With BigSound and associated shenanigans looming close, GEARED has MY FICTION’s delighted/delightfully verbose guitarist JIMMI LAUBSCHER over for a beer and a chat about his recently-updated sonic arsenal.

GEARED: Tell me about your new pedalboard, Jimmi.

JAMES LAUBSCHER: In the last three months, I started investing in a new pedal system. A lot of what My Fiction do is synth-driven and there are lots of effects, but what I found with the last album was that I was playing more notes to make up for musical value. With the new pedalboard, I can leave this space open for the actual effect to drive the beauty of the tone. The key to it is my TC Electronic G-System – what it does is it switches all my other pedals on and keeps everything in a neat and tidy structure. Essentially, I can have an octave pedal, a distortion pedal and all my delays in the TC, but I can also encompass other pedals in the TC via the loops it has at the back. Effectively, I can press the switch and turn three pedals on and off at the same time.

G: Nice!

JL: The amount of freedom you have onstage and the simplicity of this structure – it’s something that’s really dynamic and easy to use. To be honest, I don’t think there is anything better than the TC; the quality of the effects is absolutely incredible.

G: I agree – I absolutely love my Nova Repeater and the tap switch...

JL: I’ve noticed that tap delays have become such a feature to a lot of the stuff that I’m using – because our drummer Danny is so tight and plays with a metronome, he always sets a constant speed and even if I’m not exactly at the constant speed, I just tap it in. The TC has a global tempo as well, so I can set all my effects to be affected by global tempo – everything. If Danny pulls his earpiece out and his playing becomes free-flowing or he speeds it up at the end of the jam, I can step on it and be absolutely on. Being able to switch on other pedals via MIDI is another thing that the G-System has – it’s amazing what you can do with it. I’ve got maybe three MIDI pedals at the moment and I’ve noticed that through the G-System, I don’t even have to add them through loops. And it’s so sexy – oh my God! It’s this beautiful, slick red … beast, it’s just beautiful. Apparently in the YouTube clip for it, they were driving over it in a tank and it still worked.

G: I’ve also spotted the POG 2 and a Zvex pedal on your board.

JL: Indeed – the Fuzz Factory, my man! We were in LA and I needed to get a distortion pedal because I couldn’t bring my BlackStar with me to America – I didn’t have a transformer for it. I’ve always wanted a fuzz, but also something a bit more... wild and insane. That’s what I’ve always loved about fuzzes – how insane the sound gets after you turn the thing on. It oscillates to shit!

G: It’s a very unpredictable fuzzbox.

JL: Totally! That makes it a unique feature. With the Fuzz Factory, I thought it was different because it kind of... doesn’t sound the same each night. You can adjust your volume and that changes the signal. With every single knob on the Zvex, one-and-a-half degree will change the sound. It’s such a small pedal and probably the most powerful stick of dynamite I have – it’s amazing.

The POG 2 is also very much changing the sound we create. What I’ve noticed in writing for the second album was that I’m leaving a lot more space open to allow these beautiful pedals to ring. You can manipulate the POG down one or two octaves or add one or two octaves, and if you turn all the faders up, it creates an amazing organ effect. All my pedals are true-bypass, which I really dig – it doesn’t affect the clean sound. I’ve also got an Eventide Pitch Factor, and that thing is just absolutely amazing. A lot of these effects I use more than in one song – the way you can use it, you can go from really intense, energetic noise, but at the same time you can use it for a beautiful, crystal-clear, ambient feel. The last two songs we’ve written, I use pretty much the same effect on both of them, but one song has an atmospheric, 6/8 feel and the other one is a driving, very epic rock & roll number.

G: Sweet!

MY FICTION play Club 299 tonight, Tuesday Sep 6 (with Trip Sinister and Felinedown). For more info, check out the Brisbane band’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/myfiction.

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