After 12 years in the groove-metal juggernaut, the guitarist steps up as main composer to craft an album with earthquake riffs, neck-snapping rhythm turns, and panoramic dynamics.
Aside from surfing in Australia a couple of times, guitarist Mike Spreitzer hasn’t had much occasion to relax since recording DevilDriver’s latest polyrhythmic, groove-metal masterstroke, Trust No One. With the exodus of several key band members, Spreitzer’s workload increased exponentially, causing him to focus on the needs of the group during what would have otherwise been a break.
Aside from Spreitzer and founding member Dez Fafara (vocals), DevilDriver has an entirely new lineup. Neal Tiemann has taken over for Jeff Kendrick on guitar, Austin D’Amond has replaced John Boecklin on drums, and Diego “Ashes” Ibarra is in for Chris Towning on bass. Tiemann and D’Amond play on Trust No One. Ibarra joined after it was completed. With 12 years onboard, Spreitzer now ranks as the band’s longest tenured member after Fafara. Spreitzer is currently putting the new recruits through their paces at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California, where the band was born in 2002.
“We’re adding some songs from [2011’s] Beast that we’ve never played live before,” Spreitzer says. “So, I’ve been busy going over the new set list and teaching everyone the older material.”
But it’s not just the rehearsals where Spreitzer is taking on more responsibility. Besides the lineup purge, which includes partnering with a new guitarist, Spreitzer is also switching to in-ear monitors and a modeling amp for his touring rig, and was tasked with writing the music for Trust No One almost entirely alone.
So Spreitzer’s creative process, at least within DevilDriver, has changed entirely. And yet he seems to have embraced this new dynamic effortlessly, all while simultaneously enforcing DevilDriver’s singular sound. “I’ve always wanted to write a record all by myself,” he admits. “Jeff didn’t really write that much, but John was one of the main songwriters in the band. Winter Kills [their previous record, from 2013] was an even split between us. With Trust No One, all the writing fell on me.”
Spreitzer stayed true to DevilDriver’s vicious sonic assault, which is characterized by multi-layered guitar riffs and polyrhythmic grooves on Trust No One. Together, he and Tiemann weave a complex tapestry of controlled chaos that is, at times, as melodious as it is bludgeoning. Spreitzer’s solos on “Testimony of Truth,” “Above It All,” and “For What It’s Worth” are prime examples of his robust style—balancing hum-worthy melodies and finger-busting shredding. Spreitzer showers high praise on Tiemann, whose solos on “This Deception” and the title track demonstrate an intuitive gift for wah-infused, post-grunge psychedelia as well as a knack for tearing up leads when the gears shift into overdrive.
Spreitzer started playing guitar when he was 10. He credits hearing (and seeing) Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me” at age 6 as the catalyst. “I had older brothers and sisters who were always watching MTV, and that’s what got me into music. But I slowly got into Metallica and the heavier stuff and left the whole ’80s hair-metal thing behind.” He took lessons with three or four different guitar teachers through high school, but got more serious when he turned 18 and enrolled at Santa Barbara City College.
There’s nothing sheepish about the driving, hard-focused sound that guitarist Spreitzer and crew forged, with the help of amp profiling and Cubase, for DevilDriver’s latest album.
“I didn’t focus on guitar,” he explains. “Just general music.” Though he didn’t complete his studies, he did find some “awesome” musicians to jam with, who he relates were “leaps and bounds better” than he was. “I joined a progressive black metal band called Cystrot, and they had these ridiculously long 15-minute songs that never repeated a riff,” he recalls, laughing. “It was full-blown tremolo-picking nonstop. It was something I couldn’t do very well at all, but they gave me a good kick in the ass.”
Spreitzer joined DevilDriver in 2004, replacing original guitarist Evan Pitts. He’d known Boecklin and Kendrick from another Santa Barbara-based band they’d all played in called Grolby, so he was an obvious choice when Pitts backed out of a tour for personal reasons. Spreitzer has since played on six DevilDriver’s releases, dating back to 2005’s The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand, the band’s second album. But Trust No One is his first without Kendrick sharing guitar duties. He says the biggest difference between Kendrick and Tiemann is that he and his new counterpart get together to play guitar socially.
