Today, Overdrive can reveal an exclusive video of guitarist Shane Martin performing a play-through of “Riptide”. Watch below;
We spoke to Shane regarding his rig and style of playing and this is what he had to say:
OD – Tell us the inspiration behind the writing of “Riptide“, the origin of the riff and layout?
SHANE – Riptide was among one of the last songs that was written for PYRES and was so close not making the album. It was actually a combination of old riffs I had tracked but never used in any other songs.
The structure was there but we all agreed that it was missing something, missing a hook for people to latch onto. I had spent a lot of time on it so was reluctant to just let it be pushed to the wayside so sat down one day to try and get that hook we were looking for.
The hook that came was that penetrating synth line that opens the song and continues throughout!! As soon as it was presented to the rest of the boys we all knew that this was going to be a stand out tune.
OD – With regards to guitar tone, who have you been most influenced by?
SHANE – I don’t really have an influence on tone, I dial all in until it sounds nice to my ear. There is some amazing tones out there, (Architects would be a stand out to me) but I don’t want to be a carbon copy of another band’s sound. I try to get a tone that is a little different and that can be identified as “My sound”.
OD – When writing, do you find that it’s best to keep things simple or would you like to move more into a technical approach to song structures?
SHANE – New ideas normally come to me when am driving to or from work, something will pop into my head and I’ll record it on my phone for later. When I start the writing progress I’ll listen to the clip I was humming and start working it out on the guitar. At first I’ll start simple and track the core notes for the section.
Once I am comfortable with that section I’ll start to make things a little more interesting/complicated. This is mostly for my own pleasure as I enjoy playing slightly more technical stuff, it makes live performances more enjoyable to me.
Photo – Down The Barrell Photography
OD – Can you give us a breakdown of your rig?
I am currently playing a Schechter reaper 7 Multi-scale through a Mesa Boogie Single rec and into a Zilla Fat boy 2 x 12. I have a Horizon devices Apex preamp in front. The combination of these two gives me an absolutely beast of a tone, loads of body but still gives loads of mid so every note can be heard clearly. I’m then running a few other pedals alongside, Line 6 G30 wireless transmitter, TC electronic poly-tune 2 and an electro harmonix cathedral delay.
OD – Do you have an album that you use to warm up, or a particular track that gets you ready for live shows?
SHANE – I like to throw something hard hitting on to get me ready for a gig, I am currently listening Whitechapel’s ‘The Valley’ which just gets me pumped and ready to destroy which ever stage we are preforming on!! Some serous bangers on this album.
OD – Have you begun writing new material since the release of ‘Pyres’?
SHANE – Yes I have a handful of new songs in progress. It’s great as I am getting to push the boat out more. There is a definite evolution in the newer songs which makes the writing progress extremely interesting as we are touching on areas that we have to done before.
I always try to better myself in each song that I track and like to challenge myself to play stuff I’d not normally play. Because of the band we are and we are not bound to one genre of music we get to experiment as much as we want. We have a lot of freedom in the direction we can go as we have a lot of different genres/styles in our music. I am very excited to see where album 3 will go!!
‘PYRES‘ is out NOW. Available on all good streaming sites and sold in Tower Records Dublin (Dawson Street store). Check out the video for “Riptide” below;
Oran O’Beirne
www.overdrive.ie 2019
Photos – Down The Barrel Photography © 2019
