Interview originally published in the May 2025 issue of AKR Magazine.

My interview with Ben Misterka is a favorite. His authenticity, talent and tenacity as an independent artist is a movement itself. Especially now, as he focuses more on his journey as a solo artist. The path of the independent musician is a labor of love. (there is not a better idiom). The music industry is radically changing and the fate of independent musicians depend on musicians themselves. “We” have to keep at it! Because, as Steve Connor of the Sound Café writes,” the true power of independent music lies not in its commercial success but its ability to connect with people on a deep, emotional level. Independent artists create music because they have something to say, something that cannot be silenced by the challenges they face”. In a culture that commodifies almost everything, the artist must be the antidote. We are going to need the high vibration of live music during these times. So let us gather together as a community of music lovers, artists and friends to listen to live music. Let it be our act of resilience in the face of an explotative and unsustainable paradigm, and have faith that we are conduits for a higher love.

Below is my audio interview with the talented, eclectic yet super versatile guitarist Ben Misterka from the San Francisco Bay area, originally published in the May 2025 issue of AKR Magazine.

Interview Excerpt

(Raine Jordan) I am super excited. I’ve been looking forward to this interview for

probably about a year now, right?

(Ben Misterka) Oh I have been too!

(RJ) So I'll just do a quick introduction on how I know you, and what our connection is.

So, I met Ben or I heard him play several times over the last year and a half at Peter

Baron’s Backyard Improv which is an improvisational jazz concert series in the San

Francisco Bay area. The first time I heard you play your guitar I was immediately

attracted to your tone.

(BM) That makes me so happy

(RJ) Yeah, the tone of your guitar was incredibly distinctive and as you played, I loved

not only how you played but the essence behind what you were playing. I felt like it was

a sort of transformative vibe. If you know what I mean? And at that time, I was writing a

series for a AKR magazine called “A Higher Love”. It was about musicians and creatives

who had a higher or deeper intention behind their work or their music. So, I immediately

wanted to interview you after hearing you play. So, I’m super excited to finally have the

opportunity to interview you. So, let’s rock & roll. I’ll start with the first question.

(BM) Right on all right that's really kind of you. Thank you so much.

(RJ) You are welcome. All right so this is a pretty common first question but I think it's

probably everyone's curiosity as well, which is how did you start playing the guitar?

When and how did that happen?

(BM) I started playing the guitar when I was about 12 years old, mainly just kind of with

friends. There were a lot of guitars in my friend group. We were all into music from an

early age. I started playing the Viola first. I guess I was in the 5th grade, so that was

maybe 10 years old. So, that was my first instrument. In about the 8th grade or so I

started playing the guitar. I found this guitar in my garage. It was my dad's old Fender. I

remember taking it out and just kind of hitting the strings in a rhythmic way as it was

laying flat. And I was like wow this is so cool. It was probably super out of tune and the

strings were probably 20 years old. I'm surprised they didn't just break right there. But

yeah, I started playing the guitar around then. I’d borrow a guitar from a friend for awhile

and then I finally got one, a Fender Strat or a Squier. It happened pretty quickly after

that first interaction with the guitar in the garage.

(RJ) Did you just start playing without lessons or were you self-taught?

(BM) Yeah, I was pretty much self-taught. I learned just from listening to records, that's

how I learned originally, and from friends. There wasn't really an online guitar

community at that time. So, from listening and teaching each other riffs. But I had

summer where I was kind of forced to be in a different place. I had a lot of time to kill

and I was an area where I didn’t know anyone. So, I got to spend that whole summer

with really nothing to do but play the guitar. I didn’t like it at the time but I now realize

that it was a really good moment in my life. It got me over that initial hump of learning to

play. Later in life I went and studied formally at school. But I was self-taught for probably

10 years before that happened. Yeah, which I think is kind of good. I mean you are

always going to be self-taught in some way.

(RJ) Yeah, I think it’s a direct experience. You need that, right, to find your way and form

a relationship to your music?

(BM) Yeah, yeah very cool.

(RJ) What were some of the influences that shaped your desire to continue playing?

(BM) I was first learning stuff that was popular at that time; Nirvana, Green Day, Pearl

Jam, Soundgarden. There was a lot of guitar in that music. Pearl Jam had really cool

guitar parts that I was super focused on during that time, That 90’s era. And really

learnable riffs. From there I got into Led Zepplin. That was the first band that I was just

nuts about. I had the posters and everything. And, Pink Floyd, and then Jimi Hendrix.