“More than Jeff and I did,” he confesses, “we really vibe off of each other. It’s been a really cool experience.” Despite this newfound camaraderie, Spreitzer does admit to being a bit resistant to Tiemann’s hiring at first. “He was a friend of Dez’s and he had never been in a metal band before. He was playing with David Cook from American Idol and in Hell or Highwater with the drummer from Atreyu, and I didn’t know if he was going to be right. But he totally won me over. And as we’ve gotten to know each other, we’ve become really good friends.”
Spreitzer relied on an ESP Eclipse-II with a set of Bare Knuckle Aftermath humbuckers for Trust No One. “It sounded awesome,” he declares. “We recorded in my studio using a Kemper Profiling Amplifier, which was then reamped through a Driftwood Purple Nightmare and a Mesa/Boogie cab with Celestion Vintage 30s.” For solos he incorporates some delay and/or reverb that he gets from a Pro Tools plug-in.
“I’ve got no problems using digital delays in DAWs,” he says. “They sound great, but I always have to tell [producer] Mark Lewis to add more delay or reverb. I don’t think my solos are overly wet, but he has a tendency to keep things fairly dry. My particular style is feedback at 15 percent to 20 percent and the mix of the delay is 10 percent to 30 percent at most.”
Mike Spreitzer rocks out on one of his ESP Custom V Series guitars. His main guitar for the new album, Trust No One, was his ESP Eclipse-II. Photo by Charles Yozgott
For all the synth and clean-sounding guitars, he relies on his Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II, which is also where he gets the aforementioned percentage of feedback. For the impending tour, instead of using amps, the Fractal is now the backbone of his live rig. Until recently, he was using Blackstars, but since the whole band is using in-ears, they are abandoning amps onstage for the first time ever. “It’s going to be a quiet stage, like our sound guy has wanted for a very long time,” he chuckles.
He and D’Amond will also play to a click track during performances on the upcoming tour. “The reason for playing to a click is so the tempo changes are where they should be, whereas previously we would just find the median tempo and go with that,” he notes.
As for splitting guitar duties, Spreitzer says DevilDriver has never been the type of band where one person plays leads and the other rhythm. “It’s all over the place,” he confides. “Any songs where Jeff had done the solos, Neal is playing those, like on ‘Dead to Rights’ from Beast.” Tiemann also plays a few solos on the new album. A perfect example of his style is the outro on the title track, which illuminates the cooperative way the two guitarists work together.
“On ‘Trust No One,’ it’s Neal playing, but it’s my idea,” explains Spreitzer. “I was like, ‘Do something that Jerry Cantrell would do, using a wah, and make it dissonant and sludgy.’ I think he did it in one or two takes. My favorite guitar players are Jerry Cantrell and Björn Gelotte from In Flames. They shred, but they have a certain amount of phrasing to their solos—like they’re talking to you. That’s very much how Neal writes.”
Mike Spreitzer’s Gear
GuitarsESP Custom V Series
ESP Eclipse-II
Amps
Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II
Kemper Profiling Amplifier
Driftwood Purple Nightmare
Mesa/Boogie cab with Celestion Vintage 30s
Effects
Mission Engineering EP1-KP Expression Pedal
Strings and Accessories
SIT Power Steel (.010–.052)
Fishman Fluence Modern Humbuckers
Bare Knuckle Aftermath Humbuckers
EMG 81 and 60 humbucker sets
InTune .88 mm picks
JH Audio JH16 Pro Custom In-Ear Monitors
When it comes to constructing his own solos, Spreitzer says he strives to compose a song within the song. “There are a couple of places on the record where I tried to shred a little more than I normally would, but I like solos to sing and have phrasing,” he explains. “I don’t think I’m the best at it, but I strive for that.”
A self-professed Cubase guy, Spreitzer says that DevilDriver’s polyrhythmic, multi-layered attack is built with modern technology. “I started getting familiar with recording when I was about 18, and now I have a fairly legit studio in my house,” he explains. “If I write a part, I’ll put it on loop and listen to it over and over and jam on top of that. And sometimes I’ll come up with two or three or four different parts layered on top of one another. That’s how it started happening.”
