00:00on today's episode we're going to go to
00:02new york city and visit oliver ackerman
00:04and learn all about death by audio how
00:06they started what they're doing where
00:09it's a really really fun episode here it
00:29hey look who it is how's it going man
00:33how's it going it's good sweet new york
00:36yeah heck yeah what a surprise to see
00:40you here i don't know
00:41it's such a surprise such a surprise
00:43well thanks for coming by man
00:46hey how's it going oliver ackerman from
00:50with your own money what was what was
00:52the first album you bought
00:54where you going and you pick out an
00:58i think the first thing i was kind of
01:00like really kind of getting these
01:02albums that i really liked was one of
01:06you know pay like i thought it was such
01:08a great idea to pay like a dollar before
01:10you realize that you have to pay
01:11buy a few other cds full price but i
01:14like the cure head on the door or
01:17something was one of those the first one
01:18i kind of remember from that
01:20but i don't know do you come from a
01:24my dad plays guitar but um you know was
01:28like that wasn't what he did you know
01:30they're both math teachers
01:31you know i guess they appreciated music
01:34kind of sliding into loving music i
01:37guess there's just sort of that
01:39time in your life when you kind of find
01:41something that really like clicks and
01:42you fall in love with
01:43and that was just music for me it was
01:47day my brother took me out when he had
01:50and in the car it was just he and i and
01:54punk tape or something and turned the
01:56stereo up as loud as it could possibly
01:59in the car and i just thought that was
02:02incredible it was just like you know
02:04completely like just
02:06shakes your world and was such an
02:10then even when you know a friend i knew
02:13kind of like eventually you know who
02:17you know would go over to his house and
02:18then start kind of like playing and when
02:20you plug a guitar into an amplifier
02:22and crank it up it's like holy smokes
02:25weird kind of power you have
02:28over the air how did you end up with a
02:33my brother had like taken guitar lessons
02:37so we had that guitar in the family
02:39which was a gibson sg
02:40i would play that sometimes and my dad
02:43had a couple acoustic guitars
02:45but this first band that i started with
02:48like some friends um
02:50you know i was going to be the bass
02:51player so i remember i saved up
02:54and got this like washburn lion series
02:57base yeah i think i like glued some like
03:00old refrigerator parts to it or
03:02something like that to like
03:03make it not quite say lion series or
03:06anymore on the front but uh yeah
03:10that explains a lot yeah that that's
03:14hey there you go what else do you play
03:17you play any other instruments
03:18yeah i mean i can't really play anything
03:22i do uh i do love to play the drums
03:25and guitar and bass and uh
03:29homemade weird instruments and you know
03:32i took like piano lessons and
03:34pretended to play the trombone in high
03:37everybody was middle school i used to
03:40sitting next to me but then i remember
03:42the teacher would like call on me and be
03:45you know hit uh hidden a or something
03:47like that and i'd be like
03:48bruh no it's higher and i go
03:52you know but yeah so walking in here
03:55um a lot of recording equipment
03:59like your shop's kind of immersed in you
04:02make music you record it obviously
04:04what was your first experiences with
04:06with hitting record on something you're
04:08doing like why do you love that so much
04:11i remember that like some friends
04:14had a six-track cassette recorder
04:18and i remember my mom wrote me a note to
04:20skip school so me and my buddy could go
04:24uh like a like an ep on there on
04:28at our friend's studio which is called
04:29dead cabbie studios where apparently
04:31some cabbie had hung himself in the
04:34and uh so we got to go there and
04:37spent the day you know all day finally
04:42a freaking cassette that's amazing
04:45your your mom's like skipped school and
04:49yeah yeah yeah what was the first guitar
04:52pedal that you owned
04:54uh i'm gonna say it was i'm not positive
04:57i think ibanez power lead
04:59i think so i remember that being like
05:02wow this transforms the bass into
05:05like so cool and uh and i remember like
05:08you couldn't always turn it on and off
05:10you know but uh yeah you can't ever
05:14the the life span is like it's like a 90
05:18date yeah i'm torn between the zoom 505
05:23the sound tank tube screamer so i can't
05:25ever remember either
05:26that sound tank is like that's the
05:28gateway for so many people
05:34so how did you decide to start a pedal
05:38i had been building a lot of like
05:40equipment for myself
05:42and um just collecting a lot of stuff at
05:46you know in kind of the late 90s i guess
05:50you know the opportunity to get gear for
05:54kind of even maybe before ebay or the
05:56start of ebay you know when there was
05:58people auctioning stuff or
06:00you could find stuff at pawn shops and
06:01these weird stores that people wouldn't
06:04you could take a part of a lot of
06:06equipment and everything so i was
06:08kind of trying to figure out how to
06:10build stuff myself uh
06:11i had this girlfriend at the time we
