My name is Trevor Shelley de Brauw. I’m from Chicago, IL and I perform in:
Pelican: http://pelicansong.com/
RLYR: https://www.facebook.com/RLYRband/
Chord: https://chordgroup.bandcamp.com/
And solo: https://trevordebrauw.bandcamp.com/

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

I’ve been playing guitar since junior high school. At some point around age twelve or thirteen or so music became a complete obsession for me and I felt a compulsion to be a part of it. There was a shitty acoustic guitar in the house from when my older brother had tried to learn to play, so I started messing around with it constantly. Once I ‘d gotten a handle on the most basic rudimentary skills down I saved up and bought my first electric, a Fender Squier II. It was a piece of garbage that suited my needs for many years to come.

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

I’m all over the place in terms of that. In those early years I’d say Screeching Weasel was the first band that played music that I was equal parts obsessed with and semi-capable of emulating, so they became a real focal point for me. From there bands like Jawbreaker and Sunny Day Real Estate opened up my palette to more ambitious ideas regarding melody and texture.

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?

In high school my friend had a Digitech PDS-1002 Delay pedal and a four track. We used to make endless recordings of weird sonic experiments. It was just so fun being able to manipulate audio and create something completely different than the original audio source with a rather minimal amount of manipulation. So pretty early on I started picking up different distortions, delays, and modulation effects – for a long time I found them pretty hard to integrate into the bands I was doing since I was pretty deeply entrenched in punk and hardcore, but over time I found ways to branch out into different sonic possibilities. I think they started getting a bit more integral around when my band Tusk started working on our debut album – we’d been doing fairly straightforward grindcore and were increasingly interested in getting weird with it. I bought a Boss RV-3 Reverb and a DD-6 delay and started writing proggy parts where the pedals were integral components. By the time we started Pelican they were a major part of my setup.

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):

I play different setups in Pelican and RLYR. In fact the Pelican rig is in a state of flux now that we’re working on new material and I’m keen to develop a new guitar sound for it, so I’m not sure where that’ll end up. For RLYR and my recent solo performances I’ve been playing out of a stereo rig: my Gibson SG through a Fender Quad and a Fender Twin. My pedal chain starts with a Dunlop volume pedal, then a Fuzzrocious Cat King, a Pro Co Rat, an MXR Micro Amp, an EarthQuaker Devices Organizer – then an A/B box and the signal chain goes stereo from there – Strymon Flint, EarthQuaker Avalanche Run, a TC Electronic Nova Delay, a Boomerang Looper, and finally a Boss Digital Reverb.

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

My first love has always been delay pedals – the one my friend had in high school was one of those Digitech ones with the two pedals and I remember it had some primitive looping functions. From there I was just really into how spacious you can make a simple guitar line sound. The Line 6 DL4 was a revelation when it first came out with all of those different emulations of delays built in. I used to swear by that pedal, but I was constantly breaking them when we were touring more regularly, so I started using pedals that seemed more rugged. It’s not without regret, though: sometimes I hear old recordings where I used the Tape Echo simulator on the DL4 and it’s such a singular, awesome sounding effect.

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

Instruments: my trusty ’72 Gibson SG
Amps: Fender Twin
Pedals: Boss DD-3

What’s up next for you/your band(s)?

Pelican is roughly halfway through writing a new album. Once we have a solid clutch of demo recordings I think we’ll start figuring out how and when best to turn them into an album. RLYR has a second album written, just no clear recording plans as of yet. I’m well underway recording my next solo album so hopefully that’ll be ready sooner than later. And finally I have finished albums by Chord and Let’s Pet in my back pocket, just no release plans in place for either.

The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?

I had to Google it :/

It’s certainly piqued my interest now. For pretty much the whole run of Pelican and Tusk I’ve been 100% into tube-driven amp distortion, so I paid very little mind to overdrive or distortion pedals until recently. After I bought my Fender amps and started using them in RLYR I got very hooked on the potential of pedal-based drive, so I’m very curious to try anything and everything.

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

Thanks so much for the opportunity to talk gear!

Thanks so much to Trevor for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out his websites, and see when his bands are headed to a town near you! Cheers!

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