Band of Susans was a noise-rock institution of the New York scene back in the 80s. Spawning five full-length albums, the band was big on guitar buzz and drone, much of which oozed from the amps of Robert Poss. After the band parted ways in 1995, Poss performed with others and eventually released a pair of solo albums in 2002 – Distortion Is Truth and a companion record – Crossing Casco Bay. Rich with experimental sounds and improvisation, both teemed with the left-of-center guitar genius he had nurtured throughout the years. WTDP? recently caught up with Poss, whom producer Steve Albini once called ‘an enormously underrated guitar theorist’, to talk about his music and love for gear.

WTDP?: What have you been up to since the dual album release in 2002?
Robert: Since Distortion Is Truth and its companion CD Crossing Casco Bay, I have composed and performed music for three choreographers – Sally Gross, Alexandra Beller and Gerald Casel. I have worked with ex-Band Of Susan member Susan Stenger on a 96-day musical installation for the Musée d’art Contemporain in Lyon, France. I performed at the premier of composer Phill Niblock’s piece Stosspeng in Krems, Austria. I contributed music to an Albert Maysles/Kristen Nutile documentary, Sally Gross: The Pleasure Of Stillness. I performed with Rhys Chatham at a Metropolitan Museum of Art retrospective and participated in Chatham’s Crimson Grail project for 200 guitars at Lincoln Center. I have played on a few television commercials for composer Ben Neill, and done a few one-off gigs with Knox Chandler and others. I’ve engineered/produced a few CDs for guitarist Seth Josel, among others, performed solo at a tribute to writer Robert Palmer at Le Poisson Rouge, and have done front-of-house sound for my friends Alan and Marty in the band Suicide. I also have collaborated with Austrian visual artist Margret Wibmer and with filmmaker Cat Tyc. I guess I’ve been busy.

WTDP?: Has your approached to writing changed over the years? Apart from the genre shifts that is…
Robert: I still do a lot of mental preparation and ruminating and then compose quickly through a process of structured improvisation and experimentation that is revised into a structured composition. I take advantage of chance occurrences and juxtapositions that I refine and codify.

WTDP?: One thing I love about Band of Susans is the consistent attack of the rhythm guitar across most tracks… this was going on at a time when rhythm playing was kind of a lost art in popular music. Was there much thought given to that at the time, or was it just a function of ‘plug in and go!’?
Robert: Much of the music in the Band Of Susans releases was composed. I often wrote all of the parts, including bass lines and drum parts. The three basic electric guitars parts were structured with a great deal of precision to interlock and create something more than the sum of the parts. Susan Stenger took a similar approach to her compositions in the band. We were never a jam band, and the other guitarists generally learned their parts from recordings and under my tutelage. The parts were generally written in bursts of improvised creativity and then solidified by me, but many songs were simply first take solo demos rearranged for the band.

WTDP?: Was there much guitar layering on Distortion Is Truth? In some instances, like the sustain and modulation on ‘You Were Relentless’ sounds massive, but at the same time it appears to be the wailing of just one guitar.
Robert: There is less layering on Distortion Is Truth, but on ‘You Were Relentless’, there are, I believe, three guitars. I was exploring a more electronic approach to the guitar and did a lot of work on modular synthesizers. I’m also quite good at doubling myself on guitar.

WTDP?: Do you tend to favor sound over song?
Robert: I’m much more fascinated by the architecture of sound than by the craft of the songwriter. I can appreciate a good song, but many of my favorite parts of music cannot be reduced to a person on an acoustic guitar or a piano. Unlike the rest of the world, it seems, for me it’s usually not about ‘the song’. Maybe I have more in common with Asian musical traditions and conventions.

WTDP?: Turning to gear, what does your current set-up look like and does it compare with the Distortion Is Truth-era and Band of Susans-era rigs? Number one guitar now versus then (that G&L perhaps?) Amps now versus then?
Robert: My Band Of Susans sound relied about a massive amount of gain and distortion run into high powered Marshall and Park tube amps that were run very cleanly. I still rely on that approach, but now also have incorporated more electronics… processing by synthesizer modules, for instance… and use a variety of small combo amps by Valvetech, Fender, Frenzel, Decware, ZT Amplifiers, and adjust my processing to the situation, For solo work I often employ a bit of looping using a Boomerang and/or other digital looper and use some oddball devices that hardware hacker guru/composer Nicolas Collins has built for me. In terms of guitars, I still rely on my various G&L SC-1s with various pickup configurations, a few choice hollowbodies including a 1980s Gibson ES-135 and a Yamaha AES1500 that has Filtertrons and a Bigsby added. I have a very nice see-through green G&L ASAT Classic… I always come back to the SC-1 though.

WTDP?: We’re big pedal hounds here… do you have much of an effects pedal stash? Can you let us in on some of your favorites?
Robert: I own far too many pedals, though I’ve sold a bunch of my more collectible stuff off recently to pay some bills. I have a Wyllie Fuzzmite, Collins Fuzzy Dicer, Empress Tremolo, but also rely on conventional things like a ProCo Rat, Tube Screamer, Boss Delays… I like to chain together distortion pedals… I also love the MI Audio Crunchbox. The Subdecay Noise Box is a nice versatile pedal.

WTDP?: Is there a single piece of gear out there – historic or current – that if money was no object, you would jump at the chance to own? What would that be and why?
Robert: I’ve owned almost every bit of guitar gear I’ve ever wanted at one point or another. I’ve bought and sold scores of guitars, basses, amps and pedals over the past several decades, from vintage Non-SG Les Paul Junior Double Cutaways, to a 1960s Gretsch Jet Firebird, to an Ibanez Iceman to a Gibson ES-125. I’ve cured myself of Gear Acquisition Syndrome to a large extent. I don’t covet gear like I once did. I’m most interested in reliability and low-noise/hum now. I still have my 100 watt 2 X 12 Park combo and a 100 watt Park Master Volume head that Andrew Barta (Sansamp) modded to vintage NON-Master Volume specs. There’s a lot more choice in terms of high end, boutique pedals, guitars and amps than there used to be, but I’m in a period of stasis just now. There’s no piece of gear I fantasize about owning these days. Strange, huh?

Well, if you’ve seen the Contests page lately you know we spent a little time with the Arc Angels recently. The boys played two nights this past weekend in Austin to help commemorate the 35th Anniversary of iconic blues bar Antone’s. We saw the band last year when they came through Houston at the House of Blues, but didn’t get very good gear shots. Well, let’s remedy that! Take a look at some photos from the show below… and after that, click on over the Contests page and enter to win the Prescription Electronics COB pedal signed by Charlie and Doyle!

WTDP?: Let’s look back to start. We lost track of the band after Blue Sky Research and just recently tracked down Our Long Road Home which was made after the spilt with Atlantic. What was the process like jumping from Atlantic to a self-release and now to Victory? Seems like three very different circumstances. Is that fair?
Mike: That is true to some degree and yet, we were always just plugging away. The business side is one thing that any band has to deal with, but as far as musically, we just did our thing. The biggest difference now is that with Victory we had strict deadlines… so we had no time to second guess ourselves which I think turned out to be a good thing for Plead The Fifth.

WTDP?: Plead The Fifth sounds like a pretty good marriage between the aggression of Gift and the melodic trends of Blue Sky Research. Was that conscious or just how the process evolved?
Mike: Yeah, it was a conscious decision indeed. Pretty much the only thing we knew starting out on this album was that we wanted to get some of the heavy back. The rest just evolved.

WTDP?: The obvious bridge between Our Long Road Home and Plead The Fifth is producer Tim Patalan. What has in been like working with him now on these last two offerings?
Mike: Tim is awesome. We are very blessed to know him and to have him so close and so willing to help us out. He is a maniac, but aren’t we all?

WTDP?: Should fans reading anything in the title Plead The Fifth? Maybe a certain piece of history the band has decided it is done talking about?
Mike: Not a whole lot behind it honestly. It’s our fifth album, so it’s really just a play on that.

WTDP?: The new record has some bone-crushing material on it… right from the start with the brutal launch into ‘Now Rise’. One of my favorites on the new one is ‘Stolage’, which itself hosts a fair share of thick riffage. What is the story behind that tune?
Mike: Um, I dunno. Steve and I get together to write the initial material. I remember coming over to his place and he had the big riff of the song laid down, but not much more. We just sat down and built around it really. It’s fairly hard to play live… I know that!

