Artists relation
Artists relation
Yes, this is Steve
Morse.
And he is holding a prototype
Mercer Box 2 , which he adopted right away and even asked me to autograph it .
I was very lucky to test the MERCER BOX 2 with someone as experimented
and talented as Steve Morse,
and I am now sure we have gone the right way
in developing this uncanny pedal.
Of course, I loved this pedal before Steve
tested it, but somehow the fact that he loves it himself too,
sort of confort
me in my belief in the mighty Mercer.
Steve took a FUSEBLOWER2
with him too, finding the comb interactions between the 3 BLOW engines worth
deepest experimentation.
Neil Taylor played guitar with Tears For Fears on the album "Songs From The Big Chair" including the famous one take guitar solo on "Everybody Wants To Rule The World". Neil’s involvement with Tears continued and he played on two world tours and the band's third album "Seeds Of Love".During his career he has recorded and toured with: Natalie Imbruglia/Peter Gabriel/Rod Stewart/Morrissey/Tina Turner/The Pretenders/Van Morrison/Holly Johnson/Paul Young/Climie Fisher etc. In 2001 Neil played on Robbie Williams album: “Sing When You´re Winning” and Natalie Imbruglia’s "White Lillies Island". After finishing touring with Natalie, Neil played guitar on Robbie Williams album “Escapology” where he was asked to join Rob's band! He has been with him ever since, and is currently the 'Close Encounters' World Tour promoting Rob's album "Intensive Care". And Neil plays a BATUZZ !
Since its TIN MACHINE adventures, Reeves Gabrels has always been one of my fave guitar hero because it is so rare that virtuosity can rhyme with originality and invention. Besides, Reeves and I sort of share the same sense of humor, which makes our email correspondence a real pleasure. I am really delighted and honoured Reeves uses a FUSEBLOWER on a regular basis, and at his famous gigs at the L.A. Baked Potatoes.
The MEISTER with Troy Van Leeuwen of Queen of The Stone Age , a perfect match with such a star in the sky of heavy-rock-guitarists. QOTSA is such a great band in my fave genre and considered by many as the heavy rock future leader band. Dropping names : Legend Dave Grohl played drums of their last LP 'Song for the Deaf' , Troy played guitar on Limp Bizkit best album 2001 'New old songs', and Troy appears on A Perfect Circle’s upcoming September release.
Rock icon and , most of
all, one of the best singer ever, Marianne Faithfull really gives
to this page an incredible dimension.
She was so kind to take some time
for me, and gives me the unique occasion to breath in some of the legendary
60's air.
Barry Reynolds’ long and
distinguished career as songwriter, producer and guitarist at the edgier end of
music started in the late sixties and includes work with Grace Jones, John
Martyn, Joe Cocker, Bette Midler, Toots & The Maytals and Black Uhuru.
His
work in the studio and on the road with Marianne Faithfull spans 20 years
....and he is now playing a Tubeblower !
The first one is of Jim Baglino and Lee Stuart of Halfway
to Gone(Small Stone Recs),Gallery of Mites(Meteor City recs) and A Thousand
Knives of Fire(Small Stone). Jim plays Bass in Monster Magnet,the Ribeye
Bros(Meteor City)and Lord Sterling(Small Stone).He was also a member of Human
Remains(Relapse recs).Jim is the guy with the sunglasses and the
cocky attitude.
The other shot is of Phil Caivano.
He plays guitar in
Monster Magnet,Gallery of Mites and was a member Blitzspear.
My TRINITY triple wah pedal is so funky that it had to be Avi Bortnick best friend. You may know Avi because he is John Scofield rhythm guitarist but make sure to go to his website and listen to its own creations. His very personnal use of filter effect on Diabolus solo ( Clean state CD ) is so groundbreaking that I wonder what he will come up with the TRINITY....
Gemma
Hayes is not only the greatest new talent
of these last 10 years but the most radiant smile of all rock scene.
