Canadian Music Trade - December/January 2018 | Page 46

ENDORSER UPDATE
Ian O’Neill is a Nashville-based drummer and live show designer
who has collaborated with Colbie Caillat, Gavin DeGraw, Cassadee
Pope, and many other artists. Currently, he’s out on the road with
country music star Kelsea Ballerini and recently switched to Vater
drumsticks, favouring the company’s Sugar Maple Power 5A.
“I spent years searching for the perfect combination of projec-
tion and softness without wanting to sacrifice durability. I finally
found it with the Vater Sugar Maple Power 5A,” says O’Neill, who also
endorses Remo drumheads, Yamaha drums, Paiste cymbals, and
Big Fat Snare Drum heads.
Guitarist, songwriter, and producer Gilby Clarke has owned many
pedals during his career, including his stint as a member of Guns
N’ Roses and numerous studio sessions. When he heard that BAE
Audio had released its first guitar pedal, the Hot Fuzz, he wanted to
explore the manufacturer’s take on the stompbox effect.
The Hot Fuzz arrived at Clarke’s studio as he was recording his
newest solo record. “I had an original treble booster some years back,
which I used to love with a dirty tube amp,” he says. “I got rid of it for
some reason, but kicking on the Hi Frequency Boost on the Hot Fuzz
– it really has that sound. It’s not really treble so much as it is high
midrange. It just brings that frequency range out in a way that makes
the guitar really sing.”
Steve Mayer is an in-demand composer and sound designer for
television and games, having composed theme music and under-
scores for shows like ABC’s High School Musical and Disney’s Mickey
Mouse Clubhouse, and games for LeapFrog, Disney, and Ubisoft.
Lately, Mayer has been using Mackie XR824 monitors for his
work. “It’s amazing the transients you can produce just by snapping
your fingers in front of a large-diaphragm condenser microphone.
A monitor that is responsive to these frequencies and reproduces
them accurately is necessary for the kind of things I do,” he says.
“When I got home and started working with the XR824s... I found
that a piece that I thought was done really needed a lot more sort-
ing out. My old speakers had been too forgiving, where the Mackie
XR824s felt more honest.”
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CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE
London-based multi-instrumentalist and percussionist Pete Lockett
has signed on as an official endorser of Latin Percussion (LP). Lock-
ett is best known for his diverse body of work including recording
and touring with Björk, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, and Dido, among
many others. His body of work includes rock, pop, and jazz, along
with traditional Carnatic and Hindustani music of North and South
India and traditional Japanese Taiko drumming.
“The diversity and range of LP’s hand crafted instruments will
open up huge new worlds of possibilities in my playing,” he says. “It is
very exciting to begin creating music with these amazing instruments.”