WTDP?: What is the chant going on at the beginning of ‘Release Me’? Sounds Native American, but it’s a little hard to tell. What’s the origin story for that song?
Mike: Yeah, that’s Steve’s dad actually. Musically, I took the riffs over to Steve’s house and we built the song. It took quite a while to find the right feel that I was looking for drum-wise, but Steve was patient and found it. Once he nailed the drum part it was like “Ok, this is gonna work”. Vocally, I think Steve just thought it needed that little extra something for those parts.

WTDP?: Are there any other bands out there right now that you guys are digging?
Mike: I know Steve (and now most of us) really dig Emmure. Personally, I listen to a bunch of obscure indie type stuff and pop/dance music. At the moment I’m mostly listening to the albums Blackout and Circus. (ed. note: Oof!)

WTDP?: Switching to gear, I remember hearing that the baritone guitars were coming out the closet for this record. What makes/models were used on the album?
Mike: We recently got hooked up with ESP. Our guitar tech Brian helped us out with that one. They were nice enough to provide us with all the guitars we needed for the road so that’s what we used. I use ESP/LTD Vipers and I love ‘em. I have two white standard scale, and two black baritones. My favorite would be my white ones.

WTDP?: What guitars/amps were used in the studio for the record? How does that contrast with what you have out on the road?
Mike: It’s the same set up pretty much for out on the road and recording. We like to keep it simple… Mesa amps and ESP guitars.

WTDP?: Also, what is your effects set-up these days?
Mike: I have a Rocktron Delay pedal, which I use for pretty much everything, a Rocktron Hush, a Boss Octave pedal, and a Korg tuner. That’s it!

WTDP?: Usually we save the gear talk to the end, but because your set-up is so unique we want to talk about that first. Can you give us a rundown of your acoustic piano set-up? We understand you run it through guitar pick-ups.
Marco: All the time! It all started because I was making demos when I was writing all of this new music. The piano trio I’m in – piano, bass and drums – it starts out with me making demos on all of the instruments and me sending them to Matt Chamberlain who’s the drummer on the two records that I have out. Then I’d send them to (bassist) Reed (Mathis). I always caught myself editing the piano a little bit – adding EQ or adding a little bit of overdrive, reverb and delay on some songs. You know, stuff you would do post-production. I was imagining us going out on tour and me sitting down at the piano and playing these tunes and I was thinking that it wouldn’t sound like the demos where the piano is a little effected. I was thinking to myself how to do that live. I opened up drawer in my desk and found this old acoustic guitar pick-up… I think it was a Dean Markley – basically a transducer pick-up. I stuck it on the soundboard of the piano and ran it into my amp that I have here. It picked up the sound in this creepy, cool way that sort of matched the demos. Then I plugged that pick-up into an EQ pedal, an analog delay a favorite distortion of mine. Really keep it simple. My favorite amp to use these days is a Sears Silvertone 1484. It’s got an amazing optical tremolo in it. So I use that tremolo, and old Boss Delay – a DM-3 – I love that pedal… and this classic old Rat. I try these other distortion pedals and I always come back to the Rat.

So I used this transducer pick-up through all of those pedals and into an amp and then my whole world just opened. I started using that every piano gig. I started bringing different amps, started using different pedals, started using different pick-ups. Now I use these pick-ups made by Charles Helpenstill. There is a Helpenstill piano pick-up series. The best thing about these is that they are magnetic so they stick right to the sound plate of the piano and they don’t feedback at all so you can play right next to a drummer and have the amp be loud and not hear any drums through the amp. That’s a big thing for me because it’s an acoustic instrument – trying to pick up sounds from the piano live and not have it become this sort of feedback nightmare. Lately I’ve been playing rooms that are a little less like jazz rooms and more rock rooms. I’m more of a rocker at heart, but I end up in jazz rooms because they have the pianos. But I’ve been traveling with my own piano – a 1927 Wurlitzer that they made for train cars and bars. The reason it is so unique is that it is a 61-note upright piano – one octave off the top and one off the bottom. It has an XLR out and 1/4” out on it. So it’s an acoustic piano that’s been hot-rodded.

WTDP?: We know that you play with some circuit bent stuff too. What were some of the toys you used on the latest record?
Marco: I’ve got a handful of toys that I’ve been using. One in particular that I use regularly is called the Atari Punk Console. It is becoming a popular, kinda do-it-yourself, circuit bent thing. It is essentially a square wave with a pitch knob that you can run into a delay and it does some other stuff. I also used – you know the Nintendo DS – the little flippable Game Boy type thing? Korg made something called the DS10 that basically turns it into a modular synth and you can play it like a keyboard. It’s great for a plane ride or on a bus or something. I used that a lot on the record. My friend, his name is Tom Stevenson… he’s in a band called Ross Mobot… he mails me stuff every once in a while and when I see him in Chicago he always gives me a handful of circuit bent toys that I wind up using.

WTDP?: Is there any effect out there that you’d love the chance to experiment with, but haven’t had the chance to yet?
Marco: Yeah! I’ve just been hearing about this guy who lives in New Orleans. Nels Cline just bought one of his things. Drum Buddy I think it’s called. Drum Buddy is what I want. I’ve e-mailed the guy about it… Quintron. I’d like to play with one of those. Another friend of mine is in Bjork’s band and he has this thing called Reactable. It’s like colored blocks that you play… neat interfaces. It looks like a fun, glow-in-the-dark kinda thing.

WTDP?: Turning to the CD… we really dig ‘Two Of You’. Can you give us an idea where that song came from?
Marco: When you have conversations with people I’ve said things like this on more than one occasion: Part of me wants to do this and part of me wants to do that. A kind of duality of life. I remember saying that one time and a friend told me ‘Dude, there are no parts of you, there is just you. That’s it.’ And I was like, no, there’s at least two of me in here. There’s a bit of duality in everyone’s life – the two of you inside… one makes smart decisions and one makes dumb decisions… or maybe they balance each other out. I don’t know. I was just feeling that push and pull. I thought that was cool. The song has a pretty solid section that makes you feel good and then another section that’s a little bit darker, the solo section and the climax then it goes back to the other part. So the title kinda plays out in the song.

WTDP?: We also think ‘Numbers’ is a great song. Some really cool tweaking going on in that one as well as some tasty playing in the second half.
Marco: There is a lot of circuit bent toys… I spent a lot of time with that one. If you listen closely, the reason I called it ‘Numbers’ is because I had this glitched-out Speak-N-Spell going… within like the first minute you can hear it go ‘numm-bersss’. And I thought… there you go… that’s the title of the song. When I listen to the song it puts me into a certain mind space and it makes me think about different possibilities and all the different choices and I can almost see different numbers flying by. Like you can do this or that… you can say it like this or say it like that. It is sort of like this feeling in the end, no matter how you do it, everything is going to work out. It’s so silly with instrumental music how you come up with pictures in your head about what it could be about. There is something about that song. It has a perseverance sound to it. Maybe its the repetition of the melody. That melody happens four times and it’s a long melody.

WTDP?: Who were some of your inspirations growing up… for piano and guitar?
Marco: When I was listening to a lot of jazz and studying a lot of jazz I was into Brad Mehldau. He’s a pianist. He did a record called Largo with Matt Chamberlain, who’s the drummer on my first two records. He sort of combined the jazz/rock thing pretty sweetly in that one record. Sound-wise, I really like Nels Cline a lot – the guitarist in Wilco. I like his creativity with tone and his solos are really incredible. I’m a big fan of Brian Eno… really in the past three or four years. I like Hendrix a lot. I like Larry Young… an organist that played with Tony Williams and John McLaughlin for a period of time. They had a band called Lifetime and a record called Emergency. That was sort of the heavier side of jazz with a Hammond organ through a Fender Twin and John McLaughlin was using a bunch of effects and busted up guitar amps. It sounded incredible. I like bands like My Morning Jacket… I really like Jack White a lot from The White Stripes. And you know who I really like… Dan Auerbach with The Black Keys. I saw him with The Black Keys in New Orleans and I just freaked. He was so good.

