“We’re probably better off than the previous generation. Not because we’re better, but because it’s easier to reach a certain level faster”: Matteo Mancuso on how he plans to take his playing to even greater heights – thanks to some advice from Steve Vai

To say that Matteo Mancuso has had a big 2024 would be an understatement. After earning plaudits from the likes of Steve Vai, Joe Bonamassa and Al Di Meola before releasing any material whatsoever, the Sicilian virtuoso then dropped his debut record, 2023’s The Journey, which has continued to wow just about anyone who hears it.

Now, he is comfortably considered one of today’s foremost virtuosos, a household name that has spent much of the past 12 months pushing the limits of his incomparable playing style.

Yes, the things Mancuso does are utterly incomprehensible, but he isn’t worried about competing with the greats he’s wowing. “The guitar is such a personal instrument,” Mancuso tells Guitar World. “You can’t compare yourself to other people. I know Steve [Vai] said something like, ‘You can’t duplicate what Matteo does,’ but it’s the same for me – I can’t duplicate what he does. I can’t replicate what Al Di Meola does. I don’t compare myself to these kinds of players because they are giants.”

But Mancuso, who is just 28, is a giant. Few possess his style-meets-skill vibe, and even fewer have been classified as halcyon so quickly.

“It adds pressure, that’s for sure,” Mancuso says. “If these kinds of players are talking about you, you feel happy. Steve gave me some good advice: ‘Concentrate on music and not too much on guitar.’ You can open up a lot of new ideas with that mindset.”

You’ve had an incredible year, and you’ve done it without being hyper-present on social media – at least compared to other players.

“Social media impacts the community a lot. The information you can find sometimes influences us in a good way and sometimes in a bad way. If you gain a lot of followers on Instagram or grab somebody’s attention and make people say, ‘Wow,’ that sometimes means shredding it, but it’s probably the best choice.

“That’s why people on Instagram tend to focus on that. They tend to focus more on Instagram reels rather than actual music. I always say, ‘Never judge a guitar player by a short reel.’ But to make it work, you have to do really short videos with a lot of ‘Wow.’ People tend to concentrate too much on the ‘Wow.’”

Is social media a good or bad thing for the guitar community?

“It’s not, ‘Okay, this is my music. Check it out.’ It’s just a video on Instagram. It’s not my music. If you want to check out my music, check out Spotify or YouTube. I sometimes do videos and just upload them on Instagram, but they’re not to be associated with my musical offerings. They’re separate things.

“But we have an advantage as a generation because everything is available on the internet. We’re probably better off than the previous generation – not because we’re better, but because it’s easier for us to reach a certain level faster.”

Does being a guitar player in the internet era come with stressors people might not realize?

What’s your best piece of gear advice?

How do you find the perfect balance?

“Music is like everything in life, where there’s tension and release. A lot of notes is the release, and fewer notes is the tension – but you need that balance. I like to play a lot of notes because, for me, it’s a release of energy. It’s not something I do to show you I can do it.”

So the search for that balance is never-ending.

“I think that’s something people like about it; I’m always trying to find that balance. I don’t consider myself one of the best technical players; there are so many good players who can play twice as fast as me, or they know more leads and have more vocabulary. But people don’t care about your technical stuff; people care about the emotion of it. I’m always trying to search for that.”

• The Journey is out now via Mascot/The Player’s Club.