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Artist / Heroes,
Cool Mike Keneally Interview in the June 2010 Issue of Guitar Player
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Posted by: Jeffrey McAlack | Posted in: Artist / Heroes,
There is a great interview in this month’s (June, 2010) issue of Guitar Player magazine with Mike Keneally, one of the great guitar architects of our time. Mike is widely known for his work as Frank Zappa’s “stunt guitarist” in the late 80s, as well as his many avant-jazz-rock solo records. The GP interview focuses on Keneally’s latest solo release, Scambot 1. We at Source Audio were happy to hear a large dose of the Soundblox Multiwave Distortion scattered through the album. Mike used the Multiwave to produce some interesting synth-like guitar sounds. He explained: “[The Soundblox Multiwave Distortion] produces very peculiar and unconventional distortion sounds, and depending on how you set the controls you can get multiple octaves and weird phase-cancellation effects that result in overtones popping out like crazy. We used it as an out-board effect, running the already recorded guitar tracks out to it and recording the processed sound onto a separate track, then blending them in various ways. In some cases, I manipulated the controls in real time as the track was playing through the pedal.” Mike was kind enough to let us include a clip from Scambot 1 on his artist page on our website, the song is called “We Are The Quiet Children”. It’s a nice representation of how he incorporates the Multiwave into his sound. You’ll hear the pedal on the sustained harmonic feedback lines in the song’s introduction. If you know the Mulitwave, you will clearly hear it’s signature sound—nothing else sounds like the Soundblox Multiwave Distortion.
The “We Are The Quiet Children” sound clip is only a small sample of Scambot 1’s vast musical offerings. We highly recommend you check out the entire record. It’s a sprawling, eclectic yet cohesive mix of avant-jazz, rock and pop. The thread that holds all these elements together is, of course, Keneally’s graceful musicianship. In addition to being a fantastic guitar playing, Mike is a fabulous keyboardist and singer. In Zappa’s band he held down multiple duties, playing lines on the guitar and keys that were originally recorded with other instruments, anything from horns to the marimba. Another very notable Keneally project is a record of Steve Via compositions adapted to the acoustic piano. The album—Vai: Piano Reductions Vol. 1—was recorded upon request of Mr. Via, another Frank Zappa band alumni. For a taste of Mike’s piano playing, singing and song writing, check out this video for the Scambot 1 single, “Hallmark”. It’s melodic and complex piece of Beatlesque pop with a great jazz instrumental outro.
Here's another video highlighting Mike's incredible playing both on guitar and keyboards. It's a 2008 live recording of his song, "My Dilema". Very cool stuff, check out the simultaneous guitar and keyboard riff!!!
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