On March 19th music fans and members of the Calgary music industry packed the Ironwood in Inglewood for an early show from Philip Sayce. The Welsh born, Toronto raised musician was doing a small Canadian tour in advance of his first Canadian album Influence. What those in attendance got during his short set absolutely blew everyone away. Channelling some of the most iconic guitarists of all time – like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn – he captivated the audience as he magically worked his guitar. A charismatic and engaging performer, the look on his face captured his feelings of playing in that moment: orgasmic, spiritual, pure happiness.

"That is what it feels like, all of the above. There is also a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunity to make music in my lifetime; to have the opportunity to come to Alberta and play music and have people come to a show, and then sit down and have a conversation and talk about it? How grateful am I about that? I have so much respect for the music and love for the music and, when I don’t play for a while, I start to get bummed out and not feel right. You can do meditation or different therapy, but sometimes going to that creative place is just what the doctor ordered, and I need to do it more often," Sayce told GayCalgary over breakfast the next morning. One of the highlights of the performance was when he walked through the audience while playing, ordered a drink from the bar, and then walked back to the stage while drinking and continuing to play.

"Blues cats do stuff like that. I got to see Albert Collins one time, who is one of my all time favourite musicians. When he was done destroying the audience he would do things like walk through the audience outside of the venue. People could hear the music coming from inside, and he was playing, and then a city bus pulled up and he walked on the bus and walked through it playing. It is just having fun with it, and I could actually reach the bar, so I thought I would have fun with it. A big part of it is paying respect to where the music comes from, but it’s fun too."

Sayce’s album Influence was released on April 7th and is a classic rock/blues album. Featuring a mix of covers such as "Ten Years After", "If I Could Change The World", Little Richard’s "Green Power", and Graham Nash’s "Better Days" – combined with original songs like "Out of My Mind" and "Fade Into You" – it is one of those great records that should be in the collection of any fan of rock music.

"I went down to Nashville with my friend Dave Cobb, who is a great producer, and it ended up becoming a collection of songs – half original, half by other artists – as a way for us to pay respect to the music that has inspired us along the way, and put our own spin on these songs. They are songs that maybe are a little deeper in the catalogue, and [we] do them through our own lens. I then had the opportunity to go to Toronto and record two additional songs with my friend Michael Nealson that are added to the record as Canadian bonus songs. I am very, very excited."

You may not know the name Philip Sayce yet, but you know his playing. He has played with Jeff Healey, Uncle Kracker and Melissa Etheridge, including playing with her at the Oscars and Grammy Awards.

"I learned a lot from Melissa. It goes without saying she is one of the best rock ‘n roll performers of all time. Any kind of success she has had from winning a Grammy or Oscar, when she sits down and opens her mouth and sings, traffic stops. She has this amazing ability to walk on stage and make every person feel like she is performing to them; individually. It is very unique. Everyone is engaged and she has them in the palm of her hand. That is very, very special for an artist. Performing with her was a very special time. She was very good to me and gave me a lot of time to learn and grow. I approached it as an apprenticeship, and I was standing next to a master. I did the best that I could to learn from her and be a sponge. It isn’t even so much ‘how is she doing it’, because you can’t study that. It was just observing and trying to feel her energy and flow. We got along really well and it was a very special time in my life to get to be [with] her. If I can play my own music for an incredibly large amount of people, that would be awesome. I am open to that and would love that opportunity. Melissa was so generous in taking us into the studio to record "I Need To Wake Up" for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. She was so generous to me and gave me this long guitar solo, and it was amazing that she really shared the space. In the middle of recording a record she got invited to play the Oscars. She could have sung by herself but and invited us to go with her. It was funny; it was like a wax museum. I’m up there playing and looking at the audience and there’s Clint Eastwood – really him – or Jack Nicholson, or Eddie Murphy. Backstage was hysterical because there are all these people everywhere you look and they all know Melissa, and love her, and were talking to her. So it was insane. It was really fun to have that experience with her, and when she won the award we were backstage and we went crazy. I enjoyed doing things like that. We did the Grammys when she was still doing radiation, which was crazy. She didn’t have hair yet, and she came out there and lit that stage up – it was spellbinding. When you experience playing at those kind of events, you want to go back, so I would welcome the opportunity to play at that level."

Touring with the likes of Etheridge and Healey prepared him for his current focus on being a solo artist.

"I spent a lot of time observing how they carried themselves in these situations, and trying to pay attention to how they interacted with others. They were really good role models as well; not everyone is as gracious as those individuals. They were always pretty respectful of things that had been awarded to them, but they also worked hard. There was no joke there. Ultimately I tried to approach it as a student because I was doing my own thing, and these opportunities come up. Jeff Healey just went Hey, do you want to come play? and I am not going to say ‘no’ to those opportunities, and it made sense where I was on my path. So I try to take a page out of their books in how they treated people. A lot of my heroes are like that. People like Stevie Ray Vaughn; I never met him, but the generousness of his spirit... and the goodness that he was bringing in the world, trying to teach people about some of the trials and difficulties he had gone through. When he healed himself he wanted to help others to be healed as well. There is something so beautiful about that. It is an exchange of energy and I think a lot of people, like Hendrix and Stevie, their whole thing was about getting deeper with the music. I am trying follow that lead and do the best that I can."

His passion for music is evident, but Sayce is learning the ropes still on the business end of the industry.

"A very valuable lesson I learned recently is: it’s the music business; not the music friendship. I am really turned on by the creative process and singing stuff. The business part to me I don’t enjoy, but I have developed that skill set in order to protect myself. The music industry is a bitch, and I have been hurt a lot – we all have. If you can’t do it you have to find someone you really trust that can do it for you. I have to keep my eye on the business, and it is a total distraction from the creative process and muddies the waters, and takes the love out of it. At the end of the day you are talking about money, and while I would love to make a comfortable living, my initial inspiration had nothing to do with monetary things. The last couple of years were really difficult and a lot of bad things happened, and a lot of the emotion on the record is about feeling those experiences."

Having returned to L.A. to prepare for the official launch of the album, Sayce is expecting some festival dates this year, including Ottawa’s Bluesfest. Any opportunity to play is a big one, he says.

"Any opportunity to make music is a blessing and something I am grateful for. The opportunity to play at prestigious festivals like Ottawa Bluesfest or Montreal Jazz Festival is super exciting. There is such an energy at festivals, and it is an honour to have those opportunities. We’ve always said whether it’s 50 people or 10,000 people we are going to give as much as we can on that day, in that moment."

Sayce has enjoyed playing the songs live on the new album, which comes from a very personal place.

"There are a few songs on the album that I feel really good about. I don’t listen to it all the time; sometimes I hear it back and think of things I would change. It was a snapshot of a particular time in my life, and those particular moments are on there. There is a song called "Fade Into You" that was a real opportunity for healing after a particularly difficult period of time dealing with some music business shit. The performance on that was really healing. It is a bleak song, but then there is a guitar solo that feels a little bit like the beginning of breaking up the chains of being stuck in this really bummed out state of hopelessness. It was ripping the chains off, and beginning the healing process, so it is an important song on the record. Another song called "Triumph" is instrumental, but seemed to capture a lot of what was going on doing the recording of the record – triumphing through some rough times and coming out the other side."

After 20 years in the industry, Philip Sayce is ready to break through as a solo artist. As humble as he is talented Sayce’s time is now and, based on his live performance and Influence, he has all the tools to be the success that his talent dictates he should be. Go out of your way to seek out the album and catch him live, because he truly is a special and spectacular performer.