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.”
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!”
