The southpaw guitarists in this Austin band are pushing psych rock into the future with their new album, Death Song. (And they use a truckload of vintage gear.)
While most music fans think of fiery blues heroes when considering Austinās contributions to guitar, that Texas city once served as a cradle of psychedelic rock, most notably birthing Roky Ericksonās genre-defining cadre, the 13th Floor Elevators. Many music aficionados contend the Elevators played a role in defining psych rock equal to that of the bands emerging from San Francisco in the mid-ā60s.
Today another Austin band, the Black Angels, is upholding the torch. Besides defining its own vision of psychedelic rock during the past 13 years, the groupāwhich takes its name from a Velvet Underground songāspent time as Eriksonās backing band and has been chiefly responsible for curating the genreās premier annual festival, which was known as Austin Psych Fest before being rechristened Levitation. Their sound recalls and respects all that was great about early psych, but is ultimately twisted into something uniqueācarrying the genre into the future without failing to revere its past.
With their fifth album, Death Song, the Black Angels again display an uncanny ability to delve deeper into creating timelessly imaginative, dynamic, and transportive rock ānā roll. The band calls Death Song the purest representation of its sound to date. The album is a masterclass in building mood and atmosphere: a rollicking, ethereal work that juts seamlessly from ambling organ-combo meditations to ecstatic, fuzz-addled guitar rave-ups. And the band spared nothing when it came to shaping an absolutely killer palette of guitar tones, dragging literally hundreds of pedals from Austin to do overdubs with producer Phil Ek in Seattle.
The four men in the bandās frontlineāAlex Maas, Christian Bland, Kyle Hunt, and Jake Garciaāswap between instruments live and in the studio while Stephanie Bailey commands the drum kit. They share bass, guitar, and various keys between them, but guitar is the bedrock of the Black Angelsā sound. Sharing a penchant for esoteric vintage gear, an addiction to fuzz pedals, and a commitment to authentic tape echoes, Bland, Hunt, Maas, and Garcia all bring unique playing styles to the table. However, the squad approaches its guitar work as a weaving together of parts for the greater good of songs.
āChristian Bland
When PG met with Maas, Bland, and Hunt during a tour stop in Brooklyn, Bland was fawning over a vintage Silvertone acoustic heād recently purchased and Maas was tinkering with the bandās harmonium. The conversation that ensued touched on everything from the Black Angelsā writing process to referencing the sounds of the past without getting stuck in it to, of course, the joys and maladies of collecting and maintaining old effects and rare guitars.
With so many band members, is there a go-to songwriting process for Black Angels? Christian Bland: Most of our songs are guitar-based and begin on guitar. We all bring stuff in.
Alex Maas: But itās a riff first kind of thing, no matter where the riff comes from, and itās often a melodic idea.
Having three guitarists can make for a very complicated dance. Do you have defined roles, or try to play to your individual strengths?
Bland: We switch it up all the time and try to do whateverās best for the song.
Kyle Hunt: It works itself out, usually. I think āIād Kill for Herā is the only specifically three-guitar song on this record, and everybodyās part fits within the song in a way that forms the whole, rather than standing out.
Maas: Everybody plays to their strengths. If somebodyās got a lead guitar part that only they can play, then they play it. If someone has some Sterling Morrison kind of rhythm guitar sound or their own vibe, itās of course theirs to play. But itās always whatās best for the song. Our strengths as players usually inform that.
If you had to define your strengths as players, who brings what to the table within the Black Angels?
Bland: I like writing riffs and phrases, in the classic sense.
Hunt: We call Jake the sponge and the kaleidoscope. He adds a lot of color. And I consider myself, guitar-wise, the glue or the gel between everyone. I add the bits that tie it together.
How does the band work with three guitarists and keep things uncluttered or overly dense, obviously other than when density is the goal?
[Everyone shouts.] Dynamics!
Hunt: Dynamics are the key and working with negative space is important. Also, trying not to kill the melody. We really try to enhance it and build a wall around it with support parts.
Maas: Really knowing when to be quiet and loud, and exaggerating those moments. Thatās the thing we always go for collectively as a band.
Hunt: I also do a lot of work supporting the low-end foundation of songs as a guitarist. Thickening up bass parts is an important part of my playing. A lot of Jakeās guitar parts weave and dance around Alexās vocals.
Maas: And vice-versa: A lot of my vocal parts are informed by Jakeās guitar parts. That part of the creative process is very back-and-forth. Iāll get inspired by a melody one of them is dicking around with, and itāll spark something else.
Bland: Or the third voice!
Maas: We experience the third voice a lot as a band, which is when weāre writing and someone will go, āAre you guys hearing that?ā And no one knows where itās coming from, but we all stop and go, āWhoās playing that?!ā And itās become a real part of our process: mining things from the third voice.
TIDBIT: The Black Angels made their fifth album, Death Song, with producer Phil Ek, whose credits include Built to Spill, Father John Misty, Mudhoney, and the Fleet Foxes.
You have a reverence for the tones used to forge classic psych-rock. How do you paint with those colors without getting tunnel vision? Where do you draw the line concerning the use of modern gear, like DSP stuffāespecially effects?
Bland: Well, they made things way better back then! And a lot of ānewā effects are just revamped versions of old effects.
Hunt: To the base of your question, I donāt think āretroā or āclassicā are really terms that I associate with our music. We really go for timeless and futuristic, and the vintage stuff just works well for that goal.
With the advances made in DSP tech over the last few years, thereās got to be some digital stuff that turns you on to some degree?
Bland: Oh, totally. Iāve dug very hard into anything that emulates a Binson Echorec. Literally any pedal that tries to mimic that, Iāve bought. My favorite so far is the Boonar, made by a Croatian company called Dawner Prince Electronics. Itās amazing, and it nails the multi-head sound of an actual Binson. It has a lot of output and sounds really fat. I have two: one for guitar and one for my Mellotron. We like the Gurusā Echosex and have several of them between us, which are great and we use a lot. We find it does the warm, dark/long thing really well, rather than the multi-head vibe. I also have a Fulltone TTE, and the Gurus sounds almost exactly like it to my ears.
Was there any gear that was particularly integral to crafting the sounds on Death Song?
Hunt: We have a real deal Binson Echorec that played a huge role in recording the album, and thereās quite a story behind how we got it.
Bland: So, Iām on my second Fulltone Tube Tape Echo. The first one I sold in Ireland to get a discount on a real Binson Echorec at a shop. I got $500 off the Echorec for the TTE and I paid another $1,500 for the Echorec. The very next day, the Echorec broke at our show in Manchester. We went to Paris for the next show and we took it to someone local to fix it, and were told it would be sorted out by the end of the day, and it ended up sitting there for an entire yearāand it was never fixed! We retrieved it eventually from Paris and I brought it to Austin Vintage Guitars, and it was there for three weeks until they finally said they had no clue what to do. Soāfinallyāwe flew to Los Angeles and took it to our friend, who has a company called Acid Fuzz, and he pulled it off and fixed the thing!
Hunt: Weāre all huge fans of the things EarthQuaker Devices makes, too. Jamie Stillman from EQD has been very much in our corner for a very long time, and we love that company and their pedals.
For those that donāt necessarily buy into the cult of vintage gear, could you explain what makes it worth all that trouble?
Bland: Well, for starters, a lot of the components in old gear just donāt even exist anymore, and I find an honest difference in the sonic quality of vintage gear. Itās just impossible to get that out of most modern gear.
Hunt: Itās just such a difference in the three-dimensional quality of the soundāespecially in effects. But more importantly, thereās a real difference between the way a real Roland Space Echo or an Echoplex reacts to the way you hit things and your playing dynamics, compared to DSP, which is so often just an on/off response. It gives you something tangible to vibe off of as a player, and itās just so much more inspiring in that sense.
Kyle Huntās Gear
Guitars1972 Fender Jazz Bass
1965 Fender Jazzmaster
50th Anniversary Fender Jaguar reissue
1960s Fender Telecaster
Amps
ā70s silverface Fender Vibro Champ
1966 Fender Princeton Reverb
1965 Fender Twin Reverb
Satellite 1484 prototype head w/2x12 cab
Benson Chimera Reverb
Ampeg B-15
Effects
EarthQuaker Devices Hummingbird tremolo
EarthQuaker Devices Hoof fuzz
EarthQuaker Devices Palisades overdrive
EarthQuaker Devices Disaster Transport modulation
JHS SuperBolt overdrive
JHS-modded Boss TR-2 Tremolo
Caroline Guitar Company Kilobyte Lo-Fi Delay
Death By Audio Echo Dream 2
Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail
Union Tube & Transistor MORE boost
Foxx Tone Machine built from original parts
Benson Tall Bird All Tube Reverb
Toetags Electronics Fuzzrite clone
Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz
Strings and Picks
DāAddario or Gabriel Tenorio (.011 sets)
Dunlop Yellow Tortex .73 mm
For a band with several left-handed players that share an affinity for vintage gear, I imagine itās pretty difficult finding old left-handed guitars?
Bland: Yeah, no kidding! All I can do is find them on eBay these days. If you hit a guitar shop, all youāre going to find is a Stratocaster or a Les Paul, and god knows we donāt want those! [Laughs.]
The band travels with a ton of guitars. Is that due to different tunings or different sonic qualities?
Hunt: I have two solidbody Fenders: a Jazzmaster and a Jaguar. I use the Jag for standard tuning and the Jazzmaster is my dropped-D guitar, and I have a 1972 Fender Jazz Bass that I grab for the songs I play bass on live.
Bland: I like to use the guitars I actually recorded the songs with for those songs live, because I really do want the parts live to sound as close as possible to the record. The main guitar I used is a Rickenbacker 345, but I also used a Gretsch Country Gentleman, a ā60s-style Gibson SG reissue, and a black Fender Esquire that looks just like the one Syd Barrett used. Iām something of a Rickenbacker connoisseur. My most recent acquisition is the black ā64-style Rickenbacker 12-string like the one George Harrison used for a long time. Itās an early ā90s reissue and I just love it!
Fuzz is an integral part of the bandās sound, and the selection of fuzz pedals available these days is endless. Which do you guys gravitate toward?
Hunt: For Jake, he digs Big Muff-style and Mosrite Fuzzrite-style pedals. Thereās a guy that custom builds them for him in Spain who calls his company ThunderTomate. He names them stuff like āMuffin Manā and āBender Tomato,ā and Jake also loves the original Boss Hyper Fuzz, which is Bossā version of the Univox Super-Fuzz circuit and does everything from loud, clean boost to a super-scooped My Bloody Valentine vibe to a mid-heavy ā60s fuzz. Jake also likes the Shin-Ei Companion fuzz a lot.
Bland: I like old Fuzz Faces, and Iāve gotten into the Analog Man Sun Face stuffāespecially the NKT275 germanium variant. I also use Analog Manās Peppermint Fuzz, which is the big, raunchy sounding fuzz I use, and I also have a Sun Face BC 108, which is like the blue Fuzz Face David Gilmour used on Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.
Hunt: We all agree on how much we like the Mosrite Fuzzrite. Various versions of that circuit are all over the record. I have an original Fuzzrite and I have a really great clone made by Toetags Electronics, out of Montreal. Iām also a big fan of the Creepy Fingers stuff, which is made by Brad Davis from the band Fu Manchu.
I have a vintage Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz, which is the Rose Morris version of the Univox Super-Fuzz, and when I got it, one of the transistors was broken. I went in myself to try to fix it and made it worse. I was really upset, because I spent $600 on this super-rare pedal, but I plugged it in and it was twice as loud, less fuzzy and more overdrive-y. What happened was those two transistors lifted from the board and it was just a whole new thing! I contacted Brad Davis and he immediately told me the broken/lifted transistor thing is actually a known modification for the vintage ones. So, I had him make me a new, reliable clone of the vintage one with that transistor lift modification on a switch, and it takes AC power and is functional for the road.
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Jake Garcia channels some intensity through a Fender Jaguar reissue. āWe call Jake the sponge and the kaleidoscope,ā says Kyle Hunt. āHe adds a lot of color.ā Photo by Jordi Vidal
Tremolo effects are also a huge part of the bandās guitar sound. Are they typically amp-based or are you using pedals?
Hunt: Both. We all have EarthQuaker Hummingbirds, but we also use the onboard trem on a Fender Twin as well as the Boss TR-2. I use the new Hummingbird that can take an expression pedal, and you hear that at the end of āI Dreamtāāthe part that slithers around.
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Bland: Thereās also some Vox Repeat Percussion on the album, which is that super staccato, pulsating trem sound.
I love the bass sounds on the albumāparticularly on āI Dreamt.ā What was the setup for getting those cool bass sounds?
Hunt: We used an Ampeg B-15 flip-top and an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail for most of them.
Maas: Jake played that bass riff and itās his own take on a demo I sent the band thatās a very cool twist on the original idea. I love the way that tone came out, too. It was a left-handed Fender Jazz Bass and it has a little overdrive on it, and it gives me an early Can or Silver Apples vibe. Our process for bass was weād try everything when tracking and then pick at the end.
Hunt: So, weād track with a DI into a Neve console, the B-15 flip-top, and an SVTāall together. And there was a Fender Twin in there, too. The strings sound like flats, but theyāre actually just old, dead roundwounds. My rule of thumb with my ā72 Jazz Bass is donāt replace the strings until they break, because the old ones always sound better to us. We tried to get a deeper sound with flatwounds on āLife Song,ā and they actually sounded brighter than the dead roundwounds I already had on the bass.
Could you detail the battery of amps used to track guitars?
