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This page: Sonic Agenda, Gearing Up
Sonic Agenda
'I don't think we sound like anyone else, which is either going to go for us or against us.'
"Hidden Agenda" has drum 'n' bass and techno meshed in with "dirty" guitar work.
Our main influences are punk -- a lot of hardcore -- but obviously, Jon and I are massively into drum 'n' bass. We both [are into] hip-hop as well, and I think that's a really good example: The song starts off quite funky -- almost hip-hop -- and then goes into this insane Black Sabbath drum 'n' bass chorus. The outro is almost like Helmet, which is another favorite band of ours.
Does that song feature Helmet's drummer, John Stanier?
He's actually on the outro. After the second chorus, it changes direction and starts doing this completely different riff. That's when John came in. But there's some quite interesting guitar stuff on that. I used a volume-swell technique with a harmonizer to get that, "wah-wow, wah-wow" sound in the verses. When that sort of filtered wah sound that comes in on the verses is a DOD envelope filter -- another favorite pedal of mine. It was one of those songs where there was really no formula.
How do you get your guitar to sound so far beyond a conventional electric?
Basically, I was trying to use pedals unconventionally. "P.S.I. cological" -- the instrumental -- is all guitars.
The intro riff itself was done on a DigiTech pedal called a Whammy Wah, which incorporates a wah-wah and a Whammy. For that jolted, staggered riff at the intro, I'm just holding my foot down and changing through patches 1 through 30 while playing the riff. At one point, I'm changing through each patch really quickly and it made quite a cool percussive sound. I used another pedal called an [Electro-Harmonix] Micro Synthesizer in the very last section of the tune.
To create the sort of swerving sound that builds up and up and up for the intro to "Dead Battery," I borrowed a pedalboard from Ibanez, about ten pedals, and just sort of stamped on them all at once [laughs], and that sound is basically like feedback. As it builds up, you hear more pedals being set off, and it builds really noisily.
What's the key to the Pitchshifter sound?
I don't think we sound like anyone else, which is either going to go for us or against us. I think if you come to Ozz Fest and you watch five or six bands, they're pretty much doing the same thing. Hopefully we'll sound a bit different, which hopefully people will be in to.
Gearing Up
Pitchshifter guitarist Jim Davies gives us the skinny on some of his gear.
Pitchshifter's cutting edge sound melds elements from metal, punk, hip-hop, and electronica. |
GUITARS
Ibanez RG550,
RG570, and SCR series
PEDALS
Cry Baby wah
George Dennis wah
DigiTech Whammy
Eletro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer
DOD envelope filter
Entire new Ibanez pedal range
AMPS & PREAMPS
Rocktron Chameleon preamp
Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amps
Bogner Ecstasy
Soldano head
Vox AC15
Marshall 1969 "Plexi" reissue heads and cabs
Next Page: Sharing Music in the Electronic Age....
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