Pat Metheny

As one who's embraced musical technology for over three decades, guitarist Pat Metheny has put a completely new spin on an old idea with his latest album, Orchestrion. With some help from inventors, Metheny took the player-piano concept to a whole other level by using devices like pianos, drum kit, guitar-bots and tuned bottles all "played" and powered by solenoid switches and pneumatics. With Metheny controlling it all via computer software, it's an entirely fresh take on the concept of a "solo" record, as well as performance. We spoke with Metheny about the Orchestrion project and album; read the interview on the Backbeat blog before catching him at the Paramount this week.