Shredding at 13 - Saxon Weiss on His Journey as a Guitar Prodigy

Saxon Weiss Guitar Prodigy

Saxon Weiss, a 13-year-old guitar prodigy from Palos Verde, California, is lighting up the music scene. Starting on drums at age two, he picked up the ukulele at six, gigging at Hawaiian luau's, and mastered guitar by eight. Self-taught in Hawaiian slack key and now studying classical guitar, Saxon blends jazz, blues, rock, bluegrass, and country with jaw-dropping skill.

He's shared stages with icons like Warren Haynes and Joe Bonamassa, rocking events like the Beach Life Festival. His original song, Find a Way, inspired by a local wildfire, shows his emotional depth. Now here's The Trout with Saxon, enjoy.

What do you think though, now that you've already had a lot under your belt so much Saxon, and you're a couple years older, I mean I watched some of your music today just for fun. Yeah, it's great. You kind of like play different things, but have you gravitated to anything special yet? I mean, I saw a jazz thing, you were doing jazz, or you're doing a little this, a little that.

Anything particular though that you like better? You know, recently I've been doing a lot of writing my own songs, and that's been like the kind of vocal point for me, especially recently. But with writing my own songs, that also comes with, for me, I've always wanted to play all genres of music. So it kind of, I'll write a song when I'm in like a different mood, and I write it, you know, it's like more, I don't know, blues-ish, or one song will be more folk, you know, but it varies.

But yeah, you know, I guess it turns out to be sometimes more of my songs are, you could say, kind of Americana-y, but then put in like a different chord or something, you know. It's not, yeah, it just really depends. I think what's interesting, did you just do a gig this weekend, or was that last weekend, a beach gig or something like that? Yeah, Beach Life Festival, that was almost a month ago now.

Was it? Okay. Yeah, that was really great. I had Tal Wilkenfeld on bass, Kyle Fair on drums, that was my band last year, we played the same festival.

Oh yeah, I remember that, yeah. But this year we had an addition, we put keys in, so that was fun, that was really cool. So how many guitars have you gotten now, given to you? I saw you were at the Gibson Garage.

Yeah. And every time I see you're doing a different guitar, like a blonde, what color was that one Les Paul you had, kind of a blonde color? Oh, maybe this one? Is it? No, it was, yeah, I guess, yeah, it's that one. Oh yeah, so it's got the bookmash grain in it.

Yeah, this thing, this is a really cool guitar, it's a cool story too, because Norm, we were at Norm's and Norm was like, oh, there's this guy out in Hawaii named Kenny, he wants to get a guitar, but obviously he's not here in California, could you just go around and pick something that you think would be the best for him and what you really like and you think is a good guitar? And he was like, yeah, so there's an $8,000 budget, so try to find something cool. And I was like, okay, this is fun. And so, you know, I went looking around and I played a lot of guitars, and I kept kind of coming back to this one.

And this is a reissue 60s Les Paul Custom Shop Murphy Lab. And then Norm was like, you know, let's do a video to see, you know, because I was like, I think it's kind of the one. So he's like, well, let's do a video and see how you like it there.

And during the video, right after we finished, he's like, well, you know, Kenny just bought that for you. Oh, wow. Yeah.

So that was... And you didn't, you didn't know this guy at all? No, no, no. But he's, I think he's a good friend of Norm and stuff. And I know he's been going to Norm's for like, I think, four or five years.

I think that was, it was interesting, because they finally put that on. Was it on Netflix? I guess I watched it on because he shot that. Yeah, I shot that a couple years ago, I guess when he was really bad off, because I remember when he was sick and all that stuff.

And I'm watching it. And my wife's not a musician, but she's around a million and a half. She's like, I saw their sex.

Yeah, that was cool. Because yeah, like you said, they shot it. I think they they're finishing up, like I think when I started going.

Yeah. And I started going there when Norm was just getting better. Like, okay.

The first time I was there, I think he was just coming back, you know. So and he was, he was, he was out for a long time. I do know that.