Bland: Thereās a ton of stuff, but mainly Fender Twins, and we also had a ā66 Fender Princeton Reverb that belongs to Kyle that we used a lot. We also used my vintage Selmer piggyback a bunch, and these solid-state Vox PathFinder amps, which just break up in this great, archaic way. Alex actually sings through them a lot.
Hunt: Surprisingly, a lot of the guitar is a hot-rodded ā90s Fender ā65 Twin reissue that has 75-watt Celestions in it and a three-spring reverb tank. The day before we were about to leave to record, I stumbled over this mystery Satellite brand amp head at Austin Vintage Guitars. I wrote Adam Grimm from Satellite and asked about it because itās just so good, and he said it was a prototype clone of a Silvertone 1484 and that he had only made the one. So that amp through the Twinās 75-watt Celestions is the guitar tones on āIād Kill for Herā and a lot of other big-sounding spots on the record. Itās really trashy and rad.
Christian Blandās Gear
GuitarsVintage Rickenbacker 345
Gretsch Country Gentleman (made in Japan)
ā90s Rickenbacker 360/12 C64
Epiphone Casino
Gibson ā60s reissue SG
Fender Esquire
Amps
Fender ā65 Twin Reverb reissue
Selmer head
Vox PathFinder
Effects
Binson Echorec
Analog Man Sun Face NKT 275
Analog Man Sun Face BC 108
Analog Man Peppermint Fuzz
Electro-Harmonix USSR Big Muff
Catalinbread Fuzzrite
Ibanez TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer
Danelectro Back Talk Reverse Delay
Gurus Echosex 2
Dawner Prince Boonar echo-delay
Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail
Vox V846-HW Wah
Big Tone Music Brewery Maggie stereo vibrato
Union Tube & Transistor Third Man Bumble Buzz
Fulltone Tube Tape Echo
Strings and Picks
DāAddario Pure Nickel (.011 sets)
Dunlop Orange Tortex .60 mm
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Alex Maasā Gear
Guitars1972 Fender Jazz Bass (Huntās)
Amps
Fender ā65 Twin Reverb reissue
1971 Fender silverface Twin
1967 Ampeg SVT
Effects
Electro-Harmonix Memory Man
Honda Sound Works fuzz
Itās really cool how deep you guys are willing to dig into your tonal palette.
Hunt: Oh, no doubt! We shipped something like 1,500 pounds of equipment up to Seattle just to do overdubs.
Maas: We know how important guitar tones are, and on this record we really focused on getting the tone first so there wasnāt a lot of post-production, because we would get the sound we wanted from the startāwhich saves a lot of time. But more importantly, it really makes you focus on your performance. There are infinite possibilities sonically, and the way those tones affect your performance is a big thing!
Hunt: There were literally a couple hundred pedals piled up in the corner of the studio, which can seem overwhelming. The beauty of having 10 versions of a type of pedal that we all already have opinions about and experience with is that the trial and error is a quick process, because we all know immediately when itās the right choice. We all know the variations and what they do, and we typically agree on what to go for when chasing a particular sound, so finding the right one was usually a 10-minute, trial-and-error process, and then itād click in a unanimous way. Phil Ek also uses, like, four mics per amp and gives you submixes of that, and you can do a lot with those options.
Our experience with Ek was exactly the reason you hire a producer. His passion for the project and the fidelity he managed to achieve while retaining our sound was really everything we were after. Itās the cleanest, purest version of what we do that I think weāve ever done. I think itās a truly pure representation of the band.
Throughout the bandās discography, youāve continued to grow and explore different facets of songwriting without sacrificing your distinct sonic personality. Whatās the key to that?
Maas: The key is just keeping your radar on and always questioning your partsāalways checking in with yourself about whether or not thatās the right part, or thatās the right tone. If we were to make a record way different than what people expect from us, itād still sound like us because itās still us. I learned to try and approach it as an outsider.
Hunt:Death Song to me feels like the least smoke and mirrors. Thereās no reverb on the submix to get that big psychedelic mess we love. Itās all us. The first time I heard a playback of the masters, I thought, āThis sounds just like us, exactly, playing together.ā Itās a more deliberate record. Everything is played with intent; we didnāt waste parts.
Maas: When you listen to the record, it has its moments and it has something for everybody, but itās not a deliberately tripped-out, psych-specific record. Itās about the melodies and supporting them more than making something trippy sounding. You canāt set out to make timeless music, but you can hope that what youāre doing is timeless.
Do you concern yourself with actively avoiding the guitar clichƩs of the genre?
Maas: Of course, we donāt want to be a character study of someone elseās workāregardless of how important that work was. Though we obviously pay some homage to some of our favorite bands. āLindaās Goneā from the last album has a total Velvet Underground vibe, but thatās a huge part of where we come from as a band.
