Is Rhys Stygal the Next Stevie Ray Vaughn

Is Rhys Stygal the Next Stevie Ray Vaughn?

 [Speaker 2]

The Trout is thrilled to bring you Rhys Steigle, the 17-year-old British blues guitar prodigy taking the world by storm. Hailing from London, this self-taught sensation picked up the guitar in 2020 and is already hailed as the next Stevie Ray Vaughan. From viral Instagram clips to sharing stages with legends like Buddy Guy, Kingfish Ingram, and Kenny Wayne Shepard, Rhys' soulful Stratocaster riffs captivate fans globally.

Join us as the Trout dives into his incredible journey from overcoming autism and anxiety to rocking Austin stages. And what's next for this young guitar hero? Now, here's The Trout with Rhys.

Enjoy!

[Speaker 1]

How old are you now? 17. Okay, you're 17.

When did you decide, what was the moment in your mind, kind of think about it, that you said, I'm going to pick up a guitar, I really want to learn how to play guitar. How old were you? I was just about to turn 12.

Okay. And it was, it was funny because I didn't really have interest in the sound of it. It was just, oh, the kind of music I like at that point in time, which I still enjoy.

It's just, I don't listen to it as often. It was like, oh, that had something in it that I could kind of, you know, play along with and understand. But it was just kind of like, oh, that'd be quite fun to learn.

But there wasn't, there wasn't really that click at that point. Did you, when did you get, how old were you when you first got a guitar and you could start playing? My 12th birthday.

That's when I started. I was 12 years old. And did you get a, did you get a Stratlite guitar?

Did you get a hollow body? What kind of guitar did you get? It was a blue Strat copy, like a Sonic.

And then you had to buy an amp. I see your fender back there. I see that back there.

So that doesn't work anymore. Oh, you need to get it fixed. Yeah.

So when did you, no, but I mean, so you started at 12. I assume everything you've learned, did you take lessons or you just self-taught? I go to lessons.

Okay. But I learned a lot at home too. Did you, so the person that gave you the lessons, did you tell him what you wanted to play?

Uh, he was, he's very open. I mean, he's like, Oh, if you want to learn anything, I'll, I'll teach it. When, um, when were you aware of the guy that you admire a lot, Mr. Stevie Ray Vaughan?

That was late. It was kind of weird because it was a lot of coincidences happening at once. Uh, my, my guitar teacher, Adam, he was like, Oh, he's one of my favorite guitar players.

Listen to these two songs. And I listened to them and I thought they sounded great. And I kind of moved on.

Um, and then a couple of weeks later, I was, I was going to go and try out a guitar, a guitar show. And, uh, I was looking on the website and I saw this guitar. I didn't recognize it at first.

I was like, Oh, that's a really cool guitar. I'd love to try that out. Um, and I just kind of didn't think any of it, anything of it.

Uh, and I went to the guitar shop and tried completely different guitars out. And, uh, I think it was two days later, I saw that same guitar being played, uh, on a recording. It was like a top 10 best guitar players.

And it was, it was Stevie live at Austin city limits. Oh, the famous video.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

The one that's made him. Yeah. Yeah.

That was around December of 2020. And that's when you said, Oh, I think I want to play, like learn how to play like Stevie Ray. It was just for me, I still go back and watch them.

I'm like, how is he doing it? Cause he saw like, there's nothing he it's like, he found all the right notes in that one moment. Yeah.

And they all clicked. Everything was understood with that. And I think when I saw that, it was, how is he doing that?

How is he getting that sound out there? How is he, how is he making it talk that way? And I don't know.

He's just special. What I got to tell you, what was really intriguing for me when I met you back in, back in Dallas was you'd already been there. I think the day before and people were coming up to you and going, when are you going to play again?

When are you going to play again? And I hadn't heard you play yet. Now I know Brett well enough to know that he never tells anybody.

He doesn't tell about anybody unless they think they're good. And then we went over and we hung out for a while that I went over and with the guy that was the guitar tech for Stevie Ray. I can't remember his name now, the Hispanic guy.

