A Conversation with Bill Frisell (continued)

PM: Oh, you know, we didn't talk any about gear. But before I let you go, if you would be so kind, I'd like to know about gear on this record. What guitars are you playing there?

BF: Let's see. Oh, I hope I'm remembering correctly. There's this guy in Seattle, Steve Anderson. I got this new guitar from him that I'm pretty sure is on there. And it's like a small hollow body electric guitar that he made that I really like. Then there's this guitar that another guy put together for me. It's like a Fender Jag--I had this old Fender Jaguar and put it on a Telecaster body. And then I had this friend of mine paint the body, so it's this kind of crazy looking thing. The guy who did the cover for that Ghost Town album, he painted the body of this guitar. So it's kind of like a Telecaster. And I play that. And then I also play--there's a guy from Toronto, this incredible guitar builder guy, Joseph Yanuziello. I don't know if you would have heard...

PM: No.

BF: He's pretty low key. He doesn't hardly advertise or anything.

PM: Can you help me with the spelling on that?

BF: I hope I get this right. It's Joseph, and then it's Y-a-n-u-z-i-e-l-l-o. And he's made a bunch of instruments for--Kevin Breit told me about him. Kevin has a bunch of his--he makes all these sort of oddball like mandolins--electric mandolins and stuff like that. And he makes these really cool guitars, they're sort of based on really cheap guitars from the late 50s or early 60s, like Harmony guitars and stuff like that. But they're impeccably, beautifully made. I played one of those guitars, also, on the album.

PM: What are you using for reverb, delays, and that stuff?

BF: Well, the reverb is just one of these cheap--it's like the cheapest Lexicon effects, it's an MTX-100 or 110, or something like that.

PM: The cheapest effects.

BF: Yeah, just their multi-effects thing. I use that for reverb. And then the delay and loop stuff is--I have this old DigiTech eight-second delay that I'll use sometimes, that's more for kind of oddball crazier stuff. And then recently I've been using this Line Six.

PM: The green pedal.

BF: Yeah, and that I'll use a lot.

PM: Well, I could go on and on, but you've been really kind with your time today. It's so fun to meet you and have a conversation. I really love the new record.

BF: Oh, thank you.

PM: And now I think I'm going to have to go out and get every record out there with your name on it.

BF: [laughs] You got to say hi to Kenny for me.

PM: Did you ever meet--he married a wonderful musician, Carmella Ramsey.

BF: Yeah, yeah, she's amazing.

PM: Yeah. He says, "Oh, her whole family picks like demons. When I go over there to West Virginia, I don't even play."

BF: Wow.

PM: [laughs] Which is hard to imagine. Yeah, I saw Carmella the other night. She was playing the Dove Awards. And Kid Rock had hired--

BF: Oh, right, I knew. Last time I talked to Kenny, he said she might do that, and I wasn't sure if she was going to do it or not.

PM: Yeah, she was great up there for Kid Rock.

BF: Wow. Yeah, I saw her in that Down From the Mountain tour. They came to Seattle, and she was with those guys. But I haven't really heard her like really by herself or anything.

PM: So was she singing or playing, or both?

BF: Both, she was playing and singing backup with Patty Loveless.

PM: Well, I'm going to send you some music by The Henrys and I'm going to send you some Steve Kimock, too.

BF: Cool.

PM: And thanks so much for talking.

BF: Well, thank you.

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