Who Is Earthquaker Devices?

today's episode is pulled from the archives it was a much more simple time covin night team did not exist and I was in Anaheim California it was January of 2019 and I was in about day three of the NAMM show I'd lost my voice I was losing my mind and slowly hating guitar so I grabbed my good friend Jamie Stillman we escaped together to my rental home across the street and I interviewed him about my favorite Earthquaker pedals and his story of how Earthquaker started it's a riveting masterpiece of documentary information about one of my favorite people one of my friends and one of my favorite pedal company so grab some popcorn grab a loved one grab some gummy worms Sour Patch Kids and just pretend you're at the movie and enjoy today's presentation of who is Earthquaker devices let's roll the footage so the first part I guess into this camera just to introduce yourself that camera that now it's time for me to be uncomfortable I am Jamie Stillman from Earthquaker Devices and I'm uncomfortable [Music] we're gonna dig in to go dr. Phil on yeah okay yes please all right so when did music first become important to you as long as I can remember my parents have a recording of me from like I was like three singing hard to his night even beating on hatboxes and like I have a photo of me with my first drum set when I was like five and Christmas at Christmas I can't remember a time where I wasn't a musician that's cool or your parents musicians no that's the weird part but when I was younger we lived at my grandparents house and my mom's side of family is huge and my uncle had a band there in the basement and I haven't got a couple other uncle's who play instruments but my uncle Danny who his son Cory do a bit of works at Earthquaker okay he's the one in all the videos he's Eric Quincy Davis I'm listening his videos but his dad taught me how to play guitar of in drums when I was real young that's cool yeah my no one in my family either it's a strange thing my parents can't even operate a radio my dad was way in the music they have to keep the play drums a little bit I remember him like annoying out of us in the ladies on white boy be like yeah like he would come down and like want to play foxy lady and had one friend who could do it yeah my dad only listened to like Marty Robbins a lot of gunfighter ballads you know like every day of his life I had the you know that my parents wasn't the good music but I didn't realize it until way later when they listened to like New York Dolls here X on Black Sabbath but I just thought of it as old people's music until I probably just turn into an old person yes I gotta like all this and to be there kind of wild still how would you define Dadra I don't know anymore because I like all of that stuff and I'm a dad so I just pretty much anything I kind of feel like it's like that depressing I am just it's like everything is almost like a cover band like that it does like 38 special and it's almost all perfect but there's just something where is not like totally cohesive notice people are labeling like Wilco and the National yeah I don't think that standby yeah I don't know if you had asked me 20 years I have to tell you I don't like stuff like that goes way more into like punk rock stuff but then you're invested but now on the dad and now the National was good I don't know what were the bands or the artists when you got into guitar that you know what's the stuff you were into trying to learn being halen really yeah I have to see that extreme first song I ever learned on guitar was more than words Scizor revealing I was way in like that kind of hair metal sort of playing guitar and like started to hate it discovered like punk rock I'm like that jerk who like by the time Nirvana came out like I was away into bands that played there like four people in a basement like no one knew about it but me and I was like that's what I like Nirvana is terrible and now like doesn't a dolt have to go back and be like yeah it was very good I don't know what my problem is what are a couple of those punk bands the one that changed me was called born against I saw a board against when I was like 15 16 something like that yeah that's what I liked now and they're like a weird band like if you go back and listen to it as definitely I got like a a Black Flag meets kiss kind of vibe to it but it's like a train wreck that is all like in your face at all times and kind of like antagonistic and that's what I always liked like the louder and more terrifying the band is like the morally yeah and that's still how I am but now you listen to the nation' no I love the National now I like will willingly put on bread right the dispatch master I'll let you hold it you have that dispatch faster I think it's through those first like real digital I guess pedal beyond the PT $23.99 we had just gotten a bunch of FB ones and I was trying to see what it could do know that like the rainbow machine was actually made before it when came out after that at the time there were no delay in reverb pedals that were real small except that I mainly rv3 had like a real good name I think boss was making