Lang also plays a Tele and a Strat, but here he his is on the cover of 2019's bops, etc. posing with a sparkly Jazzmaster.
Fans of lo-fi bedroom pop have undoubtedly already heard of Oscar Lang. Since his early teens, he's been a leader in the dreamy, synth-laden genre. Guitarists who prefer their music loud and rocking may not know Lang, but with the release of Chew the Scenery, the two worlds are colliding as the young songwriter comes of age, electric guitar in hand.
Lang has built quite a name for himself over the last half-decade. Songs from his seven-plus self-produced and self-recorded EPs and singles are featured in EA Sports' video games, and he holds production credits with modern stars like songwriter-guitarist beabadoobee and Canadian rapper Powfu. Not bad for a 21-year-old.
Lang's love of all things music came very early in life. His late mother, who was also a musician, fed her child's prodigious talent with her love of great pop. Though she died when he was 7, her favorite music, combined with the piano she gave him, opened his eyes to a life of unending artistic possibilities.
Oscar Lang - Stuck (Official Music Video)
"There was this little CD that my dad made for me when she died," says Lang. "It had all of her favorite types of music, and I used to play that. That gave me a weird kind of influence when I was younger. I was listening to music that I wouldn't have listened to if I hadn't had that CD. I used to play that over and over in my room, listening to the songs that she loved.
"I've lost the CD, and we don't know what songs are on it, so it's a mystery. But sometimes I'll listen to a song that just unlocks a sound, and I'm there—I can remember the CD. Deee-Lite's 'The Groove Is in the Heart' is one that's always stuck in my brain. That bass line ingrained a little bit of funk into me.
"I get influence from everywhere in my life. I started playing music and actually writing songs when I was about 11. But I got into rock music and guitar stuff through playing Guitar Hero. I used to love that so much as a kid and got back into it when I was 14. I dug out my Wii and whipped out Guitar Hero, and then I was like, 'Why don't I actually learn how to play the guitar?' That got me inspired to start taking guitar lessons." Once Lang got a guitar in his hands, he crafted a bare-knuckled approach to the instrument—attacking it with ferocity for both emotional and physical release.
"When I was 14 I dug out my Wii and whipped out 'Guitar Hero,'' and then I was like, 'Why don't I actually learn how to play the guitar?' That got me inspired to start taking guitar lessons."
Lang is as in love with the stage as he is the studio. So much so that, he explains, it was the catalyst behind Chew the Scenery's powerful new sound. "I was more into the bedroom-type stuff and that synth-y sound. But we had these few songs like 'Flowers' and 'Drinking Wine' that were a live rock sound. I was really keen to go in that direction." He started moving that way in 2019, and the EPs bops etc. and Hand Over Your Head hinted at what was to come with Chew the Scenery.
"It was really hard for a bit, because we've played those songs for years. People would be like, 'What is that song? Where can I find it?' We'd say, 'It'll be out one day.' Then, finally, the songs came out, and it happened to be in the middle of a pandemic where we couldn't play any of them live. These songs are made to be played live, and people need to see that. It's been hard. But I've also recorded a whole bunch of music that I probably wouldn't have done if I'd been playing a whole bunch of shows."
When Lang couldn't bring his new songs to the stage, he sought to bring the excitement of the stage to his songs. As he recorded, he leaned on influences as diverse as Black Kitty and the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack for the "whole bunch of music" that became Chew the Scenery. "The last year, I've been listening to a lot of post-punk. Me and the boys are big musos, because a lot of post-punk is weird rhythms. The tracks that Nigel Godrich and Beck did for the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack … they wrote those songs for the [movie's fictional] band Sex Bob-Omb. I was listening to their song 'Threshold' a lot. I used to listen to that while I was running, and that was the one song that could just get me absolutely blasting! It was just so intense in your headphones. That's what kind of inspired 'Stuck.'"
Oscar Lang’s Gear
"Me and the boys in my band like music that's interesting and weird, with polyrhythms and countermelody," says Oscar Lang. "We sneak them in here and there."
Photo by Korrie Powell
Guitars
- Fender Telecaster
- Fender Player Jazzmaster
- Fender Stratocaster (studio only)
- 6-string and 12-string acoustics (studio only)
Strings and Picks
- .014 sets
- Cuts his own from discarded plastic cards
Amps
- Logic guitar amp sims
Effects
- Fuzz pedal
- Strymon BigSky
- Waves auto-wah plug-in
That song—the album's first single—is a perfect microcosm of Chew the Scenery's no-rules vibe. It roars with gritty guitars, fuzzed-out bass, and harmonized 6-string lines that are equally exciting and jarring from beginning to end. Hot on the heels of "Stuck," "Yeah!" introduces a very '90s electronic element. Then the piano ballad "Final Call" arrives at the end of the album to remind you of the wild, diverse ride you've been on.
