MATTEO MANCUSO

Steve Vai has called him 'the evolution of the guitar' while Al Di Meola said his playing was light years ahead'. Is it something they put in the water in Sicily, we ask, as we meet the young guitarist redefining virtuosity

- Henry Yates

He starts with a disclaimer ("I apologise in advance for my English..."). But Matteo Mancuso needn't worry. The 26-year-old Sicilian is sharp, witty and rarely lost in translation - we can only imagine how much fun he'd be if you could loosen his mother tongue over a few drinks. And besides, who needs words when you have Mancuso's lyrical touch on guitar? Debuting with a Hendrix cover at a local festival aged 12, fusing boundless influences into his peerless/pickless jazz-shred style, notching up 158k followers on YouTube and feted by the instrumental super-league, his debut album, The Journey, feels like the dawning of a new world order.

Are you pleased with how The Journey turned out?

"I took four years to record this album, so some of the songs sound old to me, but I'm really happy with the result. Am I a better player now than when I started? Maybe, yeah. I've learnt different ways to compose. When I was younger, I'd tend to write riff-based songs. For example, Drop D is one of the first compositions I wrote for the album, and it sounds like a teenage song to me. But that's why I like the album. All the songs are very different."

What inspired you to give Drop D that title?