Clint McDuffie
Gadsden, Alabama
Deep Space Devices
deepspacedevices.com
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
For myself, I’ve been playing for around 13 years, which I would’ve been 12 or so when I began learning to play. I started out playing bass and, just like anyone else, I transitioned into guitar, but at the end of the day, I’ll always be a bass player at heart. At the time, friends were always jamming on the weekends, and this kind of brought me to wanting to learn to play.
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
Back in my teen years, heavier music was the main thing from where I’m from, and especially the local music scene, which introduced me into some of my bigger musical influences, such as Every Time I Die and The Chariot. Fast forward to today, ambience and instrumental post rock is my go to, with major influences being Explosions in the Sky, And So I Watch You From Afar and This Will Destroy You. Math rock and post rock are what I mainly listen to nowadays.
What led to the start of Deep Space Devices? How long have you been in business?
So, I went to school and got my undergrad in Business Management, which it led to where it all kind of started when I was working for a company known as The North Face (which I’m sure we’re all familiar with). I would travel here and there and help with retail business side of things, but during that time, I was OBSESSED with pedals, and was on that pedal endeavor high (still am). I also played in an instrumental post rock group known as GallantHorn, and knowing ambience and post rock, pedals are everywhere and played all the time. I still play in the band, but Deep Space Devices is the main focus which led to GallantHorn being inactive at the moment. Anyways, during my time with TNF, I had a lot of down time when out for work, and during that time, I was always studying and building pedals. We all have that dream job/occupation, and that for me was to own and run my own effects pedal company. A few months before Deep Space Devices become Deep Space Devices, I was in a deep, deep depression just down in the dumps about life just knowing that I’m not doing what makes me happy and putting things off to do what I want to do. I don’t know what clicked in me but one day, I had that “it’s either now or never” attitude, and went into work and put in my notice.
I could say that my brother was a big reason why I made the jump. He passed away a few years back due to a plane crash. I’ve always had fear making big jumps in life, where my brother never did. Since his passing, I’ve noticed I would take on things differently, with less fear knowing that life is not to be put off until later. You need to live it and do what you want to do to be happy and live it to the fullest. On the day that I made the jump to go all out with Deep Space Devices, you could probably guess that my brother was on my mind. Since then, I’ve been going all out with Deep Space Devices. Couldn’t be happier.
How big is your operation/how many employees do you have?
Deep Space Devices has been in business for around 8 months and to this day, we are shocked and beyond thankful for those that helped and supported us to get to where we are right now, in such little time. As far as operation, we are working out of a little shop area near my house – within the next few months, we’re going to be transitioning into a shop a few miles from where we’re at, which we’re pretty excited about. Employee-wise, it’s currently myself and my partner, Taylor Adams. I’m interning a few people as we transition into the new shop, and slowly growing on the employee side, but we still have to just take one step at a time and not get too ahead of ourselves.
What drives you as far as new pedal creation is concerned? How long does it typically take for an idea to come full circle and become a demo pedal? What’s the process behind new gear, and the eventual release of it to the public?
I get really excited with new pedal creations. The outcome is what gets me going, and I guess the excitement of that is what really drives me to keep pushing through the trial and error process. We have things already planned out what effect we’re going to do for the next 4-5 pedals, but for with what all it will contain and do, we sit down and map out what we’re going to pursue to do. A lot of times it ends up being something completely different with what we attempted, but that different thing is usually something we like even more than what we originally tried doing. There’s a lot of studying and researching involved as well. Experimenting is always fun, but you gotta know what you’re working with before you approach it like that.
As far as how long the process goes, I’d say roughly around 2 weeks to get the effect we want, but as far as release to the public, it all mainly depends on production of enclosures. These take roughly 3-5 weeks, which I blame that on us due to the massively detailed artwork we do with the pedals, which I’m not complaining about. Artwork is a very important thing for us when applying it to our pedals.
What are some of the biggest concerns facing your profession today?
New releases and the time to get everything together is something that gets our anxiety going, but that’s expected. There’s really not much I could say because they are all concerns that’re expected when doing business. I guess that’s something that I’m pretty thankful for, having a business degree and knowing that things happen or are going to happen.
Where do you see pedal building going in the future?
I really can’t give you a straightforward answer, honestly, because I really don’t know. I hope to see it grow and see other companies succeed in their pedal building, including ourselves.
Who are some of your favorite builders in the industry right now?
So I don’t get to carried away, I’ll just name three:
First would be “Old Blood Noise”. We first met the crew at NAMM and every one of those dudes are some of the most chill guys in the industry. Their effects pedals are right up my alley and always blow me away with every release they have.
Second would be “Electronic Audio Experiments”. I first met John Snyder (owner) through an email that Chris Teti (The World is a Beautiful Place/Silver Bullet Studios) setup and after exchanging a few emails and communicating with John through social media, I realized that this dude if one of the most brilliant builders in the industry. His pedals and the way he goes about them creating them are incredible.
Third would be Caroline Guitar Company. I’ve only had small interactions with Philippe but just based on those small interactions, you could tell how genuine and full of life this dude was. Also, in my opinion, he makes one of the best delays out there, which I use always, the Kilobyte LoFi Delay.
Name the last 5 records you listened to:
Nothing – Tired of Tomorrow
Evolv – Be Here Now
A Place to Bury Strangers – Pinned
Lacquer – Good Gracious Alive
Do Make Say Think – Stubborn Persistent Illusions
The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
I mean, I understand that the Klon was used by so many influential artists, but that doesn’t mean it’s great. I used to think this way until I played Wampler’s Tumnus. I began to appreciate it much more so after.
Any last comments, or anything you’d like to talk about?
Not that I can think of, other than be expecting something pretty crazy and glitchy with our next release.
Thanks so much to Clint for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out deepspacedevices.com to peruse all of their gear – Cheers!
Check out some of our other interviews here:
Joel Cummins of Umphrey’s McGee
Alexandre Ernandez of Anasounds
GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES, CONTEST INFO, SEE OUR LATEST DEMO VIDEOS AND MORE:
