Going digital after years of having physical gear has to be weird. Or at least it’s gotten weird for virtuoso Guthrie Govan, but don’t worry! He’s down with the changes. In a recent interview with Guitar World, Govan opened up to Guitar World about going from amplifiers on stage to just a Fractal FM9 in his back pocket (proverbially).
“That’s it [the FM9], plus two expression pedals. It felt like going fully digital would force me to think in new ways. I still use my Victorys in the studio. I’ll have two of my signature Charvels, one in standard and the other in dropped D, going into the Fractal and coming out of one or two monitors. That’s something I’ve learned over the last year.
“Sometimes we’ll play and the world’s biggest guitar fan will get there three hours early, standing right by my spot where the guitar amp should be but isn’t. Now I have a wedge behind me so I can feel air being moved and another for the audience. No one should lose out just because I’m having fun in my digital playground!”
Oh, and if you manage to catch The Aristocrats on tour, you’ll be treated to a new song! “There’s a new track from me we’ll be introducing called Sergeant Rockhopper. People might remember the cover of our Freeze live album, which had three lego Aristocrats being apprehended by a giant penguin in a police helmet.
“I decided that character would surely be called Sergeant Rockhopper – rockhoppers, of course, being a type of penguin with the big comical yellow eyebrows. I had this picture of a penguin officer on patrol, charging around the Antarctic on his snowmobile and thought, ‘What would the soundtrack be to that?’”
