We’re a curious bunch here at Silent Radio and decided it was time to start scratching that itch, so we asked Twisted Ankle what their favourite pieces of music making equipment are. This is what they told us:
BRUNO – BASS
What is it?
In all honesty, I’m kind of of an idiot when it comes to gear so I’m going to talk about the pro-co RAT 2, which feels a little bit like recommending The Shining to your film buff mate.
How long have you had it?
Since the very beginning. We were three fresh faced young lads looking to invest in the Noise Industry and the polite man behind the guitar shop counter saw us for the suckers we are. Henry and I bought two pedals with our conjoined pocket money and flipped coins on which to keep. I didn’t even know I’d be playing bass at that point but I lucked out because the RAT has become more of a coping mechanism than a distortion pedal.
How does it help shape your sound?
I refused to read all the words on that thing, so I just took turns turning each knob (lmao) all the way up and then all the way down – exploring the combinations therein. Half-way turned knobs (rofl) are for people who have pictures of Tony Blair in their second bathroom. One of the combinations didn’t make a sound at all and one of them sounded like someone trying to chainsaw corrugated iron, so I went with the latter.
Do you use it live?
I basically keep it on permanently, to the point where I feel naked if I can’t see that little red light under my nose (sometimes I actually am naked). I have recently learned to turn it off between songs because otherwise I can still hear the feedback two weeks later.
What can we hear it used on?
I think a better question would be what song isn’t it on. I don’t use it on ‘Warmed Through’ on our upcoming album. That’s it. Every other song has it on at some point. God, I’m such a hack – this interview feels like therapy.
Is there anything you dislike about it or would like to change?
I’ve heard about someone tinkering with a RAT to make it more suitable for lower frequencies, which I wouldn’t be against. Also, it sounds a hell of a lot better with a battery than with a power supply, and buying batteries all the time is a pain.
If the worst happened and it broke down, could you replace it?
Yes, I would just steal one from whatever shit band we happened to be supporting.
Anything else you’d like to tell the world about it?
I am not endorsed by Proco but I would like to make it clear that just because I claim to be ‘anti-capitalist’ does not mean I wouldn’t jump at the chance to be sponsored. Please daddy, I need to pay rent.
Any honourable mentions of other items that didn’t make the top spot?
MXR Blue Box! It sounds like Cthulhu blowing their nose when you put a bass through it. I use it only occasionally, but you can hear it towards the end of the final song on the album.
JOS – DRUMS
What is it?
My ability to speak or sing in my native language of Cymraeg (Welsh).
How long have you had it?
As I was born in Gwynedd in North Wales and raised by a welsh father I spoke it from an early age, I also had Cymraeg lessons at schools from early years all the way up until college. Gwynedd has the densest population of speakers of Cymraeg in the UK.
How does it help shape your sound?
The language is ancient and sounds very unique to non-cymro ears, I somehow find it easier sometimes to express certain emotions in my home tongue. I think it adds a texture of voice and identity to the band’s sound which firmly roots it to the history and heritage of a nation in the UK. It feels natural for it to be a part of Twisted Ankle.
Do you use it live?
There are currently two and quarter songs that involve me talking/ranting/singing in Cymraeg. So I often use the time I have on stage in these songs to rant in it at the beginning and end of those songs. If you know the language you will probably figure it out, if not it sounds like weird and crazy so hey why not?
What can we hear it used on?
The album opener ‘A Mortgage’ has it and so does ‘My Favourite Shops’, which is a single out next month. I’m not saying where though, go find it.
Is there anything you dislike about it or would like to change?
In terms of my ability, I feel like I need to speak it more in my spare time, I work a job (funnily enough) in Bristol where I get to use it. I speak it with my family and have my PC language set in welsh as well as my Facebook and everything. Being able to speak it with people in England would be nice but that’s another story. Also, I need to brush up on my knowledge of “Y Treiglad Meddal” (the soft mutation), ways of making phonetically harder sounding words easier speaking, it helps.
In terms of the language itself, we’ve come to terms to making a normal and recognised language. However politics of the language is still socially in the 15th century. This constant “Everyone in the pub” bigoted xenophobia and also when Chris Grayling MP says that the Welsh Language Board in Westminster shouldn’t be run in welsh as it would be too expensive on the tax payer, we still have work to do boys, sorry.
