Interview with Geordie Walker, guitarist of the Killing Joke group

Hello Geordie!Can you tell us how you came to play the guitar?

I think it goes back to my six or seven years.When we were going to visit my favorite aunt, I often stayed behind the sofa to play with the ukulele of my cousin while our parents were at the table!The first instrument that I had an electric organ around my eleven, then I had a guitar for my twelve years.Once all of his strings were broken, I stopped playing and did not get back to it until I changed schools when I changed school.My parents agreed for me to get back to the only condition that I take lessons.So I received a classic guitar teaching by the son of a Lord who came to school once a week behind the wheel of his Aston Martin DB5.He had very good handmade guitars on which he found me all the time playing the tubes from the start of the 70’s, because he was late!He was an adorable guy.

Then, I later felt the need to have an electric guitar and, as Christmas approaches, we did the tour of shops with my parents to see what we could buy around 90 pounds in Northampton.We returned to this store on a Saturday, and my mother, who saw Jimi Hendrix in concert in 1967, was familiar with certain guitar models.There was this fucking Flying V in the store!And there was also a Les Paul Deluxe Sunburst from 1969 or 1970 which looked like two drops of water to that of Pete Townsend!I didn't believe my eyes, and my mom told me to try the guitars I wanted.But there were all these guys who looked so cool in the store that I dared not play much.With my mother we set our sights on the Les Paul Deluxe: "We want this one!", And my father became pale!He went out to sit in a cafe at the corner of the street to calm down because my parents were far from being rich.

Anyway, at my fifteen, I was lucky that my parents offer me for exactly 318 pounds a brand new Gibson!This guitar was so easy to play, the Gibson of the early 1970s had very fine sleeves, it was the dream.I still have this guitar besides.

I have never seen you with something other than your Gibson ES-295 on stage (Editor's note: Geordie has two: her main dating from 1952 as well as a backup of the 50’s also).You have been using it for an eternity, right?

Yes, I have been using it since 1982 I would say.I acquired it after our third album, Revelations, which we put in box with producer Conny Plank.The latter also sent me one of the most beautiful compliments in my life: (he takes a German accent to imitate the producer who died in 1987) "When I was little, I had a lamp radio station and J'listened to classical music on it.Often I liked to put the volume thoroughly and your sound looks like this: saturated classical music! ".It had touched me!Conny was adorable, and it was a genius.I miss him a lot.

I quickly understood that when you use distortion and all the harmonics that go with it, on a complex agreement, certain notes of the agreement will disappear because of the distortion.So I had the idea of using a semi-acoustic guitar, because in this way I could mix the saturated sound with the acoustic sound using a contact microphone on the box.I leafed through an old Gibson catalog and saw a photo of this fucking guitar!I needed one and I ended up finding it in western London.She cost me 640 pounds.I connected it and immediately knew that it was the sound I needed!You don't even need to push it too much, because it immediately has a very strong signal.I also tried hollow body guitars equipped with humbuckers, but the latter, with more plastic parts and springs, began to whistle.It made no sense for me!While with P-90s well screwed in the wood, you will not have these undesirable effects of resonance and whistling.This guitar also has a trapezoidal cordier, which many people remove, as it tends to move, unless you add a little end-to-face scotch to keep it in place.Personally I use this mobility when I play, because I press the cord with my hand, and on the ground rope I can practically go down a half-tone just by doing this.You can play arpeggios and agreements while using this Cordier as a vibrato that subtly changes tone.I also quickly realized that this guitar likes to be granted below.So I play a tone lower than normal, in re.I use 13-56 for my strings;Which, in this tuning, gives me the impression of using the equivalent of a light string set in standard tuning, except that given that your fingers move more steel with this draft, you increase in passingThe power of your signal.

In addition to this ES-295 and the Les Paul Deluxe, I was and I still remain a huge fan of the live at leeds (1970) of The Who on which Pete Townshend plays his SG equipped with P-90.With the money that I had been able to save following the only two real jobs that I had in my life, I bought myself a SG Junior!At one time, we were staying with Jaz's parents (Editor's note: Coleman, song), because there was a fire in our London apartment, a long story that I will not tell here, and there was a long walk between thehouse of his parents and our rehearsal room.The original cases of the Les Paul in the 70s were really very heavy and suddenly I was often taking the SG to go in rehearsal at the time, although I found the sound of this duller guitar.But one day I plugged it into an old orange head and I realized that when you lowered the volume knob, you obtained this wonderful light sound which reminded me of Fender.It was then that I fell in love with P-90s, and I installed it immediately after on my Les Paul!I also recorded our first two albums with the Les Paul, with the exception of half the title Madness, in which I think we can hear at some point that the guitar sound changes.Then, as I said, I quickly used ES-295 around which I chose my amps and speakers.I have always used 10 "speakers with alnico magnets.I just find them more musical.I visited the celestation manufacturing plant and I took their sixteen speakers 10 "which served me for a lot of years, but I now use Jensen speakers.

Always 10 "ALNICO models?

Yes I stay on this configuration with Jensen, even if I must admit that I was impressed by the Jensen with neodymium magnets.I used them in the studio.I would say that on 60 % of our latest album, Pylon (2015), I used a combination between the small rebel 20 amp from Egnate and the gaps mounted in Jensen Jet Tornado 12 "which have a neodymium magnet.They are very musical, very light and we can no longer effective!Frankly, that would not bother me at a time to see how these speakers behave with my stage equipment which is more ambitious, with 100 watts on each side and four 4x10 "" puffs for sixteen speakers in total.I would like to see what's going on when you move less air, but with more effective speakers.Maybe I could even replace my four 4x10 "" baffles 1x12 ".I will not replace them with bigger than that, because I don't want to have a cabinet up to my ears.You can stake 4x10 "up to the limit height, because they are smaller, but not 4x12".

You just mentioned your speakers, what amps do you use on stage?

I use Framus Dragon heads currently and in the past I played on Burman, made in the northeast of England where I come from.Greg Burman is the first guy to have used the concept of cascade gain that everyone copied later.I use the KT77 lamps which have a high outlet level and which give a lot of precision to the serious.I also feel like it is starting to know, because I see more and more guys putting KT77 in their Marshall amps!I used before a KT77 series of the JJ brand, but since I have been using a kind of reissue with the Genelec Gold Lion.

I loved my Burman, but there was a flaw in their construction: their transformer weighs a ton and the chassis, made of a fine -molded steel, is upside down as on Fender.He always ends up reducing in crumbs!This is why it is almost impossible to find burman amps on the market, because they are still in poor condition over time because of this.Adam des Sisters of Mercy offered me a preamp during our first meeting.I unfortunately lost it and I try to get a pair that I will modify!This preamp is designed as an effect pedal with a line level, and inside you can find all these whores of resistance that can be "bypass" to obtain the maximum of the preamp!I have to take a look at the power amps suddenly.It would be very practical for me, especially for festivals where you bring all your equipment without ever knowing what is waiting for you.I would like to have a less bulky option, because this preamp, whose name I have forgotten, may deliver 100 watts with lamps, it does not remain more voluminous than a rhythm box or a laptop, andIts rendering is stunning!It’s a German product it seems to me, but I don't remember the name.I could take that with a neodymium hp puffed, under the 22 -kilo mark, and all of a sudden, my backline would become hand luggage!It would be super practical for our tours in Japan and Australia.I would no longer have to worry about what could happen to my equipment to Adelaide, because I would have it on me.

Your guitar sound in Killing Joke is as mysterious as they.There is no other guitarist I know whose sound is getting closer to yours.Do you get this special sound thanks to certain effect pedals?

I use very little effects to tell the truth.But there is something that I have been using since our very first album.I remember it because I had taken Youth (Editor's note: bass) with me at the Soundwave store in Romford where we had bought the fifth low amp manufactured by Trace Elliot!Fred (Editor's note: Friedlein, owner of the store and founder of Trace Elliot) and his staff were adorable people.They had this automatic track twofold (Editor's note: "Automatic Double Tracking" commonly called "ADT") for Basse, which I tried on the guitar ... and which inspired me!I still have it (Editor's note: Geordie has several, some under the name of PA: CE, Parmee Acoustics and Collins Electromagnetics, and others under the name of Bell Electrolabs, one of the commercial brands of PA: this)).

The ADT (Editor's note: Geordie uses two, one in each effect loop of its framus amps) a little reduced frequencies to 2.5 kHz and that gives me an effect on the Phil Spector (Editor's note: famous producer known in particular for its "sound wall" technique), because I mix several elements with the parallel of Lehle.On one side you have a simple "slapback" delay, on the other a adjustment of the modulation speed of the pitch and finally a adjustment of the depth of modulation of the pitch.When you ruin all of this in the right way, you do not get a chorus effect, but you then create a real undulation with a deception effect that I operate permanently and which is carried out randomly.I heard a story from a friend of Phil Spector.The latter invited him to his studio during a recording session of forty musicians who played the horn of harmony.He had never heard such a sound mess!It was apparently excruciating!Then Phil Spector told him to come with him to the mixing room.Here is his tip: there were eight really good guys on the forties.They were placed in the center of the room with all the microphones pointed out on them.So all the ambient cacophony mixed in the background in their game and it was thanks to this that it managed to create this feeling of important sound space!This is the secret of what was called the sound of Detroit.

I also use different delay/echo pedals that I especially appreciate for their Tap Tempo function that I find very practical.Pigronix has just offered me one, an analog echo, but I haven't really gotten it out of its box yet and I won't use it unless I really fall in love!So I currently have a DL4 of Line 6 with me, but from the first time I used it, I did not like the rendering of its digital modeling live on my guitar.I therefore use Lehle's Parallel mixer, as primitive as well -constructed, which allows me on one side to send the direct signal of the guitar to the amps and the other to isolate the DL4 of Line 6 to be able toThen mix the two signals as I wish on the front.I use the P-Split Passive Splitter of Lehle to reach the two amp heads.I also have a volume pedal;An expression pedal to manage the signal before it enters my delay, but I never use it, so to speak;Another expression pedal to manage the signal at the exit of Delay;as well as a tuner.So I don't use so many effects as that in the end!