Anthony Thogmartin
Papadosio
EarthCry
www.papadosio.com
earthcry.net

Photo by Corey Lamb Photography

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

Music has always been a huge part of my life. My father apparently sung to me while I was still in the womb. My mother used to play me to sleep with her violin.

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

In my early days I discovered Hendrix, Jethro Tull, Yes, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin and other classic rock/prog music and I found myself drawn to music with depth and intrigue. I soon then discovered Tool, Radiohead, NIN, Soundgarden, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, all incredible in their own way and totally different from each other. Now I find my tastes going slightly more underground as I am always trying to seek something I haven't heard before.

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?

I've always had a distinct fascination with ambient guitar. I love delay and reverb and have always used them in all my projects and think of my playing as more of an adventure into sound design than virtuosity – as I feel much of that territory, for guitar anyway has been sufficiently explored by so many amazing players. What feels fresh and new to me is timbre, as there is still so much more we can do. We live in Asheville, NC, where there are two major synthesizer companies: Moog, and Make Noise. However, there don't appear to be many businesses in the area that specialize in pedals.

Photo by Bradford Watkins

Where do you go when one of your pedals needs repair, or when you're ready for a new model? 

I pretty much do my own pedal repair, and at least for the distortion / compression side of my pedalboard. I built those pedals either from kits or from schematics so I could mess around with using different circuits and components to create my own unique tone.

What’s your current setup look like? What kind of pedals did you use in your latest album release Content Coma, and how do they differ from past records? Take us through your pedal rig (feel free to include amps and instruments as well if you’d
like):

Currently, my “distortion/drive” part of my rig is totally analog, using one tubescreamer pedal schematic I modded that I've had for over 15 years. Then there is a Build Your Own Clone “Crown Jewel” which I built from a kit next in the chain. The Crown Jewel is really cool as it can clone many different styles of distortion, fuzz, and overdrive as it has lots of signal paths you can choose. Then I have a pharaoh fuzz because that circuit cannot be beat as far as fuzz is concerned and for the curious, thats the awesome fuzz tone used in our song “Fire Rite”. And If I was to pick a “Pedal of the Day” I would have to say that the “Copilot FX Portal Blender” is the one. It allows you to blend in an effects loop along with your own signal using either the onboard big knob or, like in my case, an expression pedal. What I use mine for, and perhaps one of the most unique things about my rig is that I have all my distortions, fuzzes, and overdrives in the Portal's loop so I can blend in drives with over my clean tone smoothly and so I can switch around which distortions im using and no one will hear the switching until I blend them in. I really don't know why this isn't a more popular method. Copilot FX is an awesome company based in the Dominican Republic.

…AND funny story about that, one time we played a show down there and we were at the airport flying back to the states. My name got called over the intercom and I had to go to their security office. When I arrived, I was surrounded by a bunch of angry officers who had my pedalboard out on a table. The main guy said “Que es esto!!!” (What is this!!!) as if the pedalboard was a wired bomb, and I cant blame him, with all the wires sticking out every which way and the knobs and dials I can see why they were concerned. So I summoned up my extremely limited Spanish and said “esto es efectos para guitarra” which is probably grammatically wrong, and they looked even more suspicious, so I did what any musician would do and played air guitar while singing the guitar intro for purple haze. I also even rocked the wah pedal back and fourth. The room erupted with laughter and all 5 of the security guards all started playing air guitar and laughing then jovially sent me on my way. It was simultaneously scary and hilarious all at once.

Moving on to the next part of my rig is my trusty Fractal Audio FX8 which is a tweaker's delight. It takes care of all my modulations, delays, and reverbs and sounds astounding. I think that I would advise only those who are really into deep dives to mess around with Fractal stuff as it takes a serious amount of time to dial something unique in. It took me a week at home off of tour to design the 10 different delay presets I've made and use nightly. I utilize what's known as the “4 cable method” to use the preamp drive part of my amazing Dr.Z maz 38nr amps, which is pre everything, then goes into the FX8's pre stage where I usually put modulations like chorus, phaser, flanger etc(i think they always sound better pre distortion) then it goes into the analog pedal board then out back into my “post” stage where the delays and reverbs and onboard looper hangout. Then I send all that into Ableton Live for quantized looping through my audio interface, then out to the Dr.Z amps in stereo. (Whew)

Who are some other musicians you played with on your Fall 2018 Content Coma tour that have had pedals you were intrigued by and why?

In Denver I saw the guys from Consider the Source play an impromptu jam night with the guys from Elephant Wrecking Ball, and wow, talk about pedals, they are next level with effects and musicianship.

Photo by Corey Lamb Photography

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

Reverb and Delay!

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

Instruments: Guitar, Modular Synthesizer
Pedals: Delay, Reverb

What’s up next for you and Papadosio?

We have so much ahead it is dizzying. We had NYE at the Marathon in Nashville and a special acoustic show at a winery the night before. We have BUKU Festival which will be a first for us. And we have an awesome east coast tour coming up – all the dates are HERE!

Photo by Corey Lamb Photography

The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?

Its fantastic for what it does, but so many have claimed that type of tone that we might as well move on. Unpopular opinion: you can build/clone the same circuit with 95% of the same tone for SO much less than an original, and no one would know except you and a bunch of nerds. 😉

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

Our latest album Content Coma is chock full of effects and pedal explorations, Modular synthesizer bleeps and bloops, and wacky sound effects. I think your fan base would enjoy a listen. Thanks for the interview!

Thanks so much to Anthony for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out www.papadosio.com, and check their tour page to see when they’re headed to a town near you! Cheers!

Check out some of our other interviews here:

Brian Moss of Spafford

Rob McConnell of Papadosio

Mike Gantzer of Aqueous

Scott Metzger

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