Eli Dixon Caterer of Smoking Popes, The Feeders, etc.
Phase Out
I know you have a Boss RC-300 and a Boomerang III looper. How did you land on those? Do you ever try any other loopers?
I bought my first looper in 2003 or 2004. It was a Boss RC-20. There weren’t as many loopers on the market back then and I liked that you could save loops in that one. Shortly after that I got a Line 6 DL-4. No ability to save loops but the way the loops fade as you continue to layer is beautiful. Eventually Boss released the RC-300 and I traded both of the other loopers for it. It was a toss up between the RC-300 and the Boomerang lll. Even though I thought the Boomerang lll sounded better I went with the Boss because I could save music in it. After a while I found a used Boomerang for a good price and added it to the collection. It’s a great looper but it took me about a month to figure out how to effectively use it. I still struggle with the functionality of it. I’ve tried most of the loopers out there and also own an Akai Headrush and an Electro-Harmonix 360 Nano-looper.
Windfall
What unexpected piece of music gear has inspired you the most and why?
The Casio SK-1. Maybe 5 years ago I was preparing for my first solo performance and I had been working on a cover of The Beatles “Love You To”. I was playing it on the guitar and singing and after a while I took a break. I was looking for something in a bin of stuff on my back porch and discovered a Casio SK-1 I’d purchased at a garage sale years before for $5. It was missing a couple black keys but otherwise completely functional. So I sat down and tried the Beatles song as a drone on the Casio using the jazz organ sound. It was a lot moodier and darker. Then I noticed a 1/4” audio in and thought I would see if you could sample from that. So I plugged my electric guitar into it and got a great sample sound. It reminded me of a sound from an analog synthesizer. So I wrote a song inspired by John Carpenters score for “Escape From New York” that I played at my show. I now own 2 Casio SK-1s, 3 SK-5s and an SK-8.
Pine Away
What piece of music gear do you wish you still had, and/or perhaps something you regret not buying when you had the opportunity?
The first new guitar I bought in my life was a black Gibson Les Paul Studio. It was great. I played it on the first 2 Smoking Popes albums. Then I picked up a mexican made Fender Telecaster. It stayed in tune better for me and I stopped playing the Les Paul. I was super broke and I traded the Les Paul studio for weed. I seem to remember it being a fairly large amount of weed. In the short term that was fun but I’d much rather have that Les Paul Studio still.
Wild Card
I don’t remember much about the movie, but the Angus soundtrack has always been one of my favorites...how did you find yourself on it, and did you enjoy the movie?
During the process of and after signing to a major label we ended up on 4 movie soundtracks. Angus was one of them and I'm sure that I watched the movie back in 1995 or 1996 when it all went down. However, as I write this, I'm not remembering anything about the movie except it was about a young man in junior high/ high school and George C. Scott was in it. I seem to remember thinking it was a pretty good movie. I should probably rewatch it.
Final Thoughts
Any shout outs, plugs, or random tidbits of advice?
I'll plug my buddy Dan Strack who built me 2 custom guitars entirely out of reclaimed wood. Go check out Strack Woodworking if not just to see some beautiful instruments.
