Brian John Mitchell, founder of the long running magazine QRD, has been for years making music under the name Remora. He describes the music as post-apocalyptic pop but then admits that doesn't really mean anything.

"I generally make walls of sound with my guitar focusing on reverb more so than distortion, then also have some arpeggios and riffs going on," says Mitchell. "About 50 percent of the time I sing on top, telling stories. Those stories are usually meant to be straight ahead love songs, but they end up a bit non-sequitur to everyone but me."

The process of getting his own sound took him years and a lot of the difficulty there he blames on gear choices.

"I was trying to get buy with a hundred dollar guitar, using inexpensive pedals that added more noise than sound, and would crap out on me," says Mitchell. "Also because I spent a lot of time looking at what other people were using and getting the same gear, when they maybe bought something only because it was on sale at their local pawn shop. It took me a long time to stop trying to sound like Lycia or lovesliescrushing, and start trying to sound like Remora, which is a lesson some musicians never learn."

We asked Mitchell some specifics about his Schecter guitar, Johnson distortion pedal and Roland amp.

Why do you use the Schecter? A lot of people hate their guitars--Why do you like it?

Well, a big part of why I ended up with my guitar was its looks. It’s the Mike Tempesta M33 tin top with light up gauges. It was designed for a music video & they made 20 of them & the original MSRP was something ridiculous like $14,000. It has some decent pick-ups in it as well & is made of good wood & has some good tone. It really is the only Schecter I’ve played much & it is an American made high-end model. So I haven’t tried any of their $200 guitars. They only started making their mass-produced Korean guitars in the mid 1990’s & I would guess that they expanded too fast & had problems with quality control. I think a lot of companies get a bad name for their low-end foreign guitars. You don’t hear people giving a lot of reverence for Squier or Epiphone.

How long have you had it? And has it held up good for you--no breakdowns etc?

I have had it for about eight years. It has some chips knocked out of the paint on the back from dropping it. Recently it had a problem with one of the pegs that holds the bridge down getting loose and it made this awful buzzing noise and I took it to a couple guitar techs that couldn’t figure it out and was told it was one of the cosmetic gauges. I took the gauges out and it didn’t stop, so then I took the guitar completely apart and found the problem, fixing it with a little wood glue. But with the physicality of how I play (literally punching the body of the guitar to get some big ringing sounds out), I can’t really complain about that. It also got the pick-up selector switch bent in transit back from a European tour, but I usually put some bubble wrap in the case for extra protection during air travel and I forgot to do it that time….

What sort of sound goes the Johnson distortion pedal give you? How would you describe it?

The Johnson DEQ-2 is a distortion pedal with 4 EQ knobs on it in addition to the distortion and level knobs. The Johnson distortion pedal is pretty much what you expect in a distortion pedal – adding noise, some upper harmonics and louder volume and feedback if you want it. I have had a problem with a lot of distortion pedals seeming to be real treble heavy & having the EQ built in lets me fix that. With the exception of my Rat Deucetone, this is my favorite distortion pedal. I would say I have had around ten I’ve used over the years. I hear that Johnson pedals are some kind of Boss factory seconds , they do have similar housings to Boss. I’ve heard some people say they have problems with input/output jacks crapping out on Johnson pedals, but I haven’t had any problems with mine over the three years or so I’ve used it.

Why do you use the Roland amplifier? Is there something specific about it?

I started off plugging my guitar and effects straight into my 4-track, then out through my stereo speakers. I’d tried out a couple amps that friends had, they added a lot of color to my sound that I didn’t like. A friend of mine (Peter Aldrich) told me a lot of jazz players used the JC-120 because it relied on the tone of the guitar rather than making its own sound – basically the opposite of a Marshall amp. So I got that. It’s loud enough that I don’t need to worry about getting my amp mic’d & get my guitar tone colored by the soundman at a lot of venues. It’s all about being able to control my sound as much as possible. Anyone that wants to develop their own tone through pedals should think about the Jazz Chorus, but if you want to sound like you use a Marshall – buy a Marshall.

How long have you had it? And has it held up good for you--no breakdowns etc?

I bought it used in 1997. So that’s about ten years. I haven’t had any problems with it other than cosmetic (lost a few of the little button covers around the corners). It also works alright as a loveseat in your bedroom when you aren’t playing it.

Remora will play a couple of shows in the fall and are working on a couple of EPs for European labels, a collection of radio sessions for an Italian label, and a new full length album.