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New York Dolls - News
Steve Conte and Syl Sylvain talk to Guitar World!
| 10-08-2007 11:41 | 0 reaction(s) | add reaction | add news |
Guitar Player E-News | June 14, 2007
Newsletter Exclusive!
The Lost New York Dolls Interview
By Michael Molenda
The glam cretins and bowery rebels that formed the petulant gang that was the New York Dolls in 1971 are mostly gone now. Original drummer Billy Murcia: drug and alcohol overdose in 1972. Murcia's replacement Jerry Nolan: dead from a stroke in 1992. Original guitarist and patron saint of dissipated rock stars Johnny Thunders: heroin overdose in 1991. Original bassist Arthur Kane: dead of leukemia in 2004 at 55.
But the essence of the tragic band's raw energy, Chuck-Berry-on-speed musical style, and shabby cool has stretched well beyond its active years (1971-1977) to influence countless rockers. In 2004, Morrissey honored the New York Dolls' lasting influence on rock and roll by inviting the surviving members to perform at England's Meltdown Festival. That concert triggered a reunion of sorts, with original singer David Johansen and nearly original guitarist Sylvain Sylvain partnering with guitarist Steve Conte, former Hanoi Rocks bassist Sammi Yaffa, drummer Brian Delaney, and keyboardist Brian Koonin to release last year's One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. The following interview was done in 2006, but due to some almost Dolls-esque manner of out-of-control circumstance and tragic fate, it never ran in the pages of Guitar Player. Here then, exclusively for GP newsletter readers, is an excerpt from that discussion with Sylvain Sylvain and new Dolls co-guitarist Steve Conte.
How did you approach the recording sessions for One Day?
Conte: Jack Douglas produced the album, and his idea was to record the band live in the studio, and then record all the overdubs in our rehearsal space, the Schoolhouse. The Shed, where we recorded the main parts, is like a giant room where we had the drum kit and all of our bodies. But there were little isolation booths with sliding glass doors where we would keep our rigs. I used my '62 pre-Top Boost Vox AC30 and my '67 plexi Marshall 100-watt. For guitars, I used my '59 Les Paul Junior, my '70 Les Paul Custom, my '77 ES-335, and a'59 Danelectro - just like the one Jimmy Page used with Zeppelin. Of course, we had to make sure we used the same equipment for the basics and overdub sessions to ensure the sounds were consistent, so I kept very detailed notes of what I and Sylvain used. Sylvain probably doesn't know what he used, but I know what he used on every song!
Sylvain: I know that I used a 50-watt Demeter half-stack, a Rickenbacker 425, a Gibson Les Paul with P-90s, a Gretsch White Falcon, and a '81 Greco Les Paul clone - I can't afford a bunch of high-priced guitars, you know what I mean? That Demeter sounds terrific - especially in the studio. You can make it sound dirty, you can make it sound clean, and you can get that Fender-style sound. They make beautiful amps.
The guitars sound pretty raw for the most part, so I assume effects were not really in your arsenals?
Conte: No. Not much. For some songs, I used a Tube Screamer to give the sound a little push, and an old Ampeg scrambler - which is a reissue of a crazy '60s octave/fuzz pedal. Pretty much the only thing I consistently had in line was a Boss tuner. That's it. For strings, I use a GHS .010 set.
Sylvain: It's all straight-forward for me. I like using guitar from the wire right to the amplifier, and that's it. I'd rather not use an effect. I like the amplifier to work for you. It's between the amp and the pickups and the guitar, you know? As for strings, if they give them to me for free, I'll use them. My high E string is usually an .011.
What kind of parts did you overdub?
Conte: I would maybe add another solo or punch in a chord at the end, but other than that, but most of the songs are completely live with no overdubs - one take all the way through. Even the solos were done right on the rhythm tracks. I'll go into a solo, and you can hear my rhythm parts go away while Syl is playing. Sometimes, it might sound a little sloppy, but we love stuff like that because we're the Dolls.
Steve, I read a couple of reviews of the 2004 Meltdown festival that said, "Steve Conte is too good." The Dolls certainly have a sordid history and a reputation for musical sloppiness, so how did it challenge you as an accomplished player to figure out how to walk the line between technique and feel?