WTDP?: We’d be remiss if we didn’t ask about Garage A Trois and last year’s Power Patriot release. How did you hook up with those guys for that record?
Marco: Those guys are pretty open to compositional ideas. Honestly, it was really fun and easy. We had relationships before I joined the band. I used to see Stanton (Moore) a lot. We used to open up for Galactic quite a bit. It is sort of like a supergroup I guess. I lot of busy dudes in other bands. We only get to do maybe 20 shows a year. We all have a pretty loose attitude about the band. We love touring with that outfit, but right away there is a bit of a detachment to the band. Which in a way is kind of cool. A lot of those tunes on that record where Mike Dillon’s and mine I guess. Charlie Hunter was in the band and they essentially needed somebody to do bass lines and be able to be a soloist as well. Those guys just throw down. Playing bass lines with Stanton and Mike D is so easy and so much fun – such a huge pocket. I really enjoy it. It is a great outlet for me. I used to play just Hammond with them, but over time I sort of switched to other keyboards like Rhodes… and midi-controllers so I can sample some of my sounds and play them live. I’m in love with the totally acoustic world, but at the same time I have all of my circuit bent sounds accessible via a midi controller for ease and comfort, plus it saves batteries and I don’t have to worry about them breaking. I’m always in transition… finding out new ways to do certain things.

He’s not really a newcomer, but a lot of folks don’t know his name. He’s played with the likes of Jeff Healey and more recently Melissa Etheridge… and there are clips out on the ‘net where his tasty playing has made the likes of Jon Bon Jovi do a double-take. His name is Philip Sayce… and if you don’t know him now, you will soon enough. He a shining star in the next batch of blues rock guitar heroes. He just had a new album, Innerevolution, come out in Europe. Prior to leaving for a tour of the EU, he agreed to chat with WTDP? about the new record, his music philosophies and his gear.

WTDP?: First off, how are rehearsals going? Tell me about the band you’ve put together… who are the players?
Philip: Rehearsals are going super well. We’re working in a new drummer who’s bad ass. He’s from Liverpool. He’s a bad ass Liverpool drummer! We’re just kinda working up some new tricks and doing some new things. It has really been great. We’re going over and just do this trip as a trio. We were talking about bring a keyboard player, but there is just a vibe that happens sometimes live as a trio. It’s a lot of fun. This cat, Chris Jago, is going to come over with us… he’s the drummer and my bass player Joel Gottschalk – great cat, great bass player. Those are the guys.

WTDP?: Give me a little history lesson… Peace Machine came out in 2003, then Silver Wheel of Stars appeared as a Japanese import later, but was never released in the states. Is that right?
Philip: Yeah. There is an interesting story around that one. That was kind of a bunch of works-in-progress at that point. It came out only in Japan and it was a very short run. It’s now out of print. It was never really an official release. It was more like a bunch of demos that ended up getting released.

WTDP?: Innerevolution shares a bunch of tunes with the Silver Wheel album… albeit re-worked. Had you planned to revisit those songs all along or was it more a factor of there were great songs on that disc that not a lot of people got a chance to hear?
Philip: I had about 30 something songs when we went in to record this – I think about between 30 and 35 songs we were looking at doing. Some of them we’d been playing live that I had written with my buddy Dave Cobb during those ‘Silver Wheel of Stars’ sessions – some of those songs. They were going over well live and people we asking what we were going to do with them, and if we were going to record them. We ended up picking our favorite ones from the live show and then took a bunch of other ones that seem to fit with them. There are a whole bunch of other songs left over that we’ll probably just go in and record.
 
WTDP?: Listening to Innerevolution, the song I keep coming back to is My Pearl. I really dig the gospel-tinged chorus, the descending melody during the verse sections, and of course the smokin’ guitar work. Tell me a little bit about that tune.
Philip: That song…  it is actually a cover. It’s a very obscure song from the 70s. It’s kind of a real ‘inside’ song. I’ve had a lot of coincidences with that song and a lot of… That song has always resonated with me. When I was living in Toronto I was playing with this guy named Paul DeLong, who is truly one of the best drummers in the world. He lives in Canada and a very, very well respected musician – a ridiculous fusion drummer. He can play anything. He’s got a band called The Code. These guys are like… you know, you think these guys are from Canada and cool, maybe you haven’t heard of them, but I swear to God these are some of the heaviest musicians in the world. So I was playing with this guy and he was hiding the one from me every night, stretching me as a musician – I’m 18, 19. We were really getting along well and he had always been a good friend. He handed me this music one night and said ‘Dude I think you’re really going to love this.’ It was this band… Automatic Man. This was a band, including a guitarist named Pat Thrall, and some other real heavy cats. I guess one of the guys was playing with Santana at some point – a bunch of bad ass players. They were sort of this fusion meets soul, bluesy rock… and this song ‘My Pearl’ was on there. As soon as I heard it I was like ‘Oh man, I love this song!’ From what I understand it was kind of a hit during the summer of 1976 or something. It was a regional hit in California. Pat Thrall laid down this bad ass solo in the middle.

So flash forward a couple of years, I move to California and I’m working with my friend Mike Bradford, this really great producer and writer. He looks at me and says ‘Hey man. We should do a cover of ‘My Pearl’. You ever heard of Automatic Man?’ I just sort of looked at him like ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ So we started working on it and all this time I’ve been sort of working it out with different players. If sort of felt right, or it didn’t. So this time I went into the studio and looked at the guys and said we’ve got to cut this tune ‘My Pearl’. We played it and it was super fun… and there it is. It’s just been one of those songs I’ve always loved. It’s always resonated with me and it’s a song that my lady can actually listen to and dig! It’s not all about feedback and wailing guitars.

WTDP?: Then there’s Little Miss America, which I think you may have teased a bit on You Tube during the recording sessions. Great guitar work on this one… was that the plan? To have at least one longer tune to really break loose all over?
Philip: My idea when recording this album was more about creating something that was wide scoping, so it wasn’t just focused on music waiting to get to the guitar solo or really centered only around guitar. I love a lot of different kinds of music. I love a lot of different artists. I love lots of different sounds. My favorite band is The Beatles. It doesn’t mean it has to only be about guitar all the time. I spent a lot of time really focusing on songwriting and then, ok, figuring out where can I put in a guitar solo. It wasn’t so much the other way around. That was really about me trying to evolve as an artist and a musician and stretch myself. As much as I love that process, there does come a point where we all look at each other and say ‘Let’s cut something down. Let’s just go!’ So that was a live take. I think we played that a bunch of times live one afternoon and that was the one the stuck.

WTDP?: Let’s talk about your gear. First, guitars… you’ve obviously a Strat man. What is your #1 guitar right now?
Philip: My main guitar that I play most of the time – her name is Mother – and she’s a 1963 Stratocaster. I love that guitar. It sounds to me and feels to me like no other. When I was playing with Jeff Healey, when I was first out on the road, I had my reissue guitar, which I loved as well at the time. It was cool. I started putting my money away and saving. A friend of mine helped me find that guitar, and I bought it. It’s been my main one ever since. I’ve also got a ’62 Strat that the same friend help me find. He sold it to me… an all original Olympic White one that sounds crazy. Actually, for some reason… it’s a veneer board from the later part of ’62, but it sounds so much like a late 50s maple neck. It is so interesting. It’s got that twang to it, but there’s nothing harsh. No hot needles on there. It just has a voice like a 50s Strat. It’s very strange.

WTDP?: What others are you planning to take on the road?
Philip: I think I’m going to travel pretty light this time… maybe three or four guitars. I’m going to bring my acoustic that I love, which is a Martin. Probably the ’62 and ’63 Strats. I’ve got a guitar that John Cruz made for me over at Fender. He kind of inspected my guitar and built something that he said should rival it. So I’ll probably bring that… and I’ve got an SG that I used a lot on recording as well. It’s a mid-60s SG Junior with a single P-90. It was one of those ones. I found it in a shop… $800. As soon as I plugged it in it reminded me of Cream, so I said ‘Ok, I’ll take it!’

WTDP?: Did you play anything different on the new album?
Philip: We played a lot of different guitars (on the record). We played a sitar on some stuff. Les Pauls on some things. One that was really weird was Fred – he played all of the pianos and keyboards and stuff. He came down. He’s been around a long time and has played with some of the greats. He’s a hilarious guy. He said ‘Hey I’m going to bring this guitar.’ So he brought down this Steinburger. We were all kind of laughing at first. We were calling it the Steinbrenner. We were all like ‘Really?’ and he said ‘Yeah! Come on… Elton John gave it to me!’ You know… they look kind of ridiculous and then we plug it in and it blew away this Les Paul that was in the room! We were all like ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ So we did end up using it. It had a totally different voice that worked really well on a couple of tracks… on some rhythm things. It was screaming!

