DIY ’til I die

Kurt tells us how he got started with the DIY ethic and where it’s led him today...

You’re a prolific DIY-er, building everything from pedals to your guitars. How did you get started with that?

DIY in the punk world is an ethos by choice in many cases in the present day, but for the way that I was raised, I didn’t go hungry or anything like that, but my parents didn’t have a lot when they were younger, and I didn’t have a ton when I was a kid. So, if we wanted to do something, we had to do it ourselves... y’know like, I used to race BMX bikes, and the bikes that I raced my dad and I built together, and I don’t mean just assembled – we went and bought tubing and made the frames.

Which of the pedals that you’ve built were used on TheDuskInUs?

“In terms of gain pedals, I pretty much used on most songs one of three pedals. There was a Brutalist prototype, that was the 18-volt version [for increased headroom]. There was a pedal called the Indifferent Snowman, which is a prototype that I made for what is now called the Riff Child [second from bottom right in pic], and that’s what I’ve been using live on the past few tours, and the third was a fuzz pedal that I make called the SBD, based on the Vox Super Beatle distortion.”

Something we haven’t yet touched on is what guitars you’re currently using. Last time you spoke to TG, you were using Framus, but now you’re building your own God City Instruments guitars as well?

“Yeah, that’s right, the Framus guitars are just fantastic, but I’m not using those live right now... I do a lot of things, so I just haven’t been able to devote as much time to the guitar building as I would like, and I haven’t built a guitar myself in years now.

“The guitar that I was playing [live at ArcTanGent] was designed by me but it was actually built by John McGuire, who worked for Valley Arts guitars, followed by Gibson, followed by First Act and then he went out on his own... I’ve come to find out that it’s really difficult to build a guitar in the first world for a reasonable price, and to get it in the quantities I want and delivered on time, but I still have high hopes that it will come along one day though!”