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Would Johnny Marr reform The Smiths for $1,000?
We asked, he answered - and it's not 'no'!
Joe Bosso, Tue 17 Nov 2009, 3:50 pm UTC
"I liked how the semi-acoustic nature of the guitar would lend itself to feedback. As soon as I stopped playing, the guitar would feed back. It gave my performance an element of threat because I could feel the feedback building up.
"My favorite guitar, though, is an Epiphone Coronet. I've used it on every record. They're so light and fun to play, and they have a distinctive tone you just can't get with any other guitar."
Amp-wise, do you guys make specific choices so you don't clash sonically?
Marr: "I use a Fender Super Reverb and an early '60s Marshall 100-watt Plexi head. I use them in combination so they sound like one big amp. I use the Fender for the top end and the Marshall for the bottom."
Jarman: "I've always used Orange amps. I got one when we got a record deal - I always wanted one when I was a kid. I use a combo amp and it sounds really good. I've never been one of those people that thought too much about amps. I kind of want to start experimenting with them in the future."
"Shredding, to me, is akin to having a incredibly overblown vocabulary at your disposal and saying very, very little" Johnny Marr
Johnny, you're pretty much known as an 'anti-soloist,' if you will. But on the song City Of Bugs, there's a pretty big solo. What was the reason for that?
Marr: "I hate these terms, but it's more of a post-rock part that I do. When I started out, my anti-solo attitude really held me in good stead because now I'm not anti-solo, but 90 percent of me is in the same place. The other 10 percent that likes to do a solo I have to keep in check so it's coming from taste.
"I haven't changed my ideology, but over the years I've started to do some solos. Generally, I like guitar music to be heady. I don't mean lots delays and echoes -
Not psychedelic per se.
Marr: "Psychedelic in the true sense but not in the '60s sense. I like it to be heady and trippy. Trippy can be more along the lines of Aphex Twin and Squarepusher than some '60s Fillmore business. I like weird stuff."
Let me ask both of you about guitar players, the shred culture in particular. Any big beefs with it?
Marr: "Well, it appears to be tasteless and aesthetically pretty corny, I think."