You
may say I am a little bit too enthusiastic about her, but hurry and buy yourself
her marvelous 'Night on my side' CD.
She just emailed me about a new song
she is writing, inspired by the tone of the MERCER BOX.
Am I the lucky one
?
2005 news !!! : 'Lay Lady Lay', the duet by Gemma and Magnet, is featured on the
new Official Soundtrack
for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's new film 'Mr and Mrs
Smith'
All that nights listening to 'Ordinary
world' and now to see DURAN
DURAN founder and bass player John Taylor
holding
and playing my TUBEBLOWER
... As incredible as it may seems, I learnt John had a TUBEBLOWER
on his permanent pedalboard while surfing on the net !
This is only after
reading this that Kevin and I contact him to take pics. 
1960-2005...I will
just quote his brother :
"Chris Whitley's Legacy will no doubt transcend all time.
Love and Light,
Daniel"
Marseille, France,
June 14th 2002: just the day after my 42th birthday. Jacques meets Chris
Whitley before an incredible
concert, "Rocket house" tour. We talked for an hour, with no one
to disturb us. Unforgettable.
For those who are not familiar with my pedals,
Chris is the one and only inspirator of my distortion tone,
my FUSEBLOWER pedal
being a din-of-ecstasy-in-a-box, to make it short.
By his genius and modesty,
Chris should be an inspiration for all guitarists/composers in the world.
Reeves
Gabrels and I, even if we never met, consider "Din of ecstasy" as
THE desert island record.
Chris owned and uses my complete line of pedals.
I thank him again for his warm,
warm welcome and for having spent so much time with me, despite his tight schedule.
P.S.:
note in the bottom right corner, my favorite '70s black strat body now
handwritten by Chris:
"No one nowhere", words taken from "Narcotic
prayer", what else?
Maestro Alex Gregory is the inventor of the seven-string guitar and many other electric stringed instruments--mandolins, mandocellos, and more. Now, he has invented the Pentasystem, a methodology which advocates the tuning of electric instruments like classical instruments--in fifths, and having five strings for perfect mathematical symmetry. Not only is the Maestro a designer/inventor of instruments, he is also an extremely gifted composer and player. So it is an honor for me that he has become a all-mercer maestro !
Well, everytime I sell pedals in
Japan through my pals at Fernandes
guitars, I think about the 'Big in Japan'
song.
So it's a real pleasure for me to show you Alphaville's
Singer Marian Gold and programmer Martin Lister in the Studio using the
Tube
blower and Mercer box, during recording of new material for the next Album.
One nice pic from NAMM 2005 : Michael CHARVEL, yours truly & Alan EVANS from Soulive.
Cannes MIDEM 2004
: Jacques meets Chris
Cox , one of the most talented
producer of our times . Chris have worked with Madonna , Whitney Houston ---he
is the one who made 'It's not right but it's OK'---, J.lo , Christina Aguilera,
etc ... and is currently nominee at the 46th
Annual GRAMMY Awards Final Nominations List Field 2 — Dance Category 12
/ Best Dance Recording for
' Love One Another ' by Cher ,
Chris Cox, Rick Nowels & Wayne Rodrigues, producers; Manny Marroquin, mixer
[Warner Bros. Records].
Chris is not only a magical dance music producer
but a rock fan too, guitar player and noise maker and this is why he got himself
a WERCER Box
for more noise in his wonderful sounds . Best of luck for the Grammies, Chris
!
If Lyle
Workman only credit was recording two albums
with Todd
Rundgren --"Nearly Human" and "Second Wind"---,
this would be enough to consider him a legend in my book ( 'Healing' is in my
all time top ten albums and 'Compassion' in my all time top ten tracks
) . But Lyle has founded 'Bourgeois Tagg' , recorded the incredible 'Purple Passages'
solo album, joined Jellyfish, recorded and toured with Frank Black, and is now
with Beck
.
It is weak a word to say proud, proud that such an already legendary guitarist
like Lyle plays my pedals .
