Fake Fruit’s Hannah D’Amato takes flight, while the band’s drummer, Miles MacDiarmid, lurks in the background.
Question: Which artist have you learned the most songs by?
Guest Picker: Hannah D’Amato – Fake Fruit
A: Neil Young. I think he’s an incredible human archivist who knows exactly how to distill the highs and lows of being an alive person better than almost anyone. Playing his songs is about as cathartic as it gets. His straight-down-the-barrel soloing is a huge inspiration, too.
The one and only Neil Young.
Obsession: My current obsession is a Karina cover of Neil Sedaka’s “Oh! Carol.” Originally written from the male “Don’t leave me” perspective, the Spanish translation very sneakily urges Carol not to bend to the man’s will and to chase her own happiness without looking back—badass.
Reader of the Month: Kevin Ramsay
Kevin Ramsay, welcome to our pages!
A: I’ve learned the most songs by John Lee Hooker. His raw, hypnotic blues style captivates me. His mastery of the guitar and distinctive voice make his songs unforgettable. Learning his repertoire taught me about blues rhythms, storytelling in music, and the emotional depth that can be conveyed through powerful lyrics.
This album is classic solo Hooker—a live jewel in his catalog.
Obsession: My latest music-related obsession is Maryanne Amacher and otoacoustic emissions. Amacher’s pioneering work with sound and perception, particularly exploring otoacoustic emissions, fascinates me. Her innovative approach to sonic art challenges conventional boundaries, inspiring me to delve deeper into the intersection of science, sound, and human perception in music.
Assistant Editor: Luke Ottenhof
Our man in Montreal, assistant editor Luke Ottenhof.
A: I think it would have to be Weezer. I went through an all-consuming Weezer phase after my older cousins introduced me to them, then binged Blue Album, Pinkerton, and Green Album. I forced my poor, brilliant guitar teacher to show me how to play those songs instead of teaching me stuff that surely would have made me a better player today. Thanks for indulging me, Scott!
Weezer’s 1994 debut album.
Obsession: Creating different types of sonic mayhem through pedals. I always think it’s funny when you get a crazy new pedal that makes your signal virtually unrecognizable and someone says, “That doesn’t sound very useful.” I’m thankful for the imaginative builders who don’t just make what sounds “useful,” and to artists who create sounds beyond the call of capital.
Chief Videographer: Perry Bean
Don’t mess with Perry Bean!
A: If you’re gonna riff, riff with me! At the risk of sounding boring or rudimentary, I probably know the most songs by the Misfits. I discovered them as I was learning guitar, and while not complicated or hard, those barre chords set me up with a foundation to build from. More importantly, learning those songs made guitar an interesting and fun hobby for me. I hated lessons at first because I was forced to learn and play music I had no desire to listen to, let alone play. (Sorry, Elvis!) Besides, guitar is supposed to be fun, right? Long live the Misfits!
The Misfit’s ultra-recognizable logo.
Obsession: Introducing my son to a vast world of good music. Last thing I’d ever want for him is the embarrassment of saying something like, “Dave Matthews is awesome!” in a public setting, for lack of knowing better.
My Bloody Valentine on stage, however, is quite another matter. Seeing the band live is a little like breathing the atmosphere of another planet. It’s heavy, loud, and sometimes disorienting, which is largely the product of a sea of colliding and intertwining overtones. It’s an almost extra-dimensional extension of the songs on the records. And to build the melodious, swirling, and deafening world of MBV live, Shields relies on an imposing quiver of stompboxes. As it turns out, one of the most critical of these is a vintage Fender Blender, an octave fuzz that went largely unappreciated in its time. With the release of the Fender Shields Blender, a highly modified version of the original, the Blender’s days in the shadows are likely numbered.
Building on a Blend
For those less familiar with Shields’ work, it’s important to know that his ears, mind, and aesthetic fixations dwell, to a significant extent, in the realm of overtones, and the magic made when they interweave to form a more colorful whole. Curiously, one of Shields’ and My Bloody Valentine’s deepest probes into the overtone world is the bludgeoningly loud and sustained onslaught of the song “You Made Me Realise.” Shields’ first investigations of the Blender’s potential occurred during this nightly, set-ending ritual. And the combination of octave-up fuzz, a footswitchable fuzz boost, a tone knob, and a wet/dry blend control made it a perfect vehicle for adding another color to the song’s outro overtone feast. The Shields Blender, however, explodes and expands the feature set—and the available sounds—of the original Blender significantly.
