Rafferty Swink
Evolfo: www.evolfo.com
Low Noon: lownoon.bandcamp.com
Oyinda: oyinda.com
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
I started taking piano lessons when I was about seven years old and never stopped. In middle school, I started playing in garage bands with my friends, as well as taking jazz piano lessons with a private teacher. I think having the balance of a serious music education and the anarchy of adolescent bands helped open me up to a lot of sounds. I would look up a band like the Rolling Stones on iTunes and read their biography. Below the band’s bio was a list of their influences, so I’d read those bios. I repeated this infinitely. Every week I’d check out thirty CDs (the maximum allowed) from the public library and burn them onto my computer. The summer after ninth grade I got a job at The Music Coop (http://www.musiccooponline.com), my hometown’s record store, where I had the realization that music was what I was going to do. I was constantly buying records and never getting paid, but I haven’t the slightest regret about that! Working at a record store while in high school was an even more important education for me. When I was at work I would learn about the catalog and talk to the owner John. He broadened my musical perspective more then probably anybody other then my parents. My parents combined record collection was another thing that I started stealing from early on.
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
I think I can only respond to this question in a list, because I would go nuts trying to explain the many reasons why I love each one of these artists: Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Shuggie Otis, The Meters, The Stooges, Brian Eno, Brian Jones, Tim Hecker, Sun Kil Moon, The Kinks, Erik Satie, Allen Toussaint, Kanye West, and Madlib.
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 in high school, I went on a quest to replicate Neil Young’s guitar tone on “Everybody Knows this is Nowhere”, which lead me to discover the sound of a driven tube amp. After that little epiphany I started to learn about drive/distortion/fuzz pedals; that was my gateway. As I learned more about producing, recording, and mixing, I also learned about pedals I could use to replicate those aspects in a live setting. When I moved to Boston, I started seeing a lot more live music, which inspired me to pursue my own voice sonically. Pedals are a huge tool and can shape and enhance the sound of almost every instrument. I started out just using pedals for my guitar (though I play keyboards more professionally); now I run everything thru my pedal board – guitars, organs, drum machines, vocals, you name it!
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):
My rig with Evolfo is definitely the most pedal-centric of the bands I play with:
I play a Crumar Traveler-1 combo organ. This is a strange bird of a combo organ. In the 70’s, when it was made, it was supposed to be a B3 emulator, but it sounds nothing like a Hammond, and I love that about it. It has a wild vibrato that can sound like a synth. I play the Crumar into a Vox Wah Wah. Using the Wah with organs is fun because you can use it to filter out the overtones. This creates interesting textures and nice resonant tones. Then it goes into a Polytune2 Mini tuner. The Crumar has a pitch bend and needs to be tuned before I play.
Then comes an Abominable Electronics Cenote. This is a fantastic reverb/fuzz pedal. I use the verb all the time. The fuzz is great for making the organ cutting and jagged; when you use them together it becomes chaotic and exciting- good for noising it out. Up next is a Boss BD-2. I like the crunch it gives the Crumar. It’s not as gnarly as the fuzz, but has a little more bite then just the amp breaking up. Last, but certainly not least, is the Ibanez Echo Shifter. I love this delay because it has a fader instead of a knob to control the delay time. This is great for me because I have all my pedals on top of my organ and I’m constantly tweaking them song-to-song. I find it very musical to have a fader for doing delay throws. The Echo Shifter also has a feedback switch that makes it automatically self oscillate.
(in the picture of my rig there’s an MXR Carbon Copy, because my Echo Shifter recently passed away and I haven’t had a chance to replace it since we’ve been on the road.)
On the road, I usually play out of a Fender Hotrod Deluxe, because they’re pretty indestructible. In the studio, I like to use my Danelectro DM25.
Favorite type of pedal (drive, delay, fuzz, etc. – more than one answer is always acceptable!):
Initially it was fuzz and distortion. All the bands I listened to had crunched up riffs. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to fuzz it out, but I think my new favorite has to be delay. A few years ago I bought a Roland RE-150 for my home studio. After that I realized how much I need that on my pedal board too. It can add a lot of depth and mood to your sounds live. I find it very expressive.
You’re stranded on a desert island – which three (3) of the following do you want to have?
Instruments: My Crumar Traveler, Prophet 6, and my Tele.
Amps: Danelectro DM25, Ampeg Gemini II, and a Fender Twin.
Pedals: Ditto Looper X2 (if you’re stuck on a desert island you gotta be able to loop yourself!), Ibanez Echo Shifter (all delay all day), Mutron Biphase (I have one of these majestic pedals in my studio. They’re massive and sound fantastic. Endless desert island filtering would ensue.)
What’s up next for you/your band(s)?
More recording and more touring. Evolfo released an EP “Last of the Acid Cowboys” on September 16th and then hit the road for a few weeks on the West Coast. I’m going to be releasing another EP of my own ambient beat music as Low Noon later this winter. I’ll also be doing some touring with Oyinda before the year is done.
The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
I cannot comment on Klon hype, because I’ve never played a Klon. I think in my lifetime they’ve always been very expensive and I’ve never known anybody who’s had one. I’ve played Klon clones, but I don’t feel informed enough to have a position on the topic.
Any last comments, promos or anything you’d like to talk about?
If you’ve made it this far in the interview, THANK YOU!
Thanks so much to Rafferty for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out www.evolfo.com, and check their tour page to see when they’re headed to a town near you! Cheers!
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