The Boston-based band Neptune started its existence as a 1994 sculpture project by bandmember Jason Sanford. Their first drums and untunable guitars were made out of things like circular saw blades, gas tanks, oil drums, bike parts, VCR casings and miscellaneous scrap metal. Over years of fine-tuning both their music and soldering skills, Neptune has developed into an underground favorite, blending traditional rock & roll tendencies with industrial underpinnings.

Signed in 2006 with Table of the Elements, Neptune has played with a wide variety of experimental acts, including the Mission of Burma, The Ex, Liars, Oneida, Enon, Lightning Bolt, Black Dice, Flaming Lips, Blonde Redhead, Erase Errata, Melt Banana, Arab on Radar, Wolf Eyes, James Chance & the Contortions and Parts and Labor.

Recently, Gearwire's Gretchen Hasse had the pleasure of talking gear with the Neptune guys. This interview is with Mark Pearson, who works baritone guitar, 4 string slide, bass, oscillators, homemade synths, large electric spring, light switch synthesizer, percussion and vocals. Watch for upcoming interviews with the other two from the trio, Daniel Boucher and Jason Sanford. Meanwhile, check out the Neptune official website.

What is your background (musically and otherwise), and what led you to build your own instruments?

I started out making horrific sounds with drum machines, sequencers, microphones and cassette tapes; so my beginnings were a bit different than other pre-teens, I suppose. I never tried learning Stairway to Heaven on guitar but eventually started playing one out of morbid curiosity. I've always tinkered with electronics but have put that to a larger use in Neptune.

Give me a rundown of some of your favorite/most complicated/ most used homemade or modded gear. What is it? How did you make it? Why is it better homemade?

My favorite is the variable capacitance saw-wave generator with light switch triggers that I built from scratch. The switches were used both as a new way of generating sounds by flipping between and combining capacitors as well as for the visual performance element of playing what looks like a hobo's remote control. I'm pretty bad at soldering so it's a bit of an achievement for me.

Talk a bit about technical "requirements" and challenges of playing your instruments and gear live, and challenges involved in improvisation generally.

The temperature of where we are playing live informs how our homemade electronics perform. Playing a squat in Slovenia in November can result in some unexpected sounds from the oscillators. Or, in some instances, no sound. Strangely, our homemade gear seems more road-worthy than our store bought stuff. I seem to have more problems with prefab effects pedals and amps than from what we've conjured up. I don't see many challenges in improvising. I just play. And hopefully intuit what is being played by Jason and Dan. It either works or doesn't based on a million factors operating at the moment that are irrelevant after the fact.

What manufactured stuff do you use? How do you use it?

I currently employ a late 80s Sovtek Big Muff that I've repaired at least fifteen times as well as a really early Electo-Harmonix MicroSynth, a Studio Electronics Ring Modulator and a Boss PS-3. I guess I use them in the general way any musician would. The source sound is more important to me than the treated one but this array that I'm using now has served me well. Other effects have gone through my setup but I'm trying to slim down and focus on the source sound being unique. I think I may buy a Death By Audio Octave Clang at some point though.

Give me an example of a piece of gear you use in a way that wasn't intended by the manufacturer, or an example of something you use that isn't really recording or musical gear but still works to help you achieve a particular sound.

I tend to blow raw electronics through my setup, which tend to be guitar pedals. Often they interact with the signal in an unlikely way. For example, the Micro Synth with 9 volts of oscillator signal going through at certain settings can act as a choppy, gravel-esque tremelo with a filter sweep unlike anything I've heard before. Like an AM radio having a seizure. If I unplug the oscillator and play a guitar through it, it sounds like a straight guitar with a bit of a sweep on it. My amplifier has two channels and I often use them simultaneously so they compete with each other and inevitably one will almost modulate the other.

Tell me what you're using in the youtube video you have on the myspace page, and why you're using it. Just kinda walk us through it briefly...

I play the aforementioned saw-wave oscillator with some EH Memory Man delay until the ooze comes in. Then I kick on the EH Micro Synth to get a brutal signal kind of like I described above. Then I beat on stuff until the song ends. In the US a table, in Europe an oil drum.

Are there any new products you think are particularly good or not so good? Why?

This is outside my realm. Though recording has been great with my Digi 002 and iMac. We've had much more recorded output - and output of great quality - due to it.

What's one of the dumbest things you've ever done when designing an instrument? What's something you did that turned out a lot better than you expected?

Dumbest thing would probably be to create instruments that can't be recreated. The quirks of my "workmanship" ensure very unique sounding instuments. If I were to build something to the exact specifications of another instrument, I guarantee it wouldn't sound the same. If something were to get lost or become irrepairable, I'd have to move on.