Workshop by Chrissy Quast at Amsterdam Guitar Heaven on November 23, 2024
Voice of Merol and Naomi Sharon
Events 10-20-2024 08:44
Text Chris Decker
During the recent US tour, Naomi Sharon was a special guest of Grammy Award winner Tims. “We did half the tour, from Miami to Toronto,” Chrissy says from his home studio in Amsterdam. “He’s been traveling and playing every day and in front of halls of a few thousand people. Naomi released an album on Drake’s OVO Sound label and things have been going really fast ever since. At the beginning of this year, we played sold-out mini-concerts in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and London Toronto, Berlin and Amsterdam I will now be on a club tour with Merol via Holland and Belgium, and next spring there will be a headlining tour for Naomi.
Let’s go back in time. How did the guitar come your way?
“My dad started playing guitar. He had some nice guitars in his man cave. My parents put me in piano lessons, but it was reluctant. When I heard Nirvana I thought: ‘Wow,’ and I wanted to play guitar. My dad taught me Sympathy for the devilThen the solo from smells like teen spirit Then things moved quickly. In high school, I was only interested in music, so I attended the Dutch School of Folk Music and later the Conservatory in Amsterdam. It was a big culture shock. My dad was the only guitar player I knew, and suddenly I was one of many guitar players! Very intense. At the conservatory she picked up the keys again and started playing two instruments.
With Merol and Naomi, you can play guitar and keyboards. How do you combine that?
“I joined Merol four years ago as a guitarist, but I’ll be adding keyboards for the next tour. Naomi asked me to be a bassist, but they were looking for someone who could also play keyboards. With Merol, I really have to use all the tricks available to make the guitar work In music, I actually have a pedalboard spaceship! It should be fun with weird sounds; sometimes it doesn’t sound like a guitar anymore with Naomi. The songs are really based on the guitar sound and the guitar playing here That’s a good balance with Merol. With Naomi, it’s fifty percent guitar and the rest is piano, synth, drums, live samples and synth bass. It’s great to build such a collection with my production knowledge.”
You have endorsement deals with Rowland and Gibson. How does something like this work?
“If I need anything, I approach Roland. Of course they have Boss and they have a lot of guitar pedals that work well with their instruments. I brought two Gibsons. I want to get such a guitar a month early so I can coordinate the pedals and the guitar properly.” I love the little black L-00. Just the smell alone! I prefer the smaller acoustic guitars because of the look and because they play better. I’m just now discovering their electric guitars and that was my first real experience with humps Takes getting used to, but I’ve noticed that many of the guitar effects respond a little better to players compressed And they don’t make those dynamic jumps like single files do. And playing the humbucker guitar with your fingers is the most beautiful sound ever. I’ll be playing a studio Les Paul now, with the push/pull single coil/humbucker, so I think this will be one of my favorites. I’ll soon be going to the US briefly with Naomi, and then Gibson will arrange for me to get a guitar there.
We mainly know you by your white RebelRelic Strat.
“This was my first really expensive guitar. I live near the De Plug guitar shop and became friends with the owner Peter. I asked him to help me buy a guitar. “When you order a Custom Shop Fender, you never know exactly what you’re going to get,” he said. With Luke from RebelRelic you can choose everything yourself and follow the building process.’ I liked this and it’s around the corner.
Finally, your speaker. What are you playing with?
“Because I was traveling, I didn’t have a subwoofer with me, but I did have a very good DSM & Humboldt Simplifier Deluxe Modeller. As a producer, I know that a real speaker sounds better, and one day I want a wall of speakers behind me in the Merol!”“
@chrissy
Come to Chrissie Quast’s workshop at Amsterdam Guitar Heaven on Saturday 23 November: a live performance in modern pop production.
Read more about the exhibition and 20 workshops at Amsterdam Guitar Heaven elsewhere on Guitarist.nl.
You can order Amsterdam Guitar Heaven tickets via Ticketmaster.nl
Equipment show + workshop festival + final concert €14.50 (for students €7.50)*
