JESSE
PERIARD
Jesse Périard is one third of Juno-nominated acoustic outfit Ten Strings and a Goat Skin. The
PEI-based trio expands on the Scottish and Acadian roots of the island’s traditional music
scene with fresh ideas and a keen artistic curiosity, resulting in an innovative and engaging
sonic blend sure to get your boots stomping. www.tenstringsandagoatskin.com.
CM: Give us a breakdown of your go-to
live rig these days.
JP: I switch between a Guild D-55 and a
custom OM I had built for me in PEI by Adam
Marsh Johnston [of AMJ Guitars]. Both gui-
tars are fantastic. The custom is interesting
because it has ebony back and sides, so it’s a
nice and warm tone but also gives me a great
percussive snap.
Both guitars have a second pickup in-
stalled specifically to pick up the signals from
only the low E and A strings. I send this sec-
ond channel through an Electro Harmonix Mi-
cro POG, which allows me to drop the notes
a whole octave down, run that through some
compression and EQ, and you got yourself a
big fat bass! Adding this along with the dry
guitar makes for a very big sound. I learned
this technique from two fantastic guitar play-
ers, Colin Savoie-Levac of Les Poules à Colin
and Jake Charron from The East Pointers.
I also run the guitar signal through a TC Elec-
tronic Bodyrez pedal, which was recommend-
ed to me by a great island player named
Zakk Cormier. This is a pedal I recommend
to every player who wants their guitar to
actually sound like a guitar when it’s plugged
in. It rounds out the sound perfectly and
52 • C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N
gives it the nice, rich tone you expect out of
an acoustic instrument. I also use a Strymon
blueSky reverb, and a TC Electronic Flashback
delay, just for fun.
CM: Tell us a bit about your role in the
group, and how the guitar has to inter-
play with the fiddle and bodhran to de-
liver the full and energetic sound you’ve
established.
JP: What I love about my job as an accom-
panist is I get the perfect balance of musical
cooperation with my two bandmates. I get
to create harmony surrounding whatever
melody Rowen [Gallant, fiddle,] is playing, and
at the same time, work with Caleb [Gallant on
bodhran] to keep the groove down and make
something interesting with whatever rhythm
we’re playing.
CM: How do you strike a balance per-
forming a traditional style of music but
injecting it with some fresh components
and ideas?
JP: I hadn’t actually been introduced to tra-
ditional music until I was 13, and only really
started to delve deep in the trad world when
I was 19, so for the longest time I didn’t know
how that kind of music worked as a guitarist,
and I’m still learning so much right now. In a
way I’m pretty lucky because I’ve been able
to approach this kind of music with zero
background, and have my own kind of per-
spective on it. This can be super great for me
sometimes, because maybe I can hear a tune
differently than another player and have my
own unique way of accompanying it, but it
can also really suck because at the same time
I can just totally botch the tune due to my
lack of knowledge for correct playing.
The way I see it, traditional accompanists
are “mood setters.” We’re the ones who create
the setting for whatever story the band is
trying to tell. What I absolutely love about
harmony is how you can make it work either
with the melody, or totally against it. Finding
the right chords to a tune can be great and
very satisfying, but for me – and I’m sure
there’s a lot of purists who disagree – finding
the chords that don’t necessarily belong here
and there, the ones that will add tension,
dissonance, that feeling of trying to get back
to the home key but not quite getting there
yet, that’s what I love. It’s all about tension
and release, giving some emotion, making a
mood, and creating a story.