CORIN TUCKER
on touring, motherhood, and her new sound
SERENA WILLIAMS
and two other women you had no idea play guitar
Q&A with
SCOUT NIBLETT
DEVI EVER
pro pedal maker
HYSTERICS
DEDICATED TO WOMEN GUITARISTS / / ISSUE #1
2
Staff
Founder, Executive Director
Fabi Reyna
Editorial Director
Natalie Baker
Creative Director
Alicia Kroell
Social Media Editor
Mac Pogue
Copy Editors
Beth Wooten Susan YudtWriters
Alex Hebler Hugo Orozco Marissa SeilerPhotographers
Bridget Budbill Megan Holmes Joe DunnIllustrators
Frances Li Katelyn MundalResearchers
Brisa De La Selva Kelsey MorrisOn The Cover
Corin Tucker
by Megan HolmesTable of Contents
Letter from the Editor
Call for submissions
3
Staff Recommendations
4
Four Guitarists
and their gear
6
Q
&A with Scout Niblett
8Corin Tucker
10Who Knew?
14Devi Ever
15Hysterics
18Talking Shop
20Finger Picking Exercise
and Hand Stetches
It takes a lot to bring a publication like this into the world. So, if you dig what we’re doing, consider
joining us. Photography, graphic design, writing, filming, copy editing, blogging, marketing, and the list
goes on
–chances are that if you can do it, we could utilize it. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what
your background is, or where you live. And if producing editorial content isn’t really your thing, we’re
always looking for new stuff to cover and ways to improve what we’re doing, so feel free to send tips
and feedback our way, as well.
sheshredsmag@gmail.com
She Shreds Magazine
c/o IPRC
1001 SE Division St.
Portland, OR 97202
3
Hey everyone,
I am extremely proud to present the very first printed magazine
in the world that focuses exclusively on female guitarists. While
women are still blatantly underrepresented in the music industry
and media, it is amazing to see such a strong, vocal community of
female musicians producing publications like Tom Tom, a fantastic
magazine about female drummers, and building an institution as
influential as the Rock ‘n Roll Camp for Girls. As a musician without
any background in journalism, yet with a passion for acknowledging
and supporting women musicians, I owe this entire magazine to my
friends, family, volunteers and everyone who has been a part of
turning a necessary dream into a reality. It’s incredibly exciting to share what empowered, educated,
and motivated me as a young musician with our readers, and to encourage people to pick up the guitar
without feeling held back by any “rules” that one might feel obligated to follow.
She Shreds is based out of Portland, OR, where the first Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls was founded,
and just an hour and a half south of where the riot grrrl movement originated. We work in this city,
surrounded by so many talented and inspiring musicians, so it is fitting that in our first issue we
focused heavily on the West Coast community that has been representing female musicians for so
many years. This thing that you are holding in your hands is a direct result of this amazing community,
and we can only hope to give back by being a good resource for musicians all over the world.
Keep on shredding,
Fabi Reyna
Founder/ Executive Director
JOIN US
Staff Picks
It takes less than a minute for Olympia favorites Margy Pep-per to let listeners know that their new-est release, Golden Webs, is not messing around. Golden Webs is substantially heavi-er and loudheavi-er than No Boys No Bass (April 2011), and overall, the album feels more complex. Anything precious about Margy Pepper has trans-formed into ferocity. While they maintain their definitive har-monizing, the words are sung and shout-ed with newfound strength and concen-tration. Lyrics from “Fire/Lion” seem to capture the present state of Margy Pep-per: “We are scream-ing, / we are flyscream-ing,
laughing, / and we won’t stop.” With each track, Golden Webs builds tension and propels forward with no hint of slowing down. Listeners feel-ing overwhelmed or disoriented by Margy Pepper’s new inten-sity will be psyched to hear an old favorite, “Iceberg,” as the sec-ond half of an ambi-tious seven-minute track. The album is a declaration to every-one listening: “I know what I want, I know what I don’t want” (from “Little Witch”). When the final track ends with the words, “I’m getting out,” one can only hope that Margy Pepper is get-ting out to make an-other record. - A.H.
Margy Pepper
“Godlen Webs”
Albums
4
This Austin trio doesn’t let their Texan roots confine their sound in the least. Crooked Bangs com-bine dancey surf riffs with tight drum beats to create dark-but-not-gloomy, catchy-but-not-saccharine songs in their full-length album that recently debuted on Western Medical Re-cords.
Vocalist and bass-ist Leda Ginestra has definitely taken some cues from Siouxsie Sioux, singing deep, unwavering lyrics that change from English to French throughout the album. One hit of the album’s first track, “Be Young / Sois Jeune (et Tais Toi),” gets you hooked on
Samantha Wendel’s simple yet particular guitar work.
But this isn’t the sim-plicity of amateurs; Wendel has a knack for creating catchy but controlled riffs that get stuck in your head. Ginestra’s seemingly effort-less but refined wail-ing in “Blood Castle” fused with outright screaming in “Le Beau Têtard Sur Son Cig-are” are penultimate representatives of the sound that this three-piece has spent the past year refining. And it’s hard to be-lieve that they’ve only been together for a year. - F.R.