another one at that point but it was nothing like it I was like it sounds super good and is really easy to make and it kind of fills that hole at least it did for me and then it like you know kind of took off right away I think that this was the pedal that made it so we could move out of the basement that's the first one I ever bought you have played it and I plugged it up and I think had all the knobs at noon and I had this moment where I was like oh that's doing what I used these three pedals together to do right yeah all right I feel like that's what everyone's general reaction is it's like what no you know you can put the knobs anywhere and it just doesn't sound bad ever it's still one of our most popular pedals the acid everywhere is amazing and people still feel compelled to tell me what I should do with it like tap - yeah I put tap tap on a why isn't it stereo there needs to be tails octaves button that would [Music] [Music] talk about relaxer the earthquake care devices man yeah well it started out as not an earthquake er devices can but eventually morphed into just everybody here exactly how many members are four okay but when it started there's I'm the only original member of this band and that feels weird we have been around for seven years we've written 13 songs we barely do anything but uh it's I guess just my musical outlet but it started from like I was in those band drummer with Pat on the Black Keys and he got busy with the black he's so the rest of us started to play and then like everybody sort of fell apart and then me and Steve Clements who used to work at Earthquaker he played keyboards we just played for a while went through a series of drummers and eventually we just kind of people from Earthquaker found their way in I feel like every band that I've ever been in starts out with the intention of being something a little bit more experimental or like long-winded and just devolves into being a metal band and like none of us want to be in a metal band but it's sort of like it just turns into it every time so like now relaxer is kind of just like a heavy slugsy band with like a little bit of atmospheric elements to it where it used to just be all like the idea was to have these like long for him help like kind of cinematic prog rocky yes close to the edge was like my I think that's the kind of band that I want to be in and it was headed that way for a minute and now is just like oh yeah who has time was just just plays riff really loud and put a bunch of fog and lights around and like it'll works but I feel like it's you know morphing into something now you mentioned a pat so the band drummer so I had no clue you were part of that you know I've gotten to know him over the last year just a little bit texting and stuff so you have a history with the Black Keys yeah some people may not realize that yeah yeah I knew path before us on that band I met it was really young and I kind of fell into my job with them which like started as a person interview I was in a band for a long time and we toured just as much and we would like he is in my band got signed at the same time and that her band took off and mine didn't and what's called the party of helicopters that's my band and now we have broken up like right when they started really big and I had nothing to do I was just drinking coffee and listing all of my belongings on eBay and they hired me to drive their gear from Akron to Seattle and uh like I went with them for a couple days and we've watched what was going on pretend to be your tech and tour me in a dream and it turned into like I am really your tour manager now and that lasted for like five years well I've heard you talk we've been on panels and stuff and I hear a little bit of your story I don't know all the details but is that where you started making pedals for Dan or no that was it was probably around that same time like she liked my band had just broken up and I was like getting my together to do something else and like that was really like I would always been into like pedals but never thought anything of it just thinking about this was kind of funny to me because like it's just 2003 I didn't at that point I've been touring for ten years playing guitar and band and like I didn't know like why one person's guitar sounded different than others and like I told I had crazy gear for like the kind of like playing in a house like smaller than this room and I had like two Marshall full sticks and like all these pedals and stuff and that was totally unheard of at the time for like punk rock bands like what does that second delay pedal like are you crazy like yeah so like I had all this stuff didn't understand it and then like I started to get really obsessed with you like right when the band broke up and I collected all these pedals and I have those old BW to 50 amp broke and I bought a new one to replace it and it didn't sound like the old ones I general guitar yet that's how to fix it yeah and that's what started it but that was like right around the time where I think I kind of really started working for them it wasn't good like tests like here you want this any wouldn't use anything