MORELLO
BY CHRIS KIES
Sometimes you think you know people. You
might know Tom Morello just as the guitarist for mega-acts Rage Against the Machine
and Audioslave. You might tend to dismiss
his tone because it seems to lean too
heavily on a truckload of effects and pedals. You’d be wrong; Tom is a guitarist like
you or me. The gear he uses isn’t that far
removed from our own setups—minimal
guitars and an easily transportable pedal-board—but what separates Tom from the
pack is the sonic palette he can achieve
with such a basic setup. His main rig features two guitars, one main Marshall head,
a Peavey 4x12 cabinet and his five main
effects pedals. Instead of giving up on a
pedal after tweaking a few knobs or checking out the presets, he takes his tools to
his instruments—literally.
Tom has not only tweaked and dialed endlessly, but also approached the guitar without blinders, which has allowed him to produce a wide spectrum of sounds with such
seemingly limited tools. He’s used a wrench
and a pencil across his strings [“People of
the Sun”], [“Revolver”], tapped the bridge
with his cable [“Testify” and “Bullet in the
Head”] and often toggled quickly between
his pickups to get that trademark DJ
scratching sound.
However, since 2002, he’s gone back to
the basics. Through his acoustic alter-ego,
The Nightwatchman, Tom has satisfied a
personal thirst that Audioslave couldn’t
quench—politically charged lyrics. For a guy
who graduated from Harvard with a degree
in Political Science and at one point in his
life practiced guitar for eight hours a day,
every day, there really isn’t another choice.
We recently had the chance to talk with
Tom,and he told us about guitars, effects,
that “moment” and what it’s like being a
life-long Chicago Cubs fan.
What spawned your conception of your
alter ego, The Nightwatchman?
It was spawned to act as an antidote for
the arena rock of Audioslave. I greatly
enjoyed playing and being in that band,
but there was one itch that it didn’t
scratch. The worldview of that band and
my worldview were two very different
things. So, I just began writing songs on
my own with really no agenda other than
to have an artistic outlet.
How did you start playing solo gigs without drawing too much attention?
I began playing at open mic nights in
2002, sometimes even on nights off during the Audioslave arena tours. I’d go and
sign up as The Nightwatchman because I
didn’t want people screaming out “Bulls
on Parade.” I just wanted to play my
songs. Even at those very early shows,
when I was a fledgling singer/songwriter,
it felt like that might be what I was put
here to do.
Every time I write a song, record a song or
step on any stage, I play as if everyone’s
soul in the room is at stake. I feel if you’re
honest in your music and you’re able to
weave your convictions and your point
of view in the music you’re making, then
every show you play matters, in that
regard. The connection with the crowd and
my belief in the material was pretty strong,
even at the start. However, I’ve had to win
over every crowd that I’ve performed in
front of.
On your first solo release One Man
Revolution, you didn’t have any backing
music. What provoked you to add the
full-band on your second solo release,
The Fabled City?
Well, I mean I felt much more comfortable
having sort of established what this thing
is on the One Man Revolution, I felt much
more relaxed bridging the gap between
my life as a rock musician and my life as
an acoustic singer/songwriter. Also, I was
more at ease fleshing out arrangements,
but keeping the integrity of the acoustic
thing intact.
However, I wanted to bring in some of my
rock music roots and elements into this
project. Even though the record has electric instrumentation, I’m still just using an
acoustic guitar. I brought some of my electric
guitar effects pedals, added some riff rock,
soloing, and even introduced my Django
Reinhardt impersonation, which is evident in
the song “The Lights Are On In Spidertown.”
I’ve recently read something that
described your live show as the first half
being “played with nylon strings, three
chords and the truth, while the second
half is filled with rocking action not even
seen in Rage or Audioslave.” With a
statement like that, what can fans expect
in upcoming gigs?
The template for this tour is half Dylan and
half Hendrix. There’s going to be some
solo acoustic playing and then I’m bringing on a band called the Freedom Fighter
Orchestra and I’m just going to unleash
the electric guitar in a way that I’ve never
done on a tour before. I like the idea of
combining all the elements of my playing
and not restricting any of it. Even in Rage
and Audioslave, while I love playing electric guitar in those bands, the solos are
contained to eight bars within those three
and half minute songs. There’ll be no such
constraints on this upcoming tour. We’ve
already played a few shows and it’s been
really exciting.
What were some of the guitar effects
used on The Fabled City?
There’s an octave pedal, a Digi Tech
Whammy WH- 1 (original), an MXR Distortion
Plus on “Whatever It Takes” and basically I
just had my usual pedalboard sitting there.
Also Brendan O’Brien, the producer of
the record, had a lot of stompboxes lying
around the studio. I do some slide guitar
and of course I incorporate some echo and
delay; it’s about not feeling restricted in any
way to the bare bones acoustic.
Getting back to your electric roots—
starting with your first band Lock Up in
the late-eighties and then eventually