Crooked Bangs
“Crooked Bangs”
Text Alex Hebler, Fabi Reyna, Marissa Seiler
Bands
Anorexia is different. They make you pause. They make you listen deeper. Two sev-enteen year olds, Shamir Bailey and Christina Thomp-son, hold their weight in a somewhat desolate Las Vegas punk scene. The city’s economy survives and thrives upon the exploits of 21+ entertainment and ex-orbitant corporate business, yet two teens have found creative inspiration in their own DIY pursuits. Bailey and Thompson have carved a lo-fi niche in the heavily com-mercialized hardcore scene of Las Vegas, finding ref-uge in simple yet intriguing instrumentals. Anorexia’s sound draws the listener in – with heavy rhythmic waves that hypnotizes and entices the ear. Bailey and Thomp-son released three EPs this past summer and have fu-ture plans to record and re-lease with M’Lady’s Records of Portland, Oregon. Highly recommended debut from two fresh young artists with daring musical innovation that extends beyond their years. - M.S.
Track Recommendations “Mirror” - Various Hairstyles EP
“Wait Your Turn” - Various Hairstyles EP
Anorexia
Karen Dalton is the best-kept secret of the ‘60s. Dal-ton’s voice – heralded by Bob Dylan as his favorite of the early Greenwich Village scene – harkens Billie Holi-day twinged with traditional Americana folk. A prolific banjo and twelve string gui-tar player, Dalton’s voice paints landscapes of rolling Oklahoma hills, creaky porch steps and warm southern summer nights. Married and divorced twice before the age of 21 and passing away due to AIDS complications by the age of 55; Dalton’s life triumphs, hardships and heartache seep through the seams of her records. With only two proper album re-leases within her lifetime, Dalton’s best performances were recorded on bootlegs – capturing her raw hones-ty and sincerihones-ty in the way it was meant to be heard: sparsely, intimately and ear-nestly. - M.S.
Track Recommendations “Katie Cruel” – In My Own Time
“A Little Bit of Rain” – It’s So Hard To Tell Who’s Going To Love You Best
Karen Dalton
Habibi is like sweet, jan-gly Jolly Ranchers between teeth and cheek pocket dur-ing the summer time. Haildur-ing from Brooklyn, New York, the band creates infectious melodies that inspire light feet and handclaps. Echoing Motown riffs and brilliant-ly simple refrains, Habibi (meaning “my love” or “cher-ished one” in Arabic) does modern garage surf rock sweet, tight and right. “The Sweetest Talk” captures all the young giddiness of an elbow graze from a teenage crush – a sharp, sweet blush-ing inhale in melody form. Habibi will catch your ear and steal your heart. - M.S. Track Recommendation: “Sweetest Talk” - Habibi
Habibi
5
This punk band from Austin, TX consists of Kana Harris on the guitar/vocals, Steph-anie Mueller on bass/vo-cals and Christina Lough on the drums. These three are re-living the riot grrrl days through their music with lyr-ics like “this is roll call all you punk girls” in the fittingly ti-tled track “Role Call” on their new album “Duh,” which de-buted on Threadpull records this past summer. Aggres-sive, angular riffs combined with straightforward 4/4 drum beats and sharp vocals that go in and out of scream-ing, Foreign Mothers is for those of you who love to put your Bratmobile records on repeat after a little Kleenex/ LiLiPUT dance party in front of your mirror. -F.R.
Recommended Tracks: “Love Song for Bill Paxton” - Duh
“Possesive/Plural” - Duh
Four Guitarists and their guitars
Hozoji Roseanne Matheson-Margullis
Tacoma, WA
Lozen & Helms Alee
Playing for a two-piece, Margullis’ guitar work carries a lot of weight, which she manages in part by keeping her guitar frequencies low. These heavy bass levels keep her sound in sync with her bandmate’s drums.
Margullis plays through a Verellen Meats-moke amp with a 4x12 cab and two 1x15 cabs, custom made for her by close friends Ben Verel-len and Mike Erdman, who run VerelVerel-len Amplifi-ers. “I had the Verellen Amp custom made to be able to play both guitar and bass through, with minor adjustments. I also got to design its aes-thetics. It’s the first amp I’ve owned that I felt at-tached to. It sounds great and looks beautiful.” Margullis’ pedals consist of a Monolith Tectonic Shift pedal for distortion and a Boss Loop Sta-tion for interludes. Although it seems like a pain to be lugging all this gear around, she says “It’s a welcome workout after sitting in the van.” Three cabs and a pedal known for it’s wide range of fuzz explains how Margullis is able to get such a full, heavy sound that permeates the entirety of venues with ease. “I definitely prefer playing my set up to any other, but I also enjoy the challenge of dialing in my sound on gear that is foreign to me,” says Margullis. “I believe those experiences help me get better at understanding sound.”