As for deciding who plays what, Spreitzer says whoever wrote the parts gets to decide. “But shit like that mattered so much more when I was in my 20s,” he says. “Now, when it comes down to who’s going to play what, I’m just like, ‘If you’re cool with the part, great; if not, that’s cool, too.’ There are plenty of riffs to go around in DevilDriver.”
YouTube It
DevilDriver’s official video for “Daybreak” is packed with beauty and weirdness, aurally and visually, from the up-sliding guitar intro to the Golem-like figure that lopes across the screen at 3:24, shortly after new guitarist Neal Tiemann’s elegantly harmonized solo.
Whitman Audio introduces the Decoherence Drive and Wave Collapse Fuzz, two innovative guitar pedals designed to push the boundaries of sound exploration. With unique features like cascading gain stages and vintage silicon transistor fuzz, these pedals offer musicians a new path to sonic creativity.
Whitman Audio, a new audio effects company, has launched with two cutting-edge guitar pedals, the Decoherence drive and Wave Collapse fuzz. Combining science and art to craft audio effects devices, Whitman Audio aims to transcend the ordinary, believing that magic can occur when the right musician meets the right tool.
Delivering a solution for musicians looking to explore a wide range of sounds, each pedal offers a unique path to finding your own voice. The Decoherence drive injects a universe of unique saturation into your music arsenal while the Wave Collapse fuzz takes you to uncharted sonic territories.
Decoherence features include:
- Cascading stages (Gain A > Gain B) each with a unique sound and saturation character
- Gain A - Medium to high gain stage with a mid focus for clear articulation and punch
- Gain B - Low to Medium gain with a neutral EQ that compliments and expands Gain A
- G/S Toggle - Selects the clipping diodes for Gain B (NOS Germanium or NOS Silicon)
- Tone Knobs (H & L) - Tuned active Baxendall style EQs that boost or cut Highs and Lows
- True bypass switching, accepts standard 9V DC power supplies (does not accept battery)
Introducing: Decoherence Drive - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.Wave Collapse features include:
- Vintage Silicon transistor fuzz that goes from vintage clean to doom metal mean
- Buffered input and pickup simulation ensure it sounds great anywhere in your chain
- Bias Knob - Allows for a huge range of texture and response in the pedals gain structure
- Range and Mass Toggles - Provide easy access to three diverse bass and gain ranges
- Filter Knob - A simple-to-use tilt EQ enhanced by the Center toggle for two mid responses
- True bypass switching, accepts standard 9V DC power supplies (does not accept battery)
The Decoherence drive and Wave Collapse fuzz pedals carry retail prices of $195.00 each.
For more information, please visit whitmanaudio.com.
Introducing: Wave Collapse Fuzz - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.In our third installment with Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover, the master luthier shows PG's John Bohlinger how his team of builders assemble and construct guitars like a chef preparing food pairings. Hoover explains that the finer details like binding, headstock size and shape, internal bracing, and adhesives are critical players in shaping an instrument's sound. Finally, Richard explains how SCGC uses every inch of wood for making acoustic guitars or outside ventures like surfboards and art.
We know Horsegirl as a band of musicians, but their friendships will always come before the music. From left to right: Nora Cheng, drummer Gigi Reece, and Penelope Lowenstein.
The Chicago-via-New York trio of best friends reinterpret the best bits of college-rock and ’90s indie on their new record, Phonetics On and On.
Horsegirl guitarists Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein are back in their hometown of Chicago during winter break from New York University, where they share an apartment with drummer Gigi Reece. They’re both in the middle of writing papers. Cheng is working on one about Buckminster Fuller for a city planning class, and Lowenstein is untangling Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann’s short story, “Three Paths to the Lake.”
“It was kind of life-changing, honestly. It changed how I thought about womanhood,” Lowenstein says over the call, laughing a bit at the gravitas of the statement.
But the moment of levity illuminates the fact that big things are happening in their lives. When they released their debut album, 2022’s Versions of Modern Performance, the three members of Horsegirl were still teenagers in high school. Their new, sophomore record, Phonetics On and On, arrives right in the middle of numerous first experiences—their first time living away from home, first loves, first years of their 20s, in university. Horsegirl is going through changes. Lowenstein notes how, through moving to a new city, their friendship has grown, too, into something more familial. They rely on each other more.
