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Every show of my Jazzmaster is like a new show.
It still it is, even after hundreds of shows with the same guitar, or
vintage guitar, or new, or whatever it is.
It's the most expressive guitar I've ever really played.
And I'm not really technically proficient.
As long as I can feel connected to whatever my left hand wants to go or
a tone that is coming out of the amp.
I guess it's just the main source of inspiration.
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Sounds great.
So psyched for this amp.
Yeah, I haven't really played it.
I got ripped off but I don't care.
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The band needs to have its home and its heart in Philly.
The identity of the band being from Philly is because at different moments of our
different lives, we all ended up in Philly and then ended up having very different
musical paths, and then all met each other.
And that's why we kind of became a Philly band.
I think just because this is where our home was, with or without music.
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When we started in 2005, I always wanted it to be piano.
I always had this sound that I wanted to be a part of.
It takes a long time to not only find the people but
just to get to a place where, how do you perform the music you record?
That's something that I think we're still searching for, and
bands search their whole careers for.
How do you present your music?
I never set out to do anything other than get better at guitar and
record and have fun.
I feel like the Jazzmaster is just your comrade on that journey or something.
It can be really subtle, it can be angry, can be chill, it can be anything.
In a way that, in my experience,
I had a hard time getting with other guitars.
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My first Jazzmaster I got, 2014.
And I played so many shows, every show we played, that I've had that guitar,
I just find something about it I love more and more each time.
Just did a lot of things for me in the live environment.
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With all these variables and all, you just want to know what you're going to give.
It's like the one thing that can control is,
like that I love the guitar I'm going to play a song.
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This is a 63, I think.
I was watching it online.
Then it ended up getting sold.
And then I ended up in the shop who sold it months later.
I saw it on the bench,
and I guess whoever bought it originally wanted their birth year.
They got it and they took the neck off, thinking it was a 64 as it was advertised,
and it turned out to be a 63, so they sent it back.
It's different than my other ones because it's significantly darker, and
a little bit more mellow.
Sometimes you just have those magical connections with things where the guitar's
been around 50 years but it was meant to like eventually end up in your hands.
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The bar is just like kind of the thing that gives you the never ending
possibilities, you know?
Some of those guitars in the 60s had fuzz and tremolo built into them.
If anything, I just think of this as like a pedal I'm controlling with my hand.
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There are plenty of times anyone who's played guitar will pick something up and
it doesn't feel right, or you have a hard time kind of wrapping your head around it,
or you just can't get a sound out of it.
And now with my Jazzmasters,
when I pick it up I know I can find a way to channel whatever I'm feeling, or
play the song that needs to be played, kind of get it across.
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I don't know what I'd do without playing guitar or
having an idea that I can't wait to experiment on.
Or having guys to make a ruckus with, or even needing the time away from that.
It's like needing like four days where you're not on the road or
needing a day off on tour.
I love having that day off
because it's sandwiched with
a couple epic jam sessions.
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