Kate Eldridge
Seattle, WA
Big Eyes
When speaking of her talents at a young age, Eldridge doesn’t mince words. “I was really good, really fast,” says the 24-year old guitarist. “When I was in middle school, I would practice for three to four hours per day.” These days, the catchy riffs produced by Eldridge and her bandmates makes for an amazing live show, and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask her about the gear that delivers these sounds. “I’m playing a [Gibson] SG, through a Music Man HD150 Head, and then I play that through a Marshall 1960a. I actually used to play a Fender Mustang through the Music Man ‘Head through a Fender 2x12, but because we’re a three-piece it just sounded kind of thin. Then I started playing through the Mar-shall and was like ‘Oh, that sounds chunkier.’” Af-ter messing around with a fellow practice space user’s SG for a while, Eldridge completed her current set up by buying her own SG on a whim while touring in Orlando. “I totally do love that guitar, “ says Eldridge. “I’d say I have more of an attachment to my Fender Mustang, but I don’t play that at shows anymore.”
Four Guitarists and their guitars
Text Fabi REyna Illustrations Katelyn Mundal
Corin Tucker
Portland, OR
Corin Tucker Band, Sleater-Kinney,
Heavens to Betsy
No introduction is needed for this widely respected woman in the music industry, so let’s get right to the gear talk: Tucker currently strums on a Gibson Les Paul and plugs into a Music Man Combo. Gibsons are known for their warmth and full bodied sound, which seems to outweigh their heaviness- at least that’s the case for Tucker. “I really like the way a Les Paul sounds, but they’re really beastly heavy for me. I play a lot of rhythm guitar and chords but some-times I like to play a smaller melodic lead, and I like the way that sounds with the Les Paul,” says Tucker. “I use a Music Man Combo, which I really love. It’s kind of basic, but I love the simplicity of it,” which makes sense, considering how many instruments she’s teaming up with in the Corin Tucker Band. “For this band, it’s really fun be-cause we do keep things simple in terms of what I have to do instrument-wise. It’s pretty awe-some.” Check out our full interview with Tucker on page 10.
Radio Sloan
“Vantucky,” WA
Tombstalker, The Need, peaches
Radio Sloan is an absolute guitar slayer, the type who turns any sound they touch to face-melting gold. Symptoms of experiencing Sloan’s shredding include being profoundly torn be-tween wanting to rage and just halting every-thing you’re doing to pay close attention in the hope of learning a thing or two from a true guitar god. Sloan has been shredding on some doom metal with a baritone guitar recently, but if you saw her playing for Peaches a few years back, you would have seen her playing her favor-ite guitar: a beautiful, cream colored Gibson SG Custom. Sloan first experienced the SG when she borrowed it from a roommate in L.A. “I just couldn’t believe how it sounded and how thin and nice the neck was. I had been playing this cool 80s Dean metal guitar thing, but it was so heavy I think it actually made me shorter, if that’s pos-sible.” While the SG is her favorite, Sloan doesn’t treat it like a gift from god so much as the drug of choice for a night spent partying with the deities. “I can’t believe it still works after how much beer and fake blood has soaked into it,” says Sloan. “I’ll remember it has stuff inside it that I should clean out every time I go to play it. It makes nasty coughing noises. Then I forget about it until I play it again.”
Q&A with
Scout Niblett
“
Nobody has to be anything.
There are no f***ing rules. Period.
”
Whether you’re listening to her record or watching her per-form, Scout Niblett never fails to produce something intense and raw. Since 2001, Niblett has been churning out dynam-ic, headbang-inducing records, often with nothing more than a drummer’s accompaniment. We met up for a late-night cup of coffee in Portland to discuss Niblett’s background and tech-nique behind that sound. What are the benefits of being a two-piece?
You earn a lot more money, and there’s not much shit to carry every night, and there are fewer people to fall out with. Fewer people to annoy the shit out of you (laughs).
I know you write a lot of the drum parts on your records. That being said, how much cre-ative input does the person you’re drumming with have? It’s a balance. I write a lot of the drum parts for my songs, but the good thing about working with different people is that their personalities bring out different ways of playing [those rhythms], and I like to encour-age that. It’s all about navigat-ing what sounds right for you as the songwriter while allowing [the drummer] to feel like there is a place for them.
Yeah for some people that’s hard to do. To navigate their drummers as the songwriters in their personal project.
It’s just easier for me because I’m not really seen as a band. I’m seen as one person for some reason, even though I’ve consis-tently toured with a drummer for, like, seven years. It’s not a fucking jam band, you know what i mean?
You can definitely tell by listen-ing to your music that it’s not a jam sesh.
Yeah, that’s kind of my worst nightmare. I hate jam bands. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve jammed in my life (laughs).
You play so many instruments. Which one did you learn first? I first learned piano when I was 9. And then I learned violin. I didn’t really pick up the guitar until I was in college- about 21. I remember playing drums in ‘97 during college, but I didn’t re-ally concentrate on them [until 2002].
Why did you pick up the drums? When I was living in Nottingham, there was a guy in his 60’s who used to go to an open mic night. Sometimes, he’d just get behind the drum kit and sing, like, Bea-tles covers by himself. And I just
found it to be one of the most inspiring things I’d ever seen. That’s why I started – so that I could just sing songs and play drums.
You’re super heavy on the dy-namics. Is that how you write your songs or do they naturally develop that way?
Yeah, I think that’s the whole thing with being able to make noise in your own house and not have people hear it. Whatever the song requires, noise-wise, I have the freedom to do that. I always sing through a P.A. at home, as if I’m playing a show in my own room.
How do you write songs?