“If the friendship was ever taking a toll because of the band, the friendship would come before the band, without any doubt.”–Penelope Lowenstein
“Everyone's cooking together, you take each other to the doctor,” Lowenstein says. “You rely on each other for weird things. I think transitioning from being teenage friends to suddenly working together, touring together, writing together in this really intimate creative relationship, going through sort of an unusual experience together at a young age, and then also starting school together—I just feel like it brings this insane intimacy that we work really hard to maintain. And if the friendship was ever taking a toll because of the band, the friendship would come before the band without any doubt.”
Horsegirl recorded their sophomore LP, Phonetics On and On, at Wilco’s The Loft studio in their hometown, Chicago.
These changes also include subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in their sophisticated and artful guitar-pop. Versions of Modern Performance created a notion of the band as ’90s college-rock torchbearers, with reverb-and-distortion-drenched numbers that recalled Yo La Tengo and the Breeders. Phonetics On and On doesn’t extinguish the flame, but it’s markedly more contemporary, sacrificing none of the catchiness but opting for more space, hypnotic guitar lines, and meditative, repeated phrases. Cheng and Lowenstein credit Welsh art-pop wiz Cate Le Bon’s presence as producer in the studio as essential to the sonic direction.
“On the record, I think we were really interested in Young Marble Giants—super minimal, the percussiveness of the guitar, and how you can do so much with so little.”–Nora Cheng
“We had never really let a fourth person into our writing process,” Cheng says. “I feel like Cate really changed the way we think about how you can compose a song, and built off ideas we were already thinking about, and just created this very comfortable space for experimentation and pushed us. There are so many weird instruments and things that aren't even instruments at [Wilco’s Chicago studio] The Loft. I feel like, definitely on our first record, we were super hesitant to go into territory that wasn't just distorted guitar, bass, and drums.”
Nora Cheng's Gear
Nora Cheng says that letting a fourth person—Welsh artist Cate Le Bon—into the trio’s songwriting changed how they thought about composition.
Photo by Braden Long
Effects
- EarthQuaker Devices Plumes
- Ibanez Tube Screamer
- TC Electronic Polytune
Picks
- Dunlop Tortex .73 mm
Phonetics On and On introduces warm synths (“Julie”), raw-sounding violin (“In Twos”), and gamelan tiles—common in traditional Indonesian music—to Horsegirl’s repertoire, and expands on their already deep quiver of guitar sounds as Cheng and Lowenstein branch into frenetic squonks, warped jangles, and jagged, bare-bones riffs. The result is a collection of songs simultaneously densely textured and spacious.
“I listen to these songs and I feel like it captures the raw, creative energy of being in the studio and being like, ‘Fuck! We just exploded the song. What is about to happen?’” Lowenstein says. “That feeling is something we didn’t have on the first record because we knew exactly what we wanted to capture and it was the songs we had written in my parents’ basement.”
Cheng was first introduced to classical guitar as a kid by her dad, who tried to teach her, and then she was subsequently drawn back to rock by bands like Cage The Elephant and Arcade Fire. Lowenstein started playing at age 6, which covers most of her life memories and comprises a large part of her identity. “It made me feel really powerful as a young girl to know that I was a very proficient guitarist,” she says. The shreddy playing of Television, Pink Floyd’s spacey guitar solos, and Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan were all integral to her as Horsegirl began.
Penelope Lowenstein's Gear
Penelope Lowenstein likes looking back at the versions of herself that made older records.
Photo by Braden Long
Effects
- EarthQuaker Westwood
- EarthQuaker Bellows
- TC Electronic PolyTune
Picks
- Dunlop Tortex 1.0 mm
Recently, the two of them have found themselves influenced by guitarists both related and unrelated to the type of tunes they’re trading in on their new album. Lowenstein got into Brazilian guitar during the pandemic and has recently been “in a Jim O’Rourke, John Fahey zone.”