So, a lot of classic rock. And Jimi Hendrix, most people would probably say this too, is

probably my top. I always come back to that and I keep going back through his

catalogue and keep learning new stuff and finding new things about Hendrix. So, yeah

classic rock, especially late 60’s, early 70’s stuff, psychedelic stuff. And that led me to

more “jammy” based stuff. Like the Grateful Dead for a little bit. During the same time, it

kind of led me to improvisational jazz, and rock. I bit later I found Wes Montgomery and

that opened up this whole new world that really spoke to me big time. I started really

digging in and studying that. And then studying and playing a lot of jazz and then from

there, fusion, and everything in-between.

(RJ) Yeah, so the world of music is so large if you’re willing to kind of move past the

genre boundaries, right? But it’s very cool that you have a classic rock foundation. I can

definitely hear that in your music. And I also hear the fusion of jazz and funk,. It’s hard

to pin down who you sound like. You know how we tend to do that. Because we are

always trying to find what is familiar to us instead of just listening. When I listen to you

play, you are extremely unique in your approach.

(BM) Yeah, yeah.

(RJ) So how much of your tone and style of playing is related to the guitar you play and the gear you use?

(BM) Oh wow, nerdy questions, my favorite.

(RJ) (Laughing)

(BM) No really (lol) this is my favorite question. Okay cool, yeah. So, when it comes

right down to it, they always say, that the tone is your fingers. Which is so true because

somebody else can play your exact same guitar with your same “rig” and everything,

and it sounds different. What happens to a lot of us is that you are wanna play

somebody else’s guitar, you get somebody else’s rigger, you get like the Santana

signature pedal, and then you’re like, “how come I don’t like Santana?” Because it

really does come from your fingers. But with that said, a lot of it comes from the gear too

because that can completely change your sound. I went through so many different

iterations. I play a Telecaster a lot of the time and I think that is what people recognize

the most. But I have a lot of different guitars. I love playing the Strat, which is a very

different setup of a guitar. And the 335 Hollow Body guitar, depending on the music I’m

playing. I think people that have spent a lot of time as a hired gun, as well as an artist

doing their own music, have to be able to be versatile to do the thing that is required.

You know, somebody’s like, can you do a country tune with a Moroccan feel in B flat.

And you’re like, “I got you!” And then, boom, you got the work, and then you can make it

cool, make it good, put your own flavor on that too. So, there is a lot of stuff, not to get

too technical. But I do find that it makes a big difference and it’s really inspiring that you

can create such a different sound. So different gear can be really inspiring and help you

to play slightly different. But I am going to approach a Telecaster very differently than I

would a Hollow Body 335 or a Strat. Even with a trem bar on it and a different pedal, a

different amp will make you play differently, which I like to purposely lean into. Or you

know, you might write a part in a song that is based around a certain sound that you find

really interesting. Like if you found a really interesting sound delay. That may inspire you

to come up with something that’s composed for that sound and you may not have

discovered that sound otherwise. So, I really like that aspect of it too. There was one

more thing, but suddenly I forgot it (lol). I can talk about tone all day. I really have

noticed that the very individual things about the way that you use your fingers, how hard

you squeeze the note, and how you bend, and how you use the tremolo bar is a really

big deal. How you hold the pick, all of that stuff can shape your tone. (this conversation

about tone and gear continues a bit more in the full audio interview)

(RJ) Yeah, that’s amazing. Music has so much to offer, especially when you listen

critically whether you are the artist or the listener. You can go deeply with it in so many

ways and places.

(BM) Yeah exactly.

(RJ) So Ben, do you write and compose most of your own music?

(BM) I’ve been writing my whole life. Wow, I kind of learned to play the guitar by writing.

It is one thing I consider really important since I was self-taught and I was listening to

records, I would find chords that sounded cool, that use open strings and I’d just mess

around with them. I would be like, “these two things sound cool together. I don’t know

what it is but I like it.” So, I’ve always kind of wrote music. And even messing around the

piano, I would just go find chords that sounded good together. I’d figure out sounds on

the guitar that were the same as the piano. So, composing has been a real big part of

my life for a long time. Collectivity is a band that I have been leading for a while and I

write most of the music for us. I take a very compositional approach, with all the different

members of the band and instruments, including the horn section.

(RJ) That’s so good. I want to come hear your band Collectivity play live. I know you

have a show coming next weekend at San Francisco Music City. I want to try and make

it. I’ve listened to Collectivity online but not live. So, I want to do that. It is such a high-

energy band, like super-dynamic.

