Joseph Morinelli
Rochester, New York
Joywave, The Meat Lovers Trio
www.joywavemusic.com
Twitter: @joywavemusic, @joeywave_
Instagram: @joywavemusic, @joeywave_

How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?

I grew up with my father constantly playing records of legendary delta blues musicians. Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and so on. We would sit in our basement with our guitars, put on an album, and just try to play along by ear. Neither of us could read music, but just pretending made me actually want to learn and play for real. My dad also told me the legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul. At that point, what kid wouldn’t want to play guitar?

When I was 14 or 15, my dad bought me a Crate GT212 for my birthday and it came with a distortion pedal, so technically that was my first set up. My first guitar was a Navy Blue Fender Squier Strat. I’ve mostly played Fender since day 1.

This is me just before I sold my soul to the devil. In exchange, I became the guitarist for the band Joywave. Also, bending the shit out of that string.

Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?

If there was a Mt. Rushmore of guitarists subconsciously in the back of my mind, it would be (in no particular order) David Gilmour, Robert Johnson, Dave Keuning, and Tom Morello. In high school and college I played the absolute shit out of all of their albums. They were always on in my car and on my iPod. I gave up on sports, and I would shut myself in my room for hours and just try to play along to their albums. It was exactly like I used to do with Robert Johnson when I was younger.

As for current influences, St. Vincent is the only player in recent years that has conjured up the same chills I used to get when I listened Morello or Gilmour. The tones on her self-titled album are some of the most compelling things ever produced. I believe she plays in custom and alternate tunings as well, and I think that’s incredibly important. She took the guitar and made it her own. She’s inspirational to me because she does whatever she wants and produces incredible music.

What drew you to using pedals initially? Have you been using them throughout your playing career? How have pedals helped to shape your sound, or influence the style that you’ve created?

When I was 14 or 15, I wanted to get serious with my playing. I started to research how to emulate some of the sounds I heard on Dark Side Of The Moon, Evil Empire, and Sam’s Town. I figured there was no point in ever playing unless I could try to sound like them. My very first pedal was a Line 6 DL4 Digital Delay Modeler. It broke all the time, and I went through 4 of them. Borrowing certain textures from the tones on those albums was the first step I took to “shaping my sound” I guess.

My go-to standard pedals really haven’t changed since I first started playing. I love a huge spacey, reverb-y, arena rock tone. I usually have drive, delay, and reverb on for most of our performance.

What’s your current setup look like? Take us through your pedal rig (feel free to include amps and instruments as well if you’d like):

Guitar: Fender American Elite Telecaster.
Amp: Fender ’68 Custom Twin Reverb.
Pedals: I get most of my delay and reverb from a Line 6 M9. Extensive possibilities here. It’s incredibly user friendly, and I wish I had this when I first started playing. During our song “Tongues” I’ll switch on this weird octo/delay/auto-volume/reverb combo for a sweeping line that mimics a synth melody from the album. I actually use the M9 to play a few synth lines from the album. It compliments our live show. The distortion on this pedal is also hilarious, but when used in the right context, it fits perfectly.

I use this Boss Harmonist to shows with a long, drawn out sweep. The range of rise/fall on this is great, and our set has a few dramatic moments that call for it. I’ll also use the rise/fall to mimic a sort of digital “whammy bar” effect for one song. I have never used it once to play an actual harmony.

I’ve got an Eventide H9, as every guitar player should. It’s the swiss army knife of pedals. Reverb, delay, mods, shifts, etc. I have a custom sort of crystallizer effect on this that I use for an unreleased song. Sean, our bass player, tweaked the sound through the H9 app. There is no way to accurately describe all this thing does. Just go out and try one.

This is a custom pedal that Joywave and Adventure Audio collaborated on. It’s an overdrive pedal that, well, here…see the description and review from this highly acclaimed website:

https://www.pedal-of-the-day.com/2015/09/29/cultco-001-medium-overdrive/

That’s pretty much my current set up as far as pedals go. A few honorable and not pictured mentions are a Keeley GC-2 Limiting Amplifier and a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor.

Favorite type of pedal (drive, delay, fuzz, etc. – more than one answer is always acceptable!):

It’s really tough to narrow something like that down to just one type! If I had to pick just one standby, It’d be a delay/reverb combo. I usually always want to sound like I’m playing at the biggest arena on the planet.

You’re stranded on a desert island – which three (3) of the following do you want to have?

Instruments: Fender American Elite Telecaster.
Amps: Fender ’68 Custom Twin Reverb.
Pedals: Eventide H9.

What’s up next for you/your band(s)?

We’re currently on the road doing some headline shows, as well as a full U.S. run with Foals and Silvers Pickups.

The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?

I’ve never actually had the pleasure of playing one. The hype is certainly for real though. The sustain on those are insane. I don’t consider myself a gear purist by any means, but if something sounds different or unique I’m willing to convert.

Any last comments, promos or anything you’d like to talk about?

Yes.

1. My band Joywave is currently touring on our first full length record. It’s called “How Do You Feel Now?” and we’ve got some select headline dates as well as some dates with Silversun Pickups and Foals.

2. Our friends at Adventure Audio just made a 3 mode digital reverb (shimmer, hall, chorus) pedal that everyone should check out. I used it on a future release, and it’s awesome. http://adventure-audio.myshopify.com/products/whateverb

Thanks so much to Joseph for taking the time to answer some questions!
Make sure to go check out http://www.joywavemusic.com, cheers!

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