Gearing up with Year Long Disaster’s Daniel Davies
It’s been a year-long road trip for rock trio Year Long Disaster. The group has been touring almost non-stop since it the late 2007 release of its self-titled debut album. WTDP? had a chance to sit down with guitarist/singer Daniel Davies prior to the band’s Houston show last week – the third-to-last show on the band’s schedule prior to it returning to home base in Los Angeles. Davies, son of Kinks’ guitarist Dave Davies, walked us through his current rig, favorite guitars and offered a brief glimpse into the future as the band gears up to record its sophomore effort in the new year.
Davies’ road rig is made up of an Orange amp and cab, a modest pedalboard and a handful of guitars highlighted by his number one – a Butterscotch Les Paul. His pedalboard houses only four pedals – a Boss TU-2 tuner, a Line 6 Echo Park delay, Dunlop Cry Baby wah and a MXR Dyna Comp compressor.
“I have some other pedals, but they don’t fit on my pedal board… so I don’t use them,” he laughs.
No distortion pedal to speak of, Davies’ gain comes straight from his amp – a limited Orange Custom Shop Retro 50. This hand-wired model features a footswitchable gain boost and a separate Class A/B and Class A output selection switch on the rear panel.
“It goes between 30 and 50 watts, but I only use it on 30 watts,” says Davies. “I have #62. I’d like to get another one, but they’re so expensive. I should of just got it when I had the cash, and now I don’t have any cash, so…”
The Retro 50 pushes sound out of an Orange PPC 412 cabinet.
Davies’ number one guitar is his 1959 Reissue Gibson Les Paul. This is the axe that is featured in the live show, but is not the only Gibson guitar he travels with.
“I also have a newer Les Paul,” he says. “It came out this year, or maybe last year. It’s a tobacco burst without lacquer on it.”
He has also grown partial to a gift from Portland-based luthier Jim Normandy of Normandy Guitars, which specializes in aluminum six strings.
“It is really cool,” said Davies. “It’s aluminum. It’s a hollow body with a Bigsby. I’ve been using that.”
Another highlight of his collection is an Ampeg/Dan Armstrong acrylic model.
“Those have a cool sound,” he says.
Davies said the band has had a great experience on the road playing in both the states and in Europe supporting bands like Velvet Revolver, Motorhead, Foo Fighters, Turbonegro, The Sword and The Cult, but he’s looking forward to returning to the West Coast and beginning the process for the new record. The band has been playing a lot new material on the road.
“Probably too much new stuff,” quips Davies. “But you always think the new stuff is the best.”
Year Long Disaster’s debut was recorded over an 18-day period last year in Tuscon, Arizona, with at least one break in between to do some shows. Davies is looking forward to returning to the studio to record the follow-up soon.
“We’re going get home and then we’re going to start making demoes and making a list of producers we might want to work with,” he says. “So I am thinking early this next year we’ll record it. I’m excited about that. For me, it was good to get that first record out of the way because when we were done with it is when I realized… I had an idea of what I wanted to do. We had never made a record before. Now I have a better idea of what I want.”
