Kirsty talks guitar

I started out with a real sort of punky sound, listening to bands like Rancid, The Distillers, Hole, they were all the bands that I grew up with and really enjoyed listening to, and then moved on from there to more solid rock, bands like the Foo Fighters.

And then the Foo Fighters led me into Led Zeppelin, and then people that I was meeting and playing with got me into more bluesy styles, and even now I’m listening to more stuff like Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, slightly more bluesy players, Clapton, and Page.

I was over the moon with it. I love my SG because it’s got a nice thin neck for me, it’s lived in, the P-90 pickups give me enough sound that I want, it’s comfortable, it’s light, it’s durable. I’m not worried about scratching it because it’s probably got a million dents in it anyway.

The intonation isn’t perfect, it probably needs to get set up every six or seven months and the G-string goes out of tune like nobody’s business. But I’ve got no one to really be in tune with. I tune my guitar to E Flat anyway, so the only person I’ve got to be in tune with is the drums, so it’s not really that hard, if I go out of tune I’ve just got to make sure that I get the right note when I sing!

The ‘72 SG is obviously famous for Angus Young, ACDC, it allows you to have that gnarly, almost phonic tone, something that sounds like something muffled but also cuts through really deep. Les Pauls are going to be fatter and Strats and Telecasters are going to be a lot thinner, but obviously as a player you can adapt to that, but the SG is almost like an all rounder, something that you can rely on to go to, for me personally anyway.

I love being able to just pick it up and say, right OK, I’m going to run this through Fuzz Face and I’m going to crank it up full volume and it’s going to sound old and it’s going to sound dirty and it’s going to sound fat. You know, that’s what I get out of it. It’s proper reliable even though it’s like a good 30-40 years old.

The set up I use live is the Fender Deluxe Hot Rod guitar amp. I’ve always been a fan of valve amps, you get a warmer tone. I split my signal for my live sound between guitar amp and a bass amp, any bass amp I can get my hands on.

So from the guitar it runs into my pedal board, and then from my pedal board it goes into my guitar amp and the loop pedal that I use in my pedal board splits the signal between the bass amp and the guitar amp. So I’m on stage and I’ve got my top end from my guitar amp and my bottom end from my bass amp. Which basically runs through the whole set. Plus I use an octave pedal on top of that, which gives it a really sinister, eerie sort of sound which I really like.

A friend of mine actually has the one before, which is just the two bank. He showed me around it a bit and I recognised it when I went in and I was, oh ok, well this one’s got the four banks and it’s got loop up and loop down, record overdub and reverse. There’s loads of stuff you could do with it and the guy in the music shop was like, have a go with it and I was jamming and playing and ‘Oh my god this is the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life’. And walked out with it.

I use the loop pedal basically to gain a bigger sound, Pearl Harts is all about making the biggest sound with the smallest amount of people.

The loop pedal was primarily used so that I was able to do some lead parts over rhythm sections and that’s how it started. Then we started messing around with sounds and saying well OK what if we use a really lower tone on this and made a bassline out of it, and then we can go over the top of that with a guitar sound. Then there’s overdubs and a million different things that you can do with that loop pedal, which I’m still discovering, but it’s a great tool for the use of layering, allowing your sound to progress.

You’re in control, you’re doing it. If it goes wrong, that’s your fault. You can’t turn round and go, oh the bass player played a wrong chord, that’s why the set sucked. Well no, that was all up to you, which is quite tricky sometimes, you’re doing a kind of dance on the floor but, it’s good.

DigiTech JamMan Stereo Looper/Phrase Sampler It’s got loop up and loop down, record overdub and reverse, there’s loads of stuff you could do with it Read More

I’m still experimenting with it as well, there’s loads of reverse guitars that you can do. It’s really good to use live with Sarah because she can link up in the back and get the rhythm out sound, so the loop that I make she’ll hear that in her headphones so I can do all the stuff over the top and we’re never going to go out of time with the drums.

Gibson SG Gnarly, an all rounder Read More

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Amp I love the Hot Rod Read More

Mooer Audio Pure Octave Pedal Eerie sound I really like Read More

Sara talks drums and samples

It’s the kind of drumming that I’ve always enjoyed doing, ever since I first started. I’ve really been into rock and blues playing, I’d say my favourite drummer was John Bonham. I also like Mitch Mitchell as well. I like a bluesy feel to it, really loud, and warm tone. They’re my favourite players, they’ve influenced my drum sound, even down to the kind of drums that I play. I’ve got a vintage Ludwig kit and I like a big, bombastic sound which suits Kirsty’s guitar playing.

It’s basically the same kit that The Doors had in the late 60s early 70s, it’s got the same finish to it. It’s your typical 70s drum kit, big sizes, it’s just got a really warm tone to it. I bought it for a good price about two years ago, and I just love it. Every time I use it people compliment me on the sound of it.

They feel quite thin and crispy and that’s the kind of sound that I like. They’re not too heavy. I feel I’m quite a heavy player and despite wanting to hit the drums really loudly, I don’t like laying into the cymbals so much. I quite like a more light cymbal sound because I think it sounds a bit nicer. So that’s what Sabian cymbals do for me, give a nice ambient sound over the top of a more beefy drum sound.

Aside from the traditional standard drumset, I also use sample pads and a range of triggers and pads on top of that. I’ve got the SPD-SX, I’m really lucky, I’ve got an endorsement deal with Roland, so I got that through them and because we’re just a two-piece it’s really important for us, the layering of the sound to make it sound like you’re hearing more than just a two piece.

I use some pads around the kit to trigger additional sounds and also play some bass sounds. We don’t want it to feel like you’re really missing a bass player or a keyboard player or something and we want to bring in sounds where the audience will be like, where’s that coming from? It’s quite a fun thing to add to the kit and it doesn’t really feel like it’s been done that much in rock music before, so it feels like a new area which I’m quite keen to develop a bit more.

We’ve got one track, which we actually recorded today for Kitmonsters as an acoustic version, and live it’s got a solo guitar part with the riff. The riff is quite a mid-sounding riff rather than a lower riff which is what a lot of our songs are like.

So you miss having a bass player there, or somebody to play a bass part so I basically spent a bit of time finding a sound that would go with the guitar part and I’ve programmed it into my sample pad, and I just play it with my hand.

And at the end there’s quite a big solo, so that’s even more involved, because I think there’s five notes that I have to play as well as keeping the beat. It’s quite a challenge but I think it works quite well. It’s easy to become complacent as a musician and especially in this kind of music where I feel most comfortable, it’s nice to throw something in there which is a bit like, ooer, I’ve never done this before. It keeps it fresh and interesting.

Roland SPD-SX Versatile Sampling Pad Read More

Kit List

Boss

Jim Dunlop

Fender

Shure

Digitech

Roland

Gibson

Mooer Audio