Noy tracking Twisted Blues, Vol.1 in Eric Johnson’s studio with Wynans, Beck, and Layton.How do you compose
your tunes?
I come up with a riff or a
concept that starts from a drum
groove. I might take a twochord
vamp or a line and record
it with a very basic groove and
bass line at my apartment in
Pro Tools. If that works, then
I write over it. For example, I
wanted to write a rhumba, and
that became “Oh Really?” I
wanted “Twisted Blues” to be
funky, and “Whole Tone Blues”
was going to be a shuffle.
I wrote the title track over
one of my favorite tunes of all
time—“Twisted Blues” by Wes
Montgomery. I’ve wanted to
write something over that form
for a long time. I changed some
of the chords and the melody,
but the form is similar. I also
did that on my other records.
On Fuzzy, there is a song called
“EpistroFunk” that’s based on
Monk’s “Epistrophy.” There are
a lot of tunes where I take the
form of another song and write
something over it.
When you record live with a
rhythm section, do you record
the solos live, too?
Everything is live—like the
classic jazz records. We go in
and try to play together as well
as we play in clubs. Before we
record, we play the music live
for at least a year.
What’s on your pedalboard
these days?
On the right side we have an
old Vox wah-wah going into a
Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Octavia.
Then I have the Xotic AC
Booster—I left it on for a lot
of the record. The Ibanez Tube
Screamer is for the twangier
stuff, like “Whole Tone Blues”
or “Trinkle Tinkle”—the real
Texas-flavored stuff. Then I
have an E.W.S. Fuzzy Drive,
which is great. It’s a mix
between a fuzz and an overdrive.
I used it for slide parts
and on “Two Centers.” You can
get a lot of sounds by adjusting
your guitar volume—it cleans
up nicely. Then I have a DLS
RotoSIM, an old MXR Phase
90, a Monster Effects Swamp-
Thang tremolo, then a Fulltone
Mini DejáVibe. On my second
pedalboard, I always have a slap
delay going on one of my three
Boss DD-7s, a reverse delay
on another, and a longer delay
with a single repeat on the
third. When I solo, I have the
slap delay and the longer one
with a single repeat on. When I
play the softer stuff or ballads,
I add the Electro-Harmonix
Memory Man.
I also have a Line 6 M9,
mostly for looping, but also for
reverse delays where I need to tap
in the tempo. I need it, too, for
the Sweep Echo effect that only
Line 6 delays have—I use that
effect all the time for psychedelic
sounds. I use two expression pedals
to control the volume of the
delay or loop. I also have a switch
to put the tuner into the chain.
You used to use the Hughes &;
Kettner Rotosphere for rotary-speaker
sounds, right?
On the recording, I used the
Hughes & Kettner but I use a
DLS RotoSIM on my pedalboard.
Which amps are you using?
I have a 1967 Fender
Bandmaster that has been
modified by Ziv Nagari. He
put in the right capacitors and
some other stuff that brought
it back to life. He also added a
high-end switch so that when I
play loud, the high end doesn’t
go away like it does on stock
Bandmasters. I also use a 1973
50-watt Marshall that Ziv just
cleaned up. For the Marshall,
I use a Bad Cat 4x12 cabinet
with Celestion Greenbacks,
and for the Bandmaster I have
a Bad Cat 2x12 with Celestion
Vintage 30s.
Do you use the amps together?
Live, I usually use either/or—
the Bandmaster works better
with the blues band. On record,
I use both together. I was never
satisfied with just one. I run
two lines from the M9’s stereo
outputs. In Austin, I used a
’60s Fender Super Reverb that
I borrowed from a friend, and
one of Eric Johnson’s Marshall
1969 50-watt plexis with one of
his cabinets.
What did you mic them with?
I had a Shure SM57 and a Royer
121 ribbon mic on each cabinet,
and I used Neumann U 87s or
AKG C 414s for room mics.
Were you able to separate your
amp sound from the band
while playing live in the studio?
Both studios had places to separate
the amp. To get my sound,
I need to move air and be near
the amp, so I usually leave the
door to the amp room open,
stand near it, and play really
loud—which causes leakage into
the drum mics. There is no way
around it: If I don’t move air, I
can’t get any sustain because I
don’t use a lot of distortion.
Does that make it hard to do
fixes and overdubs?
We don’t do fixes, we just do
five or six takes of each song
to a click track, then I take it
home and edit the best sections
of each take together.
Everything you hear was played
live together, but the B part
might be from a different take.
How did Allen Toussaint end
up on the record?
I originally meant to have a
piano on “Oh Really?” and it
was sounding a little weak without
it. Allen had come to some
of my shows—he’s a friend of
Will Lee’s.
Noy’s amps are isolated to minimize mic leakage as he tracks live with the band, but he stands by the cracked-open iso-room door to facilitate
volume-driven sustain.Did he overdub his parts?
Yes. He came so prepared—
believe it or not, he had transcribed
my whole guitar solo!
“Light Blue” introduces slide
playing to your repertoire.
Did you set the guitar up differently
for that?
No. I played it on the red Custom
Shop Stratocaster that I used for
most of the record. The action
was a little low, but I managed.
Is it in standard tuning?
Yes, but a half-step down. I usually
use .011s with a .012 high
E, but when I tune down I use
.012 sets and a .013 high E.
How did the double-time part
on “Steroids” evolve?
On the Live record, it was really
fast but as we continued to play
it live, it became more medium
tempo. The B section wasn’t
sounding right, so we sped it
up to double-time.
Why did you decide to re-record
“Cissy Strut” [which was also on
Noy’s 2006 album Oz Live]?
The Live record was done with
just one stereo mic. I wanted to
get a better recording, and it fits
with the blues record.
Is it in an odd time signature?
It is in 4/4. I moved some of
the lines and shifted some of the
melody parts over, but if you listen
to the drums they are in four.
That’s the twisted factor [laughs].
Is that a ring modulator or octave
fuzz over the beginning loop?
It’s an octave fuzz.
Is there going to be a Twisted
Blues, Vol. 2?
Absolutely!