Joe Wallace: You've been around the musical block, let's start with a bit of history on the Silver Rockets, and what led you out of Mercury Rev?

I moved to Chicago in 95 where I met up with Jimi Shields, (brother of My Bloody Valentine's Kevin), who had just left Rollerskate Skinny. He and I were both living in the same neighborhood and knew each other a bit from Dublin, so he asked me to join this new band that he was putting together called Lotus Crown.

Jimi already had a deal with Reprise and we started working on a record with Dave Fridmann, which led to opening up for the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev which eventually led to me playing in Mercury Rev a couple of years later…

After two years of touring with Rev I was pretty burned so I left and holed up in my bedroom working on the Silver Rockets stuff with whatever was at hand.

While that was coming to fruition I was kept busy by playing with Longwave for a while and more recently Emily Haines from Metric on her solo stuff and the Favourite Sons.

Tell me about your live setup; what guitars you use, combined with what amps/cabinets, and why you use them.

I have this Ventura acoustic that I picked up at a Salvation Army for about $15, “Designed In USA – Crafted In Japan” - looks, plays, and sounds great though. I use a Dean Markley acoustic pickup run through a Boss tuner, 80s Marshall Guvnor overdrive, great pedal, they just re-issued those, a Prescription Electronics ’Experience’ pedal, Line 6 looper/delay all through a 64 Ampeg Super Echo Twin with reverb/tremolo pedal switch. It's one of the best sounding amps ever. I also use an early 90s Japanese Fender Jag 62 re-issue and and 80s made-in-Japan Strat.

What was your "original" setup like when you knew less about what you were doing and how has it changed with experience?

I had that same 80s Japanese strat, which I got used when I was 14 - a great guitar by the way - and I had a 70s Gibson ‘The Paul’ which I used a lot back then - Not really my style anymore - The Guvnor and a couple of Boss delays through a 60s Fender Bandmaster amp.

Back then I was more interested in making weird noises than songwriting and recording and so my setup and role in the band reflected that.

Playing live, what kind of trial and error did you go through to get the best sound from your stage setup?

I guess learning that you have to know your equipment. Learn how to communicate with your monitor engineer.

Once at a festival in Texas I had plugged all my pedals in backwards, the guitar where the amp should be and vice versa. I hit my guitar and no noise was coming out, I started panicking and it took a friend from another band coming onstage to help me out. Pretty embarrassing!

What size stages do you typically play? When you moved from smaller venues to larger ones, what technical problems did you encounter?

I started out playing small to medium clubs with Lotus Crown in Chicago, the Lounge Ax, Empty Bottle, etc. Later when we were opening up for larger acts like the Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr. we got to play places like The Vic and The Metro.

While I was with Mercury Rev we played large halls, 500 to 2000 people. The European festival circuit was a pretty amazing experience. You get to play really huge stages in front of tens of thousands of people, Glastonbury stands out in particular.

Things actually get easier when you get to that level since someone is there to plug your pedals in the right way!

Any other advice or experience you can share?

The only real wisdom or advice I have for anyone starting out is to use what equipment you know and are comfortable with. You’ll be surprised how much you can get out of a very limited selection of gear. It forces you to be creative, and find a more interesting solution to a problem than just pressing a generic preset button.

I have a shitty SM57 and an old 80s Radioshack stereo mic which I can’t live without. The only way to learn about miking an amp or anything else for that matter is by doing it.

Use your ears.