If the worst happened and it broke down, could you replace it?
Yes, make my own language. Josraeg.
Anything else you’d like to tell the world about it?
Just because you can’t understand them, nobody is talking about you in the pub, you arrogant shithead.
Any honourable mentions of other items that didn’t make the top spot?
I have an awesome backpack cymbal case from Vater that’s lasted years.
HENRY – GUITAR
What is it?
The only pedal I use that isn’t a distortion or a tuner: the Way Huge Ringworm ring modulator. It modulates your sound in shifting patterns as you play and has five different basic patterns, mini knobs to control the rate and frequency range of the modulation, and two big juicy ones for blending it in your normal tone and adjusting the overall modulation pitch. I would be lying if I said I knew much more than that about how it works, but I feel like I discover something new every time I use it. It’s completely horrible and I love it.
How long have you had it?
I picked it up when the band were still starting out and we all lived in Cardiff. It came from a lovely independent music shop called Gamlin’s, which sadly seems to have taken a massive hit lately due to the opening of a strategically positioned branch of PMT three doors down from it. Anyway, I had no idea what a ring modulator was when I bought it, I just went in and asked one of their guitar wizards for the weirdest thing they had.
How does it help shape your sound?
I grew up playing a lot of classical music before teaching myself guitar, and while it was good to get that education in a lot of ways, being trained to play music to a strict set of rules made it quite hard to adjust to a freer, more untamed sound when we started Twisted Ankle. We all came in with a shared motivation to make something unusual and abrasive, but at first I struggled quite a lot to break out of my old ways. Messing around with this pedal helped me develop ways of making strange noise textures and kind of took me out of the mindset of a guitarist because it doesn’t actually sound remotely like a guitar most of the time. An important element was the unpredictability of some of the settings, forcing me to embrace some level of randomness in what was going to happen when I turned it on. I don’t even use it on that many songs these days, but I’d say it was instrumental in me maturing as a guitarist, an improviser and as a musician in general.
Do you use it live?
Absolutely. We tend to end our sets with a song on which I use it prominently, and that starts with a big improvised section so I love finding out how it will behave differently in different live settings. Back before I got my own amp it was a real crapshoot as to how it would sound on different setups, but honestly it’s not that much more predictable going through the pedalboard/amp combination I’ve been using solidly for the past few years. I tend to use the envelope follower function most of the time, which actually responds to the velocity of the notes you play like a drunken auto-wah. If you get down and mess around with the settings live then you can make some real sci-fi noises, all the way from a screaming Dalek to a cute R2D2 warble.
Do you use it in the studio?
I do, but I think it comes across best live because the uncompressed high-end screeches sometimes just pummel you out of nowhere in a way that no studio engineer would allow into a mix. I love playing a high-pitched solo with it and watching the audience wince with every note.
What can we hear it used on?
You can hear it best on the song ‘Shit Eating Grin’, which is the big nasty closing track of the album.
Is there anything you dislike about it or would like to change?
The foot switch is a bit delicate and I’ve stomped it right through the casing on more than one occasion, which is always hilarious because when that happens you can’t really turn it back off. It also runs on an unusual and hard to replace 18v power supply that makes using a single power pack basically pointless for my four-pedal set up, since I’d always need another socket for this anyway. But least I have a good excuse not to spend the most boring hundred quid ever on one of those things, so it’s not all bad.
Anything else you’d like to tell the world about it?
I don’t think they make the Ringworm anymore which is a massive shame, so maybe I’d tell people to petition Dunlop to put them back into production.
Any honourable mentions of other items that didn’t make the top spot?
I very nearly wrote this whole thing about the plank of wood I’ve always stuck my pedals to. That bit of composite board has got me through thick and thin – it’s genuinely the only bit of my setup that has never let me down. In my opinion if you pay for a special fancy purpose-build pedalboard you’re a sucker. Just velcro some pedals to a plank.
Twisted Ankle’s self-titled debut album is due to be released on October 23rd via Breakfast Records. The first two singles ‘A Bag of Pasta’ and ‘Landlord Laughs’ are out now.
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