Was that a guitar? Was it a steel drum? How did he do that? How do I do that? And what’s with all the colorful tape? You may find yourself asking these questions when getting acquainted with the inventive, stormy alt-folk stylings of Sean Rowe.
The singer-songwriter from Troy, New York, has been turning heads with his mesmerizing approach, and that booming baritone voice, since the mid-2000s. This year sees the release of his sixth studio record,Good Fiction, and he’s also completed a movie soundtrack, both out soon.
Rarely seen without a cedar-topped Takamine dreadnought cutaways, Rowe’s sound is characterized by a captivating collision of natural acoustic tones and effects-laden electric experimentalism.
“The way it came out of the factory from Takamine is not how it ended up,” he says of his current workhorse – the latest in a long line of instruments to get his signature upgrade. “It’s like a bastardized version of an electric and an acoustic mixed together, because I have an electric pickup in the soundhole.”
It’s a simple but seldom-seen mod which allows Rowe to create a multidimensional live sound almost like having two guitars in one.
Typically he’ll run his built-in piezo system – great for capturing percussive thuds and body taps – through a Fishman acoustic amp, while simultaneously sending signal from the soundhole-mounted humbucker to two different electric guitar amps.
“I’ll have different settings for each of them, and I’ll pan those in the house,” he explains. “So you get the acoustic in the center and the two different amps on both sides.”
He then conjures a wide range of unconventional atmospherics using effects like the DigiTech Whammy, Electro-Harmonix Nano POG, Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini and Fulltone Supa-Trem, while somehow retaining the earthiness and intimate intensity of a solo acoustic performance.
“I think a lot of people approach music like this when they’re trying to get a sound that they hear in their heads,” he says of the unique set-up. “If you’re around the right equipment, it’ll just happen because that’s where your mind is going. It doesn’t happen overnight, but if you have the right materials to work with you can create some pretty cool shit.”
Perhaps the best example of all can be heard in live performances of Joe’s Cult, a song that first appeared on Rowe’s 2012 LP The Salesman and the Shark. Inspired by the weird world of prepared guitar, he stumbled upon a unique kalimba-like sound while messing around with apps for the items in his pockets.
“When I toured in Europe I started taking trains, and I would stick the ticket in between the strings, and hold it there with a pen. It sounds one way if you do it with the ticket, but if you put a pen in there and set it just right in the bridge, it buzzes. It resonates the guitar in a really cool way.”
Upon arriving home he ditched ticket in favor of a dollar bill, reasoning that it’s “thinner and so a little better for the sound.” Then, after running his guitar and its oddball add-on through an Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork polyphonic pitch shifter, he unlocked the real tonal pièce de résistance.
“It sounds church-organy if you’re just playing acoustic or you plug into it. But with this dollar and the pen thing and that, it sounds crazy like a steel drum!”
Rowe uses heavy gauge flatwound strings to curb any unwanted brightness and tunes down by half a step for a “warmer, lower sound” at all times. But the idiosyncrasies don’t stop at hardware, equipment mods and cool effects. His raw and percussive physicality means he’s worn through every Takamine he’s ever owned - hence those colorful duct tape bandages.
Cedar might be a softer wood than something like mahogany, but it’s still a remarkable feat for a fingerstyle artist. “Over time, if you hit the same spot over and over again, you’re bound to cause trouble,” Rowe shrugs.
- Details of Rowe’s next releases and tour dates will be announced on his website.
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