Renee. Yeah, Renee. And I thought, well, obviously you know what you're doing or you wouldn't be sitting here.

And then, then you go back home and then you get, you, I guess you went from here, Dallas, you went to Austin, correct? Or was it, no, you went to Austin first and then you came to Dallas. It was kind of a weird situation because it was, it was a real, it started off as kind of a well-planned trip.

And then it, like it started with going to Austin for about a week. And then we, a friend of mine was playing a show and I got to, I got to join, like jam with him for, for the show. And he said, oh, I'm opening up for Ian Moore Antones.

Would you want to play a song then? And it was like, oh, when's that? And it was, we were going to go and see some friends in Nashville and Chicago as well.

The original plan was to go to Nashville after Dallas. And when that happened, it was the day that we were going to take the trip up to Nashville. So it was Austin, Dallas, Austin again.

And then one, it was like going up to Nashville for a day and then leaving in Chicago. So it was a, it was kind of a mess towards the end, but it was a lot of fun. So what did you do?

Who did you meet with in Nashville? Did you see people in the business or what were you there for? There were a couple of friends, the picture right here, the guy who took that picture is a friend of mine.

His name's Jimmy. And he's, I got to meet up with him and spend some time with him as well as Holly Mack, Lonnie Mack's daughter. Oh, I saw Lonnie play one time.

Has it ever dawned on you that, that when you're hanging out with people that you mentioned, like Holly Mack and all those, that you're thinking, why am I here? I mean, I mean, being asked, you know, people to hang around. And I said this earlier, but Brent, Brent, people don't invite you to hang around with them unless they think you're good.

So how have you kind of thought about that? I mean, I know you love playing guitar and we'll talk about that in a second, but you know, when you, when you're going from obscurity basically, and you, and you did it on social media, which helps you to people wanting to hear you play and people asking you to come play, how, how does that make you feel? I mean, what, how does that run through your mind?

It's kind of a mixture of feeling very honored and very confused because I'm, I'm just messing around really. I'm not, I'm, I'm having fun and I'm learning. It's not, I'm just messing around.

And for some reason people like it. I appreciate that. It's something I didn't expect at all.

It, it was just kind of the whole point behind the social media thing wasn't for, you know, pushing towards that, trying to get, you know, how big can this number get? It was never that. It was just, for me, it was just to keep track on, like, if I was learning something and I forgot how it went, I could go back and look at the video of me first playing going, Oh, that's how it goes.

Or, um, you know, trying to keep track of myself, trying to, uh, stay, um, you know, it's, it's just, no, I understand because it was more of a diary for you. Yeah. In other words, I mean, I just want to put it up there and kind of see it and keep track of what I've been doing.

And the one thing, here's the thing about recording a lot. When you get 10 years older from now, you'll be sitting there and listen. I mean, you're really good now, but 10 years from now, you'll listen to it and go, well, I wasn't very good, but people, you know, cause you're always improving.

And the one thing about playing guitar, and I played for a long time, you can never learn at all because you're just constantly, constantly learning. And I think the great thing too, is you've got a wonderful supporter there and your mother that believes in you. It's because a lot of times, I mean, normal parents, hey, mom, dad, I want to become a musician.

Oh, okay. We'll get a regular job too. Would you please?

That's usually the way it works. But you, you're a little ahead of the curve on that. So you, so where are you now with you?

You think you've done, you've been exposed to, but what, what do you want to do? What do you want to do with your talent? What do you, what is it you want to do?

I mean, I just want to carry on playing. My favorite thing is playing out live and things like that. I mean, it's just me going, I'm so honored to get to do these things.

So getting to record and like, do, like try and try and find a band and record like that. That would be great. But for me, it's just trying to carry on and try and learn as much as I can.

Well, I will tell you something that I've learned a lot from all the people I've interviewed, and I've interviewed probably 250 musicians. And I think you're starting to go through this, and this is, and this, this has even come from famous people that are well-known. People don't think they're worthy of where they are.

