Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys are a theatrical art-rock band from Massachussetts who describe their music as “death folk”. Earlier Gearwire chatted with them about some of their instruments and effects. This time we wanted to talk about the unusual instruments they use live and how they manage to mic them.

You also use a lot of non traditional things in your music live. How do you incorporate and mic toy pianos, children's xylophones, mini accordions and, most important, the clapping cymbal monkeys?

Edrie – The toys are natural and important parts of the songs. Sometimes they lead and the cymbal monkey is the chairman of the board in the song, sometimes they are back ground percussion (I have a few pieces of a toy drum set that I bang out rhythms on) and other times they are between song features.

I often walk off stage and into the crowd with my toys to give people a close up listen to their charming sound. The cymbal monkeys are an especially big hit (who can help but smile at a laughing wind up monkey with a big set of clangy cymbals) as is my little First Act accordion. That thing is in TUNE! And is loud as f--k. I actually have two of them, one tuned to a higher register then the other, and they add a good deal of depth and melody.

Does what you do live differ from the studio? Set up wise, mic wise etc?

Edrie – Actually we are pretty similar in set up from studio to stage. We bring our own mics when we play live and the studio is strewn with toys and props just as the stage is. I take a bit more care with the stage set up then with the studio. It's lovely having our own space to make what you will. It's a really creative space for us. I think Walter actually sleeps there sometimes, on the floor surrounded by the toys.

I am really interested in how you amplify the oddball things you use. Tell me about that?

Edrie – Ahh the secrets will not come out here… nope, you can't make me, not even tickling will make me reveal… hehehehehehehe OK, OK.

It actually isn't as mysterious as all that; though whenever we work with a new sound person, they certainly get a bit freaked out. No band that I know of has had to say "Um, could I have a 57 for that Monkey please". Walter generally uses a Blue Dragonfly mic for the lead. He's far enough a way from my chaos of sound that the warmth we get from it is worth all of the delicacies, but we don't always take it on the road.

For the toys – we tried all sorts of schemes before we hit upon our current set up. Because I sing as well as play various odd things (orange cow bell, baby bottle, squeezey nun) it was even more difficult because many mics produced feedback so close to the vocal mic. Of note is that I use the mic while I am literally sitting (or lying) on the stage. So the vocal mic is on a very short stand very close to the floor.

If you aren't careful about the directional characteristics of the mic you use, it creates a good deal of feedback with the monitors and any other mics you want to use to amplify the toys – nasty business that. We picked up a mic with a hypercardioid polar pattern for my vocals (to eliminate feedback) and I use a Shure Beta 57A for the toys positioning that mic at my side and slightly behind me (near the toys drums and over the toy xylophone). Depending on the sound I want out of a particular toy (and how loud that toys is), I either hold it up near the vocal mic (which we keep wet for a pretty sound) or off to the side by the 57 (which we keep straight and clean). We have a few more stage and studio tricks for the best sound output – but I'll keep those under my corset for now. Can't give away all my secrets or everyone would play cymbal monkeys.

Does having a theatrical stage show impact the music gear you use? How?

Walter - When we first started gigging together it took us 25 minutes just to set up everything--Doll Heads, Strawberry Shortcake record player, keyboards, guitars not mention the See-N-Says! After countless sleepless nights and 100s of scientific think tanks containing the brightest minds of our time we have reduced our setup to 10 minutes doll heads and all!

The Band are working on all sorts of projects including "guerilla" shows in public places. Keep an eye open New Englanders.