I just play music in my room. Circumstances affect how you create stuff: I was an only child and I used to write stuff on the piano as a kid, and now I’ve lived most of my adult life by myself. I’ve managed to somehow have quite a solitary existence. I can’t play music in a room if I know other people can hear me. The whole creative process for me is completely dependent on me being by myself.
What’s your set up?
It’s a Fender pro reverb twin and a 64 mustang. I’ve got a digital delay pedal, which I’ve only re-cently incorporated because I
Text Fabi Reyna Photo Bridget Budbill
only use it on some songs. I have an Ibanez Tube Screamer that’s on all the time. It gives it a low end overdrive sound. And then the Big Muff comes on for the huge guitar sound. I keep all the settings on the amp and pedals low. I do everything at a bass level.
What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened at a show? I had a stalker on the internet, and he ended up coming to a show in California. He had lit-erally been sending me photos of peoples heads being blown off... completely explicit, dis-gusting shit. And then he turned up at a show. It really freaked me out. I confronted him and was like “What are you doing here? Why do you think you can come to this?”
What do you think about the way women are portrayed in the music industry?
That has been something that has always bummed me out in
the sense that quintessential-ly, still, female musicians are judged by what they look like. When I was on tour last year in Europe, I played at this festival, and I read a write-up of it after-wards in which this woman was basically saying she felt sorry for me because I was knocking 40 and wearing pigtails. That is unbelievably unreal to me, that someone – a woman, first of all – would write about an-other woman in terms of what she looked like on stage at all, but in a negative way on top of that, and also not talk about the music. That was the review. It really is insane.
How do you deal with that? It’s really fucking sad. I only get compared to other female mu-sicians, and that really fucking pisses me off because it has nothing to do with my music. It has to do with anatomy, which is insane. Doesn’t make any sense (laughs). When I started playing shows, I definitely got negative
feedback from males about my playing. I just dismissed it...they didn’t get it. I wasn’t into be-ing “technically good” – I never have been – and I’ve noticed that that’s one thing that other women artists sometimes over compensate with. They think they need to be really shit hot at an instrument to play, be-cause they feel like that’s a way of proving that they are good. I’ve noticed that happens and I think that’s a shame. Nobody has to be anything. There’s no fucking rules. Period.
When can we anticipate your next release?
The single is coming out, which is two covers: “Nasty” by Janet Jackson and “No Scrubs“ by TLC – but that’s coming October 30th, right after the European tour, so I’m hoping it will be released digitally before the 7-inches come out. The next al-bum should be done and out by next January.
9
GUITAR: 1964 Fender Mustang AMP: Fender Twin Reverb LISTENING TO: Early Paul Mc-Cartney records, Wings, lots of classical musicCorin Tucker
in the house and on the road
Corin Tucker, the influential riot woman behind some of the most inspiring bands of the 1990s and 2000s — including Heavens to Betsy, Heartless Martin, Cadallaca, and, of course, Sleater-Kinney — continues to carry the feminist torch through her music. Now two years old, the Corin Tucker Band is celebrating the release of their second album, “Kill My Blues,” with a tour of the United States in September and October. We had the honor of speaking with Tucker while she finished putting her 4-year-old daughter to bed. She shared her experiences juggling the
responsibilities of motherhood with being in a band, and she even gave us some “motherly advice” about going on tour.
You’re going on a tour to promote your new album, which came out September 18. What is touring like now that you have to leave your kids at home?
It feels like a vacation for the first day and a half, and then I cut in with a panic attack, like, “Oh my god, I’m so far away from them.” I think it’s going to change as my kids grow up, but it’s been really challenging.
But you still enjoy touring? I love performing; I love being on stage. I totally live for it and I always have. But everything else around it is kind of stress-ful. Like the traveling... it can be fun and I love being in new places. But it can be stressful. I think that’s one thing that’s cool about this band. We’re all rela-tively in the same boat, but we really love to play and perform. Now that you have a family, where does being in a band and playing shows stand in your list of priorities?
I think that it’s something real-ly good for me to do. So if I can do it, I will. I feel really fortu-nate. I started when I was really young in a really supportive music community. I put a re-cord out when I was 18 and I’ve been doing it for over 20 years, so you just have to be reason-able about things. Like if you want to have a family, you know that’s gonna take a lot of time and resources. You have to ne-gotiate these things in life and fit things where they can fit. It’s just really different from being in a band when you’re 24, but it’s been really fun. I’m super excited about the record we made.
How is this new record differ-ent from the last?
I think this one is really differ-ent because we wanted to write a dance record. Musically, it’s much more rock but it’s defi-nitely got more of a dancier thing happening with it. There aren’t any strings or acoustic guitars or anything.
Speaking of acoustic guitars,
on the cover of your last re-cord, there was a drawing of you playing an acoustic guitar, and I think for some people, it’s like, “Oh, we don’t really associ-ate Corin Tucker with acoustic guitar.” So I wonder if there was something you were trying to state with that album cover? I think coming from Sleater-Kin-ney, I wanted to do something really different. So I was trying to use different instruments and sing differently than I had sung in that band. It was an ex-periment.
Did it come out how you wanted it to?