Conte: Luckily, my first introduction to music was Chuck Berry and Keith Richards, so it's right there in the ballpark with where Thunders started. But Thunders started and ended there. I'm sure he had other influences, but that little era seemed to be what Thunders' thing was. I started there, and then I listened to a lot of other stuff like Jeff Beck and Hendrix. But I can always go back to where I came from. Obviously, I can't do it with the complete ignorance I had when I was 16 years old, but it's a frame of mind I can get into. It's more about just having fun and having a party onstage - or in the studio - and bringing across a good feeling and not caring so much about the technical side of things. It's really liberating to not have to think about being a "professional" musician. One of the things I learned from playing with the Dolls is that there is no such thing as a wrong chord or a wrong note. You take something, and you make something out of it. When we played the Meltdown festival, it was my first gig with the Dolls, and I didn't really know what to expect. I was kind of bummed coming off stage, because we had had a whole bunch of train wrecks in the set. David asked me, "Stevie, did you have fun?" I said, "Yeah, it was fun, but what happened to the rehearsal we had yesterday? Everything just went out the window. We were supposed to do this, and somebody decided to cue something else, and it was chaos." And David said, "That's what they expect! We're a garage band. We're the Dolls!" And then everybody that came up to me at the after-show party - Chrissie Hynde, Bob Geldof, the guys from the Sex Pistols - was shaking my hand and saying what an amazing show it was. Finally I got it. I was like, "Ah-it's definitely not about being perfect."
Of course, the specter of Johnny Thunders looms large over the band.
Conte: I'm sure people will accuse me of copying Thunders, but I didn't listen to Johnny Thunders - nor had I even heard a Thunders solo until I joined this band. Not to belittle what he did - because what he did was perfect for this band - but it doesn't take long to figure out what he was about. It's a couple of riffs. But, for me, if I take Chuck Berry and Keith Richards, and turn the volume up - that's my version of being in the Dolls' guitar chair.
How do you bounce off of Sylvain?
Conte: He is a total natural feel guy. I don't think he really knows that much about theory. Every once and a while, he'll play an Fmaj7 or something, and say, "Ohhhh, jazz!" But he knows the basics of rock and roll, and he channels all of his passion and energy into that. He also does this thing where I'll be playing something with a straight feel to it, and he will naturally swing it. So it almost works like Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, where he's jamming the downbeats while I'm doing something on the upbeat. Nothing is ever worked out, but it's just beautiful chaos that you can't plan for. I can't explain it - that's just the way it worked out. On the record, you can always tell who's who, because he's in the left speaker and I'm in the right speaker. He's usually playing more of a gnarly, straight-ahead pentatonic blues scale with pick squeals, and my parts will have a little more sheen. But that's part of my role-to give him his space.
Sylvain: I don't do that swing thing consciously - that's just my natural way of playing. What would we need two guitar players for if we were both playing the same thing?
Syl, your rhythm sound is always so full and aggressive.
Sylvain: The reason it may sound aggressive is because I use my power chords. Say if I'm playing an A barre chord, I'll leave the high strings open so they ring - which always gives me a much bigger sound.
How would you counsel another guitarist who is trying to balance technique with the raw edge required to play kick ass rock-and-roll guitar?
Sylvain: Don't spend your whole life rehearsing something trying to make it perfect! Go out in front of an audience, and in one second you'll learn more about playing a song than you will from a year of rehearsal. All of your questions about a song will be answered by performing it in front of an audience. This is a performing art. Yeah, I could buy an Apple computer and get GarageBand and put something together. But that's like gluing music together, and writing songs is more like inventing something. A band can make a great record in their home studio, but you're going to want to see that band perform its stuff live. Look what happened to the Beatles. They killed their career because they got so damn "studio-ed" out. They came out with Sgt. Pepper, and they couldn't even perform it. I thought, "This is great. This is art. These are great songs. But I'll take the Rolling Stones any day." Just give me something that's sexy and makes you want to dance!
From The Crown Jewels homepage/Steve Conte's MySpace page |
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