Almost every guitarist started out using a guitar that they would, on reflection, dub "a piece of shit". "I did," recalls Demob Happy guitarist Adam Godfrey. "It was my next door neighbour's - they were chucking out a really shitty Les Paul copy with like two flatwound strings on it."
We had so much gear in the studio, but wound-up with a crappy practice amp with an EQ pedal on it
"I went for the worst unnamed guitar I've ever seen," adds co-guitarist Mathew Renworth. "Then I just sat in my garage for about two years learning Blink-182 songs."
Now armed with US Fenders (a Strat with a Supro amp for Mathew, a Tele with an Orange TH30 for Adam), the Brighton-based trash rockers have magic'd up a debut album, Dream Soda, that puts the ugly and unusual on a pedestal. Both hail Josh Homme as a key influence and their fat, irresistibly grunge-y riffs are funnelled through a distinctly QOTSA-style sonic palette.
Matchless sound
"The way his tone sounds on records is so secretive and weird," says Mathew. "It makes me strive to do the same. I'll try and just do something wrong to make it sound right, you know?"
"We had so much gear in the studio, but wound-up with a crappy practice amp with an EQ pedal on it," continues Adam. "It just sounded exactly like what we were looking for and couldn't find with a Matchless."
It proves once again that you don't have to spend stupid money to get results. Here's to the guitar world's unsung heroes - and here's to crappy gear.
- For fans of: QOTSA, God Damn
- Hear: Succubus
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