John Bechdel has played with a variety of bands over the years, but these days, he is working with his own project, False Icons. The debut CD, God Complex is out now.

"After working with so many incredible bands, I wanted to make an album that reflected all of that experience but still had a sound of its own. False Icons allows me to portray a more accurate picture of who I am and what I’m all about," he says. "This is the kind of music that I’ve always wanted to make. We spent a long time making this CD, building the band and live show."

Bechdel has been a devotee of Akai's samplers for years.

"After working with the Mirage, Prophet 2000 and Emax I purchased an Akai S900 in ’87 then added an Emax SE-HD about a year later. The thing I loved about the Akai was how easy it was to use, and the sampling quality was excellent," says Bechdel. "I traded up to the S1000 as soon as it came out and the 16-bit stereo sampling was the best in the industry. The ability to transpose many octaves and still have superb playback resolution made it ideal for slowed down loops and incredible machine-like sounds."

Bechdel says that over the years he has built a massive library of sounds (many while working at a music shop).

"The Akais proved to be workhorses for a generation of musicians. They were reliable on the road, and so many people used them they were considered a standard for swapping sounds," he says. The Emax was the perfect compliment because it was warmer and richer in tone and had a wonderful analog filter. The Akai was a better quality sampler but was thin and sterile when compared to Emu. The Akai was better for drums and samples, the Emax was better at pads and basses."

These days he uses the S5000.

"When I was in Fear Factory, the new line of Akais the S5000 and 6000 came out and where a major step forward," says Bechdel. "Not so much the sampling quality but the features. They really got it right. The 2000’s and 3000’s were just glorified 1000’s. The 5000 was a whole new machine."

If he had to change anything about the sampler he would make it less labor intensive. Looping, for instance, takes a long time. And while time stretching works well Bechdel says you'd need a chart and a calculator to use it. The learning curve for the S5000 should not be too bad for most folks according to Bechdel -- with one caveat.

"I suppose it wouldn’t be too hard but, some modern plug-in oriented folks may want to smash their head against the display when it says “processing please wait” for several minutes at a time." he says.

But this is not a real KNOCK on the S5000 or Akai units in general. Bechdel swears by them.

"It’s been a staple in my live rig for years. I used it and a Kurzweil 2500 on stage with Fear Factory. With Ministry, everything was in Akai format and they also used Akais extensively, so it was meant to be. With False Icons, I have so many sounds, thousands of drum samples etc," he says. "I just turn it on, and I know what sounds to go for, it’s second nature. I’m only now relying on it less and using a computer for sampling more but, I still prefer a hardware sampler for playing and manipulating samples. The Akais do neat loop fx tricks too."

The band has upcoming shows in the USA and plan on heading to Europe in 2009. Remixes are also in the plans.