Sick Riffs #37: Philadelphia, PA's Fire in the Radio are known for their punchy yet catchy combo of punk and indie, and last month saw the release of the band's third studio album Monuments, which sees the group take their hook-writing nous up a notch.
The album's seventh track - This is My Document - is one such example. Guitarist and vocalist Jon Miller joins us from the band's makeshift studio - the "Crow's Nest" - to teach you how to play and loop the track's distinctive clean lines.
"Beyond the obvious - canceling shows and dealing with those issues around a record release, the one thing that it's caused us to do is be a little more creative about how we get our music out to people," Miller says.
"We've had to learn different techniques we wouldn't typically use in a live setting. For me, I've had to spend some time learning how to use my [Boss] RC-30 Loop Station to create some backing tracks."
In addition to the looper pedal, Miller plays a Fender Chris Shiflett Telecaster Deluxe electric guitar equipped with Ernie Ball strings, running through a Kemper amp modeler.
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Sick Riffs is a Guitar World video series designed to help guitarists affected by the coronavirus. Self-isolating players around the world have each filmed a lesson where they teach you one of their own guitar riffs, up close and personal. If you dig the lesson, we encourage you to buy music and merch from the artist or stream their music.
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Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.
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