06:14really wanted to go to europe for a
06:16and like backpack around and it was
06:18getting closer and closer
06:20and like i didn't have a job i didn't
06:21have any money or anything to make this
06:24i was like oh crap what am i going to do
06:27and so i had this idea for this effect
06:29that you know i didn't know anybody else
06:32you know had ever come out with like a
06:34feedback loop very simple you know pedal
06:37and i was like oh this would be like
06:39very minimal investment
06:41to just put a potentiometer in a box
06:46and put some jacks on it just like the
06:48results you get are just
06:50wild you know it's like so incredible i
06:52thought it was like the coolest thing
06:54total sonic annihilation was the pedal
06:56and death by audio was the brand
06:58and you know that was kind of my i
07:02you know after i did that it was gonna
07:05okay i sold these probably nobody's
07:07gonna want any more of these
07:08anymore you know but then you know some
07:11people ordered some more of them and
07:13then it started you know just getting
07:15kind of like bombarded with
07:17you know emails of people like oh that's
07:19so crazy that's so cool you know do you
07:20think you could build me some pedal that
07:23this other thing or something and so you
07:25know the company kind of like
07:27lived on i guess up to this point you've
07:31and you've learned some stuff talk about
07:34i'm assuming diy kind of journey like
07:37maybe even the first time you picked up
07:39a soldering iron like what was that
07:41it must have been like 95 or something
07:43like that because i remember or we might
07:46it was like upon like leaving high
07:48school i was already into kind of like
07:49playing music and really into it i
07:51remember at some point being a freshman
07:54and like picking up a soldering iron on
07:56the ground not realizing it was plugged
07:58in and burning myself really bad
08:00you know it smelled really great like a
08:02hamburger or something you know when
08:04cooking flesh but um the uh
08:07regardless you know i still was kind of
08:10constantly trying to build these
08:11projects and do these things that would
08:14and because i didn't know how to solder
08:16and i would be you know as
08:18all of my information was from books
08:20reading about how to solder maybe
08:22doesn't really explain what you should
08:24and i would like check out these books
08:26and i would read them from cover to
08:28understand a thing you know just in the
08:31hopes that i would like be gaining some
08:34you know electrical engineering
08:37somewhere something's gonna make some
08:40it took me you know like maybe two years
08:44actually solder something correctly i
08:48started modding a bunch of the equipment
08:49that i had that was things like
08:52you know electric mistress flanger or
08:54something was one of like the first
08:55successful mods i think i did
08:57and then i was trying to like build a
08:59bunch of these like really complicated
09:01and then eventually was like oh
09:04you know forget about this uh you know
09:08made like a uh tone shaper thing where
09:11you could just it was like a boost and
09:12you could select the different caps
09:14on the inside that was when i finally
09:17grounding i was like oh like this is
09:20this thing that all these people
09:22were talking about that's why none of
09:23these circuits i was building couldn't
09:26you know because i wasn't grounding
09:29you know this is starts to be like you
09:31know four years down in your journey you
09:34can circumvent something without
09:35grounding because someone already did
09:37do you feel like coming through in the
09:42the power of the internet and diy world
09:44there do you think it helped you and
09:47what do you think it did to you yeah i
09:50it helped in some sort of ways to not
09:53you know have the internet because there
09:55was sort of a different kind of
09:57you know helped and hindered there was a
09:58different sort of like thirst
10:00or something for this kind of knowledge
10:02i think you know oh you hear about this
10:04library that has like technical books or
10:07something and it's like real you're
10:10you know and so you go and you spend
10:12your time in this library looking
10:13through these technical books
10:15you know to find that you can't check
10:17some of these out or whatever or
10:18something or you're trying to figure out
10:20a way to like xerox these pages that you
10:21think are really important
10:24you know so it was um you know i feel
10:28like there was that kind of
10:29it really made you really want some of
10:32you know if you only have like 30
10:34resistors or something
10:36and these things it's like you kind of
10:37have to figure out a way to make this
10:40you know you're hanging on every word
10:42because this is all you have is
10:43a couple of xerox sheets you know so
10:47you know imagining and even kind of
10:49coming up like with your own like
10:50language of what even electronics is you
10:53know or your own theories you know a lot
10:55i'm sure i have the wrong idea on some
10:59but it's like some of these things make
11:02sense to be building blocks to make some
11:04other interesting things happen
11:05and if the end result is really awesome
11:14i love a lot of things about your pedals
