The Gibson Classic Interview: They Might Be Giants' Dan Miller

Gibson.com is pleased to present “The Gibson Classic Interview,” where we open our archives and share with you interviews we’ve done over the years with some of the world’s biggest artists. This week, we revisit Courtney Grimes' 2005 interview with Dan Miller of college radio kings, They Might Be Giants.

They Might Be Giants (TMBG). Named after a ‘60s movie with George C. Scott, the underground pop/rock/hint-of-polka group continues to “Flood” the hearts of millions. The group’s core duo, John Flansburgh and John Linnell (The Johns), began their friendship in junior high, but didn’t begin to work together musically until 1981 in Brooklyn.

During the ‘80s, the Johns released their first two albums, their self-titled They Might Be Giants (1985) and Lincoln (1988), which garnered attention from most of the country, and led the Giants to a constant touring schedule (with a guitar and a four-track recorder) as well as their first national TV spot on “The Late Show with David Letterman.” By 1990, the Johns signed with Elektra Records and put out their third album, Flood, with the contributions of several guest musicians. Along with the release of Flood, came another flood – They Might Be Giants were becoming alternative college radio superstars, and soon thereafter, expanded their sound to include a full band.

In the meantime, Gibson rocker Dan Miller was flooding stages as well in North Carolina with Lincoln, a band of his own. Lincoln was asked to open for TBMG and after Dan left Lincoln, the Giants asked him to join them. Dan came onboard in 1997, just in time to help propel the Giants to “the hardest working men in show business” status and celebrate the group’s 20th Anniversary in 2002.

Dan, who has just returned from a “Giant” trip to L.A., chats in an online interview about who he’s dating, Devry applications, and his career highlight involving a two-year-old.

How was L.A.?

L.A. was a total gas. Every time we head out there, something exciting and very L.A. happens. We seem to lead very ordinary (thanks the stars) life here in NYC, but for some reason, when we head out west we live these lives that belong to someone else.
We did this taping for MusicChoice at the House of Blues on Sunset. Since I don’t have cable, can someone Tivo it for me? The gig was going along great when the lighting board blew a gasket. As any budding A/V aide knows, lighting is a crucial part of television, without it we would have no idea which Olsen twin was which. So, the show stops dead in its tracks while the crew figures out how to proceed. I’m not sure what the solution was, but I think using a dimmer switch had a lot to do with it. Eventually the show gets up and running again and we had a grand old time. I think it came out very great. 

The next evening we did an in-store at Amoeba Music. There were so many people that they had to close the doors, which for a record store can’t be a good thing.  For me, that was the highlight of the trip. We’ve been doing some family music recently and it’s great to see parents and their kids boppin’ along while standing in the “New Age Heavy Metal” section of the store. At one point I looked down and a two-year-old was giving me the thumbs up – a career highlight.

How did you come onboard with the band?

The bass player (Danny Weinkauf) and I were in a band called Lincoln. For about 18 months, on and off, we opened for TMBG. I quit the band in Winston-Salem, NC in a scene that can be replicated by watching the hotel outtakes from “The Song Remains the Same.” I believe the hotel still has a lien on my house. I hitched home and was sitting on the sofa filling out applications for the Devry Institute when the phone rang. It was Flans (John Flansburgh) asking me if I wanted to go on tour with the Giants. When I awoke from hitting my head on the ceiling I started learning the tunes.

A Quick aside for historical reason:

I head down to the rehearsal space for my first time playing with the band. For this tour the band had expanded to include horns and the like. I walked into the room, as nervous as could be, and began what has to be the worst audition in the history of music. My nerves were shredded and I couldn’t play a right note to save my life. I think the horn players thought that I’d walked into the wrong room. We took a break and figured if I hurried I could get those Devry applications out that night. As I sat dejected in the corner the Johns came up to me and basically said, hey man, this isn’t an audition, you already have the gig - just relax. The results of those kind words were that I relaxed and played way better for the remaining time. It was a moment of great generosity from the Johns and I remain appreciative to this day.

We went on the road a week or two later and that’s that. I think it was about eight (Good God!!) years ago. It’s been one sweet ride since then.

What is your favorite TMBG song?

