Greg Bortnichak
Olympia WA
Teach Me Equals (currently) & Sparta Philharmonic (formerly). I’ve also done session work pretty consistently over the last two decades, lending string arrangements to all sorts of projects. Some you might recognize would be Circa Survive, Jonathan Badger, Dream Tiger, Eating Club, The Metal Hearts, RedRumsey, Br’er, and HeadShy.
www.teachmeequals.com
spartaphilharmonic.bandcamp.com
Photo by Erin Murphy
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
I’ve been a musician for a little over 20 years. I got my start in NJ public schools – all students are required to play an instrument starting in the 4th grade, and I wanted to be an upright bass player. I hadn’t hit my growth spurt at that point, so I was a given a cello instead and fell in love! As an adolescent, I fell ill and became bedridden for about a month, in which I taught myself to play the electric guitar and bass off Nirvana and Green Day tablature books. Although I primarily consider myself a cellist, I still play all three instruments quite regularly to this day and find that playing each one helps to be more creative with the others.
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
That’s a tough one, because I think it is so important to listen to literally everything and not get boxed in to a particular sound or style. I truly love all styles of music, and generally am listening for something to make me think or feel something I wouldn’t otherwise.
Some real juggernaut influences for me over the years have been: John Coltrane, Sonic Youth, Richard Wagner, Jacqueline Dupre, Johannes Brahms, Nirvana, Unwound, Bruce Springsteen, Ornette Coleman, Radiohead, The Notwist, My Bloody Valentine, Ravel, Fugazi, Blonde Redhead, John Cage, Nels Cline, Zeena Parkins, The Dirty Three, Death Grips, The Drones, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Richie Havens, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Diabologum, and on and on…
I can say that the real formative experiences for me as a musician came from receiving my first Rock N Roll cassette tape when I was 6 or 7, which was Lucky Town by Bruce Springsteen, and having my first experience beholding the breadth and power of a full orchestra at a performance of The Flying Dutchman.
Nirvana atomized my world like it did to many kids back in the early ‘90’s. I remember the summer after Kurt passed I went to sleep away camp for the first time and all us kids were grieving, truly grieving for this person we never met. We all would stay up through the night and pass an acoustic guitar around the campfire and have these grand and wrought singalongs to Nirvana’s entire catalogue. It was that moment that made me want to be a musician.
My first rock concert was also a really big deal in my development. I saw Sonic Youth with the David S. Ware quartet at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. They were touring on A Thousand Leaves and played this expansive 2-hour set at absolutely crushing decibel levels. I was lost at first – so much noise, it seemed. And then about halfway through, it all clicked – I saw four people on stage communicating in a fully alien tongue all the substance of our lives in this torrent of vibrations that literally shook me to my core. It was sublime, and I was hooked. Seeing how fearless Sonic Youth was – stretching out with some of their most challenging material to a mostly bewildered hometown crowd – was, and still is, a huge inspiration to me. They showed me that it was possible to seamlessly blend avant-garde jazz, punk, and contemporary classical music into something all their own. That band sets the bar for me. My life was never the same after that experience.
Later on, I would take every opportunity I could to see the members of Sonic Youth improvise sets at a little experimental music club called the Tonic. I was amazed by how bottomless their creativity was, and so touched when they began to recognize me in the audience (I was by far the youngest person in the room), and exhibited such kindness, gratitude, and good humor. I was so fortunate to have grown up so close to NY and a visionary experimental venue like the Tonic. I wouldn’t be the same without it.
Photo by Priscilla Wyatt
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?
Absolutely. I found a bass guitar, amp, and distortion pedal all at the same garage sale. I have never played an electric instrument without heavily modifying its sound. I mean, why not?
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):
On tour with Teach Me Equals for our new record, Fix History, I am running my cello from a David Gage Realist pickup through the following in this order:
-home-made 8-bit gated fuzz box
-ProCo Turbo Rat
-CroyTone Camper Fuzz
-Dunlop Ringworm (Ring Modulator)
-Boss Bass EQ
-Boss RV-5 (Reverb/ Delay)
-Boss RC 300XL (looper)
Out into a heavily modified circa ‘78 Twin Reverb with old EV PA speakers and a Univox 110-watt Bass amp (not sure of the year or model of the Univox -I found it at a flea market and it looks to be from the early 1980’s judging by the color/font/design).
Photo by Priscilla Wyatt
Favorite type of pedal (drive, delay, fuzz, etc. – more than one answer is always acceptable!):
FUZZ! I use fuzz and drive essentially like a chain of EQ pedals to color my tone as I mix and match throughout any given song. I love using them to really control the dynamics of my sound, and lend different voices to different parts in a song. Combining fuzzes is never a bad idea in my book. I am a huge fan of grotesquerie, and would love to liberate the stereotypically “gorgeous” voice of the cello to fully include its shadow side. My RingWorm is also a wonderful tool to destabilize the cello’s tonal character – I am able (especially when playing harmonics) to create such otherworldly chime and bell tones with that pedal. When used in combination with healthy doses of fuzz in arco passages, the result is utterly revolting, and often culls strong reactions from people. I am fascinated by sound’s power to instigate as well as inspire, and think that fully utilizing both of these potentials is the only way to keep non-verbal communication fully honest and representative of the human experience. So much ugliness, so much beauty, everywhere, all the time. I owe that to the legacy of the cello as an instrument so close to the human voice in terms of mechanics and range.
You’re stranded on a desert island – which three (3) of the following do you want to have?
Instruments: Cello, Electric Guitar
Amps: Twin Reverb
Pedals: Turbo Rat, Ring Worm, Boss RC300 Loop Station, and my Camper Fuzz!!
What’s up next for you/your band(s)?
Touring until the wheels fall off!!
Photo by Tom Winchester
The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
What’s Klon?
Any last comments, promos or anything you’d like to talk about?
Sure – if you want to get a real quick taste of what I was waxing poetic about up above, I just recorded an arrangement of the prelude to Wagner’s Lohengrin for solo cello through the setup I described above (with the addition of an Electro-Harmonix POG and FREEZE pedal), which is up on youtube with a pretty sweet experimental short film by my bandmate in Teach Me Equals and fellow camper fuzz enthusiast, Erin Murphy. It’s a good summary. Fix History is out now on Wild Klamath Records and goes quite a bit deeper.
Lohengrin Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-Q6AMJkocA
Fix History: https://teachmeequals.bandcamp.com/album/fix-history-2
Wild Klamath Records: https://wildklamathrecords.com/
Thanks so much to Greg for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out www.teachmeequals.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:
Joe Halliday of Hello Sailor Effects
Johnny Balmer of Alchemy Audio
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