Andrew Synowiec Breaks Down His Most Iconic Guitar Parts
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2024
[Andrew performs “Let It Go”]
Mason Marangella: Wow, Andrew. Thank you so much for being here, ladies and gentlemen. Andrew Synowiec, we're here in the House of Syn Studios, in an undisclosed location in Los Angeles, California. So that was Andrew's mix off of “Let It Go” from, of course, the hit Disney movie Frozen. Which as a recent parent of a two year old, we've started to become much more familiar with.
So you're going to be a real hero in the household, knowing that we're hearing your beautiful guitar work on, on, on a great song. It should be said that it's one of a select few songs that have made it into the billions club in terms of numbers of plays, a number of views on YouTube. So. You've been heard with a very select crowd in terms of those numbers.
So congratulations to you!
I'm curious, this being such a big hit, how did you get affiliated with Disney. How did you get selected to play on the soundtrack?
Andrew Synowiec: Sheer dumb luck, I think. I mean, I literally just kind of an email came in. There's a service called Dateline here in L.A., and usually when you see an email from Dateline, you know it is going to be something good.
It was funny, actually, because, you know, you don't know what these things are necessarily. So, I was booked to do a session for my friend Susie Seiter. She's an incredible, composer, arranger, conductor, and, you know, it was like, I don't know, Thursday afternoon or whatever. I get this email, “can you be at Warner Brothers Thursday afternoon?”
And I'm like, “Oh man, shoot! What should I do?”
“Let me just call.”
So, I called Susie. I was like, “…hey, I'm so sorry. I don't know. I got this email about something called like Frozen - any chance we could do our thing another time.”
Cause it was just, you know, me doing overdose or something. Usually it’s easier to move that kind of thing than a full orchestra.
I knew that they're not going to move the orchestra for me, but maybe I can move this other thing.
“But, you know, if not no big deal, Susie, you know I'll stay on your thing.”
And she goes, cause she's an orchestrator, she knew how big it was gonna be.
She told me “…no, no, no, you need to do that!”
And I’m just that her so much for that. She was obliged and we moved our session and then I showed up at Warner Brothers, not knowing what I was doing other than, I still don't know what I'm doing, but on the date, I didn't know, you know?
Could be anything. And, it was funny cause, the chart said like big power chords or something like that. So like I dialed up kind of like a [Dual] Rectifier sound, like big power chords. So this great engineer, David Boucher, was working on a session and we did a few takes and he came out to kind of the rhythm section area beause it's a full orchestra kind of in the front and then they always put the rhythm section in the back and he's kind of scratching his head.
He looked at what I'm using and he's like “…do you have like a little Tweed Deluxe or something?
And I'm like, “…well, what do you mean?” “What's going on?”
He's like, “…oh this is not really like the thing. It should be almost like Tom Petty.”
I was like, “oh, okay, cool. No worries.”
You know, it said big distorted power cords. So, then I grabbed my Tele and I put a capo on and just kind of, you know, did that.
Mason Marangella: You did your Mike Campbell?
Andrew Synowiec: Oh yeah. I mean, a little bit, you know, just tried to put some of that sauce on there.
And, there is a part you can kind of hear my Pete Townsend influences on there. There is a little part where I tried to sneak some of that in the pre chorus. So, I think it was me on electric and George Doering on acoustic.
We did like 10 million takes because they wanted to get a lot of video, I think Matt Chamberlain was on drums and Abe [Laboriel] Sr. on bass, which man, he's so musical. You can hear all these great [parts], they actually sometimes we'll put it in the chart, I've seen a “Woo”, like going into the course. It’s like great stuff, man. He's just the greatest. It's killer band. And, I mean, even you know, you still, you leave that day going, “Wow! that was really fun!”
And then like months later, it turns into the soundtrack.
Mason Marangella:. In terms of the gear that you were using? It was at the Tele that you were using here for one of the layers?
Andrew Synowiec: No, it would have been that All-Parts Tele. Okay. Yeah.
Mason Marangella: All-Parts Tele. Okay.
Andrew Synowiec: So it's funny, you know, with the gear thing, I've always been kind of like, I just trying to always make it as great as it can be and also incorporate modern technology. Yeah. And, , actually when I moved here, I mean, like everybody else, I was kind of geeking out, like, what's Michael Thompson doing?
What's Tim Pierce doing? What's Michael Landau doing? And at the time, I think it was popular to like, to do that thing where you mic the amp and then send that signal to all your effects, you know, and then you basically just say to the engineer, like, here's a stereo pair of XLRs. This is my sound. And, , when I first started getting these kind of like bigger calls, I , I very quickly realized that in that setting, they did not want to see that.