It’s hard to have a consistent favorite. I enjoy playing certain songs at certain times. There is acoustic solo in front of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” that I really enjoy doing. It’s a chance to work into the show some things that I’ve been working on in private study. The only criterion is that at some point I state the melody to show the crowd where we’re heading. If the tune is going well the band will join in and it becomes this spontaneous composition. When the stars align and I’ve done my finger exercises I think it’s one of the high points of the show as neither we nor the crowd know how it’s going to end up. Occasionally it’s a train wreck, but there is learning in those times, too.

Overall, the songs I enjoy playing are the songs where I can learn something from each performance. One of the great things about TMBG is that we’re all free to try different things on different nights. I have a real problem with repetition, as I get bored quickly. Obviously, you always try to stay inside the music, but beyond that you can try out different things.

And a favorite non-TMBG song?

There’s a lot of music I really dig listening to. Growing up on XTC and the whole British thing, I am glad that their influence is coming back around with this new crop of bands. Beyond that I suspect that I have pretty ordinary tastes in music – I don’t really focus on guitary music, a lot of that is really just an excuse to play your Guitar Center licks. I think musicianship goes behind songwriting and energy – if it’s a good song then I’m on board. I only notice great playing if it comes with a good song. I can’t seem to focus on musicianship if I don’t like the tune.

Tell me about your Gibsons.

I have a few. The one I’m playing a lot these days is the Les Paul Deluxe. I read somewhere that the mini-humbuckers were the replacement for the P-90 - an attempt to pull back on the “my god – who’s buzzing like crazy” that the P’s can have sometimes. True to the word, I find the Deluxe tight, punchy and nicely heavy in the mid-range, like a P-90 but without the sound engineer throwing something at me.

I just did a session where I was playing it. The engineer was planning all these plug-ins and do-dads to help the sound along, but when he heard the tone he just hit record and away we went. The amp was cranked and the guitar really sailed on its own.

I also have an early ‘80s 335. This was my first foray into the world that is Gibson and it’s been a steady friend for many a year. I love the slightly wider neck that allows me to reach stuff that my genetically fat fingers say otherwise. Our tech Robbie has done some very minor enhancements to it so that it feels super comfortable and solid as a rock. I don’t think the neck has moved for ten years.

One big must for a traveling musician is the reliability of your guitars. The last thing you need when you’re on tour is to show up at the gig and have to do a reset or re-intonate the guitar. It’s a real vibe killer that I have had to deal with many times on lesser instruments. Both of these Gibsons have shown to be all-weather friends.

Which one is your favorite?

I’m dating the Deluxe these days.

Do you think it’s been harder, having a more underground following than a mainstream radio fan base?

I think it’s been a total hidden blessing to be an underground band. Although, I do feel that we have peeked our heads above ground occasionally over the years. Survival in the music industry is essentially a myth. Take 10,000 budding musicians, whittle that down to the 2,000 who get to make records, whittle that down to the 20 that actually sell and then whittle that down to the two who can still afford to make music five years down the road.

I think what TMBG have been part of is creating a new way of thinking about what defines success for a band. As the band moves forward I’m constantly amazed at the variety of projects we take on. Everyone knows that the conditions are changing and musicians have to adapt to the new climate. What used to be the charts is now the list of the most popular p2p downloads. The Giants’ natural instincts are to make creative music, regardless of the format or outlet. This may be defined as ‘underground’ but my guess is that this will, or already has, become the mainstream way for working bands. Long live the Underground!

TMBG has been around for over 20 years. In your opinion, how do you keep gaining the attention of young audiences, while keeping the older ones?

This is a question that I’ve been asking myself for many years. It seems like we’re cloning our audience every five or six years. How it happens is a mystery to me, but God bless it. One reason may be what I was talking about earlier. Another, as I pat myself on the back, is the live show. For me, certain things about live music should remain a constant – if you can’t connect to the audience in your own special way, then you need to re-think your show. The Johns are exceptionally good at connecting to the people who come to see the show. Give us a good night without the technical snafus (not that often) and we’ll give you a live experience you’re not likely to find elsewhere.

Another small point is that TMBG is the kind of music you have to seek out and that makes it special. When I was growing up the music that I had to hunt for, the stuff that was not played all over the radio, was the stuff I was, and still am, into most. Music makes up a big part of who I am. Whatever illusions I live under, I don’t want the ‘me’ to be the most popular thing out there.

If you could offer one piece of advice to up-and-coming guitarists, what would it be?