WTDP?: What about your amp spread for this tour?
Philip: On stage my main amp is a 60s Super Reverb that Cesar Diaz had worked on for me… opened it up and did some tricks. I’ll usually run that. Then beside that I run an amp by a guy that was running an amp company called Mystic Amps. He’s based in Sweden and now it’s just called Custom By Cougar. His name is Tommy Cougar. He had an existing design that was a fantastic sounding amp. I asked him to make a couple of changes and it worked out great. I loved it. He loved it… so we ended up putting my name on it and he’s selling them like that. He’s just a one-guy operation, but his amps are very special. So I run those together and sometime I’ll have a VibroTone going. It really depends on the venue as well.

WTDP?: What different amps did you use in the studio for Innerevolution?
Philip: We brought it a purple ’68 – I say purple because it was just so bitchen… I was going to buy it but it kept blowing up so I didn’t, but it sounded amazing. It was a ’68 (Marshall) Super Bass. We ran that through a 4×12, so it was like a jet plane taking off. We used an AC-30, an old blackface Bassman head… there were about eight heads on at the same time in that room. We tried a lot of things too. You know, people would come by and drop off an amp. Some of those might have ended up on something. Sometimes little amps too, you know… there was a Tweed, a 50s Tweed that I borrowed from my friend Dave Cobb that we used with a… he had a ’59 flame top Les Paul, which we used on a song called Tennessee Girl.

WTDP?: And your pedalboard? What is populating it currently?
Philip: It’s pretty basic. I don’t get into any rack stuff or anything too exciting. The main stuff that stays on there is an old 60s Clyde McCoy Vox wah. I usually change between a couple of old Fuzz Faces. One is a germanium and one is a silicon… which ever one is sounding better on that particular day. You know how it goes! I’ve got a Chicago Iron Octavia, which I think is really, really close to the old one. There’s a Tube Screamer… an older, first version of the 808, which is really cool. I’ve got a Diaz Tremolo pedal. You know, you have like drawers and boxes full of pedals and sometimes one will go on the board for a while. I know Ben over at Xotic has been really cool and has hooked me up with different pedals. A lot of times those will end up on certain parts of songs. It’s kind of like making a curry. You know, you’re cooking away, then you taste it and think ‘maybe this needs a little envelope filter here’, so you drop in some Robotalk or something, you know? One of the things that I really like is this Keeley looper. It is so basic, but I really love it. It can keep the tuner out of line, the tube scream out of line and then it doesn’t mess around with the tone of the Fuzz Face. Keep those non-bypass pedals out!

WTDP?: The new album is out now in Europe. Are you still working to get it releases in North America?
Philip: We are. There is a lot of interest. It’s about finding the right home for it. I’ve had a really interesting last year and a half. I had this opportunity to play with Melissa (Etheridge), who has always been supportive of me and my career, and knew that I was with her kind of as an apprentice you know, watching her and learning. I had an interesting experience, you know… (sigh) It is such a weird time with music. People are really afraid of doing… you have to find the right person in the industry. Melissa always told me that. When she was trying to make it, people passed on her for five years. Everybody and their roommate came out to see her play… every label. This was in the 80s when hair metal and… she’s a lesbian playing 12-string guitar… kind of bluesy rock. People were saying ‘No way!’ Finally Chris Blackwell saw her play and said ‘Oh yeah!’ Next thing she’s selling 30 million albums. She’s always said to me that I need to find my Chris Blackwell.

Because there was a time when I had a manager… I no longer have this manager, but I had this manager that told me… you know, I went off and wrote all of these songs with Richard Marx and all these friends… really working on the song craft. He said to me, ‘Don’t play as much guitar in the music. Just stand there and look good. Don’t worry about the guitar so much. Just play it a little bit. And can you make you’re music a little more generic? Make it more like everything else right now.’ The reason I bring that up because we are actually talking to people that believe in what I’m doing… and not the person that wants to get me on the label then want to re-cut the album with no guitar! You have to be really careful. It hurt my heart to have somebody say that. Don’t play guitar? Really?!

WTDP?: If the gear genie appeared and granted you one wish – you could have any piece of gear current or vintage and money was no object, what would it be?
Philip: Oh man. How many times can I answer that!? Ok, what I would wish for would be infinity more wishes and then I can just keep going! Well… this would change everyday. I am incredibly grateful for the gear that I have and incredibly grateful for the instruments I play. What just popped into my mind is… I’m thinking about my friend Cory, who lives in Toronto, has a Vox Clyde McCoy wah wah pedal that he bought out of a shop in Toronto. He’s got a picture Clyde that came in a box. I’ve seen some of these boxes, but not like this one. I think the serial number is below 500. It is one of the very first ones every made. It is absolutely mint. I mean there is not a fucking scratch on this thing. It’s like it is 1967. It is crazy! When you plug this pedal in, it is like the room spins, like you’re underwater and liquid is pouring in and out of your brain. It is the craziest wah I have ever heard in my life. It makes you play things… I can’t even put it into words they way this thing sounds. I have owned maybe 20 Clyde McCoy wahs because of that one. After I heard that one I went on a spree and bought every one I could find and started swapping out halo inducers and… I went nuts. They all sound amazing, but there is something very romantic about that one. It just has this sound… oh my God, it’s like honey. He’s really cool. At times, he’ll let me play it… when I’m in Toronto or bring it in on a session. But he so funny. He made me put this plastic bag around it! I would say today that I would probably go for that wah pedal.

WTDP?: Obvious question first… how does it feel to be back in the fold with Sevendust?
Clint: I was just saying earlier today, it’s like, you know, being back home, man. It’s like being away from your house for a while and getting beat down and kinda tore up and… It feels amazing, man. The welcome I’ve gotten over the last couple of years being back it’s been great.

WTDP?: After Seasons, you left for Dark New Day with Brett Hestla – who we’ve been a fan of from the Virgos Merlot days. Twelve Year Silence was great record. Tell us a little bit about that experience.
Clint: Dark New Day was such an amazing experience for me, and Brett Hestla is, for sure, one of the best singers I’ve had a chance to work with. He’s a great songwriter… and all of the other guys, Troy, Cory and Will. It was just an amazing group of guys. It was hard to leave the Sevendust thing, but if I was going to do it, it was going to be for something like that. It was my brother and people I had known forever. Basically what it came down to is that I was trying to juggle both at the same time. I was kinda in a bad place at the time before I did the Dark New Day thing. I was really needing to do something new and try and change my environment a little bit. It was a great experience musically, man. We had a good time making music together. We toured a little bit and it was fun… we kinda lived our dream to do that… growing up, obviously Cory, my brother, and Troy – I started playing guitar with Troy as a kid. It was really cool to get to do that project with them. You know, it was hard because we kind of had a little animosity towards either other – me and the guys in Sevendust for a while because of it. It was kind of a rough era. I did a little stint with Korn after the Dark New Day thing happened. That was me trying to find a comfort zone… and the irony of that whole thing was Sevendust was always my comfort zone, you know? It was were I needed to be.

WTDP?: When you came back in 2008 and talk of a new record came up, was it easy to fall back into the recording process with these guys after five years?
Clint: Yeah, man. The thinking was when I joined… I joined at the beginning of the Hope & Sorrow cycle, so we kinda got used to being around each other. Got back to speaking the same language, back to the inside jokes, back to the comfort level. I think that was the thinking of it… instead of getting back to together and then recording a record. We got back together as friends and brothers first and then talked about music and all that stuff… and that is what we did. It was really easy to jump back into it with these guys. We had a little less than two years to get used to being around each other again. It was like no time had passed.

WTDP?: Cold Day Memory sounds like classic Sevendust even though you had a relative stranger in the producer’s chair. What was it like working with Johnny K on this record?
Clint: It was good, man. Johnny definitely has a different rhythm than we do as far as the time he takes to do stuff, so we had to adjust to that. Once we did that, it was really cool to work with him. He is a really cool guy and he’s got a lot of good ideas with the stuff he did with friends of ours – Staind, Disturbed and Finger Eleven – they’re all good friends of ours. It seemed like a good option for us and we took it. My brother Cory helped produce some of it as well. I would definitely work with him again. He did his best to kinda air traffic control us and bring our ideas into reality.

WTDP?: Where did the name Cold Day Memory come from?
Clint: It was actually a working title for a song… some music we had. I said it one day… Cold Day Memory… It just sounded cool. I don’t even know why I said it. Then, we recorded the record up in Chicago and it was so dismal – from October to December and it was really cold and miserable. And I remembered that phrase, Cold Day Memory. I was using it in the song as a way to describe someone that puts you through a lot. It just kinda transfered over to the title. I’m like man, how about saying this whole experience of recording has been a cold day memory? It was great experience, but weather-wise it put a weird overtone on everything. It was really just… very… depressing!

