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 The memories of Homebake still fresh in his head, GEARED has a lengthy chat with THE CHURCH’s guitar tech and all-around hands-on man AARON GIFFIN.
GEARED: How did you get the gig with The Church, Aaron?
AARON GIFFIN: I’ve actually been a friend of Peter [Koppes]’s for about two years now – he lives down the road from me. We were talking before the tour and he mentioned I should come along on the road – there was a spot there for me and I needed to do something, so that’s how it came about.
G: Fantastic – how’s it been going so far?
AG: We’ve just done the start of the Future Past Perfect tour and we did Homebake and Red Hill Auditorium in Perth.
G: Are you a guitar tech by trade?
AG: No, I’ve usually just done sound stuff at Woodford for the last seven years – I did the Pineapple Lounge last year and in the years before that, I’ve been the stage tech for the Blue Stage. That was mostly fun and games; last year, we did a broadcast from Pineapple Lounge for ABC Radio – it was a three-hour show, and we did 30 bands live-to-air in three hours!
G: That is pretty hectic.
AG: That was full-on – I’ve never experienced anything like that, but I was flying by the seat of my pants on that one; it was pretty amazing. A band would literally get up, play a song, do a little 10-second spiel in between and I’d set up the next band while they were doing an interview. It would basically be bang straight into it; 10 bands with interviews in the space of an hour – that was pretty full-on.
G: Certainly sounds like it!
AG [laughs]: It was a good experience, I tell ya.
G: What’s the usual day on the road with The Church like?
AG: For Homebake, we got there a couple hours beforehand. With the stages, you only basically get an hour before you get to set up, so it was pre-planned at the back and as soon as we got our spot clear, it’s just bang – full-on for an hour. By the time it gets to the 20-minute/half-hour changeover period, everything’s loaded out and pre-plugged in. If you’re lucky enough, the drums will usually be on the rollers. Guitar pedals are basically pretty wide and you carry them all at once.
G: How long does it normally take you to set up the guitar rigs?
AG: At my own pace, I’d probably do it in about half an hour to get everything set up with all the amp levels. Pete’s pretty fussy with tone – he likes everything perfect, so when he gets onstage, I basically hand him the Strat, he turns up the volume and he’s good to go. There’s someone else who looks after Marty [Willson-Piper] – Wes, the stage manager. He’s been doing it for about three years with the guys – he does Marty’s rig and Steve [Kilbey]’s bass as well, because a lot of the time Steve and Marty will swap over: Marty will play bass on a couple of songs and Steve will play guitar. Wes can do both of those in the time it takes me to do Pete’s! [laughs]
Marty has a lot more pedals; Peter’s setup hasn’t changed that much, but Marty’s got two pedalboards plus an old Ibanez analogue rack, which he uses a lot. I think he’s got a [Electro Harmonix Stereo] Pulsar tremolo, an old Boss Chorus Ensemble … His rack is huge – spans two-and-a-half metres.
G: I’ve recently spotted a Big Muff on Peter’s board.
AG: Yes – he’s got one of those and an old Boss OD-1.
G: Peter’s been playing a sunburst Strat this year, but I’ve been used to seeing the white Strat…
AG: He’s always been on the white Strat, but in the last couple years he switched to the sunburst one with the maple neck – I know he’s got Noiseless pickups in it at the moment and a rollable nut to help the tuning a bit, and he’s put in a new body for it because the old body fell over and the bridge fell out probably about half an inch. They had a spare body, so they put it in for him. His main guitar is a 1997 or 1998 American Strat.
G: He was playing the sunburst one at the Opera House.
AG: He’s got another one – a backup; he’ll only use that if he breaks a string on his main one. For his main lead sound, he’ll use three overdrive pedals plus the overdrive on his amp – four channels of overdrive.
G: Chunky!
AG: Surprisingly, he keeps it pretty quiet considering they’d buzz and hum like there’s no tomorrow if they were stacked together, but the Noiseless pickups are quite good.
THE CHURCH play Tweed Heads’ Twin Towns on Thursday Dec 22 and Brisbane Powerhouse on Friday Dec 23 (sold out) and Saturday Dec 24. For more info, head to www.churchband.net.
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