"Originally in Quicksand, my background was coming into music through a straightforward hardcore perspective, so I took on that simplified aesthetic, similar to Fugazi," says Schreifels. "Both our bassist Sergio Vega and other guitarist Tom Capone were adding in pedals, so I earthed the band playing the straight man and opted for the more direct tone."
The Quicksand quartet rose from the ashes of New York City's late '80s hardcore scene, featuring guitarist/singer Schreifels (Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today), Vega (Absolution and Carnage), Capone (Beyond and Bold), and drummer Alan Cage (who was in Burn with Capone, and Beyond). A self-titled four-song EP scored them a major-label deal with Polydor, where they released the seminal 1993 classic Slip. (It even landed in Decibel's Hall of Fame.) Both recordings are equally abrasive and melodic. Then the quartet moved to Island to release 1995's Manic Compression, an album unrelenting as a sledgehammer. But as quickly as they rose, the band dissolved into the time capsule of N.Y.C.'s once-rich alternative music scene. Yet they still influenced the Deftones (where Sergio now splits time playing bass), Thursday, Glassjaw, At the Drive-In, Torche, and many others.
Schreifels went on to form other two-guitar bands, including Rival Schools with Ian Page and Vanishing Life with Rise Against's Zac Blair. And he's continued to flourish as a frontman and the midrange mattress, allowing his fellow guitar mates to bend solos, color outside the lines, and leave the pocket.
However, life has a way of challenging us and putting us out of our comfort zones. (I mean, hello, 2020!) Ian left Rival Schools, Tom departed from Quicksand, and Walter formed the bluesy, psych-rock Dead Heavens, engaging in celestial spaces and thick, sizzling guitar parts.
"At that point, I sorta had to become the 'pedal' guy, so I was like, 'screw it, I'm gonna get a wah wah. [laughs] I've heard a lot of good things!'" That led to a delay, then a tremolo, then a phaser, and now he reserves a row on his pedalboard for experimentation and tone testing. "I slowly became an effects guy, still knowing I needed their applications to our music to be tasteful. And with Dead Heavens, I wanted to broaden my palette by getting better as a player and creating a space where I could really indulge the sounds in my head."
What sort of positives has Walter recognized from his pedal liberation? "Understanding how to use a piece of equipment that before was mysterious or intimidating, and now, by having broken through that mental barrier, you can get to some new shit and create something you otherwise might not have."
And his longtime straightforward, get-the-job-done, hardcore DNA has avoided any gear-snob blind-spots and pitfalls. "I sound just lazy, but I don't have any care or concern about how I get to a result if I'm happy with it. If it takes a long time, and there's something I have to shelve for a bit, that's fine. If it's with a Roland CUBE practice amp that inspires a song or tone, that's fine, too. I just don't care."
These new gear avenues and the rekindled Quicksand officially downsizing to a trio are creating new paths for Schreifels. "I'm just really excited to continue telling Quicksand's story, carrying on from Interiors, but also through our OG catalog, and a focus on growth has been improving my playing guitar and finding new ground to break."
In this episode, Quicksand's founding frontman details why oft-forgotten Fenders and a "spooky" gold-foil Harmony were 6-string cornerstones for Distant Populations. He explains how an 8" practice combo was an ace up his sleeve while recording, and chronicles his slow embrace of effects and how they've shaped his sound and vision.
[Brought to you by D'Addario XL Strings: https://www.daddario.com/XLRR]
Preorder Quicksand's Distant Populations (out 8/13 digitally; 9/24 vinyl)
And watch videos for their two singles:
1960s Harmony Holiday Bobkat
"The gold-foils in this Harmony Holiday Bobkat have a muddy, spooky, ghostly quality that really complements and fills out around the Fenders I typically use in the studio and onstage," says Schreifels. While speaking with PG in 2018, he mentioned that the above mid-'60s Harmony and a Fender Kurt Cobain Jag were the heavy hitters for 2017's Interiors, but the forthcoming Distant Populations saw it paired with a Fender Player Lead III (which we'll meet in a minute).
"Another cool thing about the Harmony is, even though I'm not a lead player, it's really comfortable and easy for me to get around the fretboard and sound like I'm doing something," admits Schreifels.
He's had the guitar for nearly 10 years, and beyond Quicksand he's used it in the studio for Dead Heavens and Vanishing Life. Typically, all of Walter's guitars take Ernie Ball Slinkys (.010–.046) and he usually lives in standard or drop-D tunings. However, "Fire This Time," off Interiors, has the low E string dropped to A, creating unison between the neck-top two strings—something he absorbed after seeing Baroness in concert.
Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster Special
During the band's original '90s heyday, Schreifels would get down on bucker-brandishing guitars like Les Paul Deluxes and H-S-S Strats. He saw losing his Gibson overseas (and his body deterioration from playing heavier instruments) as a sign. Eventually the transition dovetailed into a relationship with Fender, and he began bonding with their humbucker guitars, like the aforementioned Cobain Jag. He scored the above Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster Special, but didn't fall completely in love with its stock JM Special Design Hot Single-Coil Jazzmaster pickups, so he slammed a set of brand-unknown humbuckers in for a bigger, bolder sound. To enhance its playability, he swapped out the original bridge for a Staytrem.
Fender Player Lead III
Ahead of recording the new album, Walter spied the announcement of Fender's updated Lead II and Lead III instruments, and was instantly intrigued. He reached out to Fender and they sent over the above Player Lead III model finished in a stunning purple metallic and featuring Player Series humbuckers that can be split.
Fender Blues Junior
The band's last U.S. tour saw Schreifels using a 50-watt Marshall JMP 2x12 combo loaded with Celestions. He's gotten familiar with and fond of Orange half-stacks, too, but as with his guitars, he's been condensing amps—especially when it comes to the studio. Above is the Fender Blues Junior that resides at his N.Y.C.-based home, but it went recording with him for the new Quicksand album.