This may sound like a joke, but I know it would work. If you figure out every part Jimmy Page laid down in Led Zeppelin, including leads and rhythm, you will be one the best guitarists in the world. He covers so many styles and still found a way to bring himself into it. The more I listen (and attempt to figure out), the more respect I have. If you manage to do this, let me know, ‘cause you can show me some things. I once read an interview with Elliot Easton and he claimed that every day he figured out at least one new thing. That makes sense to me. Oh yeah – write great songs!!

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The Gibson Interview: Joe Bonamassa (Part One)

Joe Bonamassa was born to play the guitar. His parents owned and ran a guitar shop in Utica, New York, so he was literally surrounded by the instrument from birth. A fourth-generation musician, Bonamassa took to the guitar early on, receiving his first axe at the tender age of four. By 11, he was cutting his teeth with Danny Gatton and, a year later, he opened for B.B. King. From there, his rise to the top of the guitar world has been a steady one, from his teen prodigy band, Bloodline, to his award-winning solo career and, more recently, his tenure in the supergroup Black Country Communion.

Along the way, Bonamassa has been a constant lover (and abuser) of the Gibson Les Paul. With Gibson USA proudly announcing, this week, the new Gibson USA Joe Bonamassa Les Paul, we sat down with the mild-mannered gunslinger to talk axes.

Tell me about the new Gibson USA Joe Bonamassa Les Paul.

Well, I’m excited, man. It’s a cool guitar. I mean, essentially, a guitar that’s like the Bonamassa Custom Shop one and the Epiphone one like we did last year, but it kinda has the appointments of a Les Paul Studio. It’s not bound, but it’s a Gibson. I think it’s really cool. I’ve been playing it. I’ve had the prototype for about two or three months, maybe more. I think more. And I’ve been playing it, and it’s got an inviting neck. It’s one of those guitars that makes you want to play it.

But I think it will be good for the kids out there who don’t have $4,000 to spend on the Custom Shop one and the ones who didn’t get the thousand Epiphones that were sold extremely quickly, actually. So I think it’s a good opportunity. And I think it’s also a good opportunity to get a guitar into the hands of some kids, which is kind of the whole point anyway.

How much input did you have on this guitar? Was it a true collaboration between you and Gibson USA?

I spoke to my ER rep and all the guys in Nashville at Gibson USA and we came up with a concept. They used a lot of the specs from the Custom Shop one – you know, the neck size and the dish and everything else. And so, a lot of the work was already done, because we’ve had really good luck with the Custom Shop ones. And you know, we’ve done them in sunburst and blue and all the different colors. And [laughs] I think that’s it. And gold, of course. But yeah, it was one of those things where a lot of the work was already done, so they just took the specs off the Custom Shop one and kind of amalgamated it into their factory – which a lot of people don’t know their factories are separate.

So it was a real blast and, you know, when the first prototype came out I was really shocked. They did a really good job. I didn’t really have a whole lot of comments for it.

You’ve always been associated with Les Pauls. What is it about those axes that’s always spoken to you?

You know, everybody has this sound in their head. You know what I mean? The ideal guitar sound that kinda fits in your head. And for me, it’s a really thick, kind of mid-range-y, warm sound. You know, not a lot of top end, but it still has enough drive and saturation to where it’s not too clean, but it’s not too overdriven, but it’s very articulate. You can dial it in on any guitar, but it takes a lot more work. But when you plug a Les Paul even just straight into an amp – you know, Marshall amp or whatever, Fender, whatever – it just does that thing, you know? It’s very, very easy for me to achieve the sound that I hear in my head with a Les Paul. So I’ve been using those kinds of guitars forever.

What was your first Les Paul?

My first Les Paul was a 1980. It was a 1980 that my father traded a mustard-color Fender Stratocaster for back in like, this is 1981-1982. He didn’t like [the Strat], because the Fender didn’t have good enough frets – which it didn’t. Actually, somebody tried to hack them out at one point. And this opportunity came up to get a Les Paul Standard. And it was a sunburst, you know, 1980 Les Paul Standard. And it was really… for me it was a real treat. And again, it was louder and it was thicker, and it had a lot of really good qualities to it. But I was also like six years old, so...

Do you still have it?

