Now based in Berlin, Passion Play, started playing in the mid-90s in Oxford (U.K., not Mississippi). Guitarist/vocalist Justin Stephens, says that in the early days he played a borrowed Hohner Strat copy with 12-gauge strings and a no-name practice amp. The band got going in the late 90s, and took their brand of dark rock around the U.K., Germany and beyond. The band tried to steer clear of genres and keep an eye and ear to the music.

"I was always attracted to and fired up by bands that had real songs, arrangements, dynamics - something that got under your skin and wouldn't let you forget it," says Stephens. "Image or fashion alone just didn't cut it. Dark, moody--to some a goth band, to others a band that goths like --I'm fine with either or both."

The band has three releases (Name No Names, Stress Fractures and Dreaming Spikes). The last came out in 2001 and since then Passion Play has been on hiatus working on new material. Stephens talked to Gearwire about his guitars and other gear choices--including his black Japanese Fender Telecaster and black Epiphone Dot.

Patrick Ogle: So why the Fender Telecaster? Why do you use that guitar?

Originally - it was affordable (used Japanese Tele), playable and just felt right. Put new pickups in it and it was transformed from a squealing loudmouth to a beefed-up fighter - versatile and refined but still with some nice sharp edges.

The Epiphone Dots are inexpensive guitars that sound way better than the price tag. How did you come to pick one (a lot of people get them as "stop gaps" until they can buy a better guitar and then wind up keeping them)?

This is no "stop gap", it's a keeper - it was an entirely deliberate purchase - just walked into Guitar Center in Chicago and played one through a Fender Supersonic. Decision made in less than half an hour - I just had to get them to order me a black one. The tone, range, sustain - and that's before you start messing with it. There's just so many sounds you can get out of it - warm, cold, blunt, razor-sharp, clean edge or that gargantuan wall of shoegaze destruction- with the right effects chain it's a rack of guitars in one.

Tell me how you use the different guitars for different sounds/songs. Why do you use one and not the other?

That all comes down to the arrangement - we always has one single-coil and one humbucker guitar to bounce off each each other - I just pick the right one for the job, be it rhythmic, lead, cutting, soaring, whatever. The Tele does grit and edge best, especially on the bridge pickup, but the Dot can do a clean chorused broad canvas or rich, sustained lead better - I suppose it's got more dimensions to it.

I notice a motif--all your gear is black. Would you play a pink guitar?

Did you see Johnny Cash in a pink shirt?

On to the amps and pre-amps. Why the Roland JC120 over other similarly priced amps? Any reason you chose it?

Part availability (stupidly cheap shop demo model), but mostly the hands-down best clean sound I've ever heard. The dirty channel is just a muddy mess compared to decent tube overdrive, but a JC with a couple of 414s in front of it can make you sound a million dollars. Although come to think of it, a million pounds - dollars aren't worth anything anymore.

The SansAmp PSA-1 too. Why that pre?

I was looking for the magic bullet of a pre that could imitate almost any amp, tube or solid-state - convincingly - for recording purposes where mic-ing an amp wasn't an option. And the same for bass too. Who else then but SansAmp? This was a little before the current crop of plugin emulators like Guitar Rig - and having used the bass driver before, I tried out the PSA-1. It did all of it - with recordable patches and midi - better than anything else I'd heard. It still needs to be fed through a speaker simulator to get rid of the squelch for the finished result, but live or in the studio, it's worth it's weight in gold, so the fact that it does both sealed it. Despite all the software options now, this one stays in the rack with the lights on.

Are you particular about gear or do you come from the school of "You can make good music with anything if you are good"?

I lean towards the latter, although there is a dividing line. The simple truth is I can't afford my first choices a lot of the time, but I research a lot to find the best alternative that I'll want to add to rather than replace later on. Snobbery doesn't interest me, just quality parts, workmanship and results. It doesn't have to cost the earth - and "industry standard" is probably the most outright misused and abused phrase in music, but: Buy cheap - buy twice.

Passion Play are currently working on putting together a home studio to record their new material. Keep an eye on their website and myspace page for more news.