Bigger Blend, Minds Blown
Shields’ and Fender’s design additions profoundly expand the possibilities afforded by the new Blender. First, there’s a new footswitchable, mammoth sub-octave fuzz with dedicated volume control. It can be used with or without the octave up signal from the original, which can now be added or subtracted via a pushbutton. That means you can use the fuzz alone, with one of the octave effects, or both. That flexibility gives you a wagonload of huge, menacing, and mangled textures to work with. But they are just a fraction of the tones you can craft here. The fuzz has its own very range-ful tone knob, which recasts the fuzz’s personality considerably. The expand section, which has a dedicated footswitch (and was called the tone boost on the original) enables you to boost the fuzz output.
The wildest addition to the original Blender, though, is the sag circuit. Shields noted that many sag functions, which starve a circuit of voltage, are a bit subtle. This one is most assuredly not. It’s also not the easiest function to figure out. But practice yields very cool and often unexpected results. While it works in dynamically responsive, rhythmic, almost tremolo-like ways at the right settings (which seems to be Shields’ preferred application), I loved its potential in fingerpicked situations, where its dynamic responsiveness shined. Fingerpicking triads high on the neck with both octave effects engaged yielded melodic, glitchy effects that could be continuously reshaped by touch, and by using mellower trigger levels you can summon a greater degree of dynamic control. It’s important to note that strong octave-down fuzz settings can render the sag control less nuanced. But used together they can also summon the chaotic, tectonic-scale, Earth-cracking tonalities that are part of the live “You Made Me Realise” or Neil Young’s most deranged octave divider and melting tweed Deluxe moments.
The Verdict
While it yields many chaotic results, the Fender Shields Blender is not the product of a chaotic design approach. Shields is known for striving for very specific sonic results and for being uncompromising in those quests. That a Kevin Shields-approved pedal could exist at all is something of a surprise to this longtime fan. But what’s also a surprise is how incredibly varied and full of twists the Shields Blender can be. The addition of the sub-octave fuzz is inspired. So is the tricky-to-wrangle, but ultimately satisfying, sag circuit, which offers unusual tones and interactivity galore. Making the fuzz independently operable from the octave effects also extends the pedal’s flexibility. But it’s the potential interrelationships between all of the controls and functions that ultimately make the Shields Blender such a rich mine of possible sounds. For the intrepid and patient explorer willing to crack the many codes within, fantastic rewards await.
Photo by Joey Martinez
Available for pre-order today and coming to most DSPs on November 18 via Reprise Records, World Record is available on vinyl, CD, and cassette formats via The Greedy Hand Store atNeil Young Archives (NYA) and music retailers everywhere. Recorded live to capture the Horse’s long-running spirit, the album was mixed to analog tape at Shangri-La.
To optimize audio quality, the vinyl format of World Record will be released as a three-sided double album with an etching on side four. There will also be a limited-edition version of the album pressed on clear vinyl available via Young’s webstore, The Greedy Hand Store, and indie retailers. World Record will also be issued on cassette and as a double CD set (mirroring the track sequence of the double LP).
World Record track listing:
1. Love Earth
2. Overhead
3. I Walk With You (earth ringtone)
4. This Old Planet (changing days)
5. The World (is in trouble now)
6. Break The Chain
7. The Long Day Before
8. Walkin’ On The Road (to the future)
9. The Wonder Won’t Wait
10. Chevrolet
11. This Old Planet reprise
Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Love Earth (Official Music Video)
World Record will be released in multiple digital formats, including XStream Hi-Res Audio and Atmos/Spatial. The album’s hi-res streaming format is fully supported at Amazon, Apple, and Qobuz. It will also be available digitally at Neil Young Archives and all major DSPs on November 18. More info: neilyoungarchives.com.