MIKE STROUD
HAILS FROM BROOKLYN, NEW YORK USA PLAYS IN KUNZITE (PICTURED ABOVE) AND RATATAT SOUNDS LIKE BENDY, BREEZY AND BEAUTIFUL PSYCH-POP LATEST DROP VISUALS (LP OUT NOW VIA LOWLY / WILDER)
What’s your current go-to guitar?
The guitar I’ve used since my early Ratatat days – and is now all over the new Kunzite album – is a 1965 Epiphone Wilshire with mini humbuckers. I found it a shop called First Flight Music back in 2002, for $1,200. I didn’t know much about the guitar or pickups, I just thought it looked cool! It ended up being super useful in the studio, and I definitely had the feeling that it came with many songs built right into it. I immediately wrote a song called “Breaking Away” (for the first Ratatat album) and I was hooked. I then played every single show with it for about 15 years. I’d say it’s my prized possession. I just love the way it feels and looks, and the way the mini humbuckers break up is just perfect for the sounds I like to create. I generally play brighter chords and leads on the bridge pickup, and will roll all the tone out of the neck pickup and add tonnes of fuzz and saturation to create almost like a synthesiser sound that I like to stack up and harmonise.
How did you initially fall in love with the instrument?
My first guitar was some black Yamaha metal guitar with tuning locks and a whammy bar. I don’t remember what it was called, and it eventually got completely covered with stickers – I think it might be sitting in my parents’ house. I was very much into playing fast, Van Halen-type solos when I first started playing, and that guitar was perfect for that.
What inspires you as a player?
It would be obvious to anyone that listens closely to my playing, but I absolutely love Brian May. I love the way he crafted orchestral-style solos and backup parts for all those Queen songs. I’ve always strived to do the same when I write and record my own music. Also, one of my all-time favorite albums to play along with is Arthur (OrTheDeclineAndFallOfTheBritishEmpire) by The Kinks. The songwriting is so incredible, and Dave Davies completely kills it on every song. There are so many guitarists that I admire – I love Link Wray, Pete Drake, Les Paul, Jimmy Page, Santo & Johnny... The list is truly endless. I’ve been obsessed with the guitar playing and sounds on this record PAKISTAN:InstrumentalFolk&PopSounds,1966-1976. Maybe I’ll copy that next.
Are you much of a gear nerd?
I go through phases where I nerd out, for sure. I love all kinds of recording equipment. I love the Coil Audio preamps! They got used on every single song on this Kunzite album. I have a bunch of compressors that I am obsessed with, too, but those are a secret. Overall, I am not a technical person at all, besides the actual playing of the guitar. I would never know how to fix anything, and sometimes I feel like I hardly know how to use my recording equipment. I usually record really quickly, so I just get sounds down as fast as I can to keep the momentum going. I’ll start by recording most guitar parts directly into the Coil preamps with fuzz or whatever. Lots of times those parts remain on the record, but sometimes I’ll go back and re-do stuff through proper microphones and amps, etcetera. I think the one piece of gear that I could say I have an actual collection of is fuzz pedals – I have way too many. The coolest one that I’m totally obsessed with is the vintage red Univox SuperFuzz pedal. You can hear it all over our song “Jupiter”, and the solo for “Azurite”.
Do you have any ‘white whales’?
I’d love to own a mint condition, vintage white Mellotron.
What would your signature model look like?
I don’t know if I’m nerdy enough to answer this one. I like to think of my Epiphone Wilshire as my own signature guitar. You don’t see them too often.
If you could jam with any guitarist, dead or alive...
Jamming with a dead person sounds pretty boring! I think the most exciting for me would be to play some Zeppelin songs with Jimmy Page.