biggest guitar-playing influences
MusicTech •

The Saltburn Effect: Princess Superstar and Mason on the conception and rebirth of Perfect (Exceeder)

Mason and Princess Superstar are often asked for permission to use their 2007 hit Perfect (Exceeder) in film, TV and adverts. When a request came through for it to be used in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, neither of them realised it would be such a big deal…

The Saltburn Effect — this is the phenomenon that caused Mason and Princess Superstar to have their careers flipped upside down, all over again.
• READ MORE: Chromeo: “We’re still as enthralled by funk and analogue synths as we were before”
Guitar.com | All Things Guitar •

The Maine’s Jared Monaco refrains from recording with digital gear

“I was literally about to sell everything that I had,” says Jared Monaco. The musician has served as lead guitarist for rock outfit, The Maine, since 2007. But just before he was asked to join the band, he very nearly got rid of his gear in its entirety.
• READ MORE: Plini on new EP ‘Mirage’ and writing his most out-there music yet

“These guys had been doing it for three months before I ended up joining them. The week that John [O’Callaghan, vocalist] called me to see if I wanted to go on tour,
Guitar.com | All Things Guitar •

Sophie Lloyd says self-doubt led her to “almost quit completely”

When your music career rockets as fast as Sophie Lloyd’s has, your inner critic can make you question if you really deserve to be where you are. That feeling is exactly what the 28-year-old shredder has tried to conquer on her debut solo record, Imposter Syndrome.
• READ MORE: “We can scream and wail to show rage, and also create these beautiful harmonies that show solidarity and love”: HAWXX on the pure catharsis of metal

“This whole album is me making the conscious decision to overcome that,
Guitar.com | All Things Guitar •

“If I’m not making music the way I want it to be made, then what the f**k am I doing?”: The re-birth of singer-songwriter Charlotte Carpenter

Charlotte Carpenter began climbing in the music industry by releasing a series of EPs in the 2010s. After cutting ties with her old producer and finding who she is on her own terms, she’s returned with a debut album and a baritone guitar that holds quite the story….

“She was such a beacon when I was 14, you know?” Charlotte Carpenter says with the sun streaming behind her as she video calls us from Portugal, a far cry from her currently drizzly home of the East Midlands, UK.

Some may assume th
Kerrang! •

Introducing Interview Feature With Bambie Thug - Kerrang! Autumn Print Issue 2023

Corey Taylor: “You either take advantage of what you’ve got going on now, embrace it and live in that moment, or you watch it fade away”

Author. Presenter. Musician. Plus actor. There’s nothing Corey Taylor can’t do, and with new solo album CMF2 he’s fully seized the opportunity to flex his creative muscles. Meeting The Great Big Mouth in London, we get into his ’70s-inspired process, how it differs to Slipknot, and what his younger self would make of it all…
Kerrang! •

“We want to be the biggest private provider of counselling in the…

Linkin Park: “We were out to prove this was our band and our style… That’s what Meteora became”

With a seminal, era-defining debut album under their belts, in 2003, all eyes were on Linkin Park to follow-up with something equally as groundbreaking. And boy did they deliver. 20 years on from the release of the monumental Meteora, the band share the hidden history behind one of our world’s most beloved records…
Guitar.com | All Things Guitar •

Meet Voice of Baceprot: The fearless metal trio calling for peace whilst making big noise

Voice of Baceprot have built a brand for themselves by being ferocious and raucous, yet as we video chat with Marsya (guitar and vocals) and Widi (bass), it’s hard to imagine their gnarly rocking stage personas as they glimmer with a contagiously chirpy energy.
• READ MORE: Five essential Nirvana tracks for guitar players

The metal trio, along with their drummer Siti, formed in 2014 at school in Singajaya, a small village outside the city of Garut, West Java. Together the pals make rage-fuelled
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