(BM) Yes, we have a new single coming called “More Cushion” It will be out around April

17 th . Collectivity music comes from a big funk and jazz influence, with horns, and a

super funky big sound, high energy, like dance party music but it still makes you think.

(RJ) Yea, I don’t know but to me it has that deep house sound and depth. It’s a very

dynamic band and sound.

(BM) Yeah, kind of. Right.

(RJ) You are also working in the studio on a new album?

(BM) Yea, we just did a session the other day at Skyline Studios in Oakland for my new

record that is coming out soon. It’s going to be under Ben Misterka. It’s a little simpler

music and band arrangement. It is coming more form the blues world and some of my

original music that has influences from Zepplin and Hendrix, Pink Floyd, as we were

talking about before. As well as some Wes Montgomery in there and some Boogaloo,

and Joe Jones, and all that stuff. And it’s written and composed more so on the guitar.

(RJ) I love it. I appreciate a more minimalistic approach too. I love the whole spectrum

of what is possible in music, small music, big sounds, etc. I am looking forward to your

solo album because that is going to really just give everyone a good hit of your tone,

and your capacity as an artist. I think you are an incredibly versatile player, as well as

multi-faceted and multi-dimensional. I can imagine how beautiful it’s going to be.

(BM) Nice. Thank you.

(RJ) Can you talk a little more about your music career right now as far as direction, and

what you are doing with music right now. Where are you playing? And I saw something

on social media that looked new and innovative. When I saw it, I thought, what is he

doing? It looked super exciting. It looked like you were deejaying and playing the guitar

simultaneously. There was a very high energy crowd in front of you?

(BM) (Laughing) That has been a really fun project. Yea, mixing deejaying, and guitar as

well as playing some keys, and some live looping. A mixture of a lot of different things

that I love to do. It’s really fun because I have this setup where I can go between

deejaying and live instruments pretty easily. Sometimes I’m just focusing on deejaying

playing songs that I love and then I’ll go into a loop or mix into just playing the guitar. It’s

improvisational and that’s been really fun. I have a tour with that up in Northern

California in the middle of this month from April 17 th -19 th , going through Tahoe and

playing at the KT Deck at Palisades, which is the main deck there. It should be really

fun.

(RJ) Is that your own thing? Did you think that up, and is there a name for it?

(BM) I’m just going under my name now. And promoting it as a guitar-hybrid show. But

working on a more refined name to really solidify it as a project. I will let you know when

that gets solidified. Yea, there is so much cool stuff right now. I’m just super blessed to

get to play with all these amazing musicians. We have a Collectivity show coming up

this month. I have a couple of trio gigs around the bay too. One at the Continental Club

on the 9 th of May. That’s a really beautiful spot in Oakland, an old-school venue that

reopened not long ago. A lot of greats have played there. James Brown played there.

There is the DJ-hybrid tour from April 17-19 th and then I go right to the Jazz & Heritage

Fest with the artist Lyrics Born that I’ve been touring with for the last 6 or 7 years.

(RJ) Isn’t he a rap artist?

(BM) Yea, he is a hip-hop artist. He is a long-time Bay Area staple. His new album

recently came out, and its fire. I got to play a track on that and we have been getting a

lot of love from Snoop Dog. He shared some of Lyrics Born videos on his main page

which caused Lyrics Born to go even farther. So now we are opening for Soul Live at the

Joy Theater in New Orleans and then we’re playing at the legendary Tipitinas in New

Orleans, and opening for Galactic at the end of April. Then we are doing the Blue Nile

on May 1 st . So yeah, what a great month. There are so many shows, I can’t keep track

sometimes. But it is a blessing and I’m just so grateful. I really put a lot of time into

thinking about gratitude and making sure that I crush it and do my best. Because that’s

a lot of different music to have under your fingers.

(RJ) A testament to your versatility, musicianship and multi-dimensionality that you can

play across genres like that and be in the forefront of it. So, it sounds like your career is

evolving in many ways. And these are “interesting” times. We need music now more

than ever, so that’s a good thing for musicians. People are going to need the vibration of

music. So, keep doing what you love to do. You’ve played at a lot of amazing venues

and festivals.

(BM) Yea, and the Sierra Music Festival is coming up too. That’s another big one. I

wanted to mention that because it’s one of my favorite festivals. I’m really looking

forward to it I’ll be playing with two different bands, three different sets.

(You can listen to the full audio interview on the AKR Magazine or under the Interview Section of this website)