And if you look at his videos before and after, you see, he lost a lot of weight because of the surgery and all that stuff. Yeah, now, I mean, he's looking so much better, you know, like from the first time I saw him there, he was super skinny, but he's totally looking back to normal, which is great. And she was asking me what was special about the place.

And I told her, I said, it's kind of, I was in muscle shows a couple years ago, doing recording. And I said, you really can't explain it. I said, I'm sure people just like you.

I mean, it's great to go and play guitars, but it's just got this aura about it. I mean, that when you walk in, you never know who you're going to run into. And, and I guess the other thing, and I know you've been in a lot of videos.

I mean, I've seen you with Joe Bonamassa. I don't know who else you're running with. Isn't that where, isn't that where Tal found you or saw you the first time? Because your dad told me the story.

Yeah, yeah, that is. I was playing with Jason Sinay. He, he's a really great guitarist.

He plays like a lot of kind of jam band stuff. So he was playing with him and she was in there looking for like a bass to go on tour, I think with Incubus at the time. Did you know who she was? Yeah, but I didn't really put it together.

Yeah, I understand. Yeah, yeah. So then when we met her, I was kind of thinking, we were like, man, where have we seen you here? And she was like, yeah, maybe, I don't know.

And she was like, well, you got to come to my studio and jam sometime. But I think you're blessed with kind of long fingers, which I never was. Yeah.

Which helps. Yeah. Yeah, that, yeah, that's true.

That's kind of true. It's funny. Sometimes, like I'll put my hands together, and the picking hand is just a slight bit smaller than the fretting hand.

And I think it also is part of the reason because I've been playing classical almost the longest time I've been playing guitar, right? That is a lot of like, really weird stretching, you know, some like weird things you do. And I think that's part of it. And the fret is like just this one block of wood.

It's not even like, it's like you took a piece of wood. I never understood why they wanted to make them that way. I never understood.

I have a nylon string back behind me. That's kind of like that. But I, and I saw one video, you were at the little chair.

I forgot that's where you started, the little stool where you stand up and do the fingering and all that stuff. Do you do you sight read? Or you just listen to stuff and pick it up on your own? Or is it? Well, we, I read. It's, I take, you know, we've, since it's usually like three or four pages.

It's not usually just like a, you know, read it. And okay, I got there's so many little, you know, like details and what finger you're using to play that D note, you know, it's like so detailed, and you have to do exactly how Mr. Bach wrote it, you know. That's the, you know, so that's like, that's what I like, you know, so much, even though it's so different from what I, you know, I guess, like you normally see.

Oh, yeah. Because I think the thing with you, and you probably already figured this out, is classical is not easy to play. Because it's not some, I mean, you go listen to some symphony, play it, right? You can go, okay, here's Bach or Beethoven.

Oh, that's the way it goes. But you're not going to hear it on mainstream radio or something like that. But it also teaches you how to become a better songwriter, because you've already learned all the stuff.

And you've probably figured that out, because not everybody can write a song. I mean, they can write a song, but it's not very good. But so you've already kind of probably put it together in your brain.

Okay, this is chorus, this is verse, you know. Right. It's interesting with classical.

I don't think like that. No, you don't. No, it's kind of like, it's interesting.

The way I think of it, it's just one long piece. You know, it's like one long journey, almost, of a song, even though there is and you can find it. For me, I just, I think partly too, because playing classical, you have to be on a huge level to just be sitting there, enjoying it, just like, you know, it's, there's always something to think about it, you know, it's less like you're just playing a song you wrote.

And it's like a great time. It's more like, focus the whole time, and then you stop and you're like, Whoa, okay, I was just like, in that zone of doing all that, you know, it's just a totally different outlook, I think, for me on everything when I'm playing classical. Sure.

And you know, the other thing is you can't futz around with it. In other words, you know, if you're doing a song, whatever you're doing, you got a lead break on and you go, Okay, I'm going to play it like this a little bit this time. When you're playing a classical piece, it's like, these are the notes they wrote, this is what you're supposed to play, you're not supposed to, oh, I'll just go walking over here a little bit, come back.

And also, I'm sure, as you found that, it also improves your, just your playing in general. Yeah. Like you said, you focus in on it more.

