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JOAN JETT's Guitarist: 'Never Take Anything For Granted'
from: ultimate-guitar
by Joe Matera
The original Riot Grrl herself, and to many the godmother of punk, JOAN JETT continues to fly the flag for punk rockers everywhere as is evident on her recently released studio outing SINNER.
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Though the bulk of the album appears on Jett’s Japanese-only 2004 release Naked, many of the tracks have been given a makeup and re-recorded for SINNER which is also Jett’s first full length album of all new material, U.S wise, in over a decade. While Jett does a superb job of holding fort on SINNER, much of the super-charged six-string rawness is down to Blackheart guitarist DOUGIE NEEDLES whose passion for punk extends well beyond his work with Jett.
His own band The Public Offenders also serve up a healthy dose of old school New York punk. For Needles, living and breathing punk is the order of the day. Joe Matera recently caught up with DOUGIE NEEDLES for this exclusive interview for UG to talk about SINNER, working with Jett and the simplicity of punk.
Ultimate-Guitar: How did you come to hook up with JOAN JETT?
DOUGIE NEEDLES: I was working at S.I.R. in NYC and a friend I worked with was Dee Dee Ramone's guitar tech. Joan was playing a gig in Long Island where Dee Dee came up to play a song. My friend found out that night that Joan was looking for a guitar player. He gave out my number and I got a call a few days later to audition. They advised me by saying, ‘better learn two songs really good than three songs half-assed’. And then added ‘Oh and she doesn’t like any of that Eddie Van Halen shit!’ And I was like, ‘you know, I grew up learning these [Jett] songs’. So I pretty much knew the whole thing. It was a great audition as I ended up playing the whole set.
You grew up on a diet of The Who, The Ramones and The Clash, how much of that and in what ways have these influences shaped your guitar playing and approach to music?
Yeah, they had a huge influence. Pete Townshend was the one who made me want to play guitar, Joe Strummer and Johnny Ramone made me want to play punk rock guitar. But there were others. Chuck Berry taught me the concept of what some people (maybe like heavy metal guitarists) might call simple or boring solos, but I think those are the best solos. I learned from all of them that it's a lot harder than it sounds or looks. But it starts with taking your influences and putting your style on top of them.
What was the process like for the songwriting aspect to SINNER, was it a group effort or mainly one centered around Joan?
The process was a group effort. We all pretty much write our own parts then we play off of each other and fine tune everything. It’s not like somebody came in and said ‘here’s your song and your part, so play this’. If it was a cover or a song that she had done and got a demo of, she’d give everyone a copy of that and we start to play around with it and come up with our parts. Nobody ever said ‘don’t do that, I want you to do this’. If anything, if somebody came up with something good, rather than say better than doing that once, they would say let’s do it twice. The only real thing that had more of a direction was with the vocals because Kenny [Laguna, Jett’s manager/co-writer/producer] is such a vocal oriented person and such a great arranger that he’s the one that has all the harmony ideas with the background vocals.
The record oozes with a raw, rock and roll sound and energy, how did you approach the recording of it to achieve this?
It’s the only way rock and roll should be recorded, bare boned. All of the basic tracks were live - bass, drums and guitars - then I added some guitar overdubs, and finally the vocals. We played literally everything live. I mean rhythms and solos, not just rhythms and then do another track of solos. I play it exactly how I play it live. Most of the guitar solos aren’t overdubbed though as occasionally we might go back and do the guitar solo, but when we were doing the basic tracks, they were never done without a guitar solo. The basic tracks are all live. That's what gives it the energy that it has. And though it was recorded digitally studio wise, the fact that we did it all live, whatever the digital processing of the recording was, the analog part is kind of made up for with the fact that we didn’t play with any kind of digital sound. Nobody in the band has any huge rack of effects where you need to turn on twenty five pedals just to get a cool sound.
Let’s talk gear, what did you use for the recording of SINNER?
My main guitar was a '56 Gibson Les Paul Jr through a Marshall JCM900 and a Marshall cabinet. I have a Tremelo, a Delay and a Wah Pedal. I used the Wah and Delay on the track ‘Fetish’. When it comes to the live stage, it's the same gear I use in the studio, except I use the Tremelo pedal in the end of ‘Crimson.’
