John, I don't even know where to
start! First, you have a Billy Gibbons-like attitude toward using different
guitar sounds on your recordings, especially your demos and riff ideas. What
are some of the amp and speaker combinations you use on your recordings for
Blizaro, Crucifist, Orodruin, or privately?
Well, I'm really digging the sound of this old
Sears Silvertone head called a Silvertone twin twelve 1484 head. I have it
running through a 4x12 cab equipped with only 2 x 12" inch speakers. One
fender speaker that's about 70 watts and also a Electro Harmonix (classic
Celestion replica) speaker that's like 50 watts handling. They are wired at
4ohms. The total power handling is like 120 watts, which is great, because
when I use my 100 watt Laney Pro tube head it's almost a perfect match in
terms of exact wattage compatibility. Call me crazy, but I feel this is the
most crucial way to get full conage tonage. The Silvertone head is like 35
or 50 watts and sounds quite beefy through this cab set up as well.
Definitely the sort of Iommi full body midrange contour. For Orodruin's
newest EP "In Doom" I tracked all my parts using this setup. Mostly it's
this setup for recording or the Laney one for live performances.
You demo your music extensively, I know. You've
mentioned to me that you sometimes use a Pod or similar device for demos.
What advantages does this have over playing through an amplifier? Do you use
it for any of your "official" recordings?
I've only really used amp simulation for
Blizaro and personal recordings. Mainly I only went this route cause I
didn't wanna disturb my girlfriend at our apartment. For me it's mostly
about the riff and I think the sound should go hand in hand with the riff
but sometimes it's easier to get a decent sound from my Roland Amp sim than
plugging in and having to blast my amp just to find the right tone. I'd
prefer a real tube amp over any simulators but some of them sound pretty
good.
What amps and cabinets do you own? Can you
describe them in detail?
My oldest amp is a Laney 50watt ProTube combo I
got in 1995 or 96 which I paid $100 with a trade in of my old Peavy Bandit.
The tone is very dirty and midrangey. Which is totally the sound I'm going
for. Since then I've acquired a 100 watt head version of the same amp and it
works great for live gigs. I also have this Tubeworks 100 watt combo which
is cool for jamming on but is now defunct cause I had to take out the 12"
speaker to replace the Jensen I blew out in my latest baby the Ampeg
Reverbojet combo from the early 70's. The Reverbojet is very clean and has
phenomenal reverb. I may use this amp for the clean parts on the "In Doom"
album. I like to pretend I can play Django Reinhardt guitar stuff through
this set up. Unfortunately, I'm only limited to a couple chords and scales
that prolly sound extremely redundant. Haha.
What is your main live rig? Do you ever vary
what you use live? Why have you chosen a Rat pedal as your boost for the
Laney AOR amp over another pedal, such as a Big Muff or other fuzz or
overdrive?
Ya know I've been using my RAT pedal for so
long and I do like the sound of it a lot, but I am just beginning to notice
how good my Laney 100 watt head sounds when I just crank the clean channel.
I feel like when I use pedals it takes away from my guitar's actual tone.
That's why I prefer gain instead of overdrive....too much saturation just
buries the texture of my sound.
Your main guitar is a Gibson SG. What year is
it? Is everything stock, or have you modified it? It's interesting that you
play one guitar mainly and change your sound in other ways (that is, instead
of playing different guitars). What about your SG's sound appeals to you? Is
there a "better" guitar for you out there somewhere? If so, what would that
be?
I love my SG so much and so far nothing has
pleased me more than the cutting tone which comes from my bridge pickup. In
that position, I like to put my volume at about 7 and my tone around 5 or 6.
That's the sort of tone that is most recognizable in Orodruin's music, but
when I'm doing total sludgy riffs such as stuff like the slow part in Burn
The Witch I switch to my bridge pickup, which the volume is at 10 and the
tone is put on 0. This gives me an absolute muddy doomy tone that just
decrepitates all nature and regurgitates it into solidified organic edifices
known as dead cities.
I know that you play and record in different
tunings at different times. In what situations do you use a different
tuning? Do different tunings cause any technical challenges for you? Do you
have a favorite?
My standard tuning is C Sharp, but we (Orodruin)
have been as low as B. All of Epicurean Mass and the Rev Bizarre split were
in B and "Shipwrecked" on the newest EP is in that tuning. I wanted the
entire "In Doom" album to be in B but like an asstard I forgot to tune down
after I finished recording ¾ of the songs. I think my favorite tuning is C
Sharp, though I would like to get a second guitar to keep in E Standard (I
have my eye on an alpine white Epiphone SG at work). I deeply despise any
form of drop tuning. Too many young metal core kids seem to do that just so
that they can bar the 2 notes on the 5th and 6th strings to make it sound
heavy. It's so fake, if you ask me!
