White’s
main-stage pedalboard
for The Wall tour
includes a Boss TU-2
tuner, an Ernie Ball
volume pedal,
a Boss
BD-2 Blues Driver
that he uses for his
basic sound, a Boss
OD-3 OverDrive, a
Boss RT-20 Rotary
Ensemble (used for
the solo in “Mother”
and other chorusing
sounds), a Line 6 M9
Stompbox Modeler
(the
“Chorus” switch
is for the verse of
“Comfortably Numb,”
and the “Spaces”
switch provides delay
for “Hey
You”), and
a Voodoo Lab Pedal
Power 2 Plus. Photo
by Snowy White
White keeps a separate
pedalboard on
the front stage of The
Wall production. It features
a Vox 845 wah,
an Ernie Ball volume
pedal, a Line 6 M9
Stompbox Modeler, a
Korg Pitchblack tuner,
a Morley ABY switch
that selects between
his two Vox AC30s, and
a Voodoo Lab Pedal
Power 2 Plus.
Photo by Snowy White
Tell us about some of your other projects.
In between working with Roger and the other
odd things that come up, I do my own thing.
I’ve had a band for a number of years called
the White Flames. We’ve recorded about 12
or 13 albums, and we go out around Europe
a bit. We’ve got a new album coming out in
February called
Realistic. For another project,
a lot of people told me they’d like to hear
more basic blues. So I thought, “I’m not a
blues singer, but I’ll get a few people together
and get some good vocalists and I can just
sit back and play guitar a bit.” I was lucky to
get Matt Taylor in there, who’s got a great
voice and is a great guitarist, and Ruud Weber,
a really good blues bass player and singer
who does frontman stuff, which means I can
relax and just play my blues thing. So we got
together as the Snowy White Blues Project
and made an album,
In Our Time of Living.
The thing is, we didn’t all assemble in the
same room together until the day we started
recording. We were able to come up with
ideas via email. Nobody had even met everybody
at the same time. We had a rehearsal in
the afternoon, and the next day we went to
the studio for about five days and put down
everything fresh, mostly live. And I was really
pleased, because when you do that you never
know what the result will be. It could’ve been
a disaster and cost a lot of money—and I was
paying for everything. But it went really well
and I was very pleased with it, so we decided
to go and put some gigs together and get
out on the road, which you can hear on
In Our
Time… Live—a title we chose just to keep the
name alive while I’m out with Roger. By the
end of this
Wall tour, I should be looking forward
to going back to some small clubs and
playing some blues.
How much songwriting did you do for these
projects, and what’s your writing process like?
I write nearly all the songs on the White
Flames albums. But with the blues project,
we’ve got a few songs each and a few covers.
It’s good, because everybody gets his
thing in and that’s the best way to do it, really.
I’m happy to take a backseat just playing my
blues. As for the process, I sit down with my
guitar and I strum a few chords to get some
sort of direction. If I’m in a mood, I’ll play a
minor thing and I might start thinking about
what it would be like to play a guitar solo
over those minors. And then I come up with a
lyric or hook line, and over a period of weeks
or months or even years, I just kick it around
and put it together. Some songs come really
quickly. I had a hit single around ’84 called
“Bird of Paradise” that took me about 15
minutes to write—one of those songs that just
came out complete with lyrics and everything.
And others kick around for ages and eventually
something makes it work or not. So there’s
no real technique to it for me, no plan—it just
comes or it doesn’t.
White with his Les Paul, a Fender Twin, a Vox AC30, and the Snowy White Blues Project—drummer Juan van Emmerloot, bassist Ruud Weber Jr., and guitarist/vocalist
Matt Taylor. Photo courtesy muper.co.cc
Is there any new music that inspires you?
I don’t actually listen to music at home. I play
it in my car. Occasionally, I’ll hear something I
really like. But most of the time I don’t know
who it is. People will ask me, “What do you
think about this guitarist and that guitarist?”—
new young guys—and I listen and say, “That’s
great.” But then I forget who they are. And I
can hear that a young player’s been listening
to Albert King, for instance, and then I remember
my old days and think, I know just how
he feels—he’s all excited that he’s discovered
Albert King. Honestly, though, I’d prefer to listen
to Albert King. But I wish all these guys a
lot of luck, because they’re some great players
and they’re helping keep the blues alive.
Snowy White’s Wall Tour Gearbox
Guitars
1957 Gibson goldtop Les Paul, Gibson
goldtop Les Paul reissue with Stetsbar
tremolo, 1957 Gibson Les Paul
Historic, Gibson ES-345, Fender David
Gilmour Signature Series Stratocaster,
Fender Stratocaster
Amps
Two Vox AC30s (one is set with extra
treble for solos)
Effects
Line 6 M9 Stompbox Modeler,
Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, Boss OD-3
OverDrive, Boss RT-20 Rotary
Ensemble, Ernie Ball volume pedal,
Vox V845 wah
Strings and Picks
.010–.052 sets for Les Pauls, .010–.046
sets for Stratocasters, custom “Snowy
White” teardrop-shaped picks
Miscellaneous
Boss TU-2 chromatic tuner, Korg
Pitchblack chromatic tuner, Voodoo
Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus