
Gear fiend Adam Granduciel talks about classic song structures and how ethereal sonics guided the creation of Lost in the Dream.
Back in 2012, Adam Granducielāwho writes songs under the name the War on Drugsāhunkered down in his Philadelphia home studio to begin work on a new album. Though Granduciel was still spinning from the touring merry-go-round on the heels of 2011ās critically lauded Slave Ambient LP, the new songsāat least in skeletal formācame easily.
But the long break from the road also gave Granduciel time to second-guess his work, and the second-guessing begat anxiety over how to bring the new songs to life. After months in this intense, exhausting, and often emotionally fraught creative cycle, the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist emerged with Lost in the Dream, a simultaneously dusty and atmospheric album that, ultimately, found Granduciel restoring many songs to their simplest architecture and fleshing them out with the help of his bandmatesāDave Hartley (bass and guitar), Robbie Bennett (keyboards), and Pat Berkery and Charlie Hall (drums).
Lost in the Dream book-ends a decade of road work, studio solitude, and sonic alchemy for the War on Drugs. The band started in 2003, when Granduciel and fellow Philadelphia songwriter/guitarist Kurt Vile started writing and playing together. Supported by a rotating cast of musicians, the band made a name playing in Philadelphia clubs and in nearby New York City. A full-length debut, Wagonwheel Blues, came in 2008āthe same year Vile stepped out to work as a solo artist. But the bandās breakthrough came with 2011ās Slave Ambient, an LP where Granducielās synthesis of heartland and space rock beautifully coalesced into a signature sound.
Adam Granducielās equal love for songs and studio atmospherics leads critics to liken the bandās work to Tom Petty shot through a shoegaze filter, but that doesnāt adequately describe Granducielās aesthetic. He has a deep respect for and a canonical understanding of American music, as well as an intense curiosity about song arrangement, effects pedals, analog recording gear, and the possibilities of studios large and small. He connects these dots in his own way, creating evocative soundscapes within deceptively simple structures that conjure vivid short films for the ear.
We recently spoke to Granduciel his guitar and recording gear, the process behind his music, and his special tour souvenirs.
Letās start off talking a bit about your formative musical experiences.
When I was in sixth or seventh grade, I had this friend named Jeff. His dad was a āblues lawyerā who played guitar on the weekends and made his son learn drums so heād have someone to jam with. I went over to his house and got such a taste for the guitar. But it took months for me to convince my parents to buy me an electric. When they finally relented, they wanted to try to find something cheap. Luckily, I got the coolest guitar Iād ever seenāa 1963 Harmony Bobkatāfor $89. This was in 1991, and I still have that guitar, although Iāve had it rewired.
In any case, soon Jeff and I had a band. Weād play every weekend. By the time I got to high school I was jamming with kids after school. We did a lot of pop-rock coversāwe learned all of the songs off of R.E.M.ās Monster, which was sweet because thatās when I first got to use a tremolo pedal. At the same time, I got into exploring the extended sounds that a guitar can produce, like how to make controlled feedback. I was mystified by the Sonic Youth records, with all their weird sounds. But as I experimented on the guitar, I figured out how to create my own nonstandard effects.
Youāre a big Bob Dylan fan. Is there a particular era of his career that inspired you most?
Over the years itās definitely changed. When I was in my early 20s, I was super into Dylanās mid-ā60s stuff, like Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. I loved Mike Bloomfieldās approach. Later, when I was going through my first lovesick-breakup thing, I got into Blood on the Tracks. The last couple of years, Iāve been listening a lot to Time Out of Mind and Oh Mercy, along with the whole Rolling Thunder [Revue] period. Rolling Thunder seemed like a different kind of thing, a huge band with a bunch of friends just jammingāand a weird combination of musicians at that, like Joan Baez and Mick Ronson.
Has Bloomfieldās playing influenced yours?
I just admire his style. He always just went for it. He wasnāt the fastest player and was by no means a virtuoso. He just played a few notes here and there, with a ton of emotion. And I love his sound. He was one of the first players to put a humbucker in a Tele to get this gritty but beautiful tone. Thereās something so raw about it, too. A lot of the recordings captured the first or maybe second time he had played a song. Itās often so clear that heās kind of feeling his way through a tune, but heās doing his own thing and really laying in with such great timing and conviction.
You, Kurt Vile, and a few other Philadelphia musicians have worked together in modular waysākind of mixing and matching with each other. How do you think thatās affected each otherās music?
When Kurt and I met, we were both heavily into working independently, with our little digital 8-tracks, obsessing over the music in solitude. It was great to meet a partner in crime, always pushing, complimenting, and critiquing meāand to have a person instead of a machine to play music with. Now itās fun to go on tour with Kurt in the Violators, to dig in while taking a backseat role. And weāve really developed kind of a shared approach to the guitar.
The War on Drugsā music doesnāt have set guitar parts per se, says mastermind Adam Granduciel. He approaches guitar playing with sonic effects, interplay, and expression at the forefront. Photo by Colin McLaughlin
How would you describe this approach?
Some people work on pre-composed parts or riffs, but both Kurt and I approach the guitar with a lot of freedom to do what we want within the chord structures. Itās been cool to hear how this idea has worked its way onto each otherās albumsānot just in the guitar parts, but in other instruments and in the overall production.
What can you tell us about the approach as it pertains to guitar?
Itās having a bag of tricksānot only little licks, but different tones that come from effects pedalsāand using those to play from the soul. Itās about interplay, too. When I play with Kurt, we often echo little ideasālike a hint of melodic variation on a basic D chordāand this helps us navigate the maze of sound created by the effects pedals. Again, thereās so much freedom in having no real parts.
to play from the soul.ā
The War on Drugs is both a solo and an ensemble project. How does that work?
Itās not a 100 percent democratic process. Instead, I kind of direct the players. Itās like, āRobbie, I know you can play a great piano part in this section.ā One reason that the band works so well together is that weāre all great friendsāeveryone truly loves the songs and is completely invested in them. Together, we work to make something big and beautiful.
Whatās your creative process like and how has it evolved over the years?
Back in the day, I just sat down with an acoustic guitar and a pad of paper. I would have 90 percent of a song done before going into the studio and recording it with a band. Now, a lot happens in my home studio. I might start with a drum machine and a couple of guitar chords, then get lost in my playing and record it. Two months later, itās the groundwork for a song. After that, the song further evolvesāIāll hear little melodies popping in and out and do more and more guitar takes.
Adam Granducielās Gear
Guitars
Ampeg by Burns of London
1963 Harmony Bobkat
1965 Gibson non-reverse Firebird
1976 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe
1960s Silvertone archtop
Amps
1970s Fender Bassman 50 head driving a Marshall 2x12
Fender Bassman driving a Vibratone cab
Fender Champ
Marshall 2046 Specialist
Vox AC30
Effects
Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man
Electro-Harmonix Stereo Pulsar
Fender Vibratone
Ibanez ES-2 Echo Shifter
Moogerfooger tremolo
Two MXR Flangers
Wren and Cuff Phat Phuk
Strings and Picks
Dunlop strings (.010 and .011 sets)
Dunlop Tortex 1 mm picks
How do you know when a song is complete?
It just feels done, not just on its own but in the context of a record. I tend to work on everything together. I never have a song mixed and completed months before the rest of the songs on an album. When everything starts to feel connected, thatās when my work is through.
Youāve been labeled a perfectionist. Do you agree with that characterization?
For the most part, Iām not trying to perfect anything. Iām pretty good about taking care of tiny details, but also knowing when to step away and leave things alone. If we mix a song at 1 a.m., whatever magic is in the air at that hour is on the song. It wouldnāt really work to go back a few days later and edit itāespecially working half-analog and half-digital, like I do. There might be a part where, for example, the bass couldāve been a little louder, but Iāll decide to just let it be.
Whatās your home studio like?
Iāve got a nice, 1", 16-track tape machine and a 24-channel board. I just bought an API Lunchbox [modular studio processor], and Iāve got two really nice preamps, one really nice compressor, a few pieces of rack gear, andāmost importantāall of my amps, guitars, pedals, drum machines, and keyboards. So itās mostly instruments and less recording-gear-centric. Itās all about how I can get the best sounds out of these old pieces without really overthinking things. I got into using preamps just to make sure that, when I record something at home, itās usable in a professional studio. I donāt want an engineer to be, like, āThis sounds like a really inspired part, but we canāt use it because youāre clipping your shitty preamp.ā The tape machine is sweet, too, because it adds another possibility for experimentation. I can slow things up or speed them down to create a really interesting bed for a song. I havenāt really found a comfort level in using Pro Tools for song development yet. Plus, I really enjoy the whole process of cleaning the machineās heads and putting the tapes on in preparation for recording.
TWOD's Adam Granduciel contorts the tone of his 1976 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe by manually tweaking the knobs of his stomps during a show earlier this year at Portlandās Wonder Ballroom. Photo by Colin McLaughlin
Youāre known to be a real gear aficionadoātalk about your guitars.
Iāve got a ā76 Les Paul Deluxe that I love. Itās really lightālighter even than a Telecaster, and I donāt know exactly why. I do know that it plays really nice and sounds so good with those mini humbuckers. I bought it in 2012 when I quit smoking while on tour for Slave Ambient, since I figured Iād be saving money by not buying cigarettes.
The first nice guitar I ever bought was when I was on tour with Thurston Moore, in the summer of 2011. I was at Old Town Music, in Portland, when I saw a ā65 non-reverse Firebird. It wasnāt museum-qualityāthe body was sanded, it was stained dark, and it had Lollar P-90s. At one point, someone decided to put banjo tuners on the guitar and enlarged three of the holes on the headstock, but then decided against it and filled the holes back in. But I loved the guitar so I bought it.
Right now Iām really into the Les Paul and use the Firebird as a backup. But Iād love to find a second Deluxe for a backup, so that I can use the Firebird more as its own thing. Iād also love to find a sweet Jazzmaster, maybe a Japanese-made one from the ā90s, that I can put replacement pickups into and really have fun with. I borrowed one from a friend and used it all over the record, but Iāve never found another that I both like and can afford. Iām getting a Mexican Tele from a friend. Itās got really nice hardwareāSeymour Duncan pickups and a Bigsby. Itāll be fun to have and add a new flavor to my music.
Iāve also got a really cool Ampeg by Burns of London guitar. You can see it on the back cover of the new album. It kind of looks like a Strat, and itās got a really cool soundāvery bright and Telecaster-like. I also have a few random acoustics, like an old Silvertone archtop that I recently got at a shop when I was on tourālike Neil Young used to do. Itās so cool to pick up these kinds of souvenirs on the road, because then theyāre associated with good memories of this time and the people Iāve made music with. And Iād much rather have a 1960s Silvertone that I found for $200 than a new pedal that anyone can buy.
What about pedals?
First in my chain is a custom fuzzāitās silicon-based, with two knobs that I turn all the way up. I just struck up a relationship with Wren and Cuff to make me a knockoff Big Muff that will go after my volume pedal as a second fuzz, to take things a notch louder. Iāve got a couple of MXR Flangers, the old ones, and a HardWire RV-7 stereo reverb. I love analog tape delays, but for live use I donāt need analog. A little digital delay with the mix low and the feedback high works well for getting trails and letting the notes fly around a little. Plus, unlike an old unit, the HardWire is so durable.
Iāve got an old Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man, too. I mostly use this just as a chorus pedal. The two different outs go to different pedals and different amps, so it sounds less chorus-y, like the Cure, but really wide. The Memory Man is pretty fragile, and it worries me to take it on the road, but it turns my whole sound into this whole other thing: darker, more distorted, and just awesome. I also have a Moogerfooger tremolo pedal, a Wren and Cuff Phat Phuk germanium boost, and at the end of the chain, an Ibanez Echo Shifter if I want to create washes.
YouTube It
The War on Drugsā full live performance on Seattleās KEXP offers an intimate look at Adam Granducielās epic approach to guitar and songcraft.
I have a ton of other stuff tooāolder gear I donāt use on tourābut I donāt know if the older pedals can hold up on the road. Their input jacks might go out, and their power gets weird. Plus, I want to keep my rig reasonably sized for flying and playing in Europe. On the other hand, traveling in America is a little easier, so maybe Iāll be able to bring along things like my old Electro-Harmonix Stereo Pulsar, this awesome tremolo pedal.
And amps?
I have a 1994 Vox AC30 and a ā70s Fender Bassman 50 head that runs into a Marshall 2x12 cab. The Marshall started life as a 50-watt JMP combo. I found it for $500, which would have been a great deal, but then I saw that the amplifier had been ripped out and it was just an open-back cabinet. But it sounds so great with the Bassman. I used a Leslie speaker a lot on the record, but I didnāt want to go down the wormhole of taking it on the road, so I just bought a Fender Vibratone from Main Drag Music in Brooklyn. I use this with a second Bassman and its own cabinet, kicking the Vibratone into a fast setting whenever itās appropriate.