No, I don’t. I traded up. I’ve kind of like been collecting guitars for, god, it has to be over 20 years, 22 years maybe. I finally just got my first real ’59 this year and, you know, that’s a real treat. I worked my way up through the Les Pauls of yesterday to get the Holy Grail, so to speak.

You don’t take that on the road, do you?

I do! I absolutely do.

Really?

I insure the hell out of it and I take it on the road. The way I look at it is: what am I going to do with it? Leave it at home? You know? I tour nine months a year and, what I going to do, come home, noodle on it on the couch… you know? Go, “Wow look at this, I’ve got a ’59 Les Paul that never gets used, maybe on a recording here and there.” I’d rather get a nice case for it – which I did – hire an ex-secret service agent as my security guard – which I did [laughs] – and take it on the road.

That’s nice to hear. I get a little depressed when I see vintage guitars in glass cases in restaurants. They’re like little tombs, you know?

Well, yeah. And they’re very functional. You know, my guitar is 52 years old and, honestly, it plays and sounds great. But the important thing to realize – and yes, it is a fantastic Les Paul and when people play it, even when you don’t tell them it’s a ’59. They say, “Wow, this is a really great guitar. I mean, we don’t care if it’s a 1979.” But the truth of the matter is, it’s still just a really good guitar and, if I look at it in those terms, I really have no problem taking it on the road.

Check back tomorrow for the conclusion of The Gibson Interview.

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The Gibson Video Interview: 3 Doors Down’s Matt Roberts

As 3 Doors Down prepare for another European tour and the release of their much-anticipated new album, Time of Your Life, guitarist Matt Roberts stopped by the Gibson Showroom in Nashville. Matt talked about his hero Jimmy Page, the new album, working with Rush’s Alex Lifeson and, of course, the brand-new Gibson guitar he brought with him!

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The Gibson Video Interview: Beady Eye’s Andy Bell

Andy Bell has been at the epicenter of British rock music since the late 1980s, when his band Ride were at the forefront of the shoegaze scene. From there, he did time with Britpoppers Hurricane #1 and Gay Dad before landing on the mothership of British rock with Oasis. With Noel Gallagher and company, Bell set down the guitar for the first time and quickly learned the bass. In the aftermath of Oasis’ 2009 breakup, Bell remained with bandmates Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer and Chris Sharrock to form a new group, Beady Eye. The band released their first album, Different Gear, Still Speeding, in February to positive reviews, only bolstered by the group’s subsequent live performances.

Bell sat down at the Gibson NYC Showroom to talk about Beady Eye, his beloved Trini Lopez and the amazing run of drummers in his career.

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The Gibson Interview: Derek Trucks

The 31-year-old slide guitar fire breather is busy. Plenty busy. But Derek Trucks also is excited that for the rest of this year his priority will be the new group he co-leads with Susan Tedeschi, a Grammy-nominated vocalist and guitar player whose voice embodies the best qualities of classic soul, and who also happens to be his wife.

They’ve toured together before, leading the summer festival-hopping Soul Stew Revival, but, like all of Trucks’ bands, that was primarily a touring aggregation. As the Gibson SG die-hard explains it, the group he and Tedeschi assembled to work on the new album, Revelator, earlier this year is the first outfit he’s really drafted from scratch, finding the best musicians to create the sounds he and Susan had in mind for the studio and for the road.

The result is a sprawling but organic unit that has the same rootsy depth and improvisatory consciousness as Delaney and Bonnie and Friends and Blind Faith, two groups that prominently featured Gibson Les Paul Sunburst and ES-335 legend Eric Clapton, with whom Trucks has toured as guitar foil. And on Revelator, the Tedeschi Trucks Band effortlessly hop genres. New Orleans funk, hard-core soul, R&B, blues, gospel, jazz and rock all rub elbows on the disc, and live they take flight with improvisational extensions.

We recently caught up with Trucks, who discussed the new band, the new album and his amazing slide tone.

Why did you and Susan decide to formalize the musical partnership you forged in the Soul Stew Revival with the new band?

You want to be surrounded with people who are the best at what they do, and you’re really fortunate when you can find eight or 10 of them. And when it comes to singing deep, Susan is one of the best. When she digs into a gospel bag she can channel Mahalia Jackson, and for me, that kind of singing – very spiritual – sparks things in my playing. It also makes me remember some of the soul and blues influences that I’d moved away from.