Mostly, yeah. I have to say, though, that people really love the dancier songs. We noticed that when we toured for that record, people really loved to dance to some of the covers. So we tried to do something differ-ent with this record.
So from the reaction of the au-dience, that’s how you got the idea to do something dancier with this album?
Yes. We were playing shows and people would be drinking and literally dancing through the acoustic songs. It was funny because we just did this music video for “Neskowin,”... We’re playing that song over and over, and this girl turns to this other girl and says, “It’s like Zumba [a Colombian fitness dance]!” I was like, yes! Literally, music that you can Zumba to, that’s awesome.
Have you approached song-writing like this before? How has your songwriting changed throughout the years?
I guess that I was part of a scene when I was young — the indie pop music scene. There was already a pretty well-de-fined genre that you were sup-posed to fit inside of. I just nat-urally wrote inside that genre because I wanted to be a part of it, and I was a part of it, and it happened to be right up my alley in terms of writing these really simple pop songs that were really melodic with re-ally simple instrumentation of sometimes just one guitar. And then Sleater-Kinney was al-ways about a challenge... to do something different for each record, which I think is really great. I think that having some kind of vision while you’re writ-ing a record can help.
Does the Corin Tucker Band feel more fluid because you don’t really have that riot grrrl label like Sleater-Kinney and Heavens to Betsy?
I guess, but you know every sin-gle person that interviews me asks me about riot grrrl.
Is that annoying?
Not really. I mean, it’s some-thing that I was a part of, you know? I was really personally involved in it at the time. I think that was more annoying for Carrie and Janet, who were like, “Oh no, the riot grrrl question again,” because they weren’t in riot grrrl. But I was, like, “Sign me up! I’m a member!” Like I went to all the meetings and I was really a part of it and it was something I felt was really important. So to me, it’s part of my biography as a human, you know?
“
You do your work and you hope that it
blazes the trail for the next generation
.
”
So you don’t mind that you did some-thing at the beginning of your career, 20 years ago, is going to stick with you for the rest of your life?
To me it was something that was really important. It was like a feminist move-ment that was trying to put it into the language that we had as young people. I think that what we were trying to do was really important, and I see some of the things that we said carried out in the larger mainstream culture. I see slogans that we had, like “girl power.”
That was us! We came up with that. That’s a really important thing. It’s changed things, even if you want to say it’s just changed things a little bit. I think that is the way that it works. You do your work and you hope that it blaz-es the trail for the next generation. Do you still feel like a punk rock feminist?
CT: I still do! I mean, I think that being older makes you think things through a little bit more. But, I still get really
frustrated with some things that I see going on in this country. In terms of women’s rights and where women are in the world … I definitely still think that it’s part of my work today.
OK, last questions: Who are your latest inspirations? Who are you listening to? I love tUnE-yArDs and I’m into the new Fiona Apple record. I’m always on the lookout for new music because I don’t get out as much as I’d like to, but I keep an open mind.
13
{
Corin Tucker’s Motherly Advice on Touring Abroad
}
Make sure you get to see things — don’t just play your shows and move on.
Have a really good tour manager — someone who’s the responsible one to sort things out when they get re-ally crazy.
Make a color photocopy of your passport and keep it in your suitcase while keeping your real passport as close to you as possible. (Fanny packs are good for keeping your passport and money secure.)
Leave your cell phone in the States, or you might accidentally get a $1500 roaming bill like Corin once did. Look into alternate calling plans before you go abroad.
Serena Williams
Tennis Pro
Apparently this athletic power-house tears it up both on and off the courts. Williams made waves earlier this year when she became the first person in history to com-plete a career Golden Grand slam in both singles and doubles, then went on to become the first ten-nis player — along with her sister, Venus — to claim four Olympic gold medals. Widely regarded as one of the best players of all time, we’re proud to claim Williams as one of our own: The tennis superstar keeps a stash of five Stratocast-ers and used to jam with her sister in a band. “Venus played the bass, I’d play the guitar,” Williams told a reporter for The Independent. “We played lots of rock music, punk. Ve-nus did more alternative stuff. It was fun.”
Indra Nooyi
Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
Consistently ranked by Forbes as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the world (currently, she’s No. 4) and respected for her emphasis on corporate re-sponsibility as well as pushing Pepsi toward healthier products, Nooyi’s been kicking ass and tak-ing names at a global level for a while. And somehow, between the board meetings and international acquisitions, one of the world’s most powerful women finds time to pick up the old electric guitar. It’s rumored that she even plays the occasional riff at less formal company parties. How badass is that? About as badass, we’d say, as Nooyi’s shreddy roots: She played lead guitar in an all-female rock band in Madras, India, during her college days.
Milla Jovovich
Actor, model and musician
Widely recognized for her perfor-mance as Leeloo in “The Fifth Ele-ment” and for starring in “Resident Evil,” Jovovich is known primarily for her acting talents, but her per-formance roots are equally — if not more so — in music. Jovovich was signed to SBK Records at the ripe age of 13, progressing until she re-leased “The Divine Comedy,” a criti-cally acclaimed folk album, in 1994. She went on to play lead guitar in the experimental grunge band Plas-tic Has Memory, which had some well-reviewed shows in New York and Los Angeles before dropping off the map. These days, it looks like Jovovich’s style is a little more electronic. Her EP is slated to drop any day, and you can check out her single “Electric Sky” at sheshreds-mag.com in the meantime.