“There’s something about listening to that music where you realize, about the guitar, that you can just compose an entire orchestra on one instrument,” Lowenstein says. “And hearing what the bass in those guitar parts is doing—as in, the E string—is kind of mind blowing.”
“On the record, I think we were really interested in Young Marble Giants—super minimal, the percussiveness of the guitar, and how you can do so much with so little,” Cheng adds. “And also Lizzy Mercier [Descloux], mostly on the Rosa Yemen records. That guitar playing I feel was very inspiring for the anti-solo,[a technique] which appears on [Phonetics On and On].”This flurry of focused discovery gives the impression that Cheng and Lowenstein’s sensibilities are shifting day-to-day, buoyed by the incredible expansion of creative possibilities that setting one’s life to revolve around music can afford. And, of course, the energy and exponential growth of youth. Horsegirl has already clocked major stylistic shifts in their brief lifespan, and it’s exciting to have such a clear glimpse of evolution in artists who are, likely and hopefully, just beginning a long journey together.
“There’s something about listening to that music where you realize, about the guitar, that you can just compose an entire orchestra on one instrument.”–Penelope Lowenstein
“In your 20s, life moves so fast,” Lowenstein says. “So much changes from the time of recording something to releasing something that even that process is so strange. You recognize yourself, and you also kind of sympathize with yourself. It's a really rewarding way of life, I think, for musicians, and it's cool that we have our teenage years captured like that, too—on and on until we're old women.”
YouTube It
Last summer, Horsegirl gathered at a Chicago studio space to record a sun-soaked set of new and old tunes.
Featuring torrefied solid Sitka Spruce tops, mahogany neck, back, and sides, and Fishman Presys VT EQ System, these guitars are designed to deliver quality tone and playability at an affordable price point.
Cort Guitars, acclaimed for creating instruments that exceed in value and quality, introduces the Essence Series. This stunning set of acoustic guitars is designed for musicians looking for the quintessential classic acoustic guitar with fabulous tone all at an exceptional price point. The Essence Series features two distinct body shapes: The Grand Auditorium and the OM Cutaway. Whatever the flavor, the Essence Series has the style to suit.
The Essence-GA-4 is the perfect Grand Auditorium acoustic. Wider than a dreadnought, the Essence-GA-4 features a deep body with a narrower waist and a width of 1 ¾” (45mm) at the nut. The result is an instrument that is ideal for any number of playing styles: Picking… strumming… the Essence GA-4 is completely up for the task.
The Essence-OM-4 features a shallower body creating a closer connection to the player allowing for ease of use on stage. With its 1 11/16’th (43mm) nut width, this Orchestra Model is great for fingerpickers or singer/guitarists looking for better body contact for an overall better playing experience.
Both acoustics are topped with a torrefied solid Sitka Spruce top using Cort’s ATV process. The ATV process or “Aged to Vintage”, “ages” the Spruce top to give it the big and open tone of older, highly-sought-after acoustics. To further enhance those vintage tones, the tops bracing is also made of torrefied spruce. The mahogany neck, back, and sides create a warm, robust midrange and bright highs. A rosewood fingerboard and bridge add for a more balanced sound and sustain. The result is amazing tone at first strum. 18:1 Vintage Open Gear Tuners on the mahogany headstock offer precise tuning with vintage styling. The herringbone rosette & purfling accentuates the aesthetics of these instruments adding to their appeal. Both acoustics come in two choices of finish. Natural Semi-Gloss allows the Sitka spruce’s natural beauty to shine through and classic Black Top Semi-Gloss.
A Fishman® Presys VT EQ System is installed inside the body versus other systems that cut into the body to be installed. This means the instrument keeps its natural resonance and acoustic flair. The Presys VT EQ System keeps it simple with only Volume and Tone controls resulting in a true, crisp acoustic sound. Lastly, Elixir® Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze Light .012-.053 Acoustic Strings round out these acoustics. This Number 1 acoustic guitar string delivers consistent performance and extended tone life with phosphor bronze sparkle and warmth. The Essence Series takes all these elements, combines them, and exceeds in playability, looks, and affordability.
Street Price: $449.00
For more information, please visit cortguitars.com.