WTDP?: Listening to the record, I’m really digging ‘Confessions’. What can you tell me about that tune?
Clint: I wanted to write a song that kind of explained our personal relationships in our the band, our view of music and how playing music takes a toll on you, how being on tour takes a toll on us and our families. I wrote the song with Dave Bassett. He came in and me and him wrote a few songs for this new record. He wrote ‘Unraveling’ with me and he wrote that. I took the bulk of the lyrics on that one because it was a personal thing. He helped me with the melody lines. We just wanted to write our ‘Turn the Page’ (Bob Segar). We wanted our version of that. That’s where ‘Confessions’ came from.

WTDP?: What about ‘Better Place’?
Clint: That was basically about my struggle with drugs and alcohol years ago. It’s talking about the fight that goes on with yourself when your fighting any kind of addiction… and there is no one harder to fight than yourself.

WTDP?: You guys are out on the road now… what new tunes are you playing and how has crowd response been?
Clint: We’re doing ‘Unrivaling’ and another song called ‘Forever Dead’ that we put up on MySpace. Crowd reaction has been good. It is cool to get out and play new songs. It’ll be a lot better once we get the record going. We want people to like it the way we like it!

WTDP?: Let’s talk a bit about gear. Tell us about your guitars… what is your current #1?
Clint: It’s a Custom 22 Paul Reed Smith. I’ve had it for a long time and I nicknamed it ‘Bruce Lee’. That’s me favorite. I got another one called ‘TMJ’… it’s a Custom 22 that PRS made for me. It’s a great guitar… flat black. It’s a mean guitar.

WTDP?: What amps are you using in your live rig?
Clint: I’m using Diamond amps… the Phantoms. I really like the amps. They cover completely what I need for my live rig. They’re awesome.

WTDP?: What amps did you use in the studio?
Clint: I used the Diamonds of course. I used a Diezel, Bogner, a couple of old Marshalls. A bunch of different things, but mostly the Diamonds on a lot of stuff. Johnny K has the biggest collection of guitars and amps I’ve ever been around.

WTDP?: Turning to effects… do you use many in the current live show? If so, what is on your board right now?
Clint: On the road, yeah. I have a GCX Ground Control and I run a Phase 90, a TC Electronic digital delay, an envelope filter… basically pretty bare bones to what I used to use. I keep it pretty simple. I have a Whammy that I use… I don’t run it on the floor. I use a volume pedal as expression for the Whammy and run that through the GCX. The Whammy is not a real durable pedal, especially when you stomp on it. That’s basically it… oh, and a wah.

WTDP?: If someone went through your CD collection or iPod, would they see a lot that might surprise them?
Clint: Oh yeah, man. I’ve got broad musical taste. I’ve got everything from George Michael to Meshuggah to Karnivool to Cannibal Corpse. Everything man. Just a really wide spectrum of stuff.

WTDP?: Are there any current guitarists out there that you’re digging?
Clint: There’s a few guitarists that I’m diggin’ on. That kid from Avenged Sevenfold plays some pretty cool solos. I love anybody that is challenging themselves and playing some technical stuff. I think the Lamb of God guys are doing some pretty cool riffs. I’m a big fan of theirs. But I am an old school guy… I love Steve Vai, Dimebag was my hero, of course, like a lot of other guys, Eddie Van Halen. I was big into all the shredders – Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore. There’s Eric Johnson… Stevie Ray Vaughan was a big influence on me.

ff>WTDP?: Lastly, tell me about that acoustic EP you did.
Clint: It was called ‘Hello Demons, Meet Skeletons’. I played everything. I sang. Some of the money went to charity… the Make A Wish Foundation. It was just a cool thing. I wanted to put something together that wasn’t completely with Sevendust. I was able to express myself on some levels, you know… that I couldn’t with Sevendust.

WTDP?: Tell us about this whole Sweet Apple thing. It came together pretty quickly, didn’t it?
Tim: I play in a band with John and Mark (Klein). Then John is friends with Dave Sweetapple, who is in Witch and J Mascis, who is in Dinosaur Jr. and Witch. So John was going through a hard time. His mom passed away and some other stuff. He had a bad year. It was around the end of 2008. So he wanted to do something to clear his head, a kind of clean slate or something like that. He ended up going on a long road trip and hooking up with Dave and J and they said ‘Let’s start a band. Let’s get a band together.’ Maybe it would be a good project that would take his mind off things. I think that when his mom was dying, and I don’t want to speak too much for him, but it was a long, painful thing. He didn’t play guitar for a long time, and I think the band served as a maybe like a little remedy for the whole thing. After months went by he got refreshed inside being in a band with those guys. He came back to Cleveland and had a bunch of songs. Then me and him got together and whittled down a list of maybe 20 or 30 songs down to like ten or 12 for the record. We started recording in Cleveland… just the two of us kind of sketching out the demo, but it sounded really good. It eventually became the record. Then we hooked up with those guys. So half of it was recorded in Cleveland and half of it was recorded in Amherst, Massachusetts, at J’s place.

WTDP?: So the album is called ‘Love and Desperation’?
Tim: Yeah. It’ll be out on Tee Pee Records out of Brooklyn. We came down here (Austin). The first time we ever played in a room together was yesterday. For the record, it was like John and I doing some parts, then J doing some parts and Dave… but his was the first time we’d ever got into a room and played, which is funny! And J, even though he’s a guitar god, he played drums on the record. Drums… and some of the ripping leads. We played seven shows this week. After this we’ll probably regroup and go out on tour once the record comes out. So this is our first live experience right here.

WTDP?: Tell us a little bit about your gear. What’s on your pedal board?
Tim: I have… it’s pretty simple. I have a Zvex Super Duper and a Box of Rock, which is for distortion and overdrive. I have a MXR Micro Amp, which is just a little boost. I have like three or four different kinds of boosts. I have my tuner… and I have a Boss digital delay, but I want to get maybe an AnalogMan, which is a good analog delay. I think those are hard to get. Everytime I check there’s a big waiting list.

I have all of the Zvex pedals, even the obnoxious ones like the Fuzz Probe, the Super Hard On. It’s funny, I got the Fuzz Probe and I e-mailed him (Zack Vex) and asked how do I work this thing?! And he said ‘I don’t know. You’re crazy for even buying it!’ I use it for, you know… cool stuff, like in Pro Tools you can have it go bonkers over the whole track and then you can go back and maybe snip a little piece and get some crazy thing out of it. His stuff is great. It’s not really practical, but they’re good pedals.

WTDP?: What does your current amp set up look like?
Tim: I’ve been going through a bunch of stuff… like Dr. Z. I’m friends with those guys so I have the Remedy head, which is like a 40-watt Plexi head. I have the Maz 18. Actually for recording this thing, I just used a Fender Blues Deluxe – a little 1×12, 40-watt amp. We brought all of the half stacks and stuff, but we were just getting little sounds (from the Blues Deluxe) that sounded good. Most of the rhythm guitar is John playing through a little Blues Junior with a Gretsch, and I used a Fender Tele Deluxe or a Les Paul through the Blues Deluxe. So it was these two little amps in one room with a microphone, not really baffled or insulated. They just kind of glued together and got a good sound.

WTDP?: What year is that (Les Paul) Goldtop you were playing on stage?
Tim: It’s a ’68. It’s got P90s. It sounds rockin’ man… but I’m kind of an idiot for bringing it down here. I had it on the plane. I was nervous. But I was like fuck… it just sounds so good! I’ve got a bunch of guitars, but…

WTDP?: Is that your #1?
Tim: I have this Les Paul Custom that an artist in Cleveland named Derek Hess (painted)… he does a lot of poster art, paintings and charcoals… it is from the Custom Shop – it is a cool painted Les Paul that I use a lot. Heh… actually, I got a J Mascis Jazzmaster recently.

WTDP?: Did you get a discount on that at all?
Tim: I did! Actually there is this guy, Curt Novak out of South Carolina that makes these cool mod pickups that fit into a Jazzmaster so you don’t have to route or anything. So I have what’s called a JM90. It’s like a P90 that he makes that you can fit right in. So I have a J Mascis Jazzmaster with these Curt Novak pick-ups and it sounds really good. I also have a Tele Deluxe, three or four Les Pauls. I have a Gretsch Duo Jet. I just got that Goldtop… and it just sounds so good.

WTDP?: When did you arrive here in Austin?
Tim: Well, we got here on Wednesday. These maniacs… J and Dave… Dinosaur Jr was in Singapore and Australia all month. They took a 27-hour flight. We pick them up at the airport, practice in a room for an hour and then started playin’ these shows. They are troopers, man. J’s been playing all kinds of shows so he… it’s just another day at the office for him.