11:17one is the aesthetic
11:18but it's really obvious when you see a
11:22death by audio pedal
11:23look size knob layouts there's 100
11:26reasons i could list them but i'd love
11:28for you to just talk about that
11:30why do they why do you choose the way
11:33they look what are you doing there
11:35yeah i mean there's a couple things um
11:39uh you know i'm a fan of like a lot of
11:42like really old equipment like you know
11:43submarine controls and stuff i'm sure
11:46everyone who builds pedals is kind of a
11:47fan of that kind of stuff whenever you
11:49see like a big panel with some giant
11:50knobs that's incredible
11:52and there's something that kind of draws
11:55to turn something that is a kind of a
11:59you know kind of control or you know
12:01even i really like those things like
12:03those orange amplifiers where
12:05you know you just have a graphic and
12:08you're supposed to know what this means
12:09and you know they used to i don't think
12:11label that it said trouble it would just
12:13have the picture of like the trouble
12:14note or something with an arrow drawn
12:16through it you know there's something
12:19way that it kind of like makes it you
12:20know even like it's a mystery
12:22as to what this knob's going to do and
12:24that can kind of inspire
12:26you to want to turn it you know some of
12:29the layouts have to do with being
12:31a touring musician and working with
12:34i think that you know a lot of people
12:37don't always make things that are
12:40actually play with and or conducive to
12:43have them like last for the whole tour
12:47so you know we kind of try to balance a
12:50lot of those different things
12:52so the fuzz war is spray can paint
12:56yeah with a stencil but most of your
12:59are screen printed with manual screens
13:02out here on a table talk about that
13:06why do you do it i just always loved the
13:07way silk screening looked
13:09you know i think that um there's
13:11something that happens like when you
13:13take some really nice clean design
13:15and you run it through a screen where it
13:17like bubbles all the edges and
13:19is just so pretty and how sometimes they
13:22like we used to even send out all the
13:24mess ups and stuff too and now we don't
13:27uh i even like the way that looks when
13:30some of the letters don't print and
13:32things get kind of a different way
13:34you know even just making the screen how
13:36they sometimes get a little bit like
13:37fuzzy edges it's just like a
13:39instagram filter on your artwork i guess
13:42or something but um you know it's
13:44something that anybody could do
13:46too if they wanted to you don't have to
13:49you know make a silk screen and yeah
13:53cool results the name death by audio
13:57come from i just thought that sounded
14:02it really wasn't you know anything
14:06you know i don't know what it is exactly
14:09you know if i were to think about what
14:12my obsession with like
14:13death or something is with having you
14:17the band a place to bury strangers and
14:19stuff that i play in
14:20and you know some of the names of some
14:22of these pedals you know where it's like
14:25the apocalypse or something it kind of
14:28for some reason that kind of stuff draws
14:30me in i guess maybe it's
14:32like the opposite of my character if you
14:34get to meet me i'm not
14:36very morbid i thought that it came from
14:40a venue you were working out of so you
14:42apparently created a venue like an
14:44art like a incubator type environment in
14:48yeah so we had this other space that i
14:52in 2005 totally raw warehouse
14:55it took us maybe like a month or two to
14:57kind of build it out to where we had
14:59rooms even and like everyone's sleeping
15:01on like concrete floors
15:03we didn't get warm water for like five
15:05months or something or four months in
15:07everyone has to take cold showers real
15:09pissed at me for being like this is
15:11going to be great guys
15:12but um so we built like this practice
15:15you know which was like all like cement
15:18walls and stuff and we built like a
15:20we had like this giant like cargo net
15:22where you could like jump on
15:24and like all this like kind of cool like
15:26teen playground or whatever or something
15:28it was often a lot of artists that were
15:32and a few years later we took over the
15:35whole floor of that building
15:37and then uh turned a section of it into
15:40a music venue originally it was supposed
15:42to be like a photo studio or something
15:45that failed miserably so it was like
15:46what do we know that we can do
15:49you know it's like we can throw shows
15:52that's fascinating yeah i think
15:55i've seen a couple of videos and and
15:57you've you've published a book or
15:59like photography of that oh yeah there
16:01was a uh like a friend of ours
16:03um edward yields she uh
16:07was like pretty much kind of like lived
16:08in the space of the last month
16:10because we knew that the place was
16:11getting shut down because vice magazine
16:14taking over the building and so for that
16:17you know we just had all sorts of like
16:18really crazy shows and
16:20the photos at the final end of the space
16:24you know like refrigerator smashed on
16:27people you know ripped up magazines and
16:29just covered the floor with
16:30everything that was left over and all
