Two years after their sparkling debut album, Los Bitchos are back with more luscious guitar textures and feel-good vibes with its followup, Talkie Talkie.
For guitarist Serra Petale, that meant pushing their funk disco pomp to quirky new dimensions – and never turning her chorus pedal off.
What were your go-to electric guitars for the new album?
“Most of it was on my Italia Maranello Speedster. It’s my number one, but I also used a Lag which has the most fabulous rounded but tinny sound – I just want to eat it! I also used our prouder Oli Barton Wood’s ‘Smokers Tele’. Loads of cigarette smoke has stuck to it from people chain-smoking around it, but it has the most wonderful tone.
“Then we split their signals into a Fender silverface and a Roland, which is my favourite amp in the world. The blend worked really well.”
Was the album’s ’80s aesthetic intentional?
“Many of our influences come from ’80s records. I mean, who doesn’t love Duran Duran’s bass sound, or the way on Simple Minds’ New Gold Dream, the guitars are so far back that they just become a texture? That’s very inspiring to us. But what I really enjoyed was that we had all of this new gear, so we were able to come up with bastardised versions of the ’80s sound.”
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What was the standout modern gear, then?
“I used lots of EarthQuaker Devices pedals. They’re incredible vehicles for giving each song their own dimension. In Hi!, there’s a really weird, watery effect on the lead guitar in the first verse, and then a real highlife-type clean in the chorus.
“In another song, Open The Bunny, Wasting My Time, we used The Warden for a really dialled-back tone that still had a presence. It compressed the signal to give it a lift without distorting it. It’s really interesting to see where you can push and take your guitars with pedals. I really welcome that.”
What’s one pedal you can’t live without?
“One thing I won’t waver from is having a chorus effect on my clean tone. I love the underlying sadness that it gives to a guitar tone, even if you’re playing something happy. There are a lot of joyous moments on the record but I think that oscillation gives a really nice mood. It sounds human.
“At the moment I’m using an EHX Small Clone, it’s really simple. I’ve found others to be too complicated for my liking, and I want it to do one thing. The Nano Clone was my first-ever chorus and that was delightful, but it’s lost its chorus-ness now. I think I played it to death!”
And you’re a Hiwatt artist now…
“Yeah! I’ve been using a Hiwatt Custom 50 combo live all year. It’s super-powerful and it holds pedals really well. I was a Fender girl for many years, but the Hiwatt sounds wicked. I don’t need too much gain, but I still want the clean with chorus sound to hold its own. I can’t wait to take it back out on the road – we’re pumped!”
- Talkie Talkie is out now via City Slang.
