GUITARS
ESP LTD EC-1000
Eclipse Deluxe
AMPS
EVH 5150 III head, Mesa/
Boogie Dual Rectifier
head, Marshall JCM900
4x12 cab
EFFECTS
Ibanez TS9 Tube
Screamer
STRINGS, PICKS, AND
ACCESSORIES
Dean Markley Blue Steel
.011–.052 sets, .88mm
Snarling Dogs Brain
Picks, ISP Decimator
noise-reduction pedal,
Boss TU- 3 tuner, Mon-
ster cables, Line 6 Relay
G50 wireless, DiMarzio
ClipLock straps
with the piano. At our shows,
we do have heavy breakdowns—
and we like it heavy here and
there—but we don’t want it
to be only that. We wanted to
show that we’re not just any
hardcore band. We wanted to be
taken seriously as musicians.
Was it hard in the beginning to
find like-minded people who
also had a similarly high level
of technical ability? Because
your music’s not easy …
Klein: In the beginning, it was
definitely a lot less technical.
The skill level has definitely
grown majorly in the last four
years. We’ve all kind of done it
together. We all worked on our
songwriting together to develop
this style that we all liked,
because we all are into slightly
different styles and we tried to
get it to mesh together. Russell
has also kind of taken me under
his wing.
Did you take lessons or are
you self-taught?
Stump: I started real young,
playing trumpet, and then
played drums in a punk band. I
moved to guitar when I was 18.
I’ve mostly been self-taught, but
I’m definitely open to getting
lessons. Learning on my own
is awesome, but it’s getting to
the point where it helps to have
that different brain.
Klein: I took lessons for about
a year when I was in elemen-
tary school, and then I actually
stopped playing guitar for about
five years. When I picked it up
again in high school, I taught
myself from that point on. I
read a lot of Wikipedia articles
trying to figure out theories,
and I also talk to a lot of other
guitar players. In San Diego,
there are lots of really talented
musicians and they’ll be like,
“Have you ever tried doing
something like this?” or “It
helps me remember different
chords by doing it this way.”
Although it seems like it’s
worked out very well for you
guys, one of the tricky things
about teaching yourself is that
if you learn something wrong,
there’s no one there to help
you fix it—and it could lead
to bad habits.
Klein: A lot of people have a lot
of bad habits. I have a couple of
bad habits, and it took me a while
to teach myself to not do that
same thing over and over again.
Like what?
Klein: Some people hold the
pick with the side of their
index finger and put their
thumb on top of it, whereas
some people hold it with their
fingertips, using the index,
middle finger, and thumb
together. The first is the standard way, and the other isn’t.
Is there a disadvantage to one
way or the other?
Klein: Yeah, with one you use
more finger movement, and the
other you use more wrist. When
you move your wrist, that’s the
proper way to do it and you can
get more control. But Brian uses
more of a fingertip style, which
works for him. It’s just two dif-
ferent styles of guitar playing.
Is it true that Mikey couldn’t
really play keyboards when he
first joined? If so, that’s pretty
remarkable. Even though he’s
not playing a lot of virtuosic
runs, it still takes a great deal
of musicianship to keep it
together and not get lost.
Klein: That’s right. He first
picked up keyboards when we
started the band. But he also
took a couple of classes at the
college where we went when he
started out, and he started getting a lot of practice there. He
got on the ball with learning
how to play really quickly.
Let’s talk about gear. What
guitars do you use?
