way we can maintain it . I also livestream between tours and I started doing that more in 2020 and that helped me keep up my endurance . For speed , we always write above our ability and then it sort of becomes easier and easier for us . If you constantly write like that , the stuff you ’ ve written generally doesn ’ t stay above your ability for very long . The stuff we ’ re playing onstage is not necessarily pushing me as hard as it could for speed , because if it was , I wouldn ’ t be able to play consistently live . But it was when we first wrote it — so if you ’ re just constantly pushing ahead and using your writing to incorporate things that you maybe suck at — that ’ s how I ’ ve always thought about it . If I have a technique I suck at , I ’ ll put it into a riff , and then six months later , I ’ m good at it , just because the practice schedule is pretty intense before and during a tour .
CM : Are there any specific techniques you ’ ve been working on lately ?
Lamb : Lately , no … I ’ ve been working a lot on video editing and my guitar playing has sort of taken a backseat . That being said , I woke up yesterday wanting to play guitar for the first time in like a month and a half . I ’ d been using guitar as a way to make other content , whether it ’ s making videos with my wife or livestreaming , and for me that type of output is helped by the guitar . I ’ m not focusing on the guitar for it , I ’ m focusing on the other aspects — editing , recording , audio , how to be better on camera . So , that ’ s been really important , but I think for me it ’ ll slowly start to swing around back to technique and practice , especially now that we have a new album coming out this year , and we have to be ready to play that stuff live , I hope , and also because we want to
start writing new music . You can ’ t really write new music unless you ’ re becoming better .
CM : Is there a specific piece of gear you want to get next ?
Lamb : The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro … oh , you ’ re talking about guitar gear ? As for guitar gear , I have a new guitar build in the works with Kiesel , and that looks really cool , so I ’ m really excited about that . All my live stuff is great , and as for gear I have pretty much everything I really want . Maybe for guitar gear the only thing I ’ d be really stoked to pick up would be a Quad Cortex , for the sole purpose of compacting our fly rig so we don ’ t have 50 lbs . in each rack case for flying to Europe and everything .
Manus Hopkins is an Editorial Assistant at Canadian Musician .
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