Features / Series: What's That Noise?

Lance (Caffiends – guitar) SPB: From when you were starting out to now, what parts of your (gear) setup have really helped voice your sound over the years? Lance: Wow, I would have to say all of our gear is really important for our sound. Haha, I mean over the … Read more

Jason (Chain Cult – bass) SPB: What type of bass do you play and how did you choose it? Jason: I have a simple fender jazz bass. Somebody, broke [into] my car and stole my previous one in an unfortunate event and I didnt have any money to buy a … Read more

Mitchell Layton (Church Girls – guitar) SPB: What type of guitar do you play and what’s its “origin story”? Layton: My main guitar has changed a lot over the years depending on what style I’m playing and what I’m using it for, but for most of the Church Girls touring … Read more

Miski Dee (City Mouse) SPB: What type of guitar do you play and how did you choose that model? Dee: I absolutely love my guitar! It's a 2006 Epiphone Wilshire and I would say that it chose me. After I started City Mouse I kept switching guitars (I had a … Read more

Clara Engel SPB: Tell us how you got certain sounds when working on Their Invisible Hands? Engel: Check out the record here. Read more

Rorik Brooks (Cloud Rat – guitar) SPB: What amps do you use in Cloud Rat and how did you make that decision? Brooks: Currently I'm using two Dean Costello HMW guitar amps and a Gallien Krueger 700 RB bass amp. I run them via two ABY pedals, and a Boss … Read more

Tony Ash (Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends – bass) SPB: Tell us about your bass tone and how you set things up for your work in Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends? Ash: I want to preface this by saying, this is the moment I've been practicing for throughout … Read more

Jesse Sendejas (Days N Daze) SPB: Is there a special technique you use to optimize the sound of your banjo when playing clubs? Sendejas: It's just me layering instruments in the recordings so we've only actually had a banjo player play with us live a handful of times, and usually … Read more

Jem (DEAD - drums, WeEmptyRooms – label operator) SPB: Walk us through your kit and offer insight as to how you arrived at your sizes (shells and cymbals)? Jem: I have never owned a complete, matching kit and probably never will. I'm a tone chaser and I imagine when I … Read more

Jace (DEAD – bass) SPB: What type of bass do you play and how did you choose it? Jace: For live shows I have 2 Fender Precision basses. Both made in Japan, one from the mid ‘80s, one from the mid ‘90s. I’ve changed the bridge on one and upgraded … Read more

Teddy Panopoulos (Dead Waves) SPB: Tell us about how you captured the sound on Abandoned Children. Teddy: Like usual, we wanted to use everything we own on this new Dead Waves release and brought back some acoustic drums and percussion which our last release didn't have. For the first picture, I … Read more

Blag Dahlia (Dwarves – vocals) SPB: What is the most important vocal element when doing sound check for a Dwarves show?  Blag Dahlia: A sound man who isn’t profoundly retarded. They do exist, but to find them you have to travel far and wide sorting through countless buffoons until, like the … Read more

Marc Diamond aka The Fresh Prince of Darkness (The Dwarves) SPB: What is your gear setup when playing with the Dwarves and why did you choose what you did? The Fresh Prince of Darkness: When we tour, be it foreign or domestic we don't bring our own gear. We have … Read more

Jamie Stillman (EarthQuaker Devices - President/Product Designer) SPB: EarthQuaker has a reputation for high quality, versatile builds that artists can use in the studio, live, and in experimental environments, ie writing. What did the collaboration with Sunn O))) mean to Earthquaker on a personal level, and did you approach this … Read more

Lord Tenebris (Ecryptus – bass) SPB: What type of bass do you play with Ecryptus and why did you choose that for the theme of this band? Lord Tenebris: I use a G&L L-2000 run through an abominable electronics Hail Satan Deluxe, a Boss EQ, a compressor and wah when … Read more

Rick Jimenez (Extinction A.D. – guitar/vocals) SPB: Did you experiment much with different equipment, setups, mics or equipment when recording Decimation Treaty? Did any particular item stand out? Jimenez: While we recording Decimation Treaty we actually experimented quite a bit with different amplifier and cabinet combinations. We quad-tracked the rhythm guitars … Read more

Ben Green (Fairweather-keyboards/vocals) SPB: Did you experiment with different sounds in the studio for Deluge, or did you enter knowing exactly what equipment you wanted to capture it? (Do you have any examples of equipment that helped to define this EP?) Green: Lots of different guitar sounds went into the … Read more

Chris Mason (Faulty Cognitions) SPB: Was the mic’ing of your kit for the recording of Somehow, Here We Are fairly straight forward, or were there some techniques or experiments used to capture the sound?  Mason: We didn't do anything too fancy. I do remember that we didn't mic the toms though … Read more

Frank Turner SPB: What guitar do you play and what do you like about it when performing solo, versus with a full band? Turner: I play Martin D45 acoustic guitars live these days, I have four of them. They are spectacular instruments. I went through a lot of other types … Read more

Al Smith (Geld-vocals) SPB: What is the most overrated guitar feature? Smith: It may seem rich to bemoan something Geld has casually lent on in our last few records, but the “howl of cicadas” guitar tone feels pretty played out at this point. I mean, don’t get me wrong, a … Read more