Careful where you step - I'm dropping names all over the place, don't step on any!
O.K. let's see, I've been recording since about 1993. I've always loved the studio. I spent my first 8-9 years playing mostly in one band and recording with them after that I've played with a bunch of others. Here's some of them.
I've played and/or recorded with members of the following bands:
Crazy Horse
The Wallflowers
Megadeth
Rokken
Wham!
Hawkeye
The Pop Farmers
Russell-Hill
Sonny Mone
The Gypsy Mechanics
Claudine 3
Syd Straw
Chris Parish
Sue Paine
The Fallen Stars
The Foo Fighters
Without the Blonde
Tawny Ellis
Phil Cody
Chuck Roberts
All over the West Coast, the East Coast, across the states and some of Canada and Europe. I've played live on tv and radio.
I've played the NEMO conference in Boston, NEA (?) in Nashville, Twangfest in Missouri, Americana Songwriter's Circle in L.A. The Lowell Folk Festival, The Poor Pony Fest in Lake Charles, Orange County Music Awards, SoCal Live Music Competition. I've opened for Los Lobos, The Church, The Blasters, The Tubes, Dangerous Toys, Ian Hunter, Matthew Sweet, The Motels, Robert Earl Keen, Chris Whitley, among others.
I've done numerous sessions on a bunch of things I'm not credited on. Just sitting in and fixing some part or 20 second spot for a t.v show or commercial. Some of what I've done has been featured on t.v. and in movies. I don't have rights to list them all and/or have song clips on my page. They exist somewhere! I've also done some scoring for independent films. GUITARS
5 Homemade telecasters, one of which is a 12 string
Fender Stratocaster STOLEN! - 1986 Gibson Les Paul Junior
Gibson Les Paul Special
Rickenbacker 330 12 string
Gibson J-45
Gibson J-30
Harmony Roy Smeck model lap steel
Sho-Bud Pro-1 pedal steel
Black Square Neck Dobro
Black Round Neck Dobro
Hondo Hi-strung acoustic
Kalamazoo Mandolin
Eastwood Mandocaster {endorsee}
Hondo Banjo
2 each - Takamine EF-341 6 string & EF-381 12 string acoustics (one set east coast guitars)
Glockenspiel
Excelsior Accordion (that even plugs in!)
Harmonicas
Lots of effects
KEYBOARDS
Fender Rhodes Stage 73 Piano
Nord Electro 61
Casio SK-1
Daniel Lanois, Mike Campbell, The Edge, Rick Richards, Mick Jones, Paul Westerberg, Bruce Springsteen, James Honeyman-Scott, Neil Young, Ryan Adams, Bryan Adams, Rolling Stones, Gram Parsons, Soul Asylum, Jayhawks, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Blue Mountain, Blue Rodeo, Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, Benmont Tench, T-Bone Burnett, Brian Eno, Mitchell Froom, Del Fuegos, Sean Slade, Blake Babies, Green Magnet School, Buck Pets, REM, Peter Buck, Big Star, Golden Smog, Waterboys, Old 97's, oh, man - there's too many to list!
Sounds Like
Someone who grew up on AM radio and then found Punk rock and then went back to his country roots and then started messing around with sound effects.
Please visit my blog for contact info and namedroppings
I can play in a very traditional or non-traditional style depending on what is needed. For example - I used to play mandolin in an traditional Irish folk band playing "wild rover" and "the unicorn." I also played mandolin through a wah and delay pedal into a sansamp for the recording of "stupid boyfriend."
Same with guitar.
I can play very straightforward and am happy strumming along G-D-C chords. Or if you need something else I can probably do that too!
I modeled myself after Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) for a long time. He's the guitar guy that comes in and puts down great simple guitar parts that become part of the song but don't overshadow the singer or the song. Think of "Breakdown" without his guitar part - you can't. He played on Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" - yep, all those great signature type guitar parts - that's Mike Campbell. I try to do the same thing when I play. Play for the song and don't overplay. Make it cool. Most recently I've been admiring the guitar playing of Colin Cripps - he plays with Kathleen Edwards and really makes her songs shine.