16:32this crap everywhere you know so
16:34it was kind of like a good fun
16:43success has different meanings for
16:45different people obviously
16:47what would you say in in your own frame
16:52what was the point at which you said to
16:55death by audio is successful there was
16:57definitely some kind of like milestones
17:00um like trent reznor
17:03you know asking me to make them some
17:05particular pedals or something that was
17:08and then uh hearing that someone
17:12was like oh lou reed told me to get this
17:15you know or something is like oh wow you
17:17know that's kind of you know when you
17:19those things it's like i feel like i've
17:22crossed over into something else because
17:25you know i was a kid who listened to
17:26those records and stuff and would be
17:29you know driving around blasting the
17:31velvet underground or nine inch nails in
17:32a car or something and so
17:34you've kind of like strangely stepped
17:37into some world that you
17:39never thought you would even exist at
17:43the parallel universe yeah the parallel
17:46i'm in this world that i tried to look
17:48into and now i'm sitting in it
17:50yeah i think so something like that you
17:54crazy to think that yeah you could have
17:57any influence on this world maybe all
18:00for the worse is music gone downhill
18:05is there a breakout pedal you know
18:08people will use terms like that really
18:10put you on the map or whatever
18:11is there something that was a breakout
18:15we've had kind of a few i guess probably
18:17just the one that has just always been
18:19consistently the most popular one was
18:21there was just like a bunch of artists
18:23who like really embraced it
18:24really was like oh holy smokes this is
18:27now my sound you know and
18:29a lot of people who would even like you
18:32know like get rid of their whole pedal
18:34use the fuzz war or something and then
18:37often like all we'll be playing shows
18:40with other bands and like so often a
18:42band has a fuzz war on the board
18:44so it's kind of uh you know i would say
18:48was kind of something because it's so
18:52it's so big i guess that's what
18:53everybody wants it's basically just like
18:57kind of open less choke big mouth
19:01you know sound really so you know which
19:04i think is really good
19:05there's a lot of different approaches to
19:09some people are super scientific and
19:12you know they're electrical engineers
19:16what would you call yourself in the in
19:19when you go to design something how
19:22would you label your
19:24method of creation madness i guess yeah
19:28uh i don't know we kind of like approach
19:31which way angle whatsoever it's like
19:34we're kind of constantly sort of
19:35searching for like sort of new
19:37technologies that we
19:38kind of get involved in or even
19:41weird old technologies and kind of just
19:43experimenting with them
19:45it's constant experimentation constantly
19:48throwing a bunch of crazy stuff together
19:51you're we just sort of spend all our
19:55improve these ideas that we have you
20:00you know that sometimes uh
20:03yields the best results when you've kind
20:06something up or taken one idea and
20:08smashed it with another
20:10what is your favorite pedal that you
20:13i would say that the apocalypse is the
20:16favorite petal that we make
20:18it's just so um practical
20:21everyone should have an apocalypse it
20:23kind of like it adds
20:25five really sort of messed up distortion
20:29sounds into your setup and most people
20:33super messed up you know like weird
20:37fuzz circuits so you know it's good
20:40there's no buffers or anything like that
20:42depending on what you put before and
20:43after it sounds totally different and
20:46terrible or good or bad and record it
20:49or something like that and you've got
20:51yourself a bunch of like weird flavors
20:54definitely isn't available in you know
20:57your rat gear or something like that
21:00a guitar shop your stuff's for selling
21:05kid walks in he's interested in pedals
21:08a couple of your pedals he goes in a
21:12what do you hope he says
21:15as he has played your pedals for the
21:17first time probably something like
21:20oh man let me try something else you
21:22know i don't even know if our guitar
21:25belong in guitar shops but um
21:28depends on the kid i guess if they're
21:30into that kind of messed up sound and
21:33guitar to sound like a car driving down
21:36the road with their bumper hanging off
23:11thanks so much for watching this episode
23:13i hope you enjoyed it click
23:15like if you liked it subscribe to the
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23:20in the description below you can go down
23:23and click a link and it takes you over
23:24to the jhs show band lab page where you
23:27can jam along with the gym that you just
23:29heard you can download it
23:30you can play along do whatever you want
23:32it's really really cool
23:34absolutely go by a death by audio pedal
23:37that's a must oliver's doing amazing
23:39things and his crew is awesome
23:42also to every jhs show patron you made
23:45this episode possible
23:46we were able to go to new york film this
23:48and some other things yet to be seen
23:50with no expenses because you're cool and
23:53you're preserving pedal history
23:55thanks and have a wonderful day