Bland: And itās just fun to play that way, and if itās fun, do it again! Stephanie is really good about keeping us honest and calling us out on parts sounding too much like other bands.
Hunt: You can do pastiche and itās going to sound like pastiche, but if you really focus on borrowing and adding your own spin to things, adding in your elementāthatās the music and art I really love and something we strive to for. Itās got a lot to do with how you borrow it.
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In this live performance for radio, the Black Angels play it sweet, dark, and heavyāunderpinning Alex Maasā tenor vocals with the dark throb of Kyle Huntās bass lines, while Christian Bland stretches out on his Gibson SG and Jake Garcia provides cascading color.
Valerie Juneās songs, thanks to her distinctive vocal timbre and phrasing, and the cosmology of her lyrics, are part of her desire to āco-create a beautiful lifeā with the world at large.
The world-traveling cosmic roots rocker calls herself a homebody, but her open-hearted singing and songwritingāāin rich display on her new album Owls, Omens, and Oraclesāāwelcomes and embraces inspiration from everything ⦠including the muskrat in her yard.
I donāt think Iāve ever had as much fun in an interview as I did speaking with roots-rock artist Valerie June about her new release, Owls, Omens, and Oracles. At the end of our conversation, after going over schedule by about 15 minutes, her publicist curbed us with a gentle reminder. In fairness, maybe we did spend a bit too much time talking about non-musical things, such as Seinfeld, spirituality, and the fauna around her home in Humboldt, Tennessee.
Ā YouTube
If youāre familiar with Juneās sound, you know how effortlessly she stands out from the singer-songwriter pack. Her equal-parts warm, reedy, softly Macy Gray-tinged singing voice imprints on her as many facets as a radiant-cut emeraldāand it possesses the trademark sincerity heard in the most distinctive of singer/songwriters. Her music, overall, brilliantly shines with a spirited, contagiously uplifting glow.
Owls, Omens, and Oracles opens with āJoy, Joy!ā with producer M. Ward rocking lead guitar over strings (June plays acoustic on nearly all of the tracks and banjo on one). It then recurringly dips into ā50s doo-wop chord changes, blends chugging, at times funky rock rhythms with saxophones and horns, bursts with New Orleans-style brass on āChangedā (which features gospel legends the Blind Boys of Alabama), and explores a slow soul groove with electronic guest DJ Cavem Moetavation on āSuperpower.ā Bright Eyesā multi-instrumentalist Nate Walcott helmed the arrangements with guidance from Ward and June, and frequently appears on piano and Hammond organ, while Norah Jones supports with backing vocals on the folk lullaby āSweet Things Just for You.ā The entire album was recorded live to tape, which was a new experience for June.
June shares her perspective on the album and her work, overall. āItās not ever complete or finished, your study of art,ā she offers. āItās an adventure, and it keeps getting prettier as you walk through the meadow of creating or learning new things. Every artist that you bring in has a different way of performing with you, or the audience might be really talkative or super quiet. And all of that shapes the artāso itās ever-expansive. Itās pretty infinite [laughs], where art can take you and where it goes.... I kinda got lost there a little bit,ā she muses, laughing.Juneās favored acoustic guitar is this Martin 000-15M, with mahogany top, back, and sides.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
June didnāt connect with guitar in the beginning, but discovered her passion for it later, when the instrument became a vehicle for her self-empowerment. She took lessons as a teenager but was a distracted student, preferring to listen to her teacher share the history of blues guitarists like Big Bill Broonzy and Mississippi John Hurt. āI didnāt pick it up again until I was in my early 20s, and my band that I was in with my ex fell apart,ā she says. āI still was singing and I still was hearing these beautiful voices sing me these songs, and I didnāt want to never be able to perform them. It was a terrible feeling, to be ⦠musically stranded.
āAnd I was like, āNow, I could go get a new band and get some more accompaniment, but how ābout I get my tail in there and keep my promise to my granddad who gave me that first guitar and actually learn how to play it, so Iāll never feel like this again.ā The goal was that I would never be musically stranded again.ā
She became a solo performer, learning lap steel and banjo along with guitar, and called her style āorganic moonshine roots music.ā Today, she eschews picks for fingers, even when strumming chords, and is a vital blues-and-folk based stylist when she lays into her playingāespecially in a live,solo setting. After two self-released albums, 2006ās The Way of the Weeping Willow and 2008ās Mountain of Rose Quartz, she connected with the Black Keysā Dan Auerbach, who recorded and produced her 2013 album, Pushinā Against Stone, at Nashvilleās Easy Eye Sound, which helped launch her now-flourishing career.
