Today, Michihiro Matsuda returns to the podcast. It feels less like a continuation and more like stepping back into an ongoing conversation that never really ended.

When you walk into Michi’s workshop, you don’t just see guitars, you see ideas in motion. Instruments at different stages, each one exploring something distinct, each one asking a different question. As he put it, even having a few finished guitars in one place feels unusual.

This is a conversation about identity of instruments, of makers, and of the guitar itself. About what it means to move beyond expectation. About why imperfection matters. And ultimately, about the simple but profound idea that a guitar isn’t just a tool for making sound, it’s something we live with, something that exists in our space, shaping our experience even when it’s not being played.

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Michihiro Matsuda, and I hope you do as much as I did.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached and Boutique Guitar Showcase:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase

Support the deeper conversations:
🔗 The Business of Guitar – Patreon

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

Welcome to Life With Strings Attached, I’m your host, Jamie Gale. In this episode, we’re stepping into a space that is, depending on who you ask, either full of possibility… or full of uncertainty.

My guest today is Sourabh Pateriya, founder and CEO of Soundverse AI, a platform working at the intersection of music, technology, and what it means to create in a world where the tools are changing faster than ever before.

Sourabh’s path is an interesting one. From engineering to design, from Spotify (where he co-invented Basic Pitch) to working on conversational AI with Samsung’s Bixby, and now building a company focused on ethical, artist-first AI music creation… his work sits right at the edge of where creativity and technology meet.

But what makes this conversation worth having isn’t just the technology.
It’s the perspective behind it. Because before all of this, Sourabh was a musician, someone who understands what it means to make something from nothing. And now he’s asking a much bigger question: What happens when the tools of creation become accessible to everyone? And more importantly… what happens to the role of the artist?

This is a conversation about access, about authorship, about ethics… and about whether we’re building a future that expands creativity, or reshapes it entirely.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached and Boutique Guitar Showcase:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase

Support the deeper conversations:
🔗 The Business of Guitar – Patreon

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.

Today’s conversation takes place in the workshop of Steve Klein. Someone who, for more than half a century, hasn’t just built guitars, but has continuously rethought what the instrument could be.

This isn’t a conversation about legacy. It’s about what’s still unfolding.
Steve is one of those rare builders who never settled into a fixed idea. While many define their work and then repeat it, he’s continued to question, redesign, and push forward. Still chasing new forms, new functions, and new ways the guitar can meet the player.

What struck me most being here is that the thinking hasn’t slowed. If anything, it’s sharpened. There are still ideas on the bench. Still questions being asked. Still things to say. And that’s where we begin, not with where it started, but with where it is right now.

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation, and I think you will too.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached and Boutique Guitar Showcase:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase

Support the deeper conversations:
🔗 The Business of Guitar – Patreon

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.