There’s sarod on “These Walls,” which is a reminder of how deeply Eastern-influenced your first Derek Trucks Band discs were. And there’s stone gospel, rock and blues. How did that mix come about?

I think I’m more patient now as a musician and as a person. I’m more comfortable returning to things I’ve explored before and stretching out toward the new at the same time. But instead of trying to push out in all kinds of directions at once, I’m happy to let things evolve naturally. That’s part of playing with a group this large. The ensemble sound is going to have to grow into its own on stage.

We have a “five minute rule” on stage where we can only improvise during that time – no songs. And those periods are starting to sound like compositions. At times it really starts to be like a freight train, where everybody’s locked and it’s really moving. But I’ll know our sound has really gelled when the subtleties are in place.

I also think that getting to a deeper place in the music has gotten easier and easier for me. And taking a long time to explore different sounds and styles in the studio while making this album also helped me to tune out distractions.

What I really enjoyed about the process of making this record was I never felt like I was pushing against the grain. It all felt really right. When you get everything flowing in the right direction, your focus just gets wider and wider and you’re really in the moment.

What kind of evolution does Revelator represent for you?

I think I’ve really evolved as a record maker. Having my own studio in my home has really let me relax and experiment. When we made the last album there and did the project with Herbie Hancock [recording the song “Space Captain”], we were still putting up walls as we recorded. Now we’ve really developed an understanding of how everything sounds and works.

Having the studio really allowed us to remove time as a factor. We could pretend it was 1970 again and really spend time working on the album. Today there are no album budgets unless you’re one of the top 10 grossing acts in the world. But we were really able to dig in and really live together and make music, like The Band did when they lived in Big Pink and recorded in Woodstock.

Why call the album Revelator?

I like the intensity of that word. It’s strong, powerful. As a musician, it sets a bar and says the music you’re working on deserves to be reckoned with instead of glossed over. In our culture today so many things are glossed over. Music is a tool to tap back into what we’re supposed to be doing here.

The sound of the album and the band is very warm and organic. How did you achieve that?

Mixing down to tape after you record is just a nice thing. Everything is recorded digitally now, but mixing down to tape really glues everything together. It really warms up the midrange. It recreates the sound of the glory days of the late 1960s.

Did you have reference points from that era when you and Susan were assembling the band?

We were thinking about a real warm, natural ensemble sound. Delaney and Bonnie and Blind Faith were live ensembles that were really well integrated. And Sly & the Family Stone, Derek and the Dominos, Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen band. They were archetypes of what we were thinking about.

When I first saw everybody get on the two busses it takes to carry all the musicians on tour, I said, “What the hell am I thinking?” But then it sounds so good when everybody hits the stage I realize it’s got to be done. It’s too powerful and too right not to do it. And besides the 11 people in the band, there’s the crew – so it’s a lot to wrap my head around. But I need that edge to push me to be as creative and work as hard as I can, so there it is.

We also worked together live in the studio as a unit fleshing out the songs, so there’s something beautiful about just making it work and not worrying about editing yourself before getting things together. I think this is the best music I’ve ever made in my life.

How easy is it for the band to improvise, given its size?

We’ve only done seven or eight shows, so it’s still coming together on stage. One of the biggest challenges is making sure the music has diversity and balance. But because of the group chemistry, that comes naturally. Oteil and Kofi Burbridge are brothers, so they have an amazing kind of communication going. The horn section are friends and have worked together before, so they’re really tight. In the band there’s basically five different subgroups that all know and have played with each other before, so that helps everybody work as a larger unit.

You get an extremely well-defined slide tone out of your red Custom Shop SG, similar to Duane Allman. How do you achieve that?

On the guitar, it’s almost all neck pickup, and I keep the tone at 6ish, 7ish, 8ish… depending on the song. Live, the set-up is usually just a vintage Super Reverb on 7 or 8, so it’s wide open and I control it with the volume on the guitar. In the studio we experimented quite a bit with the tone. There are a lot of different amps combined. We used a Deluxe quite a bit, a little Princeton quite a bit, an Old Magnatone occasionally, and others. It stays pretty simple – just plugging into an amp or amps and letting it rip. In the studio, we kept the volume of the amps pretty quiet and let the room do the work. I noticed that in the studio the less you blow it out volume wise, the more an amp speaks. Learning that was part of my maturing process.

Another thing that’s impressive about your slide playing is your diction: the clarity and form of your phrasing. How do you achieve that very urgent, clear sound?

