# John McGrath (Musician and Academic)

John McGrath (born 24 May 1984) is an Irish guitarist, improvisor and academic based in London, UK. He is the author of Samuel Beckett, Repetition and Modern Music (Routledge 2018) and co-editor of 21st Century Guitar (Bloomsbury 2023). His work spans experimental music, folk, improvisation, guitar innovations, and the intersection of music, literature and film. Having previously taught at University of Liverpool, LIPA, Goldsmiths and ICMP, McGrath is currently a Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Surrey and is also Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre (IGRC), which he runs with Stephen Goss, Milton Mermikides and Honorary President John Williams.

## Background

Born and raised in Ireland, McGrath studied at University College Dublin (BA Hons - Music, English, Philosophy) and BMus Hons (Music) before Trinity College Dublin (MPhil). He earned his PhD at the University of Liverpool in 2014, (funded by the Arts & Humantities Research Council) focusing on the connections between Samuel Beckett’s works and modern music.

## Writing

McGrath’s writing explores intersections between musicology, literature, performance, and popular music studies, often focusing on avant-garde and experimental practices. His publications engage with themes such as repetition, improvisation, cross-disciplinary aesthetics, and the interplay of sound and text. Edward Campbell writes in the journal Music & Letters that 'Samuel Beckett, Repetition and Modern Music benefits from having been written by someone who is as at home with music studies as he is with literature, as is evident from the wide-ranging references to historical and geographical musics with which the text is sprinkled. In all of this McGrath’s tone is just right and the discussion convincing.'
Drew Daniel, wrote for The Wire that 'McGrath’s book is salutary in flagging the deliberately jarring tactics of the avant garde, and getting the reader to grasp what remains permanently uncanny about our pleasure in Beckett and Feldman’s exploration of both the playful humour and subtle queasiness to be found within their repetitive forms'. While in Irish Studies Review, Michael Palmese described the monograph as 'a valuable addition for the critical insights it provides through meticulous analyses.' In an interview for Buring Ambulance, David Menestres wrote: 'A few months ago, I came across a copy of a wonderful new book: Samuel Beckett, Repetition and Modern Music by guitarist and professor John McGrath. McGrath dives deep into the musicality of Beckett’s work and how it has shaped certain aspects of modern music, focusing mainly on the works of Feldman and the guitarist Scott Fields'. Monica Esslin-Peard described the book as raising 'interesting questions about the relationship between words and music, aesthetics and musical analysis in her review for Psychology of Music.
Joe Satriani wrote the following about 21st Century Guitar: 'The thing about the guitar is that it has to be constantly re-imagined, de-constructed, then re-constructed if it is to continue to be a vital force in music’s future landscapes. 21st Century Guitar is the new grimoire in this quest for the instrument’s ongoing reinventions'.
John has presented papers internationally at the Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts, as part of the 3rd Altamira Guitar Symposium; the International Guitar Research Centre; Royal Musical Society; Kookmin University, Seoul; Society for Musicology in Ireland; Word and Music Association, Graz; SCMS, Denver; IASPM and many others. He sits on the editorial board for Sonic Scope (MIT Press) and is an external examiner for BIMM. He has acted as invited peer reviewer for Routledge, Brill, Bloomsbury, Orpheus, Popular Music & Society and Music & Letters.

## Music

As a professional guitarist and composer, McGrath bridges traditional techniques with innovative approaches, exploring the boundaries of sound, improvisation, and collaboration. His compositions have been featured in The Wire, RTE Radio 1, BBC Radio, and several television programs. His music has been showcased at prominent venues such as Tate Modern, Kings Place, Cafe Oto and FACT. Throughout his career, McGrath has collaborated with many ensembles and artists including Dustin Wong, Sharon Gal, Cavalier Song, History of Harry, Black Snow Rodeo, Tequila Sunrise, Rhys Chatham, Howard Skempton, and the aPAtT Orchestra. Recent session work includes two records with The Unattached (Gare du Nord). Additionally, he has received commissions to compose for the IMMIX ensemble and has performed new music alongside extensive arrangements of his works with the group. As a solo artist, McGrath has graced various festivals and shared the stage with performers like Richard Dawson, Gwenifer Raymond, Laraaji, and Sun Araw.
Bill Meyer writing for Dusted Magazine said that 'McGrath is like a jeweler, crafting small but perfectly formed pieces that tempt you to pick them up and hold them to the light, just to get a better glance.', while The Wire said the following: 'His versatile, experimental approach, reminiscent of Jim O’Rourke, Christian Fennesz, and Marc Ribot, pushes at the boundaries of new guitar music and the UK avant folk scene.'