Yeah, totally. That's been like, it's really helped for, I mean, just technique playing guitar. Normally, you know, it's totally helped everything.

It's like a real, it's really cool. It's a great thing. And maybe you don't realize it or something.

But then you, then you start to think that you go, wow, maybe that is maybe from classical. And that's from, you know, the way I hold the guitar and the way I, you know, fret the guitar. Oh, that is or when I start playing chords, sometimes people go, that's a different way you're playing a chord.

And I'm like, yeah. And then I realized, oh, it's kind of that sort of idea of, or like things all stretch. And people are like, how are you doing that? There's different ways that you can shape your wrist and hands, you know, to get a longer reach and stuff.

Did Bach, one of them wrote stuff for the lute or somebody like one of the famous masters? Because I didn't think a lot of it was written for an orchestra, I mean, a symphony or a piano. Right. Yeah, that's true.

I can't think of it either. I can't, I think it was Bach. I think one of them wrote for the lute or something like that.

Yeah. Well, yeah, it's also back then, they would supposedly have jam sessions, so to speak. You know, they would kind of, they would play together and see because, I mean, obviously something had to be started to make that piece.

You're just like, you know, okay, this is no, it's going to be like that and everything's going to be, you know, you have to, what I kind of suspect what they're doing with their kind of play the instrument and find ways to go to a different part of the song or whatever. And then I think they had scribe people too, you know? Yeah, they probably did. Writing it right down the notes and all that stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. They didn't bring out their cell phone and go, hold on just a second.

Or let me get my software. Okay, that's an F and a C. You know, we've been doing this for a while. How do your friends, what do they say about you? Do they know about you that much? Do they think anything about it? Do they say anything about that? Or do they even care? No, you know, it's like they know about it and it's just kind of like, okay.

And they, I mean, they, I guess everybody's sort of in their own world, so to speak, but it's been kind of, I mean, it's, I guess you could say it's old news, but because I've been around them since like kindergarten. I think they knew about it because I started so young, everybody knew. I never like went around saying, oh, you know, I was just playing.

I mean, I didn't care, you know, that I don't care if anybody knows or not really. Well, I think what happens is it's like famous musicians, I've interviewed a lot of them, when you talk about their children, they're around them all the time. So when people say, oh my God, you're so-and-so, who's your dad? Oh my God, you know, right.

That, yeah. And it doesn't mean as much to them. It's like, okay, I see him all the time doing this or she's doing that or, you know, whatever.

But what I think what's funny to me is, not funny, but interesting to me is how you have attracted such quality musicians to you. And I mean that in a positive manner because the one thing I know is, you know this too, you're a really good player and you only get better. I mean, if you look at Joe Bonamassa's life, he's kind of the same way.

He was the same way. He was out on, I saw him on something like some old show where he was like 12 or 16 or something like that. But I think that's the thing.

You're going to only get better. And it's probably, unless something changes, which sometimes it does, it's probably your life now. We'll be right back with Saxon Weiss on this episode of The Trout Show, right after this message from our supporters.

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David Smith with Edward Jones, a proud supporter of The Trout Show. Now here's The Trout. You know, you can kind of foresee, OK, I want to do this, I want to do that.

But speaking of that, have you, as you write your own songs and stuff like that, I assume in your mind you want to go to the studio and record stuff and put it out. I mean, what is amazing to me is the people you could probably call already and say, hey, would you mind playing on this? And they probably would say yes. Yeah, you know, that's one thing that I've been working on lately is doing demos in my studio that we just finished.

It's been a long process where it's like, it felt like it would never get done on this because it was just, I mean, this was just like a master bedroom. And we turned, we ripped the carpet out and stuff. But anyway, I've been doing little demos and stuff of songs.

And it's been really cool to just be like, oh, yeah, let me just go and record that. And it's probably not the end all, but at least it's something I can make where I can show it to other people and say, OK, can we play it like this? And I'll just send it to you. And then we do one little rehearsal before the show and we're good.