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BOSS announces the return of KATANA:GO, an ultra-compact headphone amplifier for daily jams with a guitar or bass. KATANA:GO puts authentic sounds from the stage-class BOSS Katana amp series at the instrumentās output jack, paired with wireless music streaming, sound editing, and learning tools on the userās smartphone. Advanced spatial technology provides a rich 3D audio experience, while BOSS Tone Exchange offers an infinite sound library to explore any musical style.
Offering all the features of the previous generation in a refreshed external design, KATANA:GO delivers premium sound for everyday playing without the hassle of amps, pedals, and computer interfaces. Users can simply plug it into their instrument, connect earbuds or headphones, call up a memory, and go. Onboard controls provide access to volume, memory selection, and other essential functions, while the built-in screen displays the tuner and current memory. The rechargeable battery offers up to five hours of continuous playing time, and the integrated 1/4-inch plug folds down to create a pocket-size package thatās ready to travel anywhere.
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The versatile KATANA:GO functions as a USB audio interface for music production and online content creation on a computer or mobile device. External control of wah, volume, memory selection, and more are also supported via the optional EV-1-WL Wireless MIDI Expression Pedal and FS-1-WL Wireless Footswitch.
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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 ā90s 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. Theyāre 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 Bachmannās short story, āThree Paths to the Lake.ā
āIt was kind of life-changing, honestly. It changed how I thought about womanhood,ā 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, 2022ās 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 experiencesātheir 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.
āIf the friendship was ever taking a toll because of the band, the friendship would come before the band, without any doubt.āāPenelope Lowenstein
āEveryone's cooking together, you take each other to the doctor,ā Lowenstein says. āYou 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 togetherāI 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.ā
Horsegirl recorded their sophomore LP, Phonetics On and On, at Wilcoās 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 ā90s college-rock torchbearers, with reverb-and-distortion-drenched numbers that recalled Yo La Tengo and the Breeders. Phonetics On and On doesnāt extinguish the flame, but itās 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 Bonās presence as producer in the studio as essential to the sonic direction.
āOn the record, I think we were really interested in Young Marble Giantsāsuper minimal, the percussiveness of the guitar, and how you can do so much with so little.āāNora Cheng
āWe had never really let a fourth person into our writing process,ā Cheng says. āI 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 [Wilcoās 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.ā
Nora Cheng's Gear
Nora Cheng says that letting a fourth personāWelsh artist Cate Le Bonāinto the trioās 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 (āJulieā), raw-sounding violin (āIn Twosā), and gamelan tilesācommon in traditional Indonesian musicāto Horsegirlās 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.
āI listen to these songs and I feel like it captures the raw, creative energy of being in the studio and being like, āFuck! We just exploded the song. What is about to happen?āā Lowenstein says. āThat feeling is something we didnāt have on the first record because we knew exactly what we wanted to capture and it was the songs we had written in my parentsā basement.ā
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. āIt made me feel really powerful as a young girl to know that I was a very proficient guitarist,ā she says. The shreddy playing of Television, Pink Floydās spacey guitar solos, and Yo La Tengoās 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 theyāre trading in on their new album. Lowenstein got into Brazilian guitar during the pandemic and has recently been āin a Jim OāRourke, John Fahey zone.ā
āThereās something about listening to that music where you realize, about the guitar, that you can just compose an entire orchestra on one instrument,ā Lowenstein says. āAnd hearing what the bass in those guitar parts is doingāas in, the E stringāis kind of mind blowing.ā
āOn the record, I think we were really interested in Young Marble Giantsāsuper minimal, the percussiveness of the guitar, and how you can do so much with so little,ā Cheng adds. āAnd 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].āThis flurry of focused discovery gives the impression that Cheng and Lowensteinās sensibilities are shifting day-to-day, buoyed by the incredible expansion of creative possibilities that setting oneās 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 itās exciting to have such a clear glimpse of evolution in artists who are, likely and hopefully, just beginning a long journey together.
āThereās something about listening to that music where you realize, about the guitar, that you can just compose an entire orchestra on one instrument.āāPenelope Lowenstein
āIn your 20s, life moves so fast,ā Lowenstein says. āSo 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, tooāon and on until we're old women.ā
YouTube It
Last summer, Horsegirl gathered at a Chicago studio space to record a sun-soaked set of new and old tunes.
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