I
recently had the pleasure of sitting
down with Matthew Sweet after a
performance at Ram’s Head On
Stage in Annapolis, Maryland.
Matthew is currently between album
cycles and he’s on the road playing
mainly old favorites. The new album has
been recorded and will be released in
early 2017. Technically speaking, 40
songs have been recorded. Once off of
this current tour, Matthew will have the
unenviable task of pairing those 40
songs down into a single album.
We talked after the performance (a 16
song set with eight tracks from the
breakthrough album Girlfriend) about
songwriting, guitars, and low-wattage
tube amps. He even proved himself one
of us when during the outro of Sick of
Myself, he tweaked the Dr. No
MotherBrain delay pedal perched atop
his 5E3 clone.
You would think that after 30 plus years
of playing and recording guitar, that
Matthew would want to stretch his legs
and rip some serious leads and solos.
But no, just as in prior iterations, where
Matthew has been joined by Richard
Lloyd, Robert Quine, Greg Leisz, and
other monster players, Matthew is still
happy in the rhythm role.
PHILLIP DODGE: So let’s start with
the amps you guys were using
tonight. They sounded fantastic. Paul
(Chastain, bassist and founding
member of Velvet Crush) called them
the “Keyluxes.” What are they?
MATTHEW SWEET: They are
essentially ‘50s Tweed Deluxe circuits
that John and I built in the spring as a
fun project. Actually, a friend of mine in
Nebraska was asking what amp to build
and I said, “A Fender Tweed Deluxe is a
great recording amp. It’s small, but it
sound really cool.” I have a problem
touring these days with sound guys,
and we don’t typically bring our own
sound guy out now, because they really
want everything turned down and they
want it to be like a record to be mixed.
So I’ve been recording with a Tweed
Deluxe clone that I got from a friend 15
or so years ago in Nebraska. Through
the years, it’s been my best-sounding
amp, and when we started recording
the new record I did tracking in a little
room where I had the Deluxe. Then I
sent John some tracks to try and he
sent me a picture of an old Deluxe he
was playing through so we were just in
a total Deluxe frame of mind. So when
John came out to my place in Omaha
to do some more tracking, he used my
friend’s Deluxe clone. So from there,
we just got all of the parts together,
used plain cabinets with this multi-layer
waxing finish from Lowes, and then it
just became this thing. For the final
touch, I somehow got this idea of using
old hardware for the logo and ended
up with these Victorian brass keyhole
covers from old drawers. And with the
small amount of room on the old
narrow-panel Deluxe. So now, John, the
friend and I have all fantasized about
placing a small light behind the keyhole
(laughs). So, we call it the Keyluxe
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