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BiTS:  Okay. When you first started playing with a band, how did you find playing in
    public?

    WW:  Yeah, it's always been very natural. I think when you're younger, because I started

    playing that when I was about 18 or 19, you have quite a big ego at that age [laughs].

    BiTS:  Yes. That’s true.


    WW:  Which you need, I think in order to get out and do it, because I wasn't very good
    when I started, but I was confident. I probably thought I was much better than I was
    at the time, but that gave me the confidence to get out and do it.


                                                                     BiTS:    People  don't  realise  that
                                                                     playing the harp, blues harp anyway,
                                                                     is actually extremely physical work.
                                                                     Do  you  do  any  kind  of  training  or

                                                                     anything like that in preparation?

                                                                     WW:  Yeah, I mean, I lift weights and
                                                                     stuff at the gym anyway, but the way

                                                                     that I play harmonica in particular is
                                                                     very demanding on the breath.

                                                                     BiTS:  Yes, of course.


                                                                     WW:  Because I use my own tuning,
                                                                     it's  called  the  Wilde  tuning,  which
                                                                     lets  me  play  more  of  the  upper

                                                                     octave, blues rock kind of licks, and
                                                                     90% of the notes that I play are draw

                                                                     notes. So inhale.

                                                                     BiTS:  Yes.

                                                                     WW:  So I'm always like right on the

                                                                     very  edge  of  my  breath  capacity
                                                                     [chuckles] when I'm on stage. I need
                                                                     as much lung capacity as I can get. So

    I try and do cardio. I avoid smoking and vaping and I do some yoga breathing exercises
    as well, which I find help a lot.

    BiTS:  That's absolutely fascinating. Really, because I've tried to talk to harp players

    in the past about how physical it is, and most of them are reluctant to talk about it in
    a sense.

    WW:  Right, yeah. When you start getting into the sort of fast blues rock stuff especially,

    it is like an extreme sport, you know [laughs]?
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