Cause there's always like, first of all, I'm coming in, I'm an unknown quantity. I'm this kid, you know, like, and these engineers would just be like, what is this? Like, you know, you'd always show up and there'd be two 57s cause they just figure you're going to bring your stereo rig with two, like one 12 cabinets, you know, and in the beginning I was like, no, it really, you should try this.
It's going to be great. It's going to work out. And then I just realized like. Okay. I need to just like kind of, at least in the beginning sort of do, you know, not, not make any waves, you know, not rock the boat here. , so I sort of put together a rig that, you know, everybody would understand. And it's just, , it's still what I use today.
It works great. So it's, it's an amplifier head on a load and then there's some pedals in front of it. And, , , from the, the line out, it goes to, , an effects unit. Okay. Out in stereo to a power amp into two 112 cabinets and it's like very clear. You know what's going on there?
Yeah, and I even have the two cabinets are mismatched on purpose because one is like very , focused kind of bright sound and the other is like warmer and more diffuse sounding and I even like kind of wrote that on there because some of my engineer friends that I see All the time would be like “…hey, remind me again.”
So I literally like kind of with tape I've written on there, like left that, you know, bright and closed back and stuff. So, okay. So
Mason Marangella: one of them is an open back. One of them is a close. Yeah. Exactly. Are in those,
Andrew Synowiec: The closed back has a Vintage 30 and then the open-back has a G12H30.
Mason Marangella: Great. And for, for this, , session, , which amp did you use for this
Andrew Synowiec: would have been the Aiken Saber, which I still, , I still have two of those, , one at home and one in my cartridge rig that goes out.
Mason Marangella: Awesome. And, and then processing, was that something that you did or did they kind of do all of the wet effects? Well,
Andrew Synowiec: for like on, “Let It Go,” it’s pretty dry, actually, the guitar sound. And so I think I tried to put just like a little bit of something on there just to give it a little bit more life. And I don't think based on kind of their aesthetic, I don't think they added anything more.
Mason Marangella: Got it. And as far as like cables and stuff like that, I can see here just kind of from the studio. It looks like you are a Mogami guy. I am
Andrew Synowiec: indeed, yeah. Yeah, I did a shootout one time and for me, they were kind of consistently what I wanted to hear, you know, and they hold up on the road and stuff
Mason Marangella: Yeah, and so is that an all day session or just yeah
Andrew Synowiec: it would have been all day, you know just for the one song right pretty incredible.
Mason Marangella: And so in so you did acoustic on there as well or no
Andrew Synowiec: George just acoustic and then I
Mason Marangella: did okay, but for for the purposes of today just to fill it out We had you do some of the george parts
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, I guess I sort of looked at what we, what we do today is like, if somebody, if they had sent that to me, what might I give them back, you know, just to kind of fill it out.
Mason Marangella: Right. Because otherwise, you know, in terms of, of the, the guitar load, it would, it would be, you know, kind of sparse comparatively to the rest of the orchestration. Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Synowiec: Very much.
Mason Marangella: Yeah. I dig that. Well, man, it's such a. Again, an iconic song and, and, you know, any of us that have kids, we know how important, , this song and, and, and movie are, and they're just kind of constant repeat in the household.
Mason Marangella: Now back to the interview. But I want to transition into something that we all recently learned about, which is there's been a big change in the NBA.
That's the National Basketball Association for those that don't know.
Andrew Synowiec: You talking about me being recruited for them?
Mason Marangella: Yeah, where they're having you playing point guard for the Lakers. , and , NBA has just changed its kind of licensing and rights deal. , You know and there's been an iconic music piece.
It's always been a part of the NBA since I believe the early nineties. And it's a song called round ball rock. And you happen to be the guitar player on the new version that, you know, presumably if it has the same legs as the original. , that's going to be another, you know, 30 years of, , getting to hear that every time we fire up our NBA game and get to watch our favorite team.
We're going to get to hear some, Andrew Synowiec on that as well. So I'm wondering if you can kind of talk us through how you got the call for this kind of the session, the gear. , cause it's a pretty rocking remix. It's already been teased out on several different sports radio shows and podcasts. , so we got a, we got a little bit of that here and we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll fill in a little piece of that.
So people can kind of see, see what, what that's all about. And even Saturday Night Live has done a little piece on that, which we can show a little bit of here as well. But tell us about how this all came about.
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, well, I got a text from my friend Tim Pierce and he said, Hey, I referred you to John Tesh.
Mason Marangella: Yeah.
Andrew Synowiec: I'm like, great. That's, that sounds amazing. You know, I know being my age, I know who John Tesh is, of course, the host of entertainment tonight and I knew that he, , had a music career too. So sounded interesting. , and then like two days later, I get a call from an engineer friend, , Mike Arnold. He says, “…hey, there's this session coming up.”
John Tesh is going to rerecord