Valerie Juneās Gear
Guitars
Amps
- Fender Deluxe Reverb
Effects
- TC Electronic Hall of Fame
- MXR X Third Man Hardware Double Down booster
- J. Rockett Audio Archer boost/overdrive
Strings
- DāAddario XL Nickel Regular Light (.010ā.046)
- Martin Marquis Silked Phosphor Bronze (.012ā.054
Photo by Travys Owen
As we talk about art being a shared experience, June says she can be a bit of a hermit at times, but āwhen itās time to share the art, then there you are. Even if youāre a painter and you just put your painting on a wall and walk away, thatās an interaction that brings you out of your studio or your bedroom to understand this whole act of co-creatingāwhich to me is a spiritual act anyway. Thatās why weāre here, to really understand those rules and layers to life. How do we co-create together?
āAnd I think itās soĀ fun,ā she enthuses. āI enjoy learning, even when itās hard. Iām like, āOkay, this chord is killing me right now, or this phrase.... but Iāma stick with it. And then that likens to something that I might face when I go out into the world. Iām like, āAll right, I can get through this.āā
I suggest, āWhen you say āco-creating,ā it sounds like you mean something bigger.ā
āBoth in the creation of our art, but also in the creation of a life,ā June replies. āāCause how can a life be something this artistic? You get to the end of it and youāre like, āWow, look at what I co-created! With all these other people, with animals, with nature, with sound thatās all around....ā All of my life has been a piece of art or a collective creation. I imagine them like books: different lives on a shelf. And you go pick oneāāWhoa! I created a pretty fun one there!ā or, āOh, man, I had no hand in that....ā Close the book, next one!ā she concludes, laughing as she illustrates the metaphor with her hands.
āSo does that make all of your inspirations your co-creators?ā I ask.
Valerie June at one of her several Newport Folk Festival appearances, with her trusty Gold Tone banjo
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
āYeah! Even if theyāve gone before,ā says June. āI was listening to some beautiful classical music the other day, and I was like, āMan, I donāt know who any of these artists are; theyāre all dead and gone, but Iām just enjoying it and itās putting me in a zone that I need to be in right now.ā So, weāre always leaving these little seeds for even those who are coming after us to be inspired by.ā
Some of her current non-musical co-creators are poets and authors, such as the poet Hafez, the philosopher Audre Lorde, poet Mary Oliver, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist whose works include Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses.
āItās not ever complete or finished, your study of art. Itās an adventure, and it keeps getting prettier as you walk through the meadow of creating or learning new things.ā
āThese books are so beautiful and show the relationship of humanity with nature and the way trees speak with each other; the way moss communicates to itself,ā June explains. āThose ways of being can help humans, who always think we know so much, to learn how to work together better.ā
As sheās sharing, I see her glance out her window. āRight now, I just saw a muskrat go across the pond,ā she continues. āItās about this big [holds hands about three feet apart] and it digs holes in the yard. Itās having such a great time and Iām just like, āOkay, you are huge, and Iām walking through the yard and falling in holes because of you [laughs]. Iām just watching you live your best life!ā And then there was a blue heron that came yesterday, and I watched it eat fish.... Theyāre my friends!ā she exclaims, with more laughter.
Valerie June believes in the power of flowersāand all living thingāas her creative collaborators.
It might seem like weāre getting a bit off subject, but itās residents of nature like these who are important in her creative process.
I share how, in my own approach to art, I feel as though we can always access creativity and our ideals, as long as we stay receptive to experiencing and sharing in them. June agrees, but comments that sometimes her best self only wants to sit and focus: āNo more information; no more downloads, please.ā
An encounter with Memphis-based blues guitarist Robert Belfour, who June frequently saw perform, expanded that perspective for her. She shares about a time she went up to him after a show: āI was like, āHey, I would love to work with you on some music and maybe we could co-write a song or something.ā He was like, āNope! I donāt wanna do it.ā And I said, āWhaaat?ā And heās like, āNo. I do what I do, and I do not do what anybody else does; I just do what I do.āā
Sometimes, she says, āI think thatās just as much of an outlook to have with creating as anything. Itās like, āOkay, Iām there, Iām where I wanna be. I donāt want to be anywhere else.āā
āThatās why weāre here, to really understand those rules and layers to life. How do we co-create together?ā
Part of whatās so enjoyable about speaking with June is realizing that she truly exists on her own plane. She has no pretense, and in that, doesnāt hide some of the fears that weigh on her mind at times. But she doesnāt let those define her. Itās her easy, exuberant optimism that sparks a feeling of friendship between us, without having known each other before that afternoon. What are some of her guiding principles as an artist, I wonder?