WTDP?: We saw Dinosaur Jr in Oslo last year. First time we’d ever seen them and you could barely see J because of the massive wall of amps he surrounds himself with!
Tim: I saw at the Garage in Cleveland. It’s this tiny, 200-seat venue. I saw them like a couple of months ago. (He had) Two, 100-watt full stacks, a Hiwatt 100-watt stack behind him, and he’s got a 100-watt Victoria facing his ear to use as a monitor! So he’s got four 100-watt amps blasting this tiny venue. He’s standing in there just jammin’. After the show, he was like ‘How did it sound?’ I said, man, you couldn’t hear the drums, vocals or bass, all you could hear was the guitar… and he’s like ‘Cool, man…’ Heh!

WTDP?: The Big To-Do is much more upbeat in nature and tone than 2008’s Brighter That Creation’s Dark. Was that by design or just how this session evolved?
Cooley: We wanted to make this one more concise, more rock-and-roll, more up tempo… but you know you can’t always pick and choose what you write. With the last one, we weren’t really in a bad mood, the songs just kind of came out that way and were more mellow.

WTDP?: How does the writing process in Drive By Truckers work? With three distinct voices in the band – you, Patterson and Shonna – does it make it easier to bring completed songs to the group or is it a more collaborative effort?
Cooley: We totally write on our own, pretty much completely. Now some of the themes overlap because we’re on the road together, living together all the time, so we come across the same stuff, the same information. So sometimes we have these cross-thematic things that just happen. We don’t plan it.

WTDP?: Does anything get added after the song is brought to the band?
Cooley: Sometimes. It’s usually more or less who ever wrote the song. If you bring it in and it’s not quite ready or it’s just not quite there, I’m usually the first one that says ‘No, let’s scrap that. Save it for later… or that’s just not happening.’

WTDP?: The characters in the DBT songs are usually dealing with some major issues… most are not in the best places in there lives – dealing with heartbreak, abandonment, infidelity and even darker issues. Would you consider most just victims of their environment… a classic case of wrong place at the wrong time?
Cooley: It’s just more interesting. We don’t really have a lot of that in our lives, but we’ve lived long enough to have come across it. If you can put a twist on it, take some of those things and put it through the character’s eyes and it makes sense to someone who is going through it.

WTDP?: One of our favorites off the new one is one of yours… ‘Get Downtown’. What can you tell us about the origins of that one?
Cooley: It ended up written almost like an old school sitcom… a Ralph and Alice, Archie and Edith, George and Ouisie back and forth. There is only one line of it that’s not spoken by one of the two characters. When I was a kid in the late 70s all of the same things were happening… high unemployment, recession, blah, blah. Everything that’s happening now was all happening then – almost identical. And I thought it was cool back then how a lot of those issues of the day would get hashed out on prime time sitcoms with fictional characters that were equally flawed, equally wrong… and equally right too. You know, that balance. So I wrote it like that… as a guy who… he’s unemployed, but he’s kind of a lazy shit to begin with and the wife is rightfully getting on his ass, but she’s envisioning an America that just doesn’t exist anymore. She’s equally misguided.

WTDP?: The bare bones of ‘Eyes Like Glue’ is awesome coda to the record. That’s another one of yours… Tell us about that one.
Cooley: The whole fatherhood thing became a bigger role in everyone’s life from the last album to this one. I had my third kid. Patterson had his second. Brad had his first. That was something that consciously I wanted to get my head around. And there is really no conclusion at the end of it.

WTDP?: I understand another record, Go Go Boots, is pretty much in the can and ready to roll. What’s the story there? How does it differ from The Big To-Do?
Cooley: We ended up recording, just a lot of songs. And we didn’t want to do another 19-song record. It just kind of came together. All the songs that we’re holding out for that were just obviously one thing… and all the songs that should be on this just fit together and made sense – 12 or 13 of them. Good. Don’t drag it out. We still had all of these and we didn’t want to just sit on them and wait two years. It’s almost polar opposite kind of album. It goes back a little bit closer to Brighter Than Creation’s Dark but probably not quite as mellow and maybe a little more funny.

WTDP?: When does Go Go Boots come out?
Cooley: Probably the first of next year, we’re talking now. We thought about putting it out right on the heels like maybe this fall, but this has been a pretty big release and you don’t want to put something out that… you know. It’s all sitting there. I’m sure there are a few more things we can cut between now and then.

WTDP?: How was the Letterman experience?
Cooley: It was cool. It was pretty loud. I wanted to talk with Paul because he did such a great job inducting our friend Spooner (Oldham) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but you really don’t get to talk to those people that much.

WTDP?: Looking forward to touring with Tom Petty?
Cooley: Yeah. Big time. Usually being the opening act on a big tour is a drag. It is by nature. But this is probably the only one… him, and maybe Neil Young. Tom Petty is like my first choice.

WTDP?: Let’s talk about gear for a minute. Tell us about that Tele-style guitar… the Baxendale?
Cooley: Yeah… the guy that makes those just recently moved to Athens, Georgia and is setting up shop there, but he’s been in Denver for years… like 20-something years. He had this shop right across the street from the Blue Bird Theater. We had some stuff that needed repair when we pulled in for a show, so we took it over there. Later we picked up the stuff, gave him a couple of CDs, put him on the guest list and he became a big fan and a real good friend. As it turns out he wasn’t just a repair guy, he’s an amazing builder. That guitar, the electric he built for me about two years ago. Since I got that guitar, I haven’t really shopped. He totally nailed it. It was custom built in the truest since. He listened to the record and watched us play and built it based on that. I also have two of this acoustics. Patterson and John have an acoustic. His acoustics are amazing.

WTDP?: What other guitars do you take on the road with you?
Cooley: I have a Reverend Warhawk as well. I love the tremolo on that thing.

WTDP?: How about your amp spread? What do you typically use on the road?
Cooley: The Sommatone has been my main thing. I have an early 70s Vibro Champ that I record with some. When we’re in the studio, David Barbe has an old 60s Ampeg Gemini I use sometimes, and I’ve got an old Supro… but the Sommatone has been my main thing. Switch it to half power when we’re recording and it’s perfect.

WTDP?: And pedals? What is populating your pedal board right now?
Cooley: There’s a Boss Space Echo on there… and a Electro-Harmonix Holy Stain – that’s a lot of fun… and that is purely what it’s for! It’s got a great fuzz, but like with any fuzz you’ve got to work with it. The tremolo on it sounds more like a Univibe kind of thing than amp tremolo, but it’s a lot of fun. I’ve also got a Dunlop Rotovibe, Budda wah… and rest are just boosters like a Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster.

WTDP?: If money and availability was no object, is there a piece of gear out there that you would snap up without hesitation?
Cooley: It’d be cool to have a real-deal vintage Tele… of course, you can’t find one of those now unless money is no object! I don’t know what particular model, but a real killer Telecaster that spoke to me, I’d probably pick that up.

WTDP?: How did the studio experience differ for you going into the Suspicious Package sessions from making the band’s first full-length Soft Targets?
Matt: We had a schedule and we stuck to it, which makes for a nice feeling. That said, we did give ourselves a good six weeks to make it so it wasn’t as rushed as some sessions get. And we’re on our own now, so it was pretty clear we were spending our own money throughout. Not as nice a feeling… fulfilling though.

WTDP?: How did your record label, Hawk Race, come into existence?
Matt: Unlike most things with us, very quickly… thankfully.

WTDP?: How does the writing process in Earl Greyhound work? Do you bring completed songs to Kamara and Ricc or do the three of you get together and jam things out?
Matt: We do it any number of ways. The cool thing about this album is that it was so much more a collaborative effort than our first. We spent a lot of time rehearsing and touring these numbers before we went in.

WTDP?: Listening to Suspicious Package, I’ve already got a handful of favorites. Tell me a little bit about the genesis of ‘Ghost and The Witness’.
Matt: I think that was the first number we wrote with Ricc on board. It used to be much longer and have more parts but it got pared down substantially when we recorded it. I might still have a rough mix with a poem I wrote recorded in front of it.

WTDP?: Another great one, possibly my favorite EG song (though ‘Monkey’ is right up there), is the closer ‘Misty Morning’. What can you tell me about that one?
Matt: ‘Misty Morning’ came together when we were writing up at my friend Chris Friden’s house in Connecticut in April of 2008. He and his family went away and left Earl Greyhound in charge of cat and house sitting. He was also kind enough to let us set up in the basement/playroom and make noise among the toyz! I’ve very fond memories of that stretch.