And what did Joan use?
She used a Gibson Melody Maker double cutaway. Joan uses a variety of amps – Musicman212 which was used on ‘I Love Rock N' Roll’ and all the hits as well as a Boogie head with a Vox AC30 212.
How did you go about capturing your guitar sounds and tone in the studio?
Again it was the same way as we normally do live. We put mikes up to the amps. I think the bass was DI-ed but the rest of it was all just plugged in though I can’t remember now exactly. When I record with my band, we put like two mikes on the guitar amps so that we can get the same guitar track, two tracks of the same guitar, so you can split it left and right.
Did Joan require you to have a sound that fitted in with the signature sound of the original BLACKHEARTS?
I don't know if it was a requirement, but Joan and I seemed to blend well. I took the solos from the records and played them the way I play. And it all felt very natural.
How does it feel to be working with an artist the caliber of Jett and one whom is one of the elders of the punk rock scene?
First off, I don't think of her as an elder, just a fellow band mate and one of the best and most professional musicians I've ever seen. Joan is a sweetheart and she made me feel real comfortable. She’s like, ‘take your time, whenever you’re ready’. I’ve played in a lot of other bands, crappy little New York bands that had two guitarists and I’ve never played with a guitar player that was like her where we work so well together. Mainly it's a blast to play with her and I think we play off each other really well. I've never played with a better guitar player.
What sort of words of wisdom has she given to you from her long standing experience in the industry?
Every night before we go on stage she says, ‘have fun guys!’ I think that sums it up. Also, I've learned from watching her, not to ever take anything for granted. She's probably the most humble person I've ever met. She reminds me how lucky I am to be in a Punk Rock band for a living.
What’s it like touring with JOAN JETT?
It’s fairly tame and everybody has fun but we all know that it’s a job. At the end of the night when the job is done, if there is any fun to be had, then we’ll have fun. It’s never out of control though because the next day you have to do your job again. I do know Joan doesn’t drink anymore and the rest of the band likes to drink every once in a while and because of something that happened in the past, we don’t ever have any alcohol backstage. Joan doesn’t allow anybody to drink before we play which makes perfect sense. I don’t even do that with my band even when we might play a crappy club in New York to only five people. At the end of the day it’s your job and you have to take it professionally. It’s your passion too you know. Not everybody can have a reputation, making a living having the kind of reputation that a Keith Richards or a Johnny Thunders has. Especially nowadays, I think even more, nobody really wants to pay money to see somebody fall off the stage.
You're about to embark on a U.S tour with Eagles of Death Metal, what can fans expect?
Fans can expect the same thing as always, high energy, loud punk rock delivered by the coolest looking band around. I guess Eagles are not so much what you’d call punk rock, but with their distinctive bluesy kind of rock, they definitely do share the same spirit as we do.
Do you think with so many punk bands today, the whole scene has sort of become over saturated to the point where it's no longer what punk rock was originally all about? Many seem to be purely following a trend and wanting to be cool…
I don't know about that. There are definitely more bands than, in say, '77 but that's probably because punk has become more commercially viable since the mid 90's. So now there's more separation from the "pop-punk" bands who are in it for the success and the bands that are more old school, and, in it as a way of life. I think that was the case in '77 but just not so extreme. I try not to judge anymore, I think Punk Rock means thinking for your self and that's the most important thing to remember. There are always going to be those who do it for money or to follow a trend, but I think that's true for life in general, the difference between passion and posing.
What's the status of the Public Offenders' debut album?
The Public Offenders' record is basically finished. I'm just waiting until The BLACKHEARTS have some down time. Then it will come out and we will start playing shows again to support it. Song wise the album is pretty much straight, old school New York punk rock and rock and roll. Very simple Stooges-Ramones, the kind of stuff I grew up with. If there is any common thread between the songs, it is New York.
What's the coming 12 months got in store for DOUGIE NEEDLES?
Lots of work, both with Joan and with The Public Offenders. I love working all the time. I can't believe how lucky I am to have the opportunity to do all the things I want to do. I try to never take anything for granted. I'm just enjoying the fact that I get to play Rock N' Roll every day for a living!
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