Text Natalie Baker
Illustration Frances Li
14
Who Knew?
three high-profile women
who play guitar
Text Mac Pogue
Photos Alicia Kroell
Tucked away in a quiet neighborhood on the out-skirts of Portland lies a house that has produced some of the most popular guitar tones in rock to-day. Musicians like Trent Reznor and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline count on these home-made pedals to deliver monstrous sounds. My Bloody Valentine, on their recent reunion tour, re-created the genre-defin-ing sonics of their album “Loveless” in live form with Devi Ever’s pedals. Hav-ing the shoegazHav-ing pio-neers trust Ever with their trademark sounds is, in it-self, endorsement enough to cement her place in the rock pantheon.
Ever
Forever
How DIY fuzz pedal
maker Devi Ever
plans to change your
stompboxes.
Ever’s unassuming Portland abode destroys the fiction of rock legend. Her southwest Portland home looks like her pedals sound: messy, but intentionally so. The place wouldn’t make sense other-wise; walking around, you’re as likely to step on a tossed-aside guitar pedal as you are a half-open video game case or a bra. Looking at the neat rows of stompboxes lined up in her workshop, and then looking at the music, game and pop culture ephemera gives one the sense that Ever puts more into her pedals than just circuit boards and hot solder.
Once upon a time, several big-name manufacturers dominated the guitar pedal scene. Large factory compa-nies like Boss, Electro-Har-monix and MXR captured the market for pedalboards and didn’t let go until the turn of the 21st century. Over the years, boutique and indi-vidual pedal manufacturers worked in a vacuum, largely getting their information from opening up pedals and studying DIY tomes such as Craig Anderton’s “Do-It-Your-self” series. When the prolif-eration of Internet forums gave previously isolated ped-al tinkerers a place to share information, independent manufacturers stepped up their production and quality. And this is where Devi Ever stepped in.
“I thought it would be cool to archive all of the guitar pedals,” Ever says, sitting in her workshop that doubles as a physical archive of her pedals. “Advertising wasn’t going so well and I realized I could build them pretty eas-ily.” Her incessant tinkering
produced the first Devi Ever stompbox: the Crackle Fuzz. “I was trying to make a transis-tor do things — the most ba-sic form of that is a boost, but I couldn’t really get the boost to work right. I didn’t really understand the math behind everything — this was back in the day before there were big online DIY resources. So I just started plugging things into a breadboard until it made sound.”
Ever reveals a small stomp-box with her signature hyper-slick video game-inspired de-signs. “This is actually number one. Someone sold it back to me.” The pedal looks remark-ably fully realized, bearing all of the hallmarks of her visual panache. The only difference between the Crackle Fuzz and the stacks of current models lying in various states of as-sembly around her workshop is the sound: monstrous, rooted in a classical tone yet more menacing than anything born of the hippie genera-tion. Before placing the pedal back among the stacks, Ever gives it one last once-over. “This is my beginning.”
To open a fuzz pedal is to peer into one of the primi-tive elements of rock ’n’ roll. Early on, fuzz was an acci-dent — the byproduct of bad circuitry literally chopping the guitar’s waveform in half. Fuzz is one of the first true artificial sounds; woodwinds, strings, and other acoustic instruments capitalize on phenomena audible, to vari-ous degrees, in nature. Fuzz is a completely human con-ception.
Early rock ’n’ roll capital-ized on the aggressive sound of these electrical mishaps. After a few musicians
tured the fuzzed-out sound of a faulty bass amp on a hit record-ing, engineers started attempt-ing to replicate the circuitry that made the racket. Forty years of fuzz history has yielded only a handful of iconic pedals, and perhaps the most iconic is the Big Muff. The pedal — named for its hallowed muffled sound — defined the style of countless guitar players from its creation in the late ’60s. “There’s some-thing about the tone control,” Ever explains, placing her hands out in front of her as if reaching out to something much larger than a guitar pedal. “At a certain position it’s so smooth.”
Ever admits that her sound has evolved linearly, over slow incre-ments straight ahead, rather than in all directions at once. “People criticize me because my pedals are small tweaks of the same circuit over and over again,” says Ever. “My designs tend to happen in an echo chamber of their own. The Year of the Rat [pedal] is quite different from the original Soda Meiser, so what happens is I make these small tweaks that make larger tweaks.” Her variations-on-a-theme de-sign (most of her pedals use the same set of transistors and cir-cuit boards, and some pedals are just one solder different) allows her to produce custom-tailored pedals, which have put her in touch with some stars of sonic tailoring — UNKLE, for one — but also brought her into a disas-trous series of correspondences with her one-time idol, Billy Cor-gan.
Ever is candid with her love (or
ex-love, rather) of Corgan’s band, the Smashing Pumpkins. “[Pump-kins album] ‘Siamese Dream’ is probably the one thing that has influenced everything I’ve done in terms of tone,” she notes, musing particularly on a sound from its seventh track, “Soma.” “Amongst all the fuzz, all of the delay, you hear that one high-est note echo out for that one moment. It’s taken me probably a decade to realize how he got that sound.”