So do you think that you're going to want to, I mean, when I talked originally, I always envision, I talk about, I talk about you to people I know occasionally. And I always felt that you're the kind of, and this is what you're trying to tell me the first time we talked, what you really want to do a lot of different things. That's why I was bringing up the beginning.

And I said, I can just see you as a phenomenally great studio musician where people call you all the time. Robby Nelly is one of the greats in Nashville. I know him very well.

And anybody that's played on a country song, he always gets called. You can name the big country. He's the guy playing the guitar on it.

I kind of envision you that doing that, too. I know it's a little early, but you got to finish school and all this stuff. But I kind of are you still kind of thinking that way? That's what I always got the feeling that that's where you wanted to go.

You know, I want to totally be my own artist and all that. And I'm, I'm totally open to doing, you know, like session stuff. But I don't, I don't want to do that for my whole thing, you know? No, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Want to do shows and stuff. And because that's one of my favorite things is doing shows, there's something about that you can't get in the studio. And then there's something in the studio, obviously.

But, you know, it's yeah, I love doing I mean, I like doing laying down tracks and just playing parts and coming up with parts. That's always fun, too. Yeah, I mean, I, I think that totally is something that I want to do, but also not only do that, you know, if you become the person I think you're going to become as far as popularity, you probably do both.

Where I mean, you've you've been asked to play in so many different places so far. I'm going to put you on the spot here a little bit. Who's been the best person you've played with? I mean, you go like, oh, man, anytime that person calls me, I'm ready to go.

Anybody come to mind? Yeah, almost everybody. But I mean, it's been so fun. I mean, just getting to know him as a friend.

But Jackson Browne, I mean, that's oh, yeah, I'm playing with him. It's just such a good time and his whole band and everybody. It's just such a cool scene.

You know, now that's totally just like, yeah, totally. I'll do that. But I mean, so many people that I've played with almost everybody, basically.

Yeah. But but you at your age, you probably had sometimes people come to you. Do you ever not know who they are? Then you go, OK, I got to go listen to music.

Um. Yeah, yeah. Uh huh.

Yes, I have had that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Sometimes people, you know, they're obviously a lot of the time it's older than me. It's not older than me, I guess.

But so, yeah, it's usually stuff. I mean, obviously, I not I'm not really I don't really know much pop music of now a days. Like, yeah, let me play that Katy Perry song.

But please don't listen to a bunch of, you know, that older music and things that maybe somebody that I that would have me play, I would know. But yeah, sometimes it's like I think Donovan Frankenreiter I played with and then a couple of the songs, obviously, I didn't really know. Right.

Oh, let me do now. And it's like, oh, yeah, I do know that song. It's just I didn't realize that, you know, I've heard it's usually like you've heard the songs or whatever.

Yeah. To you, what do you listen to on your playlist? It's just a mix of different music. Yeah, that's an interesting one.

It totally varies. A cool story late, just like a week ago, I guess it was a week ago. Jackson called me and he said, hey, do you want to see Paul Simon with me? So then we went to see Paul Simon.

And that is like, wow, that was great. You know, he just had a he just came out with a new album, which is very cool. Very, really cool guitar playing.

And seeing it live is just really awesome. It was like a live album. You know, it was not very loud and it was like an acoustic thing.

But there's Steve Gadd on drums and Steve Gadd. Yeah. And there's like there's three percussionists.

There's one guy with like glass bowls all around him. And it was just like totally a total thing is super awesome. So I've been listening to that a lot.

And then like just like singer songwriter stuff. I just love to listen to that. It's great music.

You know, it's not even for technicality. You know, I just like to listen to. Yeah.

Well, I think it's always interesting to me. I sometimes I used to ask people what they were on their playlist. And if they were a blues player, they would never listen to blues.

They'd be listening to something completely different. Because I do that all the time. Asking a football NFL football player, hey, let's talk about football.

Could we not? I don't talk about something else. Yeah. And you're at the point which you're lucky in the aspect that you get this.

I saw Paul Simon when he when he was on tour doing his Graceland album, which has been years ago, which won all the Grammys for. Yeah, they played that song. And and he was always interesting because he was some of the songs are based on classic music.