Most of that comes from my right hand. I tend to hit hard with my right hand and keep all of my right hand on the strings, like clawing them. You release what you want to release.

A lot of my phrasing comes from vocalists. For a long time, when I was working on my slide playing, that’s all I listened to – from Howlin’ Wolf to Aretha Franklin. I also take a lot from the sacred steel school, especially Aubrey Ghent. I was already going down that road when I sat in on some classes with Ali Akbar Khan, the Hindustani classical slide player. He made all his instrumental students take vocal lessons before they could work on their instruments.

Ultimately, you need to tell your story. With every sound you make, you need to say something. And knowing when to start and stop a phrase is as important as all the stuff you practice for days. The only limitations with slide are in the way you hear it.

Susan’s also an excellent guitarist. What was her instrumental role on Revelator?

Susan plays rhythm on most of the record and takes the lead on “Love Has Something Else to Say,” which was just her plugged into an amp playing live as we cut the basic tracks. She just blew through it.

Magic Sam and Johnny “Guitar” Watson are her two biggest guitar influences. When we play with the Allman Brothers, a lot of different guitar players come and sit in. She can get up with anybody and just cut through the [expletive].

Is open E still your primary tuning?

Yes, but on a few tunes on Revelator I used an old Firebird and tuned it down to open D. We wrote 30 songs for the album and trimmed them down to 11, so there was plenty of time to experiment.

You’re cast as the inheritor of Duane Allman’s style, because of both your playing - Duane was a major influence on you – and your family heritage. What are your thoughts about Duane and his legacy?

Duane is a seminal figure like Charlie Christian or Wes Montgomery – a guy who came along at exactly the point where there was a major change in music, and fell into the center of it.

For electric slide you’ve gotta go back to Elmore James, and Duane was really that next step. He had learned the basics and was playing with some of the best R&B musicians in the world in the studio, and at the same time was listening to Miles Davis’ [early fusion masterpiece] Bitches Brew and Jimi Hendrix. He had a lot of influences, but Duane was the first guy to take that Elmore sound and crack it wide open in a way that opened the door to his sound for guitar players and for people in general. And when somebody comes along and takes what comes before them and moves it ahead the way Duane did, the bar is set.

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The Gibson Video Interview: Jean Beauvoir

To say Jean Beauvoir has had a colorful career would be a bit of an understatement. The Haitian-born musician served as Gary U.S. Bonds’ musical director at the ripe old age of 13, followed by stints with other ’50s legends, including Chuck Berry and The Flamingos. From there, he took a dramatic left turn and joined the punk band The Plasmatics. Following a solo career and two albums with Steven Van Zandt, Beauvoir moved into songwriting and producing, cutting tracks with some of the biggest acts in the world, including KISS, The Ramones, The Pretenders, Debbie Harry and others. Since the early ’90s, he has fronted his own hard rock band, Crown of Thorns. Recently, Beauvoir and his band held court in Gibson’s New York City Showroom.

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The Gibson Interview: Nikki Sixx

 

Thirty years after Nikki Sixx began his career recording albums and becoming a fixture on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip with Motley Crue, his head is still exploding with musical ideas. Sixx’s latest showing, This is Gonna Hurt (out May 3), shows his arena rock style growing more diverse, swelled with strings, epic melodies and his always-fluid, meat-and-potatoes rock bass lines.

Of course, the past few years have proved Sixx is more than a one-talent gent. He’s a Renaissance man who hosts a nationally syndicated rock radio show (Sixx Sense), writes New York Times best-selling books (2007’s The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star and the just-released This Is Gonna Hurt), fronts his own hard rock band (Sixx:A.M.), and devotes countless chunks of time to photography.

In this exclusive interview with Gibson.com, Sixx talks about what makes his new book so personal, spills details on the forthcoming album and explains why he “can’t really stand on a stage” without a Thunderbird in his hand.

I read that you put together your new book, This is Gonna Hurt, with the goal to inspire people to do something they’ve never done before. Is that right?

Absolutely. I think as an artist, we all hope, on one level or another, to inspire people with our work. I was inspired by people growing up, whether it was Aerosmith or The Rolling Stones or photographers, and fashion has always been a big inspiration for me as well. In a sense, this is giving back.

