Bio - Pete Lenges

I've been playing guitar since I was twelve years old. I'm not sure what drew me to the instrument. Maybe it was that first time I heard the opening riff to "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. Whatever that long forgotten catalyst was, I'm glad I found it. I instantly became obsessed with the instrument. I remember being in junior high school and sitting in my bedroom on the weekends. All the other kids were off doing typical kids things... Riding their bikes, playing video games, whatever. I remember sitting there alone and having the greatest time in the world working on scales and chord shapes. All that time spent helped to make the instrument a natural extension of my personality, and perhaps even a physical extension. When I'm not playing, I almost feel like an amputee patient suffering "ghost pains". I sometimes even find myself drifting away from conversations and submerging myself into a web of mental images of vertical and horizontal musical shapes. Pretty kooky, eh?

Influences

My influences are all over the map. I find influence in not only other musicians, but daily sounds. There's been more than a few hooks come to mind that came from everything from bird calls to ice cream trucks. Birds and ice cream aside, my musical influences are pretty varied as well. I obviously love the guitar, but I think I draw the most inspiration from everything other than the guitar. I find myself drawn to keyboardists for my harmonic influences. I'm envy they way they can carry an entire song, the harmony, melody, solos, all of it on their own. I find a never ending source of inspiration through the hands of Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Dr. John, Billy Payne, and many others. I think it's important for a player, let a lone a guitar player, to listen for harmonic influence outside of their own instrument's realm.

That covers the harmonic, but what about the melodic? From a melodic perspective, I've always loved the horn players. The horn is such an organic, natural, and dynamic instrument, and I can't think of any other instrument that comes closer to capturing the true soul of a player than the horn. Cannonball Adderly, Miles, Coltrane, Karl Denson... That too could be another long and rambling list.

It's pretty funny that I haven't even mentioned a guitar player so far! But trust me, there's plenty. Not to start rattling of too many names, but the guys that really matter to me are Zappa, Jimmy Herring, Dickey Betts, Jerry Garcia, John McLaughlin, Lowell George, John Scofield... I better stop there! There's so many more! Basically I subscribe to the "absorb what is useful" musical philosophy. I've never been one to learn someone else's solo note for note, and I actually don't even know many cover songs outside of what we play as a group! I've always listened, absorbed what I liked, try to internalize it, and then make it my own.

Gear

I'm a tone neurotic, though I am trying to lighten up a bit. There was a time where I would go through three or four amps in a month and the soldering iron barely had time to cool between all the times I've changes pickups. But, it's not like I'm just running in circles. There's a sound in my head and that I want, and I won't stop tweaking till I'm there! Thankfully, I'm pretty close.

Right now, I use a pretty simple setup. I have an American Standard Fender Telecaster and a Heritage Prospect. Both guitars have graphite saddles and slipstone nuts, to ease string bending and prevent string breakage. I use DR strings on both. Tele's are historically a "stiff" playing guitar, so I use a set of 10 gauge on it, and 11s on the Heritage. I use Bill Lawrence pickups in the Telecaster (I could write paragraphs of praise towards that man) and I use a Jason Lollar Imperial in the bridge and a Duncan Jazz in the neck of my Heritage. TJ of Tom's Guitars in Indianapolis has done all the work to them, which basically consists of fixing my sloppy solder welds.

I've always been a fan of small amps played loudly. I never understood the guys that would lug Marshall stacks into small club gigs, and then setting the volume to "2" and mic it. To me, tubes are king. And, tubes can't sing till they make your ears ring! Seriously, a tube amp can't produce its voodoo until you get it to break up a bit. So, I use a 65 Fender Deluxe Reissue. It's small, light, and loud enough where I don't need to mic it in most small to medium halls. There's a myriad of vintage and new tubes in it, and a Weber speaker. It's a fantastic little amp.

I like the subtle use of effects. I'm not the guy that's going to stomp on every pedal and bombard the listener with an array of Dr. Who sounds. Well, at least not very often. Right now, I'm using a 70's Mutron III envelope filter, a 70's MXR 100 phase, a Budda wah, a really messed up and on the verge of death Line6 DL4 delay, a Reverend Drivetrain II overdrive, and an Analogman modified Ibanez TS808. I usually leave one of the ODs on most of the night with the guitar volume rolled back. I'll step it up for a fill or light solo, and then hit the other OD to boost the solos.

Thoughts on Performing

That's what it's all about! Mike is the rock. He's the man that will light up the room with his talent and presence. He's a folky, so if it's one of his songs I try to take a back seat so he's the focus. Not only his singing, the intricacies in his acoustic playing. But, he's always the first one to say "take a solo!", and I'm a guitar player, so what am I going to do? I'm taking it! I actually don't like calling them solos, I usually think of that space as a musical break. To me, a solo is a very structured melodic entity. Well, I don't like writing structured solos too often. Of course, if the song calls for one, it will happen. But the way we play is more like a game of tug rope. Mike will pull one direction, with lyrics and presence, then the band will take off into it's own tangent. Then we release back to Mike. It's all about tension and release, stretching and relaxing that rubber band. And this works well for us. It's something we've always done, so it's natural. One night the song could be five minutes, the next it could be ten or fifteen. That's usually up to Chad and I. And with a simple glance between us, we know where we're going. Well, we may not know exactly where... But we know we're about to have a hell of a trip!