you didn't matter its people to the Eruptor mm-hmm so I got this it's amazing thank the one knob Distortion essentially it's a super elaborate version of a fuzz face with like a transformer pickup simulation in it which I read about on some DIY forum works great buffered and that kind of gives it a little bit more clarity but if you play it's a real fuzz face you turn both of those knobs all the way up because that's the only way it actually sounds good so you don't even need them all so it turns out when you take those out like the pedal just sound better in general like mmm it's there's no more filter on the output so I was the bias as a center detent and this person I made several very elaborate versions before I was like just needs this one control this one control is the best [Music] so how did you end up being the creator owner of a puddle company I like the same way that I feel like I do anything I don't have you know how it goes and have any expectations for like anything I really have no plans beyond I'm just gonna be in a band for my whole life I went to school for graphic design I had a job for graphic design but even when I had it I was like well I'm just gonna eventually just be in a family I mean I feel like it's probably the same for you but like it worked in the way the business doesn't work anymore it was like old timey like word of mouth so yeah I had like a hot dogs day and they accidentally turned into a restaurant or something that's I'm just standing there with hot dogs and all the people are like your hot dogs are great make more hot dogs and then give them the restaurant and then get my wife to handle it because she's smarter than me yeah what are your peddle influences so like things that you just think are amazing and maestro stuff I love all that stuff the first era of DoD I would say it was a huge influence death by audio obsessed with him just that was like the first like thing morality their petals look like the Flyers I used to make animals like that it's cool I just want I don't care what they do yeah what what earthquake your pedal or maybe a couple what are you most proud of everything until the second it's ready to be released rainbow machine ARP Android ARP annoyed for sure is I think I've talked about it a bunch or it's like that was the thing where I was like the only time runs like people's heads are gonna explode and then people really doesn't have temple I every time I think I'm still blown away but like there's an eye thing with I've said this several times a few of my absolute favorite things I've done that are like really original like stuff that was just completely you know like pull things out of the cabinet do something fresh mm-hmm people don't really buy it but I put out a tube screaming with nine modes right and they buy the crap out exactly but they say they don't want the tube screamer right people don't know what they like it's always kind of proof like people are like yawn tube screamer well you've probably sold a billion of those channels and like no one wants to admit that they have it or that that's what they actually wanted they're like when something gonna do something new and original I got it you know and you know people watching like that no one knows what really what they want [Music] whether or not it speaks to them [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] thanks so much for watching this episode I hope you enjoyed it I am a massive fan of Earthquaker pedals I think they're amazing but I'm an even bigger fan of Jamie and Julie who created and run Earthquaker they're amazing people they've been great friends to me over the years they've helped me we've helped them and they're a beautiful part of this amazing pedal community that I love to call home so I'd love for you in the comments to tell me what your favorite Earthquaker pedal is the one that you'd love to buy let's talk about it also go check out their stuff and go buy an earthquake or pedal right now if you're wanting to buy a pedal don't buy a JHS go buy an earthquake I love these people to death so go support them they are a plus plus so you liked the episode hit like oh and by the way I know there was no record time so put the guns away but go listen to relaxer that's the band that I love that's Jamie's band I have the vinyl it's not here at home but go listen to it it's epic hit like if you like the episode subscribe to the channel click the bell icon to get notifications of future episodes have a wonderful day and maybe we'll do this more I got a lot of footage in the archives maybe we will bye bye

Channel: JHS Pedals

Views: 133,054

Keywords: JHS, JHS Pedals, Guitar, Guitar Pedals, Electric Guitar, Guitar Effects, Guitar Player, Guitar Playing, Pedal Demo, Guitar Demo, New Pedals, New Guitar Pedals, Josh Scott, Guitar Gear, Music Gear, Guitar Tones, Pedal Tones, Good Guitar Tone, Best Guitar Tone, Best Electric Guitar Tone, Analog Guitar Tone, Guitar Sounds, JHS Guitar Pedals, JHS VLOG, JHS Videos, The JHS Show, Music History, Music, Education, Effects

Id: 02SX9iZ-Coo

Length: 19min 53sec (1193 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2020