āI sit with the idea of, āWho am I creating this for?āā she says, āand returning to the fact that Iām doing this for me, and, as Gillian Welch said, āIām gonna do it anyway even if it doesnāt pay.ā This is what I wanna do. And reflecting on that and letting that kind of be my guiding force. Itās just something that I enjoy, that I really wanna do.ā
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From there, the conversation meanders in other directions, and June even generously asks me a few questions about my own artistic beliefs. We share about trusting your gut instinct, and walking away from situations and people who donāt serve us. This reminds her of a bigger feeling.
āWith everything that these times hold for us as humans,ā she shares, āfrom the inequality that we face to the environmental change, the political climate, and all the things that could lead us to fear or negativity.... I started to think about it, and Iām like, āOkay, well, maybe we are fucked! Maybe the planet is going to eject us and all of the other things are gonna come true! Well, if thatās whatās gonna happen, who do I wanna be?ā
āI want to go out in a way thatās sweet or kind to other people, enjoying this experience, these last moments, and building togetherness through music. I want to co-create a beautiful life even in the face of all of that. Thatās what I want to do.ā
Two Iconic Titans of Rock & Metal Join Forces for a Canāt-Miss North American Trek
Tickets Available Starting Wednesday, April 16 with Artist Presales
General On Sale Begins Friday, April 18 at 10AM Local on LiveNation.com
This fall, shock rock legend Alice Cooper and heavy metal trailblazers Judas Priest will share the stage for an epic co-headlining tour across North America. Produced by Live Nation, the 22-city run kicks off September 16 at Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, MS, and stops in Toronto, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and more before wrapping October 26 at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, TX.
Coming off the second leg of their Invincible Shield Tour and the release of their celebrated 19th studio album, Judas Priest remains a dominant force in metal. Meanwhile, Alice Cooper, the godfather of theatrical rock, wraps up his "Too Close For Comfort" tour this summer, promoting his most recent "Road" album, and will have an as-yet-unnamed all-new show for this tour. Corrosion of Conformity will join as support on select dates.
Tickets will be available starting Wednesday, April 16 at 10AM local time with Artist Presales. Additional presales will run throughout the week ahead of the general onsale beginning Friday, April 18 at 10AM local time at LiveNation.comTOUR DATES:
Tue Sep 16 ā Biloxi, MS ā Mississippi Coast Coliseum
Thu Sep 18 ā Alpharetta, GA ā Ameris Bank Amphitheatre*
Sat Sep 20 ā Charlotte, NC ā PNC Music Pavilion
Sun Sep 21 ā Franklin, TN ā FirstBank Amphitheater
Wed Sep 24 ā Virginia Beach, VA ā Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
Fri Sep 26 ā Holmdel, NJ ā PNC Bank Arts Center
Sat Sep 27 ā Saratoga Springs, NY ā Broadview Stage at SPAC
Mon Sep 29 ā Toronto, ON ā Budweiser Stage
Wed Oct 01 ā Burgettstown, PA ā The Pavilion at Star Lake
Thu Oct 02 ā Clarkston, MI ā Pine Knob Music Theatre
Sat Oct 04 ā Cincinnati, OH ā Riverbend Music Center
Sun Oct 05 ā Tinley Park, IL ā Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Fri Oct 10 ā Colorado Springs, CO ā Broadmoor World Arena
Sun Oct 12 ā Salt Lake City, UT ā Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
Tue Oct 14 ā Mountain View, CA ā Shoreline Amphitheatre
Wed Oct 15 ā Wheatland, CA ā Toyota Amphitheatre
Sat Oct 18 ā Chula Vista, CA ā North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
Sun Oct 19 ā Los Angeles, CA ā Kia Forum
Wed Oct 22 ā Phoenix, AZ ā Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
Thu Oct 23 ā Albuquerque, NM ā Isleta Amphitheater
Sat Oct 25 ā Austin, TX ā Germania Insurance Amphitheater
Sun Oct 26 ā Houston, TX ā The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
*Without support from Corrosion of Conformity
MT 15 and Archon 50 Classic amplifiers offer fresh tones in release alongside a doubled-in-size Archon cabinet
PRS Guitars today released the updated MT 15 and the new Archon Classic amplifiers, along with a larger Archon speaker cabinet. The 15-watt, two-channel Mark Tremonti signature amp MT 15 now features a lead channel overdrive control. An addition to the Archon series, not a replacement, the 50-watt Classic offers a fresh voice by producing retro rock āclassicā tones reminiscent of sound permeating the radio four and five decades ago. Now twice the size of the first Archon cabinet, the Archon 4x12 boasts four Celestion V-Type speakers.
