SAMUEL TYE
HAILS FROM: Mooro/Perth, WA
PLAYS IN: The Faim
SOUNDS LIKE: Viciously infectious bubblegum-rock
LATEST DROP: 'The Hills' (single out now via BMG)
What’s your current go-to guitar?
My current go-to would have to be my Nash T63. I moved to Melbourne about two years ago and decided to scope out the music stores here. I ended up walking into a store and picked up a Nash, played it for about 20 minutes and loved the way it sounded, but wasn’t a fan of the way it looked. Anyway, I told myself to get over it, and it didn’t really matter as long as it sounded and played great. So I went to the counter and told the guy that I loved everything about it apart from its look, and as he was about to scan it, he said they have another Nash, which was one of the best to come through the store. I ended up loving the sound and feel of the other one more – and liked the look – so I ended up going with that one. To this day, I’m not sure if the guy was just giving me his sales talk, but I love the guitar and the way it plays either way.
How did you initially fall in love with the instrument?
Honestly, this probably isn’t the best thing to say for an interview about guitars, but I’m not sure if I really fell in love with it – it just happened. I remember wanting to perform as a kid, and my dad had guitars lying around, so I think I naturally gravitated towards it. My love for guitar has definitely grown over time, but at first, I think it was just the only thing available to me. My first guitar was an Ibanez SA series guitar, and I just wanted it because I thought it looked cool at the time.
What inspires you as a player?
I feel like my influences for guitar don’t come from guitarists. I like sounds in general, and love to play around with effects and attempt to make my guitar not sound like a guitar. A few of the guitarists I do admire are Ruban Nielson, Tom Morello and Andy Summers, but they don’t necessarily bleed into my playing. I more just admire them from afar.
Are you much of a gear nerd?
My gear “nerdiness” has grown over the last couple of years, and I have an addiction to collecting pedals. To be honest, my favourite piece of gear is constantly changing. I get pretty excited about something quickly, and lose interest just as fast, so I’m constantly sifting through YouTube videos to find what to invest in next. At the moment, my favourite piece of gear would have to be my Walrus Audio ARP-87 delay or my EQD Sea Machine. I also spend a lot of time producing tracks, so I get nerdy about plugins.
Do you have any ‘white whales’?
Honestly, anything and everything from Chase Bliss Audio is on the list, and I would like to get an original Roland JC-120 at some point. Unrelated to guitar, I’ve been getting into synths, and I’m getting tempted to invest in a Roland Juno-106.
What would your signature model look like?
I think it would be a solidbody, maple medium C-shape neck, Olympic white guitar and pickguard, with the same body shape as the guitar I used in our ‘Ease My Mind’ music video (an Italia Modena Semitone). Pickups would be Lollar Vintage T neck and bridge with Schaller locking machine heads. Just for fun, I would probably want to install an inbuilt pitch shifter or something.
If you could jam with any guitarist, dead or alive...
I think I’d want to jam with Tom Morello. I like his attitude towards guitar and from what I know about him as a person. I think a lot of me wanting my guitar not to sound like a guitar is inspired by Tom, so I’d love to pick his brain and perhaps play an Audioslave song with him.