But in mid-2011, a possible collaboration between Ever and Corgan on a pedal went spec-tacularly south. Corgan dropped hints on his Facebook account about wanting a custom-tailored pedal from Ever, who took the hints as a challenge and sent him one she created. Ever says that Corgan never responded to her offering, prompting her to vent angrily on a Pumpkins message board. In turn, Corgan issued a series of transphobic tweets and Facebook posts (which he subse-quently deleted) that referred to Ever as “he/she” and “an ugly pig.”
Ever responded to his attacks with a YouTube video document-ing how Corgan’s words hurt her. “I have no problem saying this out loud, because I’m not saying he’s a swindler or a bad business person — he just literally said some fucked up, bigoted things.”
While the events may have ru-ined Corgan’s music for her, Ever doesn’t seem to be saddened over her new status as non-fan of the Smashing Pumpkins. She has bigger things to look for-ward to. Her latest project is the Console, a sort of plug-and-play
pedal system with a double-size guitar pedal acting as a port for any number of interchangeable effects cartridges. Instead of paying for boutique or vintage pedals that go for a few hundred dollars a pop, Ever envisions players buying a Console and having an infinitely upgradable multi-effect pedal. The Console works almost like a great equal-izer for pedals; no longer do us-ers have to pine for $400 hand-built pedals and settle for cheap software emulation pedals. “There should be cheaper ver-sions available, so that people can play with [real pedals],” she says. “Not models, actual cir-cuits!”
Not only will the Console be a platform for unifying guitar players’ pedalboards, but Ever sees it as great tool for innova-tion: “I don’t want to be bogged down by the process [of creat-ing].” The Console is a step to-ward inclusion for the pedal community, democratizing the manufacturing process so that pedal makers can cheaply get their pedals into players’ rigs. Rather than hoarding her fan base and capitalizing on their desires, Devi Ever wants to open up the process so the best pedal makers can reach an audience, translating into a better end re-sult for all. This sort of inclusive stance stands out in a business dominated by just a few manu-facturers and gives Ever a sense of excitement about the future. Slowly, but surely, Devi Ever is opening up the pedal market for anyone with a curious eye and a soldering iron.
“
My designs tend to happen in an
echo chamber of their own.
”
Hysterics
“
And we’ll stand up and make sure that everyone
knows that my voice can be just as loud as yours. I
can raise my arms and be just as big as you
.”
Text Fabi Reyna Photo Joe Dunn
This self-proclaimed hardcore quartet from Olympia, Wash., goes by the name Hysterics — which per-fectly describes their live shows. They’re also inspiring, empower-ing and sometimes a little painful, thanks to all the moshing. It’s evi-dent these women have each oth-ers’ backs. After enduring some ha-rassment from a man in the crowd at a recent show, they huddled up in a circle and took turns saying “respect” to one another. We caught up with Hysterics in Austin, Texas, a stop on their all-ages U.S. tour.
All of your shows are all-ages. That’s amazing. What does an all-ages tour mean to you all?
Stephie C. (vocals): It means that nobody who wants to come is kept out, and it means that what happens in the atmosphere of the show isn’t dictated by somebody selling alco-hol. I think that alcohol and music go together some of the time out of desperation because it’s hard to keep venues open since it’s expen-sive. People feel like they need to sell drinks to keep venues open, but that means excluding a whole bunch of people. I think that if kids can’t come to a punk show, then what’s the point? I’m 22, but I remember how much it sucked to want to go see a band you really want to see and you can’t because you were born too late. Why did Hysterics start?
Shannon (drums): It all started this one day when we were all sitting around a bonfire, chanting to our spirit sisters. We wanted to know what to do with our lives, and then the world handed us this. And then Hysterics was born in a small seed that is still growing and none of us know what it means.
Adriana J. (guitar): Yeah, it’s changed a lot. I always really liked hardcore and was like, “Why don’t we have a fucking all-girl hardcore band that’s good?”
Shannon: It’s taken our entire lives to just find the right momentum, I guess, and the right people.
Shannon: Me and Steffi and this girl Sue got together right after I moved to Seattle. No Ades [Adri-ana]! Me and Ades played together once about four years ago.
Stephie C.: We had another drummer at first and for some reason it didn’t work out with her, so we just called Shannon immediately and she was like, “OK, I’ll be there at 6 a.m. the next day!” And Jessica hadn’t played any instrument before but we just thought she was cool and really liked her and wanted her to be in
our crew. It was supposed to be a crew but it just turned into a band. I can tell that you all really love each other.
Stephie C.: Oh yeah, most definitely. That’s what keeps it rolling.
So what is it like to be a woman in the hardcore scene where it’s not very common to see an all-girl band, much less a respected all-girl hardcore band?
Jessica L. (bass): You see a lot of shitty stuff, but then you realize that we’re trying to do something and we’re in control of the situation, and we are here to play a fucking show. We’re trying to convey something and if you’re going to disrespect our space, if you’re gonna fuck with us, it’s our job to take control of it and make sure that we feel comfortable. And we’ll stand up and make sure that everyone knows that my voice can be just as loud as yours. I can raise my arms and be just as big as you.