The song is King.
Another big turning point for me was listening to Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds first album. This album made me seek out a better guitar sound. That album mixes dobro, slide, mandolin and a les paul jr through a marshall and it all comes out sounding, sounding...O.K. I don't know what it sounds like but I knew the minute I heard it that I loved the sound. To this day it's my favorite sound, mixing the traditional instruments with the rock. See: Shawn Mullins "beautiful wreck" or Kathleen Edwards "pink emerson radio" or Izzy Stradlin's "take a look at the guy" or The Foo Fighters "skin & bones".
On the songs above:
"Pray these good times last" by The Gypsy Mechanics
I played guitar, mandolin, lap steel and accordion. I'm very happy with the way they all blend together for the solo section of this song. (2:50 in the song) It's not an obvious solo - but I like it just the same as it kept with the drunken Irish feel of the song.
"Sometimes it Shines" by Chris Parish
I love this song. It was fun to play to - I got to do some volume swells with delay and stuff, some regular guitar and I also played piano on this song! When it gets to the breakdown and you hear something fade in right before the last chorus - that's me playing the "reverse" piano part! Yep, it was fun to say "trust me, record this part and then we're going to fly it over here and flip it around..." Great song by Chris too.
"Stupid Boyfriend" by Claudine
This was for my friend Claudine's album that never came out. I played mandolin, guitar and harmonica on this track. The mandolin is going through a wah pedal and delay. I always dug this song.
"Heading South" by The Fallen Stars
I played 12 string rickenbacker, slide guitar with e-bow and some other stuff. Oh, I also wrote and sang this one.
"Amnesia" by ?
This was a session that I got called in to play on - I think because the other guitar player was too stoned to play. I ended up playing guitar and lap steel on this one. Making some weird noises and doubling the keyboard part. All the guitars are me except for the tremolo guitar in the second verse. Some cool cats played on this one!
"Diamond Halo" by Russell-Hill
So I've branched into producing. I've produced my own stuff over the years and have loved doing it with other folks. This is a song that I always loved by some friends of mine and they let me take the helm. I felt right at home. I also added some e-bow guitar to it.
"You always ruin the holidays with your Jazz" by The Fallen Stars
So my manager called me and said "The Kevin Pollak show needs a theme song" I thought about it for a second and said "tell him I have something!" Perfect timing since my buddy Duston was in town to play the Coach House with us. I got Brian to lay down the drums {in my living room - 2 mics!}, I hit the jazz chords and some bass and Viola'! In fairness it's more of a samba/bassanova type thing but I liken it to jazz because of the chords with numbers in it. Recorded, mixed and emailed in less than 3 hours. Ta Da!
On the flip side - if you need someone to come in and rip up a bluesy Stevie Ray Vaughn type of guitar solo - I'm not your guy. Or if you need some Kirk Hammett type of shredding - I'm not your guy. If you want some free form jazz comping over a bunch of chords with numbers in them - I'm not your guy. I'd rather become part of the song than stand out in it. There's lots of folks out there that can do that other stuff - I went a different route.
HEY BOBBO! You got quite the name droppin list! wowza. I did Gypsy Den tonight and It rocked!!!! yayy! Did I make it into your top 20? amaazzzziiinnngg.
We used to be called "Mumrik" that was looking for a singer and now we finally found a singer and the band name became STM since we are working together at a distance of 6000miles from Leeds, UK to Kyoto, Japan. We have uploaded 3 songs now. Check out how it works.
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John Kitchen wants you to join their band in Rockstars, a game where you can form bands with your friends and play gigs, battle rival bands, and become famous on MySpace!
you are seriously awesome - thank you SO much for package of goodness - the new record is awesome - love the re-recording of january. we'll talk soon - xoxoxo
hey its bobbo! So friend how are things going? I saw the pics that were put up on the falling stars myspace.. that red shirt was pretty awesome. Just thought i'd drop by and say hi!
