Guitar World (July 1997)

Skank, Rattle & Roll, Part 1

Hi Everyone, and welcome to my new column. Over the next few months, I'm going to show you some of the guitar parts I've recorded with my band No Doubt, and try to give you some insight into my playing.

Because we incorporate elements of ska, New Wave, cabaret, Latin and even metal into our music, being the guitarist in No Doubt can be quite a challenge. Stylistically, it's hard to describe our sound in one or two words. I guess we're a product of our influences.

People often observe that I manage to incorporate techniques most commonly associated with heavy metal or hard rock (two-handed tapping, palm-muting with distortion, toggle-switch manipulation and fast scalar playing) into No Doubt's mix. To me it seems natural - I come from a hard rock and metal background.

I grew up listening to and playing guitar along with the songs of such bands as Rush, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and early Van Halen. In fact, before I joined No Doubt, I played in a Sabbath/Maiden-influenced metal band for five years. It was only when I joined No Doubt that I made a conscious effort to try not to sound like a metal guitar player.

My exposure to styles other than metal began in college. I got into stuff like Oingo Boingo and the reggae band Steel Pulse, and started becoming aware of the different creative possibilities these other styles offered. At the same time, the metal scene was really depressing. There was a huge "pay to play" policy in all the clubs (bands had to promote themselves and guarantee a paid attendance, even if it meant buying their own tickets). My metal band couldn't draw enough people to play steadily - frankly, we were beating our heads against the wall (I think that's where the term "headbanging" originally came from). I needed to do something fresh, so I quit and joined No Doubt about a week later.

I started playing huge ska shows with No Doubt, which was a giant step up from where I was just a week earlier. It was exciting to play for people who were really there for the music. The only problem was that I didn't really have a deep knowledge of the ska scene. I tried to fit in quickly, but I never seriously studied the ska idiom. I never, for example, sat down with a Madness record and tried to learn the guitar riffs. I kind of picked up the general gist of things from the other guys in the band. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because we ended up sounding unlike any other ska band.

I think what helped me most in fitting in was being sensitive to what No Doubt needed from a guitar player. Early on in their existence, they were a very heavy ska band, so it was important to play in that idiom - using no distortion and playing these "skank" parts, namely, major and minor triads on the upbeats. In fact, a good example of a typical ska rhythm part is the way I play the chords on the outro chorus to "Spiderwebs". Notice that I play that part with a very clean guitar tone, limit the chord voicings to simple major or minor triads, and play on the top three strings using strictly upstrokes.

What also helped me immensely was that my technique and musicianship were a couple of notches above that of most of the other guys in the band, so I was able to adapt easily to their thing. As the years went on, we all kind of equaled out as musicians, and little by little, I started exercising more of my influence on the sound of the band. We started adding much more rock-sounding guitars, to the point where I think Tragic Kingdom is a fairly rock guitar album. There are a lot of distorted parts, and really not a straight ska song on the whole record. I think the band has evolved quite a bit, and, in a way, my style has come full circle.

The funny thing is that now there are a lot of bands in Southern California (two examples are Reel Big Fish and Goldfinger) with a heavy ska sound whose guitarists are coming from a rock or metal background. I assume that, like me, they were either tired of playing the same old stuff or just needed a different gig. As these musicians started finding their way into other situations, they brought along their influences - ultimately making their new bands more interesting.

I certainly take advantage of my metal background with No Doubt. For example, I use a specific picking technique used by metal guitarists to bring out artificial harmonics on the choruses to "Spiderwebs". I do this by fingering the Bb chord and picking the strings in a steady eighth-note rhythm using downstrokes exclusively. As I pick, I allow my thumb to lightly graze the A string, and then move the thumb back and forth along the string to create random harmonics. I usually start picking close to the bridge of the guitar, and then slowly move down towards the neck. I do this each time the chord changes - on the low E string as I play the F and Gm chords, and then back on the A string where I play the Eb.

Now, even though this technique is often attributed to Eddie Van Halen, I wasn't thinking Eddie when I recorded that lick. Instead, I was going for a New Wave, Missing Persons-type sound. You can see that I'm using the exact same harmonics in the intro to "Sixteen."

During the solo to "Spiderwebs," I use another technique associated with metal guitar, one I got from Carlos Cavazo of Quiet Riot. The technique involves strumming a power chord, then using the pickup toggle switch to make it sound like the chord is echoing. This is done by simply turning the volume off on one of the pickups (you have to play a Les Paul or some other two-pickup guitar to be able to do this) while keeping the volume wide open (on 10) on the other one. As you rapidly move the toggle switch to change pickups, you go from silence to the full output of the chord. Since after the first attack you don't pick the chord, you get an "echoey" sound.

You'll hear how this effect works on "Spiderwebs." In fact, it was weird how we recorded this part. As I fretted the G5 with my left hand, producer Matthew Wilder stood in front of me strumming the chord, thus enabling me to move the toggle switch with my right hand. We did it this way because we wanted to make the part sound really uniform and in time with the rhythm, and it was almost impossible for me to strum it and manipulate the toggle switch at the same time. We doubled, or maybe even quadruple-tracked this part!

I had to pay tribute to my past by including at least one right-hand tapping lick on the Tragic Kingdom album, so I put it in my solo on the title cut. When I was really young, I learned one little bit of Van Halen's "Eruption." As time passed, I realized you can use tapping to arpeggiate complete chord progressions. That's all I'm doing on this solo - outlining the arpeggios of the respective Bm and F# chords. Notice that I play the whole lick on the B string and that I use my right-hand index finger to execute the taps. It's really simple, and seems to fit perfectly in the song.

Well, that's all for now. Keep in mind that you can always use stuff you've learned in the past if you apply it judiciously - it'll make your playing that much richer! I'll see you next month!