Cause and effects with Cymbals Eat Guitars
New York-based Cymbals Eat Guitars had a hit on their hands last year with the release of Why There Are Mountains – a nine-track sonic assault that garnered praise far and wide and landed on several critics’ best lists. It was released early in 2009, then re-released late in the year after the band was signed to Sister’s Den Records. The collection is filled with urgent pop swells and dives courtesy of singer/guitarist Joseph D’Agostino. WTDP? was able to track down Joseph and keyboardist Brian Hamilton recently for a little Q&A session. The boys chimed in from Italy, a stop on the current European tour, to talk about their music, their gear and Brian’s pedal company!
WTDP?: At first pass, the one thing we picked up on from Why There Are Mountains is sheer volume of sounds contained in the record. There seems to be a lot going on from beginning to end. Was this a conscious thing?
Joseph: Yeah, it’s pretty stuffed. Really a testament to [producer] Kyle Johnson’s ability to find a place for (almost) everything in the sonic field. This having been my first record, I guess I didn’t know at the time that art is about knowing what to omit. It’s pretty maximal, even in the moments where it doesn’t sound like it. I think I recall there being 96 separate tracks on ‘…And The Hazy Sea’. It was enough to test the limits of the rig we were working on. In retrospect that seems preposterous, actually… I guess because we’ve learned to make it sound better than the record with just four people playing at the same time. That’s why the next record will be so, so baller, because we’ve learned to play together. Novel concept for an indie rock band, I know.
WTDP?: Can you describe your writing process? It sounds like it could be very stream of consciousness… but sounds can be deceiving.
Joseph: “Stream of consciousness” meaning it sounds effortless or tossed-off or not labored over? I guess people work for months and years on records to create the illusion of effortlessness. Suppose what we have here is what you might call protracted stream of consciousness. The songs are basically hooks strung together all in a row, but each hook takes like a month to write… and the stage where we put it all together? That’s another couple of months. Same thing with the lyrics, it’s all about putting one thought next to another thought, one lending meaning to the other. I like to think our best songs come across as complete thoughts, when all the little ideas coalesce into one big beautiful dynamic breathing force. I hate how long it takes to write and record, but when it all comes together, shit golly is it gratifying.
WTDP?: I really dig ‘Share’ and that brooding guitar wail that kicks off after the keyboard intro and the upbeat pop swirl that closes out the tune. Can you tell me a bit about that song and how it came about?
Joseph: I like your ‘guitarjectives’. Better than many critics. Are you a critic? Everyone’s a critic. Not in this case, I guess, since you’re lavishing praise on us. Ok, “Share” is about a girl. A girl named Cher. Moonstruck is one of my favorite movies… In all seriousness, the song is about withholding, not allowing yourself to experience certain things with someone because you’re afraid of creating memories that will become sources of pain when the relationship inevitably ends. There was this nature reserve near my old house in Jersey, and every weekend I’d walk the miles of trails. Some of the most peaceful moments I’ll ever know. Anyway, I began dating this girl and the song was written as I was hesitating, trying to decide just what to share with this person… thinking about how I’d feel when I walked my trails again, alone, after having walked them with her. God, I am such a sentimental hippie. The end of the song says, “this is why we need secrets”. It started as wimpy Jesus & Mary Chain pastiche on Cool Edit Pro and ended up a lumbering guitar-lightning shoegaze behemoth. It’s the only song on the record I used a Marshall JCM-900 for.
WTDP?: Can you run through your guitar rig for me? What is your number one guitar right now? Did you play many different ones on the record?
Joseph: I own a couple of guitars… Live I use my two American Jazzmasters, but I also own a Gibson Southern Jumbo, a Gibson SG, a Heritage Les Paul, and a sick-ass Squire P-bass. The Southern Jumbo is all I play at home… it’s my writing guitar. On record, in addition to my Jazzmasters and my acoustic I used a couple of different hollow-body electrics that I wish I owned, and a Harmony that belongs to Kyle.
WTDP?:What is populating your pedal board currently?
>Joseph: A Boss tuner, a Dunlop Crybaby wah wah, an Ibanez Tube Screamer from the 80′s, a Frantone Peachfuzz, a Way Huge Red Llama, two Zvex Super Hard-Ons and a T-Rex Replica.
WTDP?: What about amps?
Joseph: I always use Fender Twins. Man needs a blank canvas. I have two myself, a blackface from ’65 and a silverface from ’70. Both sound bombbbb.
WTDP?: Any piece of dream gear you’ve got your eyes on… that you will rush out to buy once the money truck backs up to your door?
Joseph: A Martin D-28, a Jerry Jones baritone guitar, a Rickenbacker 12-string… to add more texture to the jangle. I dig all kinds of amplifiers, too… I wouldn’t mind an old Marshall or Vox of my own.
WTDP?: Brian, tell me more about smallsound/bigsound. Is the Team Awesome Fuzz Machine the main product there? Are you working on others?
Brian: smallsound/bigsound is my effects pedal company which I ‘launched’ about a year and a half ago. It’s been slow going, but i really enjoy the process and am trying hard not to overwhelm myself between the band, the business and my personal life. The Team Awesome Fuzz Machine is really the only ‘production’ model that I offer at the moment, although I’m working hard to introduce another fuzz this year and hopefully (crosses fingers) something really unique next year. I do build one-offs/custom stuff for friends, bandmates, myself and others, so my mind is constantly on effects and the process involved with them.
WTDP?: Where did the interest in building pedals come from? Is it something you see yourself continuing and perhaps growing in the future?
Brian: My interest in building came from a very specific sound that I was interested in producing from my keyboards… I was really into boards of Canada, My Bloody Valentine and other “warbly” sounding stuff and i just love(d) the aesthetic. Those whammy bar sounds are easy to get on guitar, with keyboards that have a pitch wheel and with audio plug-ins, but I really wanted to do that live on a Rhodes or Wurlitzer. I bought some pedals that I thought would get me what I wanted, but I was never really satisfied, so I figured I would just try and build something. I started circuit bending to get my head wrapped around some basics and slowly just worked my way from there. I’ve been doing it for about five years now. It is something I would really love to grow, but with the band being so busy, it’s difficult at the moment to meet the demands of customers and retailers; it is certainly a passion of mine, so I’ll find a way to make it happen.
