Doug Gillard is known (rightly so) for his guitar wizardry in bands such as Guided By Voices, Cobra Verde, Death Of Samantha and, for the last few years, Nada Surf, but that notoriety sometimes overshadows the fact that he’s an accomplished solo singer/songwriter. With his third LP, Parade On (Nine Mile), Gillard continues to show off his virtuosity—solos like the one on “On Target” are just ridiculous—as well as his knack for catchy, folk-inflected power pop. Gillard will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him. To see more photos corresponding to these entries, go here
Gillard: Growing up in rural Ohio surrounded by cornfields afforded me a lot of time to hike around the barren fields between growing seasons with my dog and make up songs.
My sister went to live in Germany for three years, so my parents got a reel-to-reel tape recorder from JC Penney to record audio “letters” to send back and forth with my sister.
It didn’t take long for me to want to use it to record music! The first use really was when I was about four and my father played guitar and I sang “Jingle Bells” with him. He had a ’55 Kay Old Kraftsman “Thin Twin” guitar and a ’55 Montgomery Ward amplifier. I still have the amp, but my dad traded in the Kay for my first guitar, a cheap Gibson SG2 from 1972. Oh well—I ended up finding another Kay Thin Twin and bought it in about 1996, using it in the GBV “Bulldog Skin” video.
The first “song” I recorded was “We Love Our Mommies,” singing and just banging on a snare drum. More drum songs followed, even a couple played with drumsticks on a “Hoppity-Hop” (a rubber sphere you sat on and bounced around). It had a great resonant tone when hit. At about age six or so I got a guitar: a plastic one with steel strings from Sears.
I had no idea how to play the correct way, so I made do with open tunings, playing things by ear. I ended up taking lessons at about age eight, but until then, I found tunings that just sounded good to me and messed around on the fretboard. Most of the songs were about animals: “Chinese Dog,” “There’s A Bird On Me,” “My Dog Was Snoopin’ Around One Day,” “Wolf On The Couch,” “The Elephant’s In His Cage,” etc. The music ranged from sort of “rock” (influenced by AM radio and our record collection at home in the early ’70s) to psychedelic, light blues/boogie woogie and a tender ballad (“It’ll Be Such A Thrill”).
As strings broke on the guitar, I would just not replace them, and use what was left. The songs got more sparse as the reel of tape goes on. I made a collection of these songs—from “Jingle Bells” at four on up to about nine years old. When I got my electric guitar, I didn’t tape much anymore, but set to playing as much as I could and taking lessons. In 1990, my friend Robert at Scat Records released the collection on a cassette entitled It’ll Be Such A Thrill. I have since digitized them, and may release them again someday.
Another photo and audio after the jump.
“Animal Parade”
“Chinese Dog”
“It’ll Be Such A Thrill”
“Rock Song”
“We Love Our Mommies”