This book is filled with photos you took and passages that bleed out your thoughts and experiences. Would you say this is extremely personal?

It’s very personal, but yet I think the social commentary in it doesn’t necessarily speak from my voice. It’s speaking from what I’ve found to be true in the world, which is wonderful. I think a lot of people relate to it.

Where do you get inspiration for your photography?

I’ve always loved different things in life. Whether it was different bands or even architecture, I’ve always had an eye for stuff some would deem odd and some would say is extremely beautiful. For me, that’s where I’ve always been, and the photography that has inspired me is wide – everything from wet plate style photography in the 1800s to early 1900s to beyond. With my photography, I was able to look at what I loved as an artist and start to experiment.

Your forthcoming CD, This is Gonna Hurt, is a companion to the book. How are the emotions of the book and album intertwined?

Well, the book was originally going be a coffee table book with just the art. Having a huge body of work, I was able to look at it and try to find some consistency in it, to bring it together in one collection. I started writing a passage that would accompany the photography book, and it ended up being almost 500 pages. It really turned into a breakdown on social commentary on beauty and those messages that have been downloaded into my head and my life, and I was able to find that thread. In that moment of inspiration, the guys in Sixx:A.M. could see it, too. We had that moment where we sat together as a band and talked and they were like, “Dude, I relate to this,” or “I felt like that, as well.” So we started writing music, and that started to push me more as a photographer. It really became like one in itself.

Tell me about the making of the album documentary, which is on Hulu.com.

Well, I had a documentary crew with me filming me doing my photo sessions, and that was a personal thing for me. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with that, and as the band started talking, we started realizing it was a bigger piece. I interviewed the band members, the subjects I photographed, and myself for the documentary. I was able to capture someone like Amy Purdy, who is a double amputee due to Neisseria Meningitis and has gone on to do great things with her life. What was missing was that moment where they get a voice, and that’s where the documentaries come into play.

What are you most proud you were able to accomplish on the album?

I’m proud of the fact we were able to be vulnerable and honest as songwriters and true to what we said we were going to do – to raise the standard of songwriting within the band and really push ourselves musically. That’s a good feeling. That honest punk rock attitude: just doing it because you love it.

You’re a big Gibson player. What make Gibson basses special?

The attention to wood is important. With the Thunderbird, for me, I feel like I can’t stand on a stage and not have a Thunderbird in my hand. It’s like my skin. It completely fits me like a glove. The way it fits in my hand and lays in my hand, the way it leans against my body, everything about it. It’s been amazing to have a relationship with Gibson and have Gibson work with me on certain types of pickups and wiring. These are just very little things that may not mean a lot to someone else, but are very personal to me.

What was important to you when helping to design your signature Blackbird and Thunderbird IV?

One of the things important to me was to be a bit subtle with the signature series. I didn’t want to call it the Nikki Sixx bass. I wanted other bass players to want to play it. That’s why we came up with the name, Blackbird. Gibson Thunderbirds are what I’ve always played, but my signature is the Blackbird. I’ve seen a lot of guys in a lot of bands play the Blackbird, because it doesn’t scream my name all over it. I think musicians want to be individual. They love a certain instrument and want to play it, but they don’t want it to be too gaudy or too much about the other guy. They want to make it their own.

Any plans for the return of Crue Fest this year?

Well, we’re doing a headline tour with Poison and New York Dolls that will take us through August. At that point, we’re heading towards the end of summer, and I don’t know at that point what we’re going to do or whether we’re going to tour anymore or not. So right now, no plans for Crue Fest.

On top of writing, performing, and photography, you also host a nationally syndicated rock radio show, Sixx Sense. How do you do it all?

Radio is an opportunity to say something into a microphone, and whether you play a song or say something provocative or funny, it makes people have an emotional reaction. They feel something. They feel good. They feel bad. They feel angry. They feel disappointed. You have an opportunity to change something, and for me, that’s where radio has always been a bit like magic.

When I turn on the radio, it creates a mood, and I really enjoy that. Kerri Kasem, my co-host, and I do seven shows in four days, and it’s very organized. It’s a lot of work, and it’s the most fun I’ve had outside of playing rock and roll. We laugh every day. No matter what you’re going through, you have to deliver. If you’re going through a high, you have to control that, and if you’re going through a low, you have to control that, because that part of your life is personal and you always have a responsibility to entertain them.

