GUITAR MAGAZINE, (Germany), Feb. 2007

English Translation:

For several years it has been quiet quite around the american roots-rock band The Brandos and guitar player Dave Kincaid. Until now - they are back with their new humming top “Over The Border”.

Dave, why the long break between albums?

Dave: Our contract with SPV, our old record company, ended in December 1999. At that point we took a much needed break because we had worked nonstop for years, I even had a stretch of six years during this time without a vacation. This break was a bit longer than planned, but a few years ago we gradually started to tour and work again. Ernie Mendillo (Bass) and I have always been the heart and soul of the band, and we decided it was time to make another Brandos album.

You used the long “vacation” to make two solo albums, played a part in a Hollywood movie about the Civil War(Gods and Generals) and followed your interests as a historian.

Dave: That’s right. They’d asked me to consult for the movie, as they had somehow heard of my reputation for being intensely into into this subject. I appeared as an extra in a few scenes and played on some of the soundtrack. Honestly, I would have been much happier if the movie had been much better than it was in the end (laughs).

How did you start with the new album?

Dave: It was clear to Ernie and I that we needed to reinvent ourselves somewhat, to be more inspiring to ourselves and our audience. We didn’t want to repeat ourselves. I went back to listen to bands which got me into rock music in the first place. I listened to recordings I haven’t listened to for 15, 20 years.....

One of them was Quicksilver Messenger Service. You recorded a song of theirs on this CD.

BIO In 1985 singer and guitar player Dave Kincaid and Ernie Mendillo (bass) established The Brandos in New York. In 1987 they released their first album “Honor Among Thieves.” Drummers and second guitar players changed, and were mostly connected friends - like the two Del-Lords musicians Scott Kempner (guitar) or Frank Funero (drums) who is one of the guest musicians on the new album. After label and manager stress The Brandos released their second album in 1992 (“GunFire At Midnight!”) followed by half a dozen releases until 1999 before the band decided to take a break and return with “Over The “Border”. (click for reviews)

Dave: Exactly. For some people “Dino’s Song” may be an insignificant cover song, but for me it was always a very important song.

How so?

Dave: As a teen I lived in the San Francisco bay area, this was where I started playing guitar. I loved this song! Back then all the important bands from the Bay Area were happening: Creedence Clearwater Revival, of course, Santana, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, as well as Quicksilver Messenger Service. I loved the first three Santana albums with the original band! We tried to interpret some of their sounds into the present day and in this way pay tribute to them. This was also the starting point from which to write new songs.

You used the well-known Brandos elements, exceeded style limits and along with the familiar irish elements, used latin-american elements...

Dave: Right! As a fifteen year-old I was so very fortunate as to spend a year as an exchange student in Mexico City, learning the language and coming to love that country and its people. However, the title song has a political statement as well. The right wing in America have taken things way too far in the fight against terrorism. They would love to close the borders and kick everybody out of the country who isn’t a White Anglo-Saxon American. Intolerance is growing in this country, and this is a very bad thing.

You are the only guitar player on the album. In the past there was always a second one in the band.

Dave: Live we still have a second guitar player with us. It was just for the new recordings that I played all the guitars myself.

The photo in the booklet shows you with a lot of guitars.....

Dave: I played every instrument you see there on this album! For “Over The Border” I played an old 12-string acoustic guitar I got in Mexico. It’s japanese guitar, nothing special, and was in bad shape, and I had to have it fixed up first. I had them put on a Martin fingerboard and now it sounds great. One of my earliest influences was The Ventures who played Fender Jazzmaster guitars with the old Fender reverb effect. They look like amp-heads but were actually just separate effects. They sound great, better than any other reverb you’ve ever heard (laughs). On the title song I'm playing the twelve-string acoustic guitar, the Fender Jazzmaster through the reverb effect together with the tremelo arm. I’ve loved the combination of those two sounds for a long time, but never used them until now. My main guitar sound comes from a Gibson SG Special with P-90’s, like Pete Townshend used to play! He is the most important influence on me as a guitar player. He had his amps custom-made for him, and the design was a well kept secret. Hiwatt started marketing this amp in recent years, however, and I got one of them. The bulk of my rhythm parts were recorded with my Gibson SG and the Pete Townshend amp - a damned loud amp - you better believe it!

After I finished the mixes my head hurt –Dave Kincaid

How far up are you turning the volume?

Dave: I turn up the master volume up about halfway, until the sound is a bit distorted - just like Pete did. He used two of them, I had only one, though. For the solos I used a Peavey Classic 20 with a 10” speaker. I was never a big fan of Peavey’s until back in the 90’s when a guy at “Manny's” (the legendary music store in New York) told me about the Classic 20. Back than I did the entire “Pass The Hat” album with only one of these amps. If you put the microphones in the right places you can get a great, big sound. For the solos I mostly played my Les Paul - on songs like “Over The Border” I played five or six different guitars.

Lot of work with the mixing...

Dave: Yes! After I finished mixing my head hurt, but I had fun with it.

What is the effect on“Let It GO?”

Dave: An old Crybaby wah-wah. I hadn’t used one in ages. Back when I started playing I loved them - this comes from my early influences again, especially Santana’s album “Abraxas,” where he’s playing a little bit of wah-wah. On the song “He’s Waiting” , an old Sonics tune, I used a cheap, old fuzzbox from the 60’s - it probably cost about five bucks back then. I guess it came from Japan - not a very good piece, but it did a good job on the solo.

You mentioned “Sadowsky Guitars” in the credits. What about them?

Dave: There was a guy there named Mike Phillips who worked on quite a few of my guitars. I have an old Gibson SG Special from 1962. This guitar was pretty much spent. In my opinion these guitars weren’t built the best that they could have been at this time. When Pete Townshend made them popular they had changed the angle of the neck to go further back. This increased the downward pressure on the bridge and the guitars sounded better. I have two new SGs but the sound was nothing to write home about when I bought them - I'd love to say a few things to the folks at Gibson if I ever get the chance (laughs)! One of them was a Pete Townshend reissue - I had to have them take the frets off and put on the jumbo-style frets of the old SG’s.

Why are you thanking Bill Petersen?

Dave: He is the one who rebuilt my twelve-string acoustic, the one I mentioned earlier. I also have a 100 year old Washburn acoustic from the 1880s or ‘90s. It was pretty much a pile of wood when a got it from a friend. The back and the sides where okay - they where made of brazilian rosewood. Bill made a copy of the original neck and head piece, as well as the top, included a new bridge an put in a pickup for me. It’s a little parlor guitar that sounds fantastic, has a wonderful warm midrange - you hear it at the beginning of “The Triangle Fire.” He also repaired my mandolin, a 1913 Gibson A-1, and built my octave-mandolin. This one is twice the size of a regular mandolin and is tuned one octave lower.

How many guitars do you use live, and how are you reproducing the sound of the album?

Dave: I have two SG’s. One of them is tuned a whole step lower. This is a little John Fogerty trick that he used on a lot of his hits like “Proud Mary” and “Bad Moon Rising”. Both of the SG’s with the P-90’s also have a tremelo arm, which were built for Les Pauls but fit easily on the SG’s without drilling holes. I have a few pedals I use now and then: a distortion pedal and a couple of delays -one analog and one digital, and a flanger - and I switch back and forth between the pickups. With all that I get pretty close to the album sounds. As a spare I also have a Gibson ES 135 in the rare event that I pop a string. –Phillip Roser

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