The explosive energy and the stylistic shifts are no accident, obviously. From the start, Lang knew what he wanted, who it was for, and that this would be a different sort of album. "We wanted to encapsulate all the sounds that I had done. You look at my Spotify profile, and my music's changed so much over the years. I wanted to bring everything in and tie it up in the new, crispy sound we had with me and Rich. [Rich Turvy co-produced the album and has worked with Blossom, the Coral, and other pop-rock breakthrough artists.] I also wanted it to work for the two different types of listeners. There are the musos that like to listen to the album as a whole. It's not that it has to have a huge storyline or anything, but I wanted it to flow nicely. But, also, the songs are different enough that the average listener is only going to listen to one or two songs. So you can come in wherever, and it'll still make sense."
"I'm well known for breaking strings in my band, so nobody gives me their guitars. That's why I use .014s. Those are the ones that snap the least when I'm playing."
For Chew the Scenery, Lang—who was joined by his bandmates and co-producer—recorded in a professional studio for the first time. "We wrote a lot of songs up in Parr Street in Liverpool, which is a famous studio that Coldplay recorded a lot of their earlier albums in. And we finished off writing some of it in Coastal Sound. It was the first time that I'd spent a long time in a studio with windows [laughs]. It felt pretty good, to be honest, because of the amount of time I've spent in basically a dark box. The album is mostly me and Rich Turvy. We just sit in a room and figure things out. As I'm starting a song, I can really hear where it's going, and he hears the same thing, which is really helpful. He really understands me. And a lot of the bass is Rich. He has a touch that I can't quite replicate.
"I also had two members of my band. Mac [Luis] does all of the drums. Then Daniel Bath comes in and does guitar. He'll shred a solo that I can't rip because I'm not that technically proficient."
Technically proficient or not, Lang understands what's exactly right for his songs, so his raging bass and guitar parts are all over the album. "There'll be times where we listen to the demo, and it's just so extreme that Rich can't do that. I go in and just smack a bass or guitar. I can just hit it with fucking attitude. Nobody else does that for some reason. I have to fill in when it needs to be messed up in a good way. I'm well known for breaking strings in my band [laughs], so nobody gives me their guitars. That's why I use .014s. Those are the ones that snap the least when I'm playing."
TIDBIT: Although Lang's earlier singles and EPs may have made him a star, his new full-length is the first album he's recorded in a formal studio and his first guitar-focused recording.
Despite Lang's ham-fisted approach, Chew the Scenery features some surprisingly advanced musical concepts, from polyrhythms and countermelodies to strange intervals and chromatic flourishes. "Me and the boys in my band like music that's interesting and weird, with polyrhythms and countermelody," he relates. "We sneak them in here and there. But the music-theory side of music, I've never been into. And with all the instruments that I've learned, I've never really been good at practicing. I always used to hate it. I'd go in and do the first few lessons. From then on, I was just teaching myself through doing covers and looking at different chords."
Lang knows as much about tone chasing as he does music theory. Yet he crams the new album with captivating guitar sounds. "I think a lot of [the record] was recorded with DI. There would be times we'd run through an amp and, for some reason, it didn't have the same tonal qualities that the demo that I'd done had. We went, 'Yes, it sounds like guitar, but it doesn't sound like the guitar that we want.' And a lot of the time, the sounds are Rich trying to recreate the mad sound that I've made in Logic at 3 a.m. I've probably just worked two amp simulators and an overdrive, then whacked it through compression. It's not done the right way, but sounds weirdly good. Rich has to try and do that, but also make it sound professional and clean.
Inspired by his love for the game 'Guitar Hero,' Lang reached for the guitar at an early age.
"Other than that, I don't really know what we used on the album. There's probably a little bit of phaser and some reverb on there. I know that we doubled all the acoustics. And we might've whacked a 12-string on it. I'm not 100 percent sure. I think we tried to whip out a Les Paul one time. Then we were like, 'This is too much. We're going too far in the wrong direction.' So, most of it was recorded on a mix of Strat and Tele. I never take time to sit down and be like, 'What guitar is this?' It's more like, 'What does this song need? Acoustic guitars.' We'll go grab it, and you're instantly recording. Then you put it down, and you're moving on to the next thing. It's all a blur—go, go, go, go! So, I never have a chance to look down and see what I'm doing. I'm just cranking the gain on overdrive, and it's, 'Yes, that sounds good,' and moving on with the day."
Nonetheless, Lang does have a pair of pet guitars. "I have a Fender Telecaster, which is a matte light blue. It's just so nice. That one's called Mary. She's homey and just sweet—my little light blue guitar. Then I've got Murphy, who's the naughty boy. He's a Fender Jazzmaster, buttercream with a black fretboard. It's so nice."
