My name is Anders Mouridsen, and I’m a Danish guitarist, living in Los Angeles and working all over the place. I currently perform, write and record with country artist Cam (www.camcountry.com). In the past, I’ve performed and recorded with artists like John Fogerty, Pink, Taylor Swift, Tim Timebomb, Meghan Trainor, Guy Sebastian and many others. You can hear some examples of my work as a writer, producer and musician on my website (www.andersmouridsen.com). And you can follow my musical adventures in real-time at @andersmou on Instagram.
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
I started playing accordion when I was 6 years old. My dad had promised me a joystick for our PC if I took up an instrument. My friend’s dad played accordion, and they had a great accordion teacher at the school, so I picked that. I learned a combination of Polka tunes and Zydeco haha. I also have two uncles who played and still play beautiful guitar, and I was endlessly fascinated by their finger picking and harmonized singing. Slowly but surely the guitar took over as my main instrument., but in recent years I’ve actually been playing some accordion- both live and in the studio. It’s a fun extra gimmick to be able to pull out.
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
I’ve always been all about the good song, so growing up I listened to all the classic songwriters – The Beatles, James Taylor, Neil Young, Kris Kristofferson and many others. As far as guitar playing goes I always gravitated towards the blues guys- B.B. King, Clapton, Freddie King, Albert Collins, etc. I’m still fascinated and endlessly humbled by how much amazing music these guys could make with just a handful of notes. I also listened to a lot of punk like NOFX, Rancid and a Swedish Ska-band named Liberator. I loved the angry tones, the high energy and catchy melodies. These days my listening is all over the map, as I bounce back and forth between discovering really old things I’ve missed along the way and trying to keep up with all the new music that’s being released.
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?
My first pedal was a yellow boss overdrive pedal that I bought with my allowance money through my uncle. My dad had made an amp out of a radio and two bookshelf speakers, and as you can imagine it sounded clean and dry. I wanted to play the riff from Smells Like Teen Spirit, so naturally I needed an overdrive pedal. This can not have sounded anything other than awful, but I was stoked. From there on I kept it pretty minimal for a while (mostly due to a limited budget), pretty much only using overdrive pedals, tremolo and reverb. I did have a delay pedal in my teenage years and was getting a lot of music out of the classic dotted eighth note setting (The Edge). There weren’t a lot of people to play with, where I grew up, so I had to get creative by myself. It wasn’t until my early twenties that I discovered how much inspiration I get from big reverbs and moody effects like tremolo. Now those are a big part of my sound.
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’ve played Silverface Super Reverbs since I was 15 years old. There’s just something about them that clicks with me. I’ve tried everything at this point, and everytime I come back to a Super, it feels like home. I have three of them- one in L.A., one in Nashville and one in Denmark. I tend to run them on 3 speakers, which for some reason makes them sound even better.
I have a relatively small pedal board with a volume pedal that I use for swells and for muting when tuning. Then I have a Beetronics Overhive, which is a very versatile overdrive pedal. This actually replaced my vintage TS808, which is quite a feat for an overdrive pedal. Then I have a Cannonball Fuzz by Carolina Guitar Company, which I always love the sound of. It never fails to inspire me for both riffs, effects and solos. Then I have my favorite overdrive that my uncle built. It's a very subtle treble distortion that just makes the high-end “bite” a little more. This is essentially my clean tone. It’s very rare that I have no other overdrive pedals engaged and this one isn’t on. Then I have a boost that my uncle also built. It’s essentially just a volume boost (which is why it’s after the other pedals in the chain), but it does compress and fatten the tone a little bit, and it sounds amazing for solos and lead parts.
Then in the second row I have the fun stuff- a mini delay pedal by T.C. Electronic that I use for slapback delay. After that I have a stereo tremolo by Seymour Duncan. I don’t always run stereo, but when I do it’s super cool to play with the phase knob on the tremolo pedal, so the fluctuations in the volume happen at separate times. This gives a bouncy, ping pong-y tremolo sound that’s really unique. Then I have a Line 6 M5, which is my wild card. I typically use it for a huge reverb, but if I ever need a random effect this is what saves me. And that’s part of the reason I have another reverb pedal at the end of the chain. It’s a TC Electronic Hall of Fame, which I mainly have in case I need to use the line6 for a wild card effect and still need a big reverb. When this is not the case I often use it in place of the amp reverb, since I most often played on rented amps, and it’s kind of random how their reverbs sound.
For guitars I’m all about Gretsch. I have all the standard instruments and I use those in the studio, but live I pretty much use Gretsch exclusively. I have a great relationship with them, and the instruments have never let me down. For fly dates I use my trusty Duo Jet, which I describe as a country Les Paul. When I can bring more than one guitar I also use my Black Falcon, Eddie Cochran Signature model and my Baritone. Here’s a link to my artist profile: www.gretschguitars.com/artists/anders-mouridsen-profile
Favorite type of pedal (drive, delay, fuzz, etc. – more than one answer is always acceptable!):
If I could only bring one pedal to a solo job it would probably be a reverb pedal. Secondly, tremolo. Assuming the amp has both of those, I would bring some kind of overdrive – maybe a fuzz. If the amp has all three I’d bring my new Plus pedal. It’s a sustain pedal for guitar, and it’s been an absolute game changer for me. There are many ways to use it, but I have it set to work kinda like a piano sustain pedal, where I can make a chord ring out for a bit while I continue playing over it. I absolutely love this pedal.
You’re stranded on a desert island – which three (3) of the following do you want to have?
Assuming it’s a desert island with power, I’d want…..
Instruments: Gretsch hollowbody w/ Bigsby, Dreadnought Acoustic, Telecaster
Amps: Fender Super Reverb, Marshall Plexi (since I could turn it up all the way and possibly be heard around the world and get rescued… And if not I would still be endlessly entertained). Finally probably a Vox or something weird like an old Gibson amp or something
Pedals: Big Reverb of any kind, Cannonball Fuzz, Plus Sustain Pedal
What’s up next for you/your band(s)?
We’re playing Stagecoach in California. It’s the same facilities as Coachella – only all country and Americana acts. It’s super cool! We’re on the big stage on Saturday night. Come hang!! Over the summer I’m going back to Europe for a bit, and I’m hoping to do some solo shows while I’m there.
The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
Never tried it. If everybody is into one thing, I typically look elsewhere. That being said, if someone showed it to me and I liked it, I wouldn’t have any problem using it. I just never tend to seek out the hyped things.
Any last comments, promos or anything you’d like to talk about?
I’m really not much of a gear-head. Once I find a pedal that I like, I typically don’t mess with it or look for alternatives. If anything comes out of the box and needs a ton of experimentation I don’t often end up using it. Gear is cool, but only to the extend that it helps me get inspired about playing. My focus is always on the fretboard and the song! My solution has always been to keep my setup really simple. That way I know it sounds good and I don’t have to worry about giant pedal boards, buffers, technical issues, etc.
Thanks so much to Anders for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out www.andersmouridsen.com for more info. He’s also an instructor for www.guitartricks.com, so be sure to check them out as well – Cheers!
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