Ethan Miller
Humboldt County
Howlin’ Rain, Heron Oblivion, Feral Ohms
howlinrain.com
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
I’ve been playing music since about 7 years old when I started piano lessons. I took up acoustic guitar at around age 12. Electric guitar at age 14. I first got into playing non-classical music at a California State Summer School for the Arts that they used to hold at Mills college in Oakland. It was a month long program and there were tons of older kids there, I was just graduated from junior high headed for highschool. Most of the kids had just graduated highschool so they had a lot to teach me about music. In particular one Christian folk dude named Randy taught me the basic cowboy chords, he showed me U2’s Desire, ACDC Back in Black, a standard tuning version of Suite Judy Blue Eyes and American Pie. Being able to play and sing a song almost instantly opened up a whole new world in music to me.
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
Munehiro Narita, Johnny Thunders, Michio Kurihara, Randy California, Joan Jett, Robert Quine, Joni Mitchell, Ben Chasny, Isaiah Mitchell, Charlie Saufley, Jason Soda, Daniel Cervantes, Eddie Hazel, Ernie Isley, Noel Harmonson.
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?
Yeah, I’ve been using them since I’ve been playing in bands. I guess before bands they didn’t seem that useful. Once I got into my first band I went out and got a boss distortion pedal pretty quick. Somewhere in that first year or two I got a Morley flanger deluxe, a bandmate lent me a green russian pi big muff, a couple other things. No delays for a while. The pedals give you little gateways to really dynamic sound colors. Unless your playing a 100 watt marshall cranked up you kind of need pedals when you’re playing with a loud band if you want to have dynamics in your guitar playing.
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 currently play two amps in a chain: a Fender Pro reverb, silver face 70s, for treble and bass sound, and an Airline that is the mids. My pedal chain looks like this: from instrument (1964 Fender Jaguar usually) into a Mutron Octave Divider clone > Hot Cake Od > early 80s Roger Mayer Fuzz Face > Sam Ash fuzz clone with the fuzz set almost to the zero used as a light overdrive push > Mu-FX Boostron 3 > Swollen Pickle Fuzz > Vox Wah > Empress Tape Delay > Boss Chromatic tuner. Then to amps.
Favorite type of pedal (drive, delay, fuzz, etc. – more than one answer is always acceptable!):
Roger Mayer Fuzz Face. ICBM Big Muff. Russian Pi green Big Muff. Mutron Octave divider. Hot Cake. Does Echoplex EP-3 count as a pedal? if so it’s top of the list!
You’re stranded on a desert island – name 3 (of each) instruments, amps and pedals you couldn’t live without:
Instruments: my 64 Fender Jaguar, my 70s Fender Rhodes, my italian scroll head Hofner knock-off bass.
Amps: 70s Silverface Fender Twin, 100watt 70s Marshall JMP super lead, my Acoustic 270 + Kustom tuck and roll bass cab loaded with 2 x 15″ D140s.
Pedals: Hot Cake, Echoplex Ep3, Roger Mayer fuzz face.
Covid-19 has obviously affected us all – how have you as a musician been able to stay positive and upbeat? What’s up next for you/your band(s), as far as concerts/live streams/etc,?
I run a record label. That kept me extremely busy during Covid lockdown. My band Howlin’ Rain just released a new album, The Dharma Wheel. We also just completed our first tour since Covid in support of the record on the West Coast of the US. We have another Southern California run brewing for December, and then we look to 2022 to continue touring.
The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
Love it. But I’m not a devotee. I do have a few Klon clones that I use in the studio quite a bit, but for live, recently I’ve been getting what I usually want out of a Klon from some of my other pedals in combo. Mostly my Hot Cake has my overdrive needs. The Hot Cake to me is the precious, can-do-anything-on-any-rig-in-any-chain pedal that I hate to go without.
Any last comments, promos or anything you’d like to talk about?
Check out the new album The Dharma Wheel by Howlin’ Rain, everybody!
Thanks so much to Ethan for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out Howlin’ Rain, and check their tour page to see when they’re headed to a town (or virtual venue) near you! Cheers!
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Ori Naftaly of Southern Avenue
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