Robin Katz, guitarist & composer

Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music?

I just love playing the guitar and I love the slow process and gradual development that it takes to learn your instrument. That I can make something of a career out of is incredible to me. A key influence in a broader understanding of the instrument has been the guitarist and composer Bill Lovelady, who helped me see the guitar as a lifelong and dedicated pursuit.

What have been the most significant influences on your musical life and career?

Learning the guitar through musicians in the gypsy jazz tradition has been hugely formative for me. Travelling to France and having the privilege of absorbing that tradition directly really shaped how I learned the instrument. I’m very dyslexic, so traditional music theory in a more sterile academic way didn’t really land for me. I struggled with it and didn’t progress that way. So, learning empirically, in the school of pick up your guitar and play it, and absorbing musical sensibilities via osmosis in the presence of truly great guitarists in the gypsy tradition has been truly significant to my development.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

The self-imposed doubt that comes with a good old dose of imposter syndrome. I’ve definitely been my own worst enemy in that respect, or at least I have been in the past. It’s something I’m actively working on and, in many ways, already overcoming—but it’s an ongoing process.

Which performance or recording are you most proud of?

I think I’m most proud of this new record ‘Hypnos’. I think I have found a simplicity and leaned into my own voice on this one. I wanted to make a record that feels like one continuous experience. I really admire records like that in other people’s work—whether they’re three tracks or twenty, the whole thing feels unified, like one journey rather than separate pieces. That’s what Hypnos feels like to me, and I’m proud of that.

What do you do offstage that provides inspiration onstage?

I think being onstage, at its best, is a cathartic, almost whirling dervish-like experience where you enter a flow state. It’s a way of expressing and releasing everything in a heightened, almost spiritual way.

So, in a sense, what feeds that is simply living life—its highs and lows, its pitfalls and its glories. All that gets carried into the music. Then, when I perform, it’s both expressed and released through the act of playing. That’s where the inspiration comes from: life itself.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

Very simple. Success is if I write or play something that moves me. That’s not a selfish thing to say—I think we have tobring into the world what we wish existed. So, if I play something and it excites me, moves me emotionally, gives me a sense of groove or feeling or depth, then I consider that success.

What advice would you give to young or aspiring musicians?

Learn a lot about one thing, and a little about everything else. By that I mean: find one genre, one musician, or one craft that you truly love and can obsess over with heart, body, and soul. Go deep—really deep—into it and become fluent in it. But at the same time, never stop listening to everything else and allowing it to inform and broaden your perspective.

What is the one thing we’re not talking about in the music industry that we should be?

I don’t think it’s that we aren’t talking about things—we are. We’re talking about AI, we’re talking about streaming royalties, and those conversations are important and ongoing. If anything, I suppose I don’t feel certain enough yet to say what’s missing. Maybe ask me again in ten years, when I’ve been in theindustry a bit longer and have more experience—and possibly a bit more cynicism—to answer that properly.

What is your present state of mind?

I am joyful, calm, inspired, and excited. Despite the noise and the sense of dystopian overwhelm that often comes through modern media, I remain hopeful. I feel a genuine love for people and for the human experience, and I feel grateful to be creating within it.

‘Hypnos’ is released on 29th May on the Gearbox Records label