after my audition the band asked me to play with them on their next tour . We spent two days rehearsing for the tour . The last night of rehearsal we headed out on the bus . It all happened really fast within a weekend . It was a very exciting and also scary time in my life . I remember the first night on the bus in my bunk like it was yesterday , I couldn ’ t believe that my dream was coming true .
[ WM ] You have been fortunate enough to have been asked to play / fill in with some other well-known Christian artist . Let us know about a few of them and how the gigs went ?
[ Daniel ] I ’ m very blessed to have had the opportunity to fill in for bands and artist such as Newsboys , Danny Gokey and Mandisa . All were amazing experiences ! Playing with the Newsboys was a full circle moment for me . One of my first concerts as a kid was Newsboys at Spirit West Coast in 1997 . If you would have told me back then that I would play for the
Newsboys one day , my little kid mind would have exploded !
[ WM ] Let ’ s talk about your gear choices and some recent changes . You have always been an amp and stomp box guy until this summer . Your rig consisted of two Suhr PT100 heads in stereo into cabs with Vintage 30s and your pedal board was RJM PBC10 , H9 , Timeline , Archer , SP Comp , Xotic wah , Ricochet Whammy and a Jacques Chorus pedal . It sounds like you worked hard to dial that all in . Tell us about a few of those choices and what you liked about them ?
Prodigal
[ Daniel ] My Dad always preached to me growing up that your playing is 50 % skill and the other 50 % is your tone . I ’ ve been chasing tone since day one . Being heavily influence by 80 ’ s rock and alternative rock , the guitar sound I always heard in my head was a cranked Marshall style amp . So I instantly gravitated towards the Suhr PT100 amp . It does the Marshal thing really well , but also has a very versatile clean channel . It ' s the Swiss army knife of amps in my opinion .
As far as pedals go , I ’ ve been collecting them since I was 11 years old . As I ’ ve grown as a guitar player , I try to choose pedals that push the front end of an amp . The Archer is one of my favorites that does this .
The Eventide H9 has been a very valuable tool on stage and in the studio . Some of my favorite reverbs are inside the H9 . I ’ m able to get a lot of unique sounds you hear on the Sidewalk Prophets records from the H9 . Our song