WTDP?: Who were some of your guitar heroes growing up? Any fresh faces out there right now that you’re digging?
Matt: Jim Hall, Jerry Garcia, Kim Thayil, J Mascis… The guitar player from Grizzly Bear is ridiculously good, and I’d consider him fresh-faced.

WTDP?: Let’s talk about gear. Given the band’s retro-heavy sound, one would assume the group would use mostly vintage gear when recording and performing. Safe assumption?
Matt: At the moment, yes… but I’ll play anything, I’m raunchy as hell.

WTDP?: Guitar specific, what is your Number One guitar right now? What are some others you own and love to play?
Matt: My current fave is my Glen Campbell Ovation 12 string. I used to clown those puppies when I was in high school but I can’t seem to get enough of this one. My main guitar on tour is a 1979 Gibson “The Paul”. And incidentally, it’s also the very first guitar I ever owned. It was recently pointed out to me by Richie Baxt that its pickups (T-tops) are what makes it sound great. Apparently the value of the pickups exceed that of the guitar itself.

WTDP?: How about your amp spread? What do you typically use on the road?
Matt: Sovtek MIG 50 and two older Marshall cabinets. I think one has green backs and the other old Celestions.

WTDP?: And pedals? What is populating your pedal board right now?
Matt: Just delay, chorus and distortion.

WTDP?: If you had to pick your ‘go to’ effect, what would that be… and why?
Matt: Boss DM2 or DM3 Delay. It’s simple and it seems to serve all my needs in that department.

WTDP?: Is there any piece of gear from the present or history that – if money was no object – you’d have in a heartbeat?
Matt: A Neumann M49 microphone. I sang through it at my friend Pierre’s studio – The Sound Library. Want one.

WTDP?: Give us a quick history lesson, because we know there is some lag there… when did you join the band?
JT: I started working with them around the summer of ’06. That is when I started going out to Jersey for practice and stuff. My first live show was December 1st of ’08. So there was quite a long waiting period from when I started learning all the material and when I actually hit the stage. I joined just prior to Ire Works, but I didn’t play on it. I was in the studio providing ‘moral support’ for the entire recording process Ire Works. Option Paralysis was the first record that I actually got to contribute to musically.

WTDP?: Ok… that clears that up. So what was the experience like playing on Option Paralysis?
JT: I was a fan of Dillinger long before I joined the band… and I had heard horror stories about working with (producer) Steve Evetts. The major contribution that I made was I wrote the vocal melodies and harmonies and the lyrics toward the closing track called ‘Parasitic Twins’. I don’t want to say I was nervous, bringing what I had to Steve Evetts because I know he is kinda hard on vocalists. I guess I could say I was worried that he was going to be like ‘This is shit’ and ‘Let’s go back and redo everything’, but he was very receptive to all the ideas that I had and he was impressed with how prepared I was. It was a good feeling to work with a producer of his stature and have him kinda applauding what I had done.

WTDP?: How was the transition from the more straight-ahead rock of your previous band Heads Will Roll to Dillinger, the more frenetic, time-signature heavy band?
JT: It was pretty seamless. I had always been interested in all different types of music. Listening to bands like Dillinger, listening to bands like Meshuggah, and a lot of free jazz stuff. The capability was always there for me. When it came time to learning the songs, it fell into place pretty quickly. In the past, it always happened that I always played in rock bands, but I always wanted to achieve and do something much more than just the rock bands, you know what I mean?

WTDP?: How has it been trading licks with Ben, who has cemented a pretty strong cult status as a top-flight guitarist?
JT: It’s great to work with Ben. The way his mind works, and the way he approaches music is unlike anyone I have every worked with, or even really heard. I think one of the things that makes Dillinger work so well is that you’ve got guys that can write crazy technical music and you’ve got guys that can write great pop songs, but it is very rare that you can find somebody that can do both and can combine those things in a way that both sides of the fence will listen. He has a way of throwing in off-time riffs or discordant chords into a song that is seemingly a pop song. That is something that I always dug about the band and the reason Dillinger kinda rises above a lot of other bands and why they’ve stood the test of time over other bands.

WTDP?: Regarding Option Paralysis, we have a couple of favorites… Let’s start with ‘Gold Teeth on a Bum’. There’s some really cool guitar progressions going on during the verse sections. Can you tell us anything about how that song came about?
JT: When we first started writing for Option Paralysis and we were talking to people in interviews we were telling them that his was going to be the heaviest, most blistering Dillinger record to date. At the time, we really believed that. It was very cathartic for us to kind of be leaving Relapse [the record company] and maybe, not necessarily looking to appease main stream critics with what they wanted us to do. With songs like ‘Black Bubblegum’ and ‘Milk Lizard’ – I mean, I don’t want to say that we were writing those songs to get on the radio and get famous… those songs came about very organically. But we really kinda began the writing process with that mentality. You know… ‘Screw the mainstream!’… we were going to do what we wanted to do. We came right out of the gate with four songs that were pretty hard and heavy. But ‘Gold Teeth On A Bum’ was the first one [rock song] that kinda came up. The great part about Dillinger is that we can kinda have those, like a song like ‘Good Neighbor’… and that’s a song pretty close to ‘Gold Teeth On A Bum’. I think that was kind of the counter-balance to the really quick, really heavy songs. We don’t want to pigeon hole ourselves as the technical band that nobody understands.

WTDP?: Our favorite tune on the record is probably ‘Widower’. The dynamics are off the charts – ranging from the piano balladry that kicks things off to the brutal guitar grind of the second half… and it maintains vocal melody throughout. Give me your thoughts on that one.
JT: That song… that’s another one that is kind of a favorite of all of ours. On Ire Works, the closer on that is ‘Mouth Of Ghosts’ and its the first time that the piano really took the foreground in a Dillinger song. We really liked the direction that was going and wanted to pursue that and see what else we could do with incorporating the piano in what we do. It started off just as that opening piano riff. It was something that Ben had and he wanted to develop it. It is a very personal song as far as the lyrics go. But Greg is pretty secretive about what is going on in his brain when he’s writing lyrics. I think people that hear that song will be touched by what is going on. But like you said, the song is so dynamic. It starts off really minimal and builds when the guitars come in and then cools back down.

WTDP?: We see that Dillinger is a nominee for Best Underground Band in Revolver’s 2010 Golden God Awards… How do you feel about that?
JT: I think that’s great. I guess it feels strange to be considered an underground band due to how long the band has been around, but any praise that we receive we take to heart. It is great to be recognized for the work that we do. This band is a labor of love for everybody and the fact that anybody even cares about what we do, we’re grateful for that. Revolver is a great magazine. They’ve always been very kind to us. Hopefully we’ll become Golden Gods! I need something to put on my mantle at home.

WTDP?: Switching gears… to gear, tell me about your stage set up. How are the Mesa Road Kings treating you?
JT: I love ‘em. I’ve been using Mesas for a long time. When I joined Dillinger I started using Triple Rectifiers, which are great, but there was something a little too harsh in the tone for my taste. I read about the Road King and wanted to try it out so they sent me one over. I kinda fell in love with it. The thing that I love the most was the versatility. With the Rectifier you were stuck with either EL34s or the 6L6s. With the Road King, you have the option for either or you can run both at the same time… and that’s what I do. You kinda get the best of both worlds. The four independent channels really allows you to set up a wide range of tones. That is something that I have taken advantage of on stage to kinda give our performance as much dynamic as our records have, you know.

WTDP?: Looks like you use a lot of Boss pedals as well.
JT: The only attraction to the Boss pedals is that they are relatively inexpensive and they are very, very durable. Trust me, I’d love to put a lot more of the boutique style pedals onto my board, but with the Dillinger live show, a lot of my pedals end up getting smashed. I’ve yet to lose a Boss pedal at a Dillinger show. It’s the old story… if there ever was a nuclear holocaust the only two things that would survive would be cockroaches and Boss pedals.

WTDP?: You ever get the chance to sample many boutique effects?
JT: If I try it, I’m going to want to buy it. When I have money I try not to play with effects pedals because I know they are going to end up on my board. Something that I would love to get into though… I’ve got a friend who is into circuit bending. He’s come up with some pretty insane, one of a kind pedals. he’s got one pedal where he took two delays, a pitch shifter and an overdrive and just wired them all together to make one gigantic pedal. It is just ridiculous. If I was ever going to experiment with some non-traditional stuff, I think that is something that I’d really like to get into.

