They take old Kay, Stella, and Harmony guitars and re-brace them by hand. I have an old Gibson, but my favorite is an old Harmony guitar conversion by Colfax Guitar Shop in Denver. Kapranos: I usually write with an acoustic, too. Then we usually electrify the whole thing and get rid of the chords and play single notes. I really like playing the piano as well, so I switch between the two. I take it on tour sometimes or write on it when I have a few hours at home.

McCarthy: I usually write on an old acoustic that I bought in Germany for 10 Deutsche marks, just because I like the history of it. I know our music sounds nothing like that, but the principles are universal.Īfter you conferred on that more compositional approach, how did you go about writing the guitar parts? Nick and I spent a long time listening to records we liked-particularly classical music-to see how they were arranged. Kapranos: The new sounds came partly from trying new playing ideas, but mainly with the writing and arrangement. It’s very honest and open, and it lets you get inside what we are and what we like/ That was the plan. McCarthy: I think this album sounds very much like us. It’s fine to use chords for the writing of the main melody, but when it comes to the final arrangement we’d lose the chords so that progressions were suggested by the melodies, rather than played out. Kapranos: One principle was the shedding of chords in favor of melody and countermelody. Our main goal is always to just write some good songs and then record them.ĭid you have any specific visions for the overall sound of the new album? It’s not the specific instrument, but the whole thing. Nick McCarthy: Our playing is just writing music. Every song has a live performance of the four of us in a room together at the heart of it. Nick and I write most of the music together, although sometimes Bob and I start with a lyrical idea that I’ll work on with the guitar or piano. That’s quite different from our last LP, where we started off with grooves and beats upon which we wrote melodies and then lyrics.

We didn’t go near the studio until we had songs that we could all play and we understood how they worked. What was the writing process like for Right Thoughts?Īlex Kapranos: The majority of writing was done before the recording. We recently spoke to the two guitarists about devising great parts, recording Right Thoughts, their meticulous miking techniques, and their fondness for offbeat gear from Harmony, Silvertone, Hagstrom, Hoyer, Selmer, and Traynor. In fact, he started playing guitar the year before Ferdinand made it big.

McCarthy’s guitar work is informed by his training as a classical pianist and double bassist, while Kapranos playing is refreshingly naïve. Both players have fresh perspectives on the art of guitar, though they stem from very different backgrounds. If kneejerk dismissiveness hurts anyone, it’s players who could learn a thing or two from Kapranos and McCarthy about composition, mood, and sparseness.

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