"The music-theory side of music, I've never been into. And with all the instruments that I've learned, I've never really been good at practicing."
The bottom line, though, is that Lang doesn't even really consider himself a guitarist. "I'm a piano player first, really. I was the classic 7-year-old. My mom got me into it and signed me up for the lessons. So I'd say the instrument I could stick with is piano, just because it's so versatile. I'm also trying to put the guitar down as much as I can, to be as free as possible. When we get back out live, I'm going to put the guitar down and have my hands out to make as much movement as I can
"I also like to make music on my laptop. Having a piano, you can pretty much do everything. You can do drums, bass guitar, everything you need. There were times where I was trying to exclusively write on guitar. But now I'm back and writing on piano. I'm getting into synths and electronic vibes. The plan is to keep releasing music. It's something that I'm always doing—constantly making music. I'm not really ever going to stop."
Oscar Lang - Antidote to Being Bored (Live)
Oscar Lang rocks out with his crew at Liverpool's Elevator Studios, slashing on his light blue Telecaster, Mary.
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Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.
The Jesus Lizard’s sixth album, Blue, served as the band’s final statement from the frontlines of noisy rock for the next 26 years. By the time of their dissolution in 1999, they’d earned a reputation for extreme performances chock full of hard-hitting, machine-like grooves delivered by bassist David Wm. Sims and, at their conclusion, drummer Mac McNeilly, at times aided and at other times punctured by the frontline of guitarist Duane Denison’s incisive, dissonant riffing, and presided over by the cantankerous howl of vocalist David Yow. In the years since, performative, thrilling bands such as Pissed Jeans, METZ, and Idles have built upon the Lizard’s musical foundation.
Denison has kept himself plenty busy over the last couple decades, forming the avant-rock supergroup Tomahawk—with vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (both from Mr. Bungle), and drummer John Stanier of Helmet—and alongside various other projects including Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Hank Williams III. The Jesus Lizard eventually reunited, but until now have only celebrated their catalog, never releasing new jams.
The Jesus Lizard, from left: bassist David Wm. Sims, singer David Yow, drummer Mac McNeilly, and guitarist Duane Denison.
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Back in 2018, Denison, hanging in a hotel room with Yow, played a riff on his unplugged electric guitar that caught the singer’s ear. That song, called “West Side,” will remain unreleased for now, but Denison explains: “He said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s just some new thing. Why don’t we do an album?’” From those unassuming beginnings, the Jesus Lizard’s creative juices started flowing.
So, how does a band—especially one who so indelibly captured the ineffable energy of live rock performance—prepare to get a new record together 26 years after their last? Back in their earlier days, the members all lived together in a band house, collectively tending to the creative fire when inspiration struck. All these years later, they reside in different cities, so their process requires sending files back and forth and only meeting up for occasional demo sessions over the course of “three or four years.”
“When the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.” —Duane Denison
the Jesus Lizard "Alexis Feels Sick"
Distance creates an obstacle to striking while the proverbial iron is hot, but Denison has a method to keep things energized: “Practice loud.” The guitarist professes the importance of practice, in general, and especially with a metronome. “We keep very detailed records of what the beats per minute of these songs are,” he explains. “To me, the way to do it is to run it to a Bluetooth speaker and crank it, and then crank your amp. I play a little at home, but when the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.”
It’s a proven solution. On Rack—recorded at Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle studio with producer Paul Allen—the band sound as vigorous as ever, proving they’ve not only remained in step with their younger selves, but they may have surpassed it with faders cranked. “Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style,” explains Allen. “The conviction in his playing that he is known for from his recordings in the ’80s and ’90s is still 100-percent intact and still driving full throttle today.”
“I try to be really, really precise,” he says. “I think we all do when it comes to the basic tracks, especially the rhythm parts. The band has always been this machine-like thing.” Together, they build a tension with Yow’s careening voice. “The vocals tend to be all over the place—in and out of tune, in and out of time,” he points out. “You’ve got this very free thing moving around in the foreground, and then you’ve got this very precise, detailed band playing behind it. That’s why it works.”
Before Rack, the Jesus Lizard hadn’t released a new record since 1998’s Blue.
Denison’s guitar also serves as the foreground foil to Yow’s unhinged raving, as on “Alexis Feels Sick,” where they form a demented harmony, or on the midnight creep of “What If,” where his vibrato-laden melodies bolster the singer’s unsettled, maniacal display. As precise as his riffs might be, his playing doesn’t stay strictly on the grid. On the slow, skulking “Armistice Day,” his percussive chording goes off the rails, giving way to a solo that slices that groove like a chef’s knife through warm butter as he reorganizes rock ’n’ roll histrionics into his own cut-up vocabulary.