MT 15 Amplifier Head
Balancing aggression and articulation, this 15-watt amp supplies both heavy rhythms and clear lead tones. The MT 15 revision builds off the design of the MT 100, bringing the voice of the 100ās overdrive channel into its smaller-format sibling. Updating the model, the lead channel also features a push/pull overdrive control that removes two gain stages to produce vintage, crunchier āmid gainā tones. The clean channel still features a push/pull boost control that adds a touch of overdrive crunch. A half-power switch takes the MT to 7 watts.
āSeven years ago, we released my signature MT 15 amplifier, a compact powerhouse that quickly became a go-to for players seeking both pristine cleans and crushing high-gain tones. In 2023, we took things even further with the MT 100, delivering a full-scale amplifier that carried my signature sound to the next level. That inspired us to find a way to fit the 100's third channel into the 15's lunchbox size,ā said Mark Tremonti.
āToday, Iām beyond excited to introduce the next evolution of the MT15, now featuring a push/pull overdrive control on the Lead channel and a half-power switch, giving players even more tonal flexibility to shape their sound with a compact amp. Canāt wait for you all to plug in and experience it!ā
Archon Classic Amplifier Head
With a refined gain structure from the original Archon, the Archon Classicās lead channel offers a wider range of tones colored with gain, especially in the midrange. The clean channel goes from pristine all the way to the edge of breakup. This additional Archon version was developed to be a go-to tool for playing classic rock or pushing the envelope into modern territory. The Archon Classic still features the originalās bright switch, presence and depth controls. PRS continues to stock the Archon in retailers worldwide.
āThe Archon Classic is not a re-issue of the original Archon, but a newly voiced circuit with the lead channel excelling in '70s and '80s rock tones and a hotter clean channel able to go into breakup. This is the answer for those wanting an Archon with a hotrod vintage lead channel gain structure without changing preamp tube types, and a juiced- up clean channel without having to use a boost pedal, all wrapped up in a retro-inspired cabinet design,ā said PRS Amp Designer Doug Sewell.
Archon 4x12 Cabinet
As in the Archon 1x12 and 2x12, the mega-sized PRS Archon 4x12 speaker cabinet features Celestion V-Type speakers and a closed-back design, delivering power, punch, and tight low end. Also like its smaller brethren, the 4x12 is wrapped in durable black vinyl and adorned with a British-style black knitted-weave grill cloth. The Archon 4x12 is only the second four-speaker cabinet in the PRS lineup, next to the HDRX 4x12.
PRS Guitars continues its schedule of launching new products each month in 2025. Stay tuned to see new gear and 40 th Anniversary limited-edition guitars throughout the year. For all of the latest news, click www.prsguitars.com/40 and follow @prsguitars on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, X, and YouTube.
For two decades, Clapton's Choice Signature Strings have delivered the legendary tone Eric Clapton relies on every time he picks up an acoustic guitar. To celebrate this milestone, Martin Guitar is introducing limited-edition 20th anniversary packaging for these fan-favorite strings--available now through March 2026.
Every limited-edition pack also gives players a chance to win a Martin 000-EC 30th Anniversary guitar--a beautifully crafted instrument with a retail value of $4,999, inspired by the Martin guitars Eric played during his legendary MTV Unplugged performance. The guitar will be awarded to one lucky winner who finds a special ticket inside a pack of strings.
Fans can also enter a second-chance giveaway online for more opportunities to win exclusive prizes, including a Martin guitar strap, poster, collectible lanyard with three custom patches, or even a year's supply of strings.This contest is open to U.S. residents only and ends March 31, 2026. No purchase necessary.
Enter now and learn more at martinguitar.com/eric-clapton-giveaway.
The anniversary release also coincides with the upcoming arrival of Unplugged: Enhanced Edition on vinyl and CD, available May 9. The iconic installment of the MTV Unplugged series--and the greatest-selling live album of all time--returns over 30 years later in an all-new extended, remixed, and remastered version. Featuring never-before-heard commentary from Eric recorded just before the original 1992 performance, the release offers fresh insight into the inspiration behind the songs and includes tracks not featured in the original MTV airing.
Crafted from 92/8 phosphor bronze, Claptonās Choice Signature Strings are known for their warm, rich tone, smooth feel, and long-lasting performance. They're the same strings Eric uses in the studio and on stage--including during his current eight-night residency at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo--and he calls them "the sound that I demand."
Whether you're chasing Eric's iconic tone or simply looking for strings that deliver great sound and playability, now is the perfect time to pick up a pack--available in a music store near you or online at
martinguitar.com--and celebrate two decades of signature sound.