FEATURE > DUFF McKAGAN
McKagan onstage with Loaded and his Fender signature P bass, which has a Seymour Duncan STK-J2B bridge pickup, a split P-bass pickup with alnico
magnets, a 3-position toggle, and three knobs—two Volumes and a Fender Treble Bass Xpander (TBX). Photo courtesy of MissionPhotographic.com
heard them and jumped on
the project.
One cool thing about Terry
is that he’s extremely forward-thinking. A lot of major-label
producers these days just aren’t
getting those big paydays like
they used to. So, Terry decided
to take a great and novel business approach—he offered
to partner up with us on the
album and record it for nothing, banking up on the back
end. Because of that, he was literally as invested in the project
as we were—so he had incentive
to see it succeed.
Terry really brought out the
best in all of us, and he recorded
the band in much the same way
he did for Soundgarden: He
112 PREMIER GUITAR MAY 2011
carefully mic’d things in such a
way that we got this brutal, dry
sound. Because we went into
the studio with the whole record
written, it didn’t take very long
to record, and it didn’t feel like
hard work. On the 11th day
in the studio, it was just like,
“Whoa, we’re done!”
How did Date bring out the
best in you?
Going into the project, Terry
was firm about making sure we
got any extraneous shit out of
our heads before working. He
was like, “How about you finish
that game of online Scrabble?
It’s time to man up and make
a record.” When we began to
work, he didn’t kiss our asses or
anything, but he was compli-
mentary about our playing and
our songs. I think that—and
knowing Terry’s legacy—gave us
all a lot of confidence and took
things to another level.
As a veteran of the music
industry, have you found it
hard to adapt to changes in
recent years?
Not really. I enjoy the chal-
lenge of staying ahead of the
curve and remaining both
artistically and financially
viable. For the new record,
we’re working on a feature
film, also called The Taking.
It’s basically a madcap adven-
ture in which our drummer,
Isaac, is kidnapped and we
have a day to come up with
a ransom—sort of like the
Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night
meets Led Zeppelin’s The Song
Remains the Same. It will be in
art houses this summer, and
it’ll give people a chance to see
our wonderful sense of humor.
Of course, we take ourselves
seriously when we write and
play music, but we always see
humor in all the rock ’n’ roll
shit—we’re in on the joke. In
any case, we might repackage
the album to include a DVD
of the film. Special touches
like that are what help a band
survive in this day and age—
something extra for fans where
they feel like they’re included
in our wacky little club.
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