He was one of the key architects of the alt-Nineties guitar aesthetic in Sonic Youth and has a new album called Electric Trim, but what ...
He was one of the key architects of the alt-Nineties guitar aesthetic in Sonic Youth and has a new album called Electric Trim, but what Guitar World readers really want to know is…
What are the origins of your Fender signature model Jazzblaster? —Alex Melton
One of the key guitars in my career has been an early-Seventies Fender Telecaster Deluxe that I had before Sonic Youth started, and that I played pretty much throughout Sonic Youth.
It was one of the guitars we lost in that big 1999 theft, when we had all our gear stolen. But it was one of the few guitars that actually got returned. I still play it onstage, and it’s on my new album.
But that guitar, with those Fender wide-range humbucking pickups, was really the impetus for me putting those pickups in my Jazzmasters. At some point in the mid-Nineties, one of the roadies was like, “You love the Jazzmaster body style, but you love the sound of those pickups in your Tele. Why don’t you just put those pickups in your Jazzmaster?”
And that became the basis for the signature model. I probably used my signature model on the new album too, as well as a white ’65 Jazzmaster I have.
What have you been up to since your last album, Acoustic Dust, in 2014? —Britney Bruce
Mostly making the Electric Trim album. The people who put together that Acoustic Dust record in Barcelona brought this guy Raul “Refree” Fernandez in to help with production. He’s pretty well known over there, although not so much over here. And we became fast friends.
At the end of the sessions, he said, “I’d love to work with you on a new record at some point.”