In other words, why, you know, I'm not worthy of this because you have, you look up to people. You know, if you were standing there and Steve, he said, come on stage. I have a friend of mine, he gets to play with Buddy Guy and famous people like that.

He's, he's a little bit younger than you. I think he just turned 16. He goes, I don't understand.

I said, because this is the one thing I always tell everybody, because you're really good at what you do. And that, that takes you a long way. And I think what you're saying, which is really intriguing to me is the fact that, and I think this is about most of the people I talk to, if they could, even if they didn't get paid, they'd still play.

Now, obviously they got to because that's how they make their living. But you just love music so much. That's really what drives you.

And the fact that you said, well, I wouldn't, I don't, I just do this thing. There's no, there's no competition in your brain. In other words, you're not sitting around going, hey man, I got to get a million streams.

I got to go record an album. I got to play in front of 15,000 people. All that would be nice, but that's not important to you.

To me, it sounds like the music is important to you. Yeah. I mean, I, I think my, my favorite thing to do at the moment is find as many names of artists I don't know.

I'm trying to share that along with this weird thing that's just kind of popped up. It's, it's nice that it's, it's, you know, all happened. And I appreciate that.

And I wake up every day looking at those experiences and saying how honored it is. But, you know, like, I look at Stevie, for example, and I see him as that, that first point where it was a real, you can go forwards and backwards with influences. Cause I think my favorite thing is that no one's original.

No one can say they're a hundred percent original, but, but it's that when looking back at those artists that, you know, people like Stevie and Jimmy Vaughn and Hendrix were influenced, influenced by, and you look back, you can immediately go, that's where they got this thing from. Or, oh, this song wasn't written by this person. It was written by this person.

And you go back further and further and, and you find cool things about the different versions, you know, and learning about where they came from and the history behind that. I've, I find interesting. And then like in my head, and I think, I think that's the best way of looking at it is it's, it's the, it's the music that's the most important when, when you're playing, that's the most important thing is to try and play for the song, not try and play for what number I can get or how many notes I can make.

It's, it's about going, I need to try my absolute best to get the best quality. And that's the thing I find most important, whether I, I think, as you said, whether, whether the number is big or small, I don't care as long as I can say I did the best I could in that situation. I couldn't care if I got money from it, or if, if there was, you know, a big number online, I couldn't care about that.

I couldn't care about that less. In my head, I go, if I can try and get the best sound, the sound I can, and the, you know, as much of what I'm feeling out, and trying to do the best by the music. Are you, I know you mentioned a second ago, are you probably thinking about recording?

Are you thinking about going in the studio and doing some stuff? I didn't even ask you, are you writing some original stuff too? I try to, but I don't know how.

So I'm, I'm hoping I can sit in with some friends and try and record with them and understand how to write properly. I mean, I'm, I have no interest in, I have no interest in singing, and I'm not going to. My, my, my intention is to put as much of myself into this as I can, to let the other people do as much of it as they can.

And that's what I find most important. And to learn how to write something on here properly is something that I find quite interesting, because it's, it's not like what I imagine some people would do when finding words, oh, that makes sense. It's, it's the, that sounds weird, but it would work.

And that's something I want to learn more about. And my hope is to kind of, like, work with some friends on that. When you put in your headphones or whatever you do, you put on your phone, what do you, what do you listen to typically?

Oh, I've got quite a wide taste, really. I mean, a lot of the stuff I listen to is, I mean, obviously, Stevie's one of them, but he's, but I listen to a lot of, you know, I like James Brown. And I mean, Albert King and Gatemouth Brown.

Oh, there's somebody that people don't know who that is. Gatemouth Brown. Yeah.

Yeah, Gatemouth, and I like Jimmy Reed and Eddie Taylor. Fabulous Thunderbirds, too. T-Bone Walker.

I mean, Buddy Guy as well. I mean, it's just kind of a big mixture for me. Do you, it sounds like you like to study about the history of music, too.