Stephie C.: And also that everyone at the show — women, trans people, queers — people who are usually marginalized, at least historically, in this kind of scene [are safe]. Do you see many women in the au-dience?
Shannon: We have a lot of women that come to our shows. And we play with a lot of women, too. We’re really lucky. There are women in the scene — it’s not just a completely one-sided male thing. And the brothers that we have in the scene are all really cool. We’re equal with each other and we have a harmonious re-lationship. It’s about making friend-ships and balancing your masculine and your feminine energy and let-ting people be who they are. That is it. People are not just black and white. We’re not just women, we’re not just men, but there are special qualities to each and you have to embrace and learn how to love.
TALKING SHOP
Like the car mechanic, or the guy running the
soundboard, there’s the Gear Dude. And there’s the
corresponding Gear Dude stigma of the bro who
subscribes to—and, worse, propagates—what we
call the Gear Bro Dude Myths of what it takes to be
a “real” guitarist. The Gear Dude Bro clocks his hours
sitting smug at the local guitar shop and spends off
time trolling Guitar World’s online forums.
Never feel intimidated to walk into a guitar shop for
pedal testing, a routine guitar set-up, serious gear
upgrades or just some good time loitering. Dismiss
these Gear Bro Dude myths immediately!
»
20
3
MYTH: Only a Gear Dude Bro can properly set up your guitar. Nuh-uh.[Another quick rundown:
Setting up your guitar
involves examining and
adjusting your instrument’s
1) strings 2) bow of the neck
and truss rod 3) action 4)
nut 5) intonation 6) pick-up
height.
]You can complete all these steps on your own within an hour. All you need is a screwdriver, allen key, wire cutter, millimeter ruler, tuner, and the handy how-to sections provided by yours truly. Check out sheshredsmag.com for
complete instructions on setting up your guitar.
2
MYTH: Change your oil every 3000 miles... and re-string your guitar every month.String change depends on how often you play. If you’re shredding for more than two hours per day, sure, you may want to change those strings every three weeks. But if you’re playing every other day, you can give it about two months. Rarely pick up the guitar? Three months, or even more.
New strings have that clean sound that can be appealing if you’re about to record or play a show. But hey, maybe you like the sound of older, weathered strings. If so, go for it.
TIP: Wiping your strings with a cloth after you play helps them last longer.
1
MYTH: If your strings aren’t 12s…Pffft! You’re just a beginner.Not so! [A quick rundown: string gauges are referred to by the high E string’s diameter in thousandths of the inch, with .08 and .09 on the lighter, thinner side and .012 usually the heaviest sold in stores. Strings are casually referred to as 9s, 10s, 11s, etc. ] Don’t buy the myth that it’s about graduating to bigger gauges
– it’s all about personal style. Thicker, heavier strings are just harder and more difficult to bend. So what are they good for beyond Gear Dude Bro cred? Heavier strings can be ideal for slide guitar or a full rhythm tone. But on the flip side, lower gauge strings let you riff faster. Think about it. You can play heavy riffs with light strings! Of course, just like their heavier counterparts, light strings have a down side, as well: they’re more prone to buzz against the fretboard and pick ups if your guitar’s action is too low.
The only way to determine your preferred string gauge is try them out and get a feel for the difference. Marnie Stern is reported to play 10s, and she graduated from the beginner’s section a long time ago. So if some guitar shop’s Gear Dude Bro tries to convince you with that story about when Stevie Ray Vaughan strung his guitar with .018 gauge strings… find another gear person.
Your style and personal preferences inform
how your guitar should be set up, never the
other way around. And if you want to save some
time by dropping off your guitar with someone,
find a gear person who has the decency and
professionalism to consider your preferences
when it comes to string gauge, playability, and
sound. Oh, and don’t let them charge you more
than 40 bucks.
21
* Your guitar ACTION is the distance between your strings and the fretboard. If the
ac-tion is too high, it can be painful or difficult to play your instrument.
* INTONATION is your pitch accuracy – is your guitar as in tune on the 1st fret as it is on
the 9th and 12th?
22
1st fret 3rd fret
E major
G major barre
T T T T T i i i i i M i M M R R
Re
pea
t
T = Thumb
i = Index
M = Middle
R = Ring
“
Here’s a finger picking exercise I originally learned when I was 15, learning Etude #1 by H. Villa Lobos on classical guitar. I’ve been us-ing this exercise ever since to help with strengthening the muscles and building speed in my right hand. If you just picked up the guitar yes-terday, try this pattern without wor-rying about playing chords. Once you get the hang of that use these chords as you advance and continue to go down the neck with the same hand shape as the G Major Barre chord.
”
-Fabi ReynaFinger-Picking Exercises
Hand Exercises
With your right hand, pretend like you’re telling someone to STOP. Wrap your left hand around the finger tips of your right. Gently pull to-wards your face and feel the stretch in your fore-arm and hand muslces. Count to 10 and move on to the next exercise.
With the same hand, pretend like you’re putting your hand out for someone to kiss. Again, wrap the opposite hand around your finger tips with your thumb on the inside of your hand. Gently pull towards your stomach and feel the stretch in your fore-arm. Count to 10 and you should feel your muscles ready to shred!