You also play a range of keyboards, or at least
you use a range of keyboard sounds in Blizaro. What keyboard(s) do you own?
What is your live Blizaro keyboard rig?
I own a bunch of cheap Yamaha keyboards that
I've found at pawn shops and thrift stores. I won't bore you with the exact
model numbers but one in particular has a nice bass frequency which
compliments my guitar melodies nice when I play both at the same time. Other
than that, I own a Moog Opus 3 from the early 80's which sounds awesome. Too
bad it's very temperamental and can be a bit dodgy when I need it to
function properly. I can safely use it for home recording, though.
In general, do you prefer digital keyboards
over analog, or the reverse?
Sound-wise I really do prefer analog
"anything" over digital. I have some pretty cool sound banks for organs and
old synths on my pc and I will use those for my recordings. I don't have a
problem using sampled analog sounds.
Do you view recording for Orodruin, recording
for Blizaro, and recording your private demos as separate visions, or do
they all share something in common? What are the main differences in how you
record for each?
It's all mostly the same approach: track drums
or a click track, then layer bass and guitars and whatever else. To be
honest, I'm at the point where I'd prefer to write and rehearse material
enough so I can just record everything all at once the way most 50's and
early 60's bands did. In fact, I'd really like to do some mono recordings.
When you record your demos and Blizaro's music,
in what order do you record tracks? Does this order ever vary?
I'll usually write riffs first, and most of the
time when I'm tracking I create some sort of a click track as a template to
go by. Then later I go back and write the actual drum parts and from there I
start adding other instruments. This is much different than Orodruin because
all the writing is happening while I'm recording. So basically I record
guitar riffs to a metronome and then write drums and the rest comes
afterwards.
You use a drum machine, at times, too, or drum
machine software. What are you using to get those incredibly realistic drum
sounds? How do you program it? Do you know ahead of time exactly what you
want the drums to do?
A couple of the kits came with a really good
soundfont "bank" I downloaded off the net and the other I use is self
sampled from Mike Puleo's drum playing. I recorded a wav file for each piece
on the kit and made 2 hits for each piece to give it a more realistic
approach. I wish I knew more about mixing and EQ-ing drums because I never
feel satisfied with the sound of the final mix.
I'm intrigued and inspired that you often
achieve "realistic" sounding results with "less-than-realistic" equipment.
What I mean to ask is, does it matter to you what you use to achieve your
musical vision? Do any means at all (as to gear) justify the end?
To be honest, if I was really poor and had the
cheapest equipment possible I'd still be up for the challenge of writing
music with the bare necessities. To me it's about the riffs and definitely
the song writing. I just get these inspirational ideas of old bands,
especially young ones who are just starting to play metal, and the members
are wearing old blue jeans with holes and denim jackets, and all you see is
this natural unstyled long hair bouncing up and down, and some of the most
menacing riffs are coming from their amps. Some people are so hung up on
technical playing and modern crap tone; I don't care if I'm playing through
an old amplifier and just feeling out the most Neanderthal riffs known to
man.
One of your most recent finds is that old
Silvertone tube head. What appeals to you about its sound? Do you plan to
modify it in any way?
I would if I had the money to make such an
upgrade. At the moment I'm very satisfied with its sound. The only thing I'd
like to change is maybe boosting its wattage. Plus it would be a good idea
to get the power cable grounded...don't wanna blow up stage like Gary Thain
from Uriah Heep.
What kinds of sounds are you sculpting for the
new Orodruin recordings?
Pretty simple actually, just basic heavy tone
that sounds like Master of Reality or Volume 4. Those tones never get old to
me. In fact, I appreciate them even more as I get older.
Is there a guitar sound in your head that you
still haven't achieved?
Definitely. Maybe not so much in my head but
just from what I hear in other bands' tone that I'd like to pull off myself.
Lately, I've been wanting to get a Strat so I can get a more Blackmore sort
of timbre. You can't exactly get that super clean neck pickup sound on an SG.
That may be my next venture into tone engineering.
Thanks, John. I mean it sincerely when I say
that I dive into everything you write and record with gusto.
John, thanks so much. I really appreciate your
kind words and have utmost respect for your music and style. To be honest,
I’m not really too confident in the music I write but it’s something I love
to do.
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