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The Gibson Interview: Duff McKagan

Duff McKagan’s Loaded is in itself a loaded name for a band. It refers to McKagan’s battle against substance abuse, and it also seems to slyly hint at the same Guns N’ Roses reference found in the name Velvet Revolver. The band’s latest album, The Taking, is heavier and louder than its predecessor, Sick, and it also has a more cohesive band feel, buoyed by some decent touring time since the last album.

While the band’s first recording, the EP Wasted Heart, was released in 2001 and the second in 2009, it took a mere two years for The Taking to enter the world. “Velvet Revolver got in between Dark Days – the first Loaded record – and Sick,” McKagan recounts on why Velvet Revolver took precedence. “It was kind of important because Slash and I had this really long, obvious history, and the thing that got Velvet Revolver together was a friend of ours dying.”

That friend was drummer Randy Castillo, a driving force in Ozzy Osbourne’s second-most-classic lineup during the No More Tears era. Castillo also replaced Tommy Lee in Motley Crue. After Castillo tragically died of cancer in 2002, Duff, Slash and GN’R drummer Matt Sorum performed at a benefit concert with Josh Todd and Keith Nelson of Buckcherry (plus B-Real and Sen Dog of Cypress Hill). Velvet Revolver grew from there.

“It was one of those things where fate stepped in, Velvet Revolver started playing, and the guys in Loaded got it, and Velvet Revolver made two records,” McKagan says. “Loaded played a few gigs here, but more like charity gigs around Christmas and stuff, up here in Seattle. We knew we were going to do another record but we didn’t think it was going to take that long. As soon as I was off the road with Velvet Revolver after Libertad, Loaded got right back.”

The band wrote Sick, took it on tour and kept writing and recording ideas on the road. The demos caught the ear of legendary producer Terry Date (Soundgarden, Pantera), and the rest is history.

Taken as a whole, The Taking goes a little deeper than either Dark Days or Sick. “The record is almost a backwards concept record,” McKagan explains. “It’s really the story of a break-up of two very dear friends that we witnessed as a band. We were such good friends with both of them, the guy and the girl, and we watched the fracture and the deceit, the lying to yourself, the lying to the other one, the heartache, the heartbreak, the anger – that’s why there’s ‘Your Name,’ ‘Follow Me to Hell’ and ‘Lords of Abaddon’ – then that kind of wishful thinking… Like ‘Man, it was always better somewhere else,’ and that's where ‘Indian Summer’ goes. That first love.”

“Indian Summer” is a brighter, lighter-sounding track than the bulk of the album, with almost Smashing Pumpkins-like melodies soaring over a part-punk/part-grunge/part-Cheap Trick groove. Although the narrative of The Taking as a whole is non-linear, the track’s placement in the running order – seventh of 12 songs – pushes the whole set forward and pays off the optimistic thread established on track four, “We Win.”

“What happened is these two got divorced but they became better friends than ever, and that’s where ‘We Win’ came from,” McKagan says. “The thing about this backwards concept record is that we didn’t really realize we were all writing about the same thing, because it affected us all. We couldn’t really take part in the break-up – usually you take part in somebody’s break-up because you’re friends with the guy or the girl, and they talk to you, and just by them talking to you about it, you’re taking part in it. We kinda refused talking to either one of them about it because we didn’t want to take sides, so it was like Zen Buddhism: we didn’t talk to each other about it. The first song was ‘Easier Lying’ and ‘Indian Summer’ had its place in that story.”

Although he plays bass in the currently dormant Velvet Revolver and was, of course, the bass player for GN’R, Duff is Loaded’s rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist. His gear stable on The Taking included a newer Gibson SG. “I have some great Gibsons,” he says. “I didn’t use any but the SG on The Taking, but I have ’59 tobacco ’burst that I just keep in storage – a safe, basically. Y’know, you can’t take that thing out and play it because it’s worth so much damn money these days. I have an old ’58 Junior or Special, too, which is a beautiful guitar. I don’t really play that one too much, because again it’s worth a bunch of dough. And I also have a ’73 Les Paul Custom that I play a lot.”

McKagan is maintaining a “wait and see” approach to Velvet Revolver’s search for a new singer to replace Scott Weiland. In the meantime he has plans to take Loaded on the road for much of the year, and then there’s the pressing matter of his forthcoming book, an autobiography, which is due in October.

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