Roland Micro Cube
The shocker of his setup has to be this Roland Micro Cube combo. In the Rundown, he remarks that "it's just so damn convenient." Because of its basic layout and built-in effects, it allowed him to forget about the gear or tone, dial in some reverb, delay, or chorus, and try to usher out the ideas in his head. And when tracking overdubs with it for Distant Populations, he used its "cheap" sound as an asset to layer in another accent.
Walter Schreifels' Pedalboard
This is a pedalboard that's 20-plus years in the making. As he admits early in the Rundown, he shunned pedals for much of his early career. The cornerstone of his sparse stomp station is the Dunlop Cry Baby Standard wah. He'll engage the Cry Baby to create tension or lock the sweep to alter the guitar's EQ and voice.
The next two are industry standards and seen in countless Rundowns: the Xotic EP Booster and MXR Carbon Copy Delay. For a little wobble and wiggle, he'll kick on the Mooer Spark tremolo, which he's kept around because he says the depth control is special. And the Electro-Harmonix Mel9 still finds a home on his board, because of its role in Interiors. It usually toggles between the strings and orchestra modes, but he has found some inspiration in the flute mode, too.
Already rests on a Pedaltrain Novo 24 board and is juiced by the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus.
Walter Schreifels' Bonus Pedals
Here are some pedal provocateurs that made notable spotlights on Distant Populations. The EHX Synth9 creates the aerial-assault warning sirens on "Missile Command," the MXR Phase 90 headlines the song "Phase 90," and the DigiTech FreqOut adds eerie, phantom feedback.
Stephen Carpenter’s Rig
Carpenter goes on the road with a bevy of his signature ESP axes. An SC-600 that’s loaded with EMG 81 and 85 pickups and tuned to standard pitch is usually reserved for the band's earliest material. More recent signature additions include a 27”-scale STEF-T7B single-cut 7-string tuned to C-G-C-F-A-D-D. All of Carpenter’s 7-string guitars use EMG 81-7 pickups and, like his 6-strings, are outfitted with a custom set of Jim Dunlop Heavy Core .011–.050 strings (the 7-strings have a second .011 string). The other 7-string tuning Carpenter uses is E-A-D-G-B-E-E. Two of his other go-to instruments for this tour are his 8-string signature ESPs—an SC-608B and the STEF B-8. Both have a 27" scale and EMG 808 pickups, and their custom Jim Dunlop Heavy Core .011–.069 strings are tuned F#-B-E-A-D-G-B-E. All of Carpenter’s guitars have neck-through construction, an alder body, a maple neck, and an ebony fretboard. He uses an assortment of custom-designed Jim Dunlop Tortex 1 mm picks.
Most of Carpenters decisions when it comes to his signature guitars are made on aesthetics and a refreshingly down-to-earth, no-nonsense playing philosophy. "I know that ESP makes great guitars. I know dudes sound great with EMGs and other guys shred with Seymour Duncans. You can insert any name of pickup above a certain point and it's just a name-jerk contest," says Carpenter. "It's up to you to make it sound good. The gear does nothing by itself. You find something you like, you fire it up, and you practice, you jam, and songs happen. It's that simple." As for having all of his pickups only in the bridge and middle positions—none of Carpenter's guitars have a true neck pickup—he was turned on to that when he first saw Vivian Campbell rocking his black-and-blue lightning-bolt Shredder guitar made by Buddy Blaze. "I rarely—like .005% of the time—play in the middle position, which I do sometimes to take off some brittle, high-end crispness. I just really dug how those two pickups looked on Vivian's guitar—it was dope!"
Both Carpenter and Vega are using Fractal Audio Axe-Fx IIs in place of the analog rigs they used for many years. For the band's oldest material, Carpenter relies on one or two Fractal patches based on his old rig, which featured a Marshall JMP-1 MIDI preamp and a Marshall EL34 100/100 power amp. For songs from Diamond Eyes and Koi No Yokan, he has more elaborate customized patches. He powers the rig for stage monitors with an Electro-Harmonix 22 Caliber Power Amp pedal. Carpenter says he struggled for the better part of a year with his Axe-Fx II sounding thin and out of phase in his stereo rig, but when he switched it to mono everything finally clicked into place. He also says that, though he’s not completely happy with his patches, he’s vowed to spend a month or so after the current tour to dial in things the way he prefers so he can continue with the airport-friendly setup.
Sergio Vega’s Rig
"I've been overtaken by Jaguar guitars because I'm a huge My Bloody Valentine, Kevin Shields, and Johnny Marr fan," admits Deftones bassist Sergio Vega. "Once they started making those Jag basses in the mid 2000s, I started playing them. And they turned out to be perfect, because they're easy to play and, sonically, they have great upper mids and a crisp overall tone. I always play with a pick so I have a lot of attack and distortion, and these Jaguars provide a clear, cutting sound." All of Vega’s basses are stock, and he generally rotates between three or four a night to cover the band's various tunings, including standard, C, and dropped-C. He uses Jim Dunlop's .050–.110 string sets, and he says he uses 1 mm Tortex Triangle picks exclusively because he remembers reading as a kid that Metallica bassist Jason Newsted used a similar pick.
Much in the same way as Carpenter, Vega has several Axe-Fx II presets for mid-’90s Deftones material, while as well as many that he’s designed and tweaked for the band's most recent releases. His favorite preset is the "Diamond Eyes" patch. “It's really complicated and it has a lot of feedback with delay modulation that I can control with the bass and the expression pedals." Vega powers the signal from his Fractal with a Matrix Amplification GT 1000FX power amp and is flanked onstage by two Orange 8x10 cabinets.