All the people you mentioned. Did you ever talk to, or did you ever meet Jimmy Vaughn? Yes.

Where did you meet him at? I've met him a couple times. The first time was when I first saw him.

He was playing in Denmark. Oh, wow. And it was, oh, Jimmy's playing.

Okay, so we were able to go and I'm very honoured that I got to see him play. But I kind of, I got to know some of the people who work with him, such as Mike, who's Mike Fackler, who's kind of, works with loads of people in Austin. And it was just great, because he was, he just said, if you want to say hi for a minute, then that's okay.

And he was able to, he invited me back there to say hi. And that was, I can't think of enough for that, really, because he's, you know, just great. He's someone who I really listen to a lot.

I listen to both his playing and his advice of, if you don't know where it came from, try your best to find out. That's a great comment. That's a great comment.

Yeah. Because you can hear the background of it all. Like, when you listen to a lot more of the Delta stuff, you can hear the rhythms that were replicating, like the horses walking and the trains and things like that.

You can hear the things they were picking up on to try and make the sound, this new thing. And listening to that, I think, in my head, it's kind of, the more you're connected with it, or as close as you can try and get to understanding it, not more authentic, but the more it will feel right, whether that's, and I think that's kind of the thing I try and learn about. Because not, I don't think with, I think with blues, it's kind of, there are people like Jimmy Reed who kind of were doing more dance type music, kind of alongside Ray Charles in that aspect, where it was kind of, it was more commercial in some ways, like it was, it was more open to the public.

Tell me a little bit about what you see in your near future. I mean, I love going, I mean, I'm just trying to play as much as I can, but I, I try my best to get to Texas as much as I can. Like, Austin and Dallas and that sort of area.

You know, that kind of thing is something I'm really interested in and trying to get, get there because I've got loads of friends there. And, you know, it's something really important to me because that's, as much as being here is great, it doesn't have the same interest for music, I think, because here it's maybe one gig a week or, you know, and that's like from seven o'clock until 11, and then it's done. Where in Austin, for example, you could be playing until, you could start eight in the morning and finish at six.

Like, there's no real end to it. And that's... There's so many people down there that play, that's why.

There's no real end to it. You could carry on for as long as you want. And there's still so much to learn from.

And there's still so many people to learn from, because it's just so, it feels like there's a lot more, not passion, but like, energy for it. If someone wants to go for it and try and learn and play as much as they can, they have no problem doing that. Because there's, well, first of all, there's space.

There's not neighbours right above you that, you know, call and say, be quiet. It's very spread out. And that's something that's quite useful.

Have you learned how to sign an autograph yet? Have you needed to do that? It's funny.

I've, people, there's been a couple of occasions, and that's been quite strange. I just kind of scribble. Live the dream when you can, and do what you do best, which is play six strings.

And by the way, have you had anybody endorse anything? Have anybody contacted you about endorsing anything yet? I am endorsed by GHS Strings.

Okay. That's boomers, isn't it? They make boomers, don't they?

They do. I use the semi-flat, which is called Nicaracas. It's kind of, it's halfway between flat round and round round, so they're a smoother feeling string.

But I mean, I've been lucky enough to, I have Rapid Fender and things like that. And I've got some friends like Peddleborn Peddles. They do some kind of cool Hendrix-y style effects, and also some Stevie stuff.

And they do like to cause a bit of trouble online. But I mean, another thing I can think of is Elmore Peddles. It's a little learning, it's like a foot switch for a keyboard, basically.

But you put it on the ground, and you don't have to take your hands off the guitar while you're learning, which is quite fun. I'm mainly using Blackstar amps now. But I like using that from time to time.

Always a pleasure. Anything you guys need, keep in touch with me. Rhys, I wish you all the luck.

I know I'm going to see a lot more. And get yourself a new guitar. I just finished building one.

I need to talk to Fender and get you a new one.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

All right, guys. Have a good evening.