“I CALL IT MODERN POP BLUES”

AS LEAD GUITARIST FOR THE SNUTS, JOE MCGILLVERAY HAS A STYLE BOTH CONTEMPORARY AND CLASSIC. AND WITH HIS FAVOURITE STRAT, A SCREWDRIVER COMES IN HANDY...

On the debut album by Scottish four-piece The Snuts, lead guitarist Joe Mcgillveray is adding new pages to the indie guitar rulebook. Influenced first by his father’s record collection and then by plenty of indie rock from the early 2000s, this largely selftaught guitarist has a knack for catchy lead lines and layered riffs.

In describing his style, Joe says: “I call it modern pop blues”. As he recalls “The natural thing to do when I was younger was to put blues licks in every single space”. Nowadays his relationship with the genre has matured into an ability to interact with Snuts frontman Jack Cochrane’s vocals in a way that evokes classic call and response, but with added pop catchiness and a very modern feel. Sensitive to compositional dynamics, he says: “I try and play in the same way that someone would sing - leaving the gaps you would need to breathe.”

When it comes to guitars, Joe is predominantly a Stratocaster man and has two he relies on: one American and one Mexican Deluxe with a chunky 70s style headstock. The latter is a particular favourite, with a maple fingerboard, locking tuners and comfortable neck profile. He removes the tremolo arm, leaving the bridge floating but still usable for “big feedback reverb-y type noises”. He laughs: “Every time I get it serviced they stick it down and then I get the screwdriver out almost straight away and lift it up again.”

The album, W.L., is richly varied in tonality, but much of what you hear doesn’t come from a hefty pedalboard. Explains Joe: “The key sound throughout the album was from going straight into a Neve console and blowing it up to the point that it’s spitting and hissing.”

Out of the studio, and without the Neve at his fingertips, he’s been on a quest to bring these tones to a live environment, and uses a Hudson Broadcast and a JHS Crayon to do so. Both are designed to emulate classic consoles of the 1960s, and sit beside an EHX Superego Synth Engine and an Ibanez Tube Screamer on the board. As for amps, Joe has long depended on a Blues Junior but recently acquired a Victory Duchess and Victory Copper. Once let loose to gig again, he plans to run two in tandem - with one for reverb and another for dirt.