“During recording sessions, his first solo takes are usually what we decide to keep,” explains Allen. “Listen to Duane’s guitar solos on Jack White’s ‘Morning, Noon, and Night,’ Tomahawk’s ‘Fatback,’ and ‘Grind’ off Rack. There’s a common ‘contained chaos’ thread among them that sounds like a harmonic Rubik’s cube that could only be solved by Duane.”
“Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style.” —Rack producer Paul Allen
To encapsulate just the right amount of intensity, “I don’t over practice everything,” the guitarist says. Instead, once he’s created a part, “I set it aside and don’t wear it out.” On Rack, it’s obvious not a single kilowatt of musical energy was lost in the rehearsal process.
Denison issues his noisy masterclass with assertive, overdriven tones supporting his dissonant voicings like barbed wire on top of an electric fence. The occasional application of slapback delay adds a threatening aura to his exacting riffage. His tones were just as carefully crafted as the parts he plays, and he relied mostly on his signature Electrical Guitar Company Chessie for the sessions, though a Fender Uptown Strat also appears, as well as a Taylor T5Z, which he chose for its “cleaner, hyper-articulated sound” on “Swan the Dog.” Though he’s been spotted at recent Jesus Lizard shows with a brand-new Powers Electric—he points out he played a demo model and says, “I just couldn’t let go of it,” so he ordered his own—that wasn’t until tracking was complete.
Duane Denison's Gear
Denison wields his Powers Electric at the Blue Room in Nashville last June.
Photo by Doug Coombe
Guitars
- Electrical Guitar Company Chessie
- Fender Uptown Strat
- Taylor T5Z
- Gibson ES-135
- Powers Electric
Amps
- Hiwatt Little J
- Hiwatt 2x12 cab with Fane F75 speakers
- Fender Super-Sonic combo
- Early ’60s Fender Bassman
- Marshall 1987X Plexi Reissue
- Victory Super Sheriff head
- Blackstar HT Stage 60—2 combos in stereo with Celestion Neo Creamback speakers and Mullard tubes
Effects
- Line 6 Helix
- Mantic Flex Pro
- TC Electronic G-Force
- Menatone Red Snapper
Strings and Picks
- Stringjoy Orbiters .0105 and .011 sets
- Dunlop celluloid white medium
- Sun Studios yellow picks
He ran through various amps—Marshalls, a Fender Bassman, two Fender Super-Sonic combos, and a Hiwatt Little J—at Audio Eagle. Live, if he’s not on backline gear, you’ll catch him mostly using 60-watt Blackstar HT Stage 60s loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. And while some boxes were stomped, he got most of his effects from a Line 6 Helix. “All of those sounds [in the Helix] are modeled on analog sounds, and you can tweak them endlessly,” he explains. “It’s just so practical and easy.”
The tools have only changed slightly since the band’s earlier days, when he favored Travis Beans and Hiwatts. Though he’s started to prefer higher gain sounds, Allen points out that “his guitar sound has always had teeth with a slightly bright sheen, and still does.”
“Honestly, I don’t think my tone has changed much over the past 30-something years,” Denison says. “I tend to favor a brighter, sharper sound with articulation. Someone sent me a video I had never seen of myself playing in the ’80s. I had a band called Cargo Cult in Austin, Texas. What struck me about it is it didn’t sound terribly different than what I sound like right now as far as the guitar sound and the approach. I don’t know what that tells you—I’m consistent?”
YouTube It
The Jesus Lizard take off at Nashville’s Blue Room this past June with “Hide & Seek” from Rack.
Phat Machine
The Phat Machine
The Phat Machine is designed to deliver the tone and responsiveness of a vintage germanium fuzz with improved temperature stability with no weird powering issues. Loaded with both a germanium and a silicon transistor, the Phat Machine offers the warmth and cleanup of a germanium fuzz but with the bite of a silicon pedal. It utilizes classic Volume and Fuzz control knobs, as well as a four-position Thickness control to dial-in any guitar and amp combo. Also included is a Bias trim pot and a Kill switch that allows battery lovers to shut off the battery without pulling the input cord.
Silk Worm Deluxe Overdrive
The Silk Worm Deluxe -- along with its standard Volume/Gain/Tone controls -- has a Bottom trim pot to dial in "just the right amount of thud with no mud at all: it’s felt more than heard." It also offers a Studio/Stage diode switch that allows you to select three levels of compression.
Both pedals offer the following features:
- 9-volt operation via standard DC external supply or internal battery compartment
- True bypass switching with LED indicator
- Pedalboard-friendly top mount jacks
- Rugged, tour-ready construction and super durable powder coated finish
- Made in the USA
Static Effectors’ Street Series pedals carry a street price of $149 each. They are available at select retailers and can also be purchased directly from the Static Effectors online store at www.staticeffectors.com.