WTDP?: What’s your Number One guitar?
JT: The PRS Standard Satin. I don’t even think they are available for purchase anymore, but I’m lucky enough to have a guy there who whenever he tracks one down he scoops it up and sends it to me. I just got another one in the mail recently. I was a PRS player for many years prior to joining Dillinger. Once I had a couple of years of touring under my belt, I felt a little more comfortable about approaching PRS. They were my top pick, but I really wasn’t banking on it working out. Luckily it did. The Standard Satin model is all mahogany so it tends to be a little bit more mid-rangy. I threw a Seymour Duncan Custom-Custom pick-up in it to help accentuate that mid range tone that it natural wants to get. I think it is a great combination. I think it sounds great and I think it helps distinguish my tone from Ben’s

WTDP?: If you rubbed the magic lamp and got one gear wish from the tone genie, what piece of unobtanium would you ask for?
JT: Can I wish that my tone would be whatever Jim Martin [Faith No More] used on the Angel Dust record?

WTDP?: Sure!
JT: When I started really getting into gear and seeking out different things, that was the tone and still is the tone that I am seeking to this day. I fell in love with the sound that he had on that record. It doesn’t work so much with a band like Dillinger, I understand that… but growing up and playing in bands as the only guitar player, a nice, rich, chorus-y sound like that works. There was just something about that tone – that chorus-y thickness. Sometimes it sounded even like it was running through some sort of filter or wah to give it that distinct character. So whatever that was… if anybody knows what that is I’d be more than happy to find that out!

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.

WTDP?: We really dig the sing-song vibe of ‘Snuff Parade’ off the new Immaculate Convergence EP. How did that tune come about?
Ebbot: Mainly Ian’s song. I helped out with the lyrics, title and arrangements. It’s about our most devoted fans actually… people on the brink of nervous breakdown.
Ian: It’s an golden oldie, written back in ’99. I wanted a Fleetwood Mac feel to the song.

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Snuff Parade

WTDP?: Are the songs on the EP older tunes or newer?
Ebbot: The recordings of ‘Snuff Parade’ and ‘Take me Back’ are dated back to the Behind the Music era. So they are the older tunes. ‘From This Moment’ is the newest one. Though they were all mixed before last Christmas (in 2009 that was – not before the Wham tune.)
Ian: A mix of old and new. ‘Take Me Back’ was recorded during Behind The Music in 2000. ‘From This Moment’ was recorded during Communion.

WTDP?: Regarding Communion, which landed on a bunch of folks ‘Best of…’ lists… Double albums are pretty rare nowadays. Was this project approached from Day One as double record or did it blow up into one as material was added?
Ebbot: It grew into a double album, but we always wanted to make a proper one right from the beginning when TSOOL started as a group. And now we finally made it.
Ian: We didn’t really have a plan, just to record until we felt that we had enough material for an album. As the work progressed, the 24 songs felt like they fit good together.

WTDP?: What can you tell me about the writing/recording process for Communion? We’ve read in other interviews that it was a fun process for the band. Did the band write together or were riffs/songs brought in and worked up?
Ebbot: Mostly the guitar players come up with the songs or riffs. Then it gets TSOOL treatment from all members before I add the message with the arrangements. Me and Kalle do the mixing in his studio. My final job is to put it all together as an entity in the mastering process and give it a title that everybody feels comfortable with. Then there are discussions about art work – in this case with old friend Martin Kann – who visually captured the whole thing perfect. And this time, it all went very fast.
Ian: We usually write the songs on our own, and send demos to each other, so you get everything from an acoustic guitar with vocal melody to full blown production with drums, strings and what not. But as we start to rehearse a song, everyone puts his flavor into the song and it becomes a TSOOL composition.
Mattias: We usually write separately and record ‘home demos’ that we use as a base when we work on songs in the studio. It’s different from song to song how well produced these demos are. Sometimes an arrangement, title or some words are being kept and are used in the lyrics. In the end, the only thing that counts is the quality of the song. Working on Communion we allowed each other more freedom (respect) to move around musically than we did on Origin that in my opinion is a bit ‘stiff’.

WTDP?: We’d guess it would be more freeing not to have a major label peering over your shoulder looking for a single.
Ebbot: Yes.

WTDP? ‘Reconnecting The Dots’ is probably our favorite tune on Communion. Love the loose, rawness of that track… and what we believe is a banjo ‘plinking’ in the background! Have any favorites emerged for you guys over time? If so, what are they?
Mattias: I love Reconnecting… it’s an overlooked track. My favourite is ‘The Fan Who Wasn’t There’. It was written in 1999 and I recorded the guitars to it on Behind The Music. I think Ebbot thought that it sounded like love and wrote about Arthur Lee. I don’t know what i was thinking of… maybe trying to write as many chord changes as possible. The whole wonderful and bizarre production is totally Ebbot’s.

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Reconnecting The Dots

WTDP?: Does the band feel more at home on the road or in the studio?
Ian: We enjoy doing both. It’s two very different processes. Live it’s about letting people relax from everyday life for two hours and get lost in the TSOOL world of wonders. The music dosen’t have to be presented in the same way as on the albums. In the studio, you know that you are going to have to live with the album for a very long time, so we are very conscientious with what we put on a record.
Mattias: I love playing on stage. I love the direct and communicaton with the crowd – the moment of here and now when there’s no return. And the fact that you can’t go back and control and repair everything. It can be wondeful to be in the studio too. I tend to get restless if I have to wait for people (usually engineers) to turn up. We usually record in Gothenburg and I live in Stockholm and that’s frustrating. I spent as little time in the studio as possible on Communion. I wanted to record my stuff with a whole different approach than I did on Origin where I spent too much time doing pointless guitar overdubs for months just because it was possible.

WTDP?: What’s on heavy rotation on your iPod/car stereo right now? Any current bands piquing your interest?
Ian: Lots of new demos, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac era, George Harrison, Black Crowes. As far as new stuff… Midlake and Iron and Wine.
Mattias: I just heard this beautiful Swedish band Cavarie Days on MySpace. It’s two sisters from Gävle, where we played the other night.

WTDP?: Any shot at returning to the studio in 2010 for a new full-length album?
Ian: Probably 2011.

WTDP?: We focus on gear a lot, so can you give me a rundown of your current guitar rigs… pedalboards, amps and guitar?
Ian: On my pedalboard I have a MXR Booster, Vox wah, ProCo Rat, Fulltone Mosfet Booster/distortion, a Rotovibe, Compressor and a Electro-Harmonix Booster. With amps, I run a Fender Twin with a Vox cabinet and a Fender Dual Showman. As far as guitars – a ’67 Gibson 335, ’76 Les Paul Custom, ’76 Telecaster w/Bigsby, ’68 Gibson Firebird, a ’73 Tele, ’57 Les Paul Goldtop reissue, ’03 Gibson 335 Sunburst, ’70 Stratocaster, a First Act custom (my own model, White Falcon-type guitar) and a First Act 12-string.
Mattias: For my live set up, I’ve stopped using vintage gear. I don’t wanna travel around with expensive Gibsons, Fenders, etc… anymore. With TSOOL, I use a Gibson SG Special, Gibson Les Paul with Seymour Duncan Fat Cat pickups, Gibson Flying V with Lundgren P-90s, a Esteve Nylon string and a Martin HD35. My amps include a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4×10. I use an extra 2×12 speaker cabinet with that. I also use two, 90′s era Vox AC30s. My pedalboard has a MXR Micro Amp, Xotic RC Booster, MXR Phase 90, Boss DD-3 delay, Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff and a Boss Chromatic Tuner.

WTDP?: What would you consider your ‘untouchable’ effect… meaning that it will never leave your pedal board and it will likely have to be pried from your cold, dead hands?
Ian: A good booster, works for solos, slide, etc… As long as you have a good sounding amp, a booster takes you a long way.
Mattias: I could live without any of these pedals, but I really like the simple function of a booster.

WTDP?: Is there a pedal, amp or guitar – vintage or otherwise – that you’d love to get your hands on? What is it and why?
Ian: A Marshall Bluesbreaker combo and a ’59 Les Paul Standard – Tobacco Sunburst.
Mattias: A little Pignose amp. I love UFO and I read that Michael Schenker used one for all the solos on ‘Lights Out’. Also Randy Bachman’s homebuilt fuzz pedal – The Herzog… and why not – the white Stratocaster he has on the Not Fragile album!

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