## Selected Writing

McGrath, J. (2024) “Haunted Folk: Spectres of the Analogue in Annhilation (2018)” in Haunted Soundtracks: AV Cultures of Memory, Landscape and Sound, Kevin Donnelly and Aimee Mollaghan eds. (Bloomsbury).
Perks, R. & McGrath, J. eds. (2023) 21st Century Guitar: Evolutions & Augmentations (Bloomsbury).
McGrath, J. (2023) “Interview with Nels Cline (Wilco)” in 21st Century Guitar: Evolutions and Augmentations, Perks & McGrath eds. (Bloomsbury).
McGrath, J. (2023) “Interview with Bill Thompson” in 21st Century Guitar: Evolutions and Augmentations, Perks & McGrath eds. (Bloomsbury).
Perks, R & McGrath, J. (2023) “Introduction” in 21st Century Guitar: Evolutions and Augmentations, Perks & McGrath eds. (Bloomsbury).
McGrath, J. (2023) “Avant Folk and Glitch Aesthetics, A Practice-Based Perspective” in 21st Century Guitar: Evolutions and Augmentations, Perks & McGrath eds (Bloomsbury).
Mermikides, M & J. McGrath (2023) Jeff Beck: the unorthodox techniques that made him such a unique guitarist (The Conversation).
McGrath, J. (2022) The Return to Craft: Taylor Swift, Nostalgia & Covid-19 (Popular Music & Society, 2022). The Return to Craft: Taylor Swift, Nostalgia, and Covid-19
McGrath, J. (2021) "Laurie Anderson's Transmedia Storytelling" in Journal of Popular Music Studies (JPMS), Volume 33, Issue 4, December 2021.
Rogers, H., McGrath, J., Vernalis, C. & Chapman, D. (2021) "Composer Ben Salisbury Discusses Scoring Science for Alex Garland" in Cybermedia: Explorations in Science, Sound and Vision (Bloomsbury).
McGrath, J. (2020) "On (vari)speed across David Lynch's Work" in Transmedia Directors: Sound, Image and the Digital Swirl, Carol Vernalis, Holly Rogers and Lisa Perrott eds. (Bloomsbury).
McGrath, J. (2019) “How does a story get told from fractured bits?”: Laurie Anderson’s transformative repetition” in The Bloomsbury Handbook to Popular Music Video Analysis, Lori Burns and Stan Hawkins eds. (Bloomsbury).
McGrath, J. (2019) Scott Walker: singer turned avant-garde composer spanned pop and classical music (The Conversation).
McGrath, J. (2018) Monograph: Samuel Beckett, Repetition and Modern Music (London & New York: Routledge). ISBN: 978-1472475374.
McGrath, J. (2018) Liner notes: Scott Fields, "Barclay" (Ayler Records).
McGrath, J. (2015) Book review: “Beckett and Musicality. Ed. by Sara Jane Bailes and Nicholas Till” Music and Letters 2015 96 (4): 681-683, doi: 10.1093/ml/gcv097.
McGrath, J. (2012) “Musical Repetition in Samuel Beckett’s Ill Seen Ill Said”, in Time and Space in Words and Music, ed. Mario Dunkel, Emily Petermann and Burkhard Sauerwald (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang), pp.31-42.
McGrath, J. (2012) Book review: “Mervyn Cooke (ed.), The Hollywood Film Music Reader and Tom Hoover, Keeping Score: Interviews with Today’s Top Film, Television, and Game Music Composers”, in Music, Sound, and the Moving Image 6:2, pp.245-251.

## Selected Music

Wake & Whisper (2019)
Lanterns EP (2014)

## External Links

University of Surrey Profile
Official Website
International Guitar Research Centre