The world’s leading manufacturer of guitar strings and accessories is going behind the scenes with their most innovative and influential artist ambassadors as part of the new artist session series, Big Sound. The program launches today (Aug. 28) with a three-song performance from Texas-based genre-defying instrumental virtuosos Polyphia.
Taped during rehearsals ahead of the unconventional prodigies’ summer tour, the session pulls back the curtain on how Polyphia conjures their massive sound. In this raw and distinct series, each session is recorded in captivating spaces that are personal and unique to each band, and captured through premium audio and an up-close, cinematic eye
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There are no gimmicks or filters here. Instead, Big Sound is solely focused on capturing the music. Beyond Polyphia, season 1 of Big Sound will also feature episodes with Ernie Ball artists such as Cory Wong, Thrice, 7d7d and LS Dunes.
“This series is another way for us to celebrate the unique talents of our family of artists that play Ernie Ball products,” says Ernie Ball CEO Brian Ball. “To have such a talented and influential band like Polyphia help us kick it off makes the launch even more special.”
“What you’re hearing in this performance is essentially our ultra-mega-rehearsed version of these songs, where we all figured out how to make what we play individually flow the best with each other,” Polyphia says. “We all practice the hell out of our parts by ourselves, then take it to [guitarist] Tim [Henson]’s studio to lock it in with each other in a more focused rehearsal setting. This is what we do for tour as well, but for this we dedicated a lot more of our time towards being as accurate as we could, since it’s a more up close and personal look at how we go about performing our songs.”
Since forming in Plano, Texas, in 2010, Poylphia have released four studio albums with a unique blend of heavy guitar riffs, rap-inspired rhythms and even trap music. The group’s latest LP, 2022’s Remember That You Will Die, features contributions from Deftones’ Chino Moreno, Steve Vai and producer Rodney Jerkins.
“We knew this performance would show more of the intricacies of our playing, so we did turn off some of the effects we would normally use just for the fun of it at a show, like extra chorus or insane harmonizers,” the group adds. “This live performance is more raw in a way that what you’re hearing from us is basically the notes we play, but still with some effects when needed, of course.”
Asked how performing live helps shape their songs into something distinct from their recorded versions, Polyphia offers, “we have something called ‘show-ready’ versions, which is the four of us going through the song and making sure we’re all always playing something. There are some guitar parts in songs that are one track straight down the middle, or several guitars harmonized with each other panned all over the place, bass parts that we thought would sound cooler with the 808 samples more upfront or a sampled drum beat. When we play live, we want to perform as much of the songs as we can, so we sift through them all and pick the coolest parts or add things in blank spaces. It’s pretty fun to go through them like that because we always end up finding cool ways to make it more interesting in a live setting.”
As for what’s next for Polyphia, the group says it is “shifting our focus into writing mode now, so we can really hone into the new sound and see what the creative process will reveal. It’s always a particularly exciting time for us, because we get to find sounds that we like and run with them. The best way to perfect those sounds is to spend a lot of time with them to really see their full potential.”
Ernie Ball was created in 1962 by the eponymous musician and guitar teacher, and has since become the brand of choice for countless industry legends such as Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Angus Young and Metallica. Their instrument accessories are available in more than 6,000 stores in the United States.
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