We pride ourselves on being mad scientists. In light of recent requests, we decided to give you all an inside look into the sea of circuitry we use during live Smoke Season performances.
Jason (lead guitar & vocals):
The core component of my guitar pedalboard is my Boss ME-70. This gives me the flexibility to combine multiple textures at once and really layer my guitar effects.
On top of that, I use an MXR Phase 90 and MXR Micro-Chorus to increase the depth of my guitar tones. I love these pedals because, while they're incredibly simple to use, they sound HUGE and add a flavor of psychedelia that's signature to our sound as a band.
For my bigger solo tones, I rely on an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9DX. I love this pedal because its overdrive is smooth and warm.
My guitar of choice is a Gibson SG (because of its versatility with different styles of music) and I use a Fender Twin Reverb 65 Reissue amp.
For all my vocals, I run my voice through an EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master reverb pedal. This pedal is specifically made for guitars, but the warm richness of the reverb and delay is second to none and perfect for vocals.
Gabrielle (vocals & keys):
My rig is probably the more complicated ones in the band. I use an Ultimate Stand to support the double tier of keyboards I use live. I actually hand-wired this keyboard stand with LED lights that synch to our live set (and acquired a lot of soldering burns in the process) so this stand is a bit more original than your run-of-the-mill out of box towers.
Keyboard-wise, I rely on both a Roland Gaia and a Korg SV-1 to generate my tones. The Gaia has unbelievable versatility for creating and manipulating original tones. On the other hand, the SV-1 includes real tubes that provide an incredibly rich and realistic timbre to any of the tones - especially the piano and strings.
I also use an Akai MPX8SD Sample Player to play some of the original samples that we use in our live set. In a couple of the songs, I am actually sampling my voice live using this.
Finally, a huge part of our sound is the processing we do to my lead vocals. To achieve all the effects we use, I rely on a TC-Helicon VoiceTouch Live vocal processor (which is my absolute favorite piece of equipment). My VoiceTouch Live allows me to loop my vocals during live sets and apply custom delay, reverb, distortion and doubling effects.
Oh, and the newest baby in my live rig is my Shure 58 wireless microphone which gives me the freedom to run about like a banshee without all the microphone cords.
Gabe (bass):
I play a Fender Jazz Deluxe bass which I run through a Gallien Kruegger 800 RB head and a Schroeder Cab. I really like this amp because it provides enough punch for the Smoke Season basslines to cut through some of the more complex soundscapes in our arrangements.
I'm responsible for a lot of the trippy ambient sound effects that Smoke Season live shows are full of. To achieve a lot of these one-of-a-kind sounds, I use a Line 6 Delay Pedal and a BP200 Bass Effects Processor. The combination of both those together creates some out-there textures.
To give some of my bass parts that extra punch or distortion, I go to my MXR Octave pedal and my Big Muff Distortion pedal.
Chris (drums):
Smoke Season is known for their combination of acoustic and electronic drum parts so I use both an acoustic and electronic kit. For my acoustic kit, I relay on a Pork Pie custom kit I had made in 2011 that includes a 22 inch kick drum and floor tom. I prefer Zildjian/Sabian cymbals and Remo drum heads.
I love my Pork Pie custom P'Lux snare which I use with a Gibraltar wood hoop to make those hits even punchier.
For the electronic stuff, we use a Roland SPD-SX drum sampler with programmed sample banks for each song in the set. A lot of these sounds we'll create and produce together and then load into the SPD-SX so they're one-of-a-kind.
My kick drum is custom wired to include a colored LED light on the inside that can be programmed to synch with various moments in the music. And I always use a Kickport to get the best sound out of my kick drum.
Lights:
We run Ableton Live on stage to synchronize whatever light rig we're using for any particular show. Ableton sends DMX automation signals through a DMXIS interface directly to our custom-made dimmable LED installations and American DJ Megaflash strobe light. We really love this system because it's reliable and you can add more lights or take some away depending on the size of the show we're playing.
Oh, and did we mention our smoke machine?