Face Melter
Paul’s other new release is an unearthed tour-de-shred
Along with Behold electric guitar, Paul has another new album. Except it’s also old.
It’s called Vernonsolos and it’s the guitarist back in 1998, playing for an hour straight. And playing hard.
“Racer X used to rent a rehearsal room at an old building in Vernon, California,” explains Paul. “It was great because we could leave our gear setup and go in and play at any time of day or night. Playing through a cranked-up, firebreathing Marshall is a whole lot different than playing at a polite level in an apartment. So I used to show up to rehearsal early to build my instincts on how to control feedback and string noise — as well as to just experience the mild terror you get from being loud. I set up a recorder, plugged in a couple mics and recorded
all the scary stuff I was working on at the time. I’m different now than I was then, but I like that kid a lot.”
How much tweaking did you have to do to make an old cassette sonically palatable?
“I had heard that old cassette tape can just fall apart, so I was a little nervous when I put this 30-year-old tape in the machine. But it sounded fine, and the guitar playing was even more face melting than I remembered. I sent the audio file to my mastering engineer, Paul Logus, who put a lot more care into his work than I was expecting. It sounded “good enough” from the cassette, but Paul really worked some magic with his gear and ears. I’m excited for people to hear me tearing up the guitar in 1988!”