And he'll say that he'll tell you that. Yeah, well, I think American, what is it called? Many is the time I've been for the sake. I can I know the song American to I think that's based on a Bach or something like that, the way that also bridge over troubled water.

The beginning of that is like the whole kind of core progression he uses. It's like a little walk up thing. He says that was from a classical song, but you're getting to meet him, which is cool.

But you're also getting to see people that were iconic that have been around for decades, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So I think you're lucky in that aspect.

Unlucky, the fact that you're getting to see them when they're so older, as my granddaughter tells me, you're not old, you're just older. Yeah, right. That's so cool, because they're all still playing such great music.

And they're really good. You know, I mean, it's like Paul was he's 82. Yeah.

I mean, it was great. It was super good, you know, and it's pretty crazy to see. And it's totally like an effect, I think, just playing music your whole life is so good for you.

I think that's part of sometimes the reason why they're so old and still doing it, you know, they can because I think there is something that's I mean, it's scientifically proven that music's good. Oh, yeah. As you're writing more and more music, you probably I've always got the feeling, Saxon, you don't really care about the fame about it.

I think you just like playing. Oh, yeah. And that's what you have to have, you know, I mean, if you are serious about music, you can't just that can't be the whole spark of interest in music, you know, just wanting to, you know, get all the fame or whatever, because it's just I mean, you've got you have to enjoy every moment of music, because that's best.

The other thing that you got going to is you're already you're in the club at 14. You're 14 now, aren't you? How old are you now? I'm sorry. 13.

13. When is your birthday? What month is it in? February 27. Oh, so you just okay, that's how I go.

But you're already in the music club. And once you're in that, you just you're just part of it. So when you start hanging out with famous people, and everybody goes, Oh, my God, you're with you're like, yeah, he's another guy that I know that plays guitar.

Yeah, right. Yeah, that's so cool. That I I'm so grateful to met so many great musicians and great people, you know, above that, too.

There's, I mean, it's kind of such a small world when you get into it. It's like, well, you know that person? Yeah, I know that person. And then the person's like, Well, you should meet this person that I know.

And then you meet them. And you're like, Oh, wait, you know, that person says like, people, let's talk about Joe Bonamassa. He has 400 guitars.

Now I know it's because he's a collector. And watching the video where Norm has the good stuff, but he has a really good stuff hidden in the back. The $250,000 guitars and all that stuff.

Do you go in there with the idea? I'm just curious that I'd like to have another guitar. Not really. I mean, I mean, I that's not how I do it.

Because you have to go in there, not like that. And then if you play something that's really catching you, it's like, okay, that's, that's the one because if you're looking for a guitar, you're gonna find a guitar. You know, I'm sure you know, it's easy to do that.

But to find one that you're going to be happy with for like, you know, long, long time is what's going to kind of draw you to it. And you can't have the idea of, okay, today, I'm going to go by a five years, maybe they don't have a 335 that speaking to you, or whatever, you know, I mean, obviously you can, but I, I don't know. And let's talk about your stuff that you use now, your rig, anything special, any last time I talked to you, you were you were had you're into kind of strats.

I think the one video is how you were playing a strat, any particular instrument you'd like now that you kind of gravitate to now, I know you're playing Les Paul, but I mean, what strat, because now it's totally the Les Paul. Now the strat is the Les Paul for me. Yeah, it's a lot heavier.

That's for sure. I know that. That's the problem.

I wish it was the same strat. That's my whole thing. I really am like, trying to troubleshoot it in my mind of a guitar that is light enough.

That's it, but has the Les Paul umph. You know, the humbucking thing, but then has a strat bar. So it's like, you know, best of both worlds, but she can do.

It's just, I've been really, I've been thinking about that a lot, but yeah, my rig is, um, I have, so I've been using this, uh, uh, George Alessandro. He is like, I remember you talking about that before. Yeah.

Um, I have quite a few of his amps now. I have like this three. Um, one is, I think, I don't know if I had this when I talked to you.

Maybe not. Um, uh, Eric Johnson sent me this Fender, um, Princeton and he sent George to get.