Featured Guitar Player of the Week: Peter Knoll

November 7th, 2007 · Posted by Jeff · Leave Comments

Whoah, what just happened?

Am I in the twilight zone?

Did someone slip something into my drink while I was on the crapper?

All are legitimate responses that could be heard from members of the audience at one of Peter Knoll’s gigs.

Peter Knoll

Now this is some innovative and very interesting music that you must check out. He brilliantly uses effects and looping to paint experimental landscapes of sound. In a world where many guitar players focus just on the guitar solo, Knoll places emphasis on creating an experience for the listener, eliciting dark and light emotions, and sometimes making you feel like you have just been abducted by aliens. If you love improv and experimental music, you need to give him a listen.

I came across the guitar at the age of 8. As a teenager I started a band with on school buddy of mine. It was a thrilling experience. After a few years we had this 10-piece Funk/Rock/Jazz band and we ended up playing in front of 4000 people as an opener for the Billy Cobham band. After that I decided to become a professional musician. I enrolled at the Guitar-Institute of Munich and went on to Berklee College of Music, were I graduated in ‘95. I gained a lot of experience in playing in various bands in almost every style of music and participating in different recording sessions. Since 2000 I started out with my Avantgarde Solo-Project (Experimental Music) in which I mix Blues, Jazz and Oriental Music.
-Peter Knoll

The following interview is taken from the Brooklyn Institute of Guitar Blog

I met Pete at a recent audition for a touring theatre show and found out that he had recently relocated from Berlin to NY for the second time. After a hang and a play, I thought it would be interesting to see what his musical experience has been as a “jobbing player”. I discovered he has developed a taste for “free jazz” and sampling.

I began by asking Pete how he got into “free” playing and, like most things in life, it was by accident!

Peter Knoll (PK): I was playing a gig with a guy who was a dancer. It was back in ‘94, we did a dance performance. He said “just watch me and play something”. I really didn’t know what to do but, I ended up really liking it and, that was my first initial thing for “free” or “experimental” music. I thought for me, that is it - that’s my music.

Kent Thompson (KT): It seems to me that free playing has no point of reference apart from the moment, is that what free playing is?

PK: Yeah, I think that’s what it is, actually. When I think about it, playing this kind of music is like filling a room with a sort of sound rather than a solo or some sort of rhythm. It’s like painting a picture.

Pete’s array of effects or tools of the trade help him with his improvisations.

PK: The sampling of course helps because that’s the tool I like to use and it keeps me creative. You can make the guitar sound not like a guitar or something like that. I use delay pedals and distortion pedals and I also use a talk box. It’s a Digitech one. You use a microphone and it is digitized, more like a vocoder (not the same as the traditional talk box made famous by Peter Frampton).

Pete uses this to mix his vocals with his guitar to create even more interesting textures.

KT: So do you predominantly play solo or with other musicians - what’s the general format?

PK: I started out doing it solo at first. Actually, I was living in Berlin during the 90’s and there were a lot of free avant-garde guys who influenced me at some point.

KT: Who were they?

PK: Jean Paul Bourelly and Elliott Sharp.

I also like Gerry Leonard (Suzanne Vega, David Bowie), he does a lot of loop things, more in the pop-rock context, a very good ambient guitar player and he plays with Duncan Sheik (singer-songwriter). Other influencers…David Torn I would say, he started off with ECM. He is like the pioneer of guitar sampling. He even bulids microphones into his guitar to sample his band members, such as his saxophone player, which he then uses with his own guitar sound. Another guy who is not so well known is Andre LaFosse, he lives in LA. Nels Cleine, also from LA who plays with Wilco. He’s incredible, very versatile!

KT: So, why the move to NY for the second time?

PK: Green card lottery! I thought maybe this is the place for this sort of music

KT: Any shows coming up that we can check out?

PK: Next show is in October with some poets, somewhere in Williamsburg (check myspace)

Pete is also starting to collaborate with a percussionist whose credits includes Sting (http://www.myspace.com/fellevega, nice name drop Pete!)

KT: So what’s the main difference between working in Europe and NY?

PK: It’s kind of weird, there’s a pretty good avant-garde scene in Europe, especially in Norway . Not even in the capital of Oslo but in Bergen , there are all the good guys and a good scene. Compared to NY…I have heard it used to be better here in the 80’s & 90’s but, in the 00’s or late 90’s, the clubs for this sort of music, such as Tonic, started closing but there’s still a pretty good scene here. It’s still a big melting pot.

Pete has also done some film music.

PK: I do a series with Fritz Lang movies. Especially with silent movies, they’re old and ancient so I do like a modern ambient sound to it which is kind of interesting.

So, gear time!

KT: What’s your favorite axe?

PK: Depends what kind of mood I’m in. For the experimental kind of stuff I like to play the Parker, it makes you play a little wilder. It’s very light and the action is very low and the tremolo is very easy to handle. When I play silent movies I love to play the Strat, it has a maple neck. I prefer this as it has a darker sound. I also have a Fender Robben Ford which gives me more of a Gibson type tone.

I use the Boomerang sampler for improvs. What I like about the Boomerang is that it’s very simple, for a live situation it’s perfect. I like the reverse function with just the effected signal being heard. I don’t really use the delay function. I use the Echo Park for a regular delay sometimes - it has a dark sound.

KT: What about the Whammy?

PK: Lots of people don’t like it, they like the original one. The good thing about it is it’s more versatile

Pete uses Boogies - two of them in a stereo Mark 4, nice. He also uses an ebow (for those not familiar with this, an ebow allows you to have a constant sustain on the guitar like a bowing sound on a violin hence the name). This allows some great textures and avoids cliches by approaching in a non-traditional, technical point of view.

Pete can create layer upon layer to create his soundscapes, basically overdubs.

Technical tip!

Pete has a TR2 tremolo (they have a lot of hiss!) by Boss - take out the C4 condensor and this gets rid of the noise that has been associated with them.

For all Pete’s artistic tendencies, he’s still a jobbing player. He has also spent 2.5 years playing on the ships.

KT: Most people wouldn’t associate a free jazz player with a ship gig touring around the Caribbean - they’re world’s apart.

PK: It’s a nice additional experience cause on the ship you have to be versatile. It’s also good for sightreading!

KT: Is there a way of practicing this sort of music?

PK: What I do is play around. Mostly I just start playing, trying sounds and different pedals but I don’t really like sitting down and practicing scales or whatever.
Peter Knoll