“Altered tunings obliterated my knowledge of the fretboard. I just put my hands on the guitar, started playing, and found I was using only my ear. It was liberating”: Bentley Anderson is imagining a strange new future for guitar music

A black-and-white portrait of Bentley Anderson experimenting with a pedalboard as his guitar lies in front of him.

Alone in his dorm room, transfixed by the bloom and decay of a single note, Bentley Anderson discovered his obsession and his voice on the guitar.

“I spent years trying to learn how to play proper guitar, and I was totally mediocre,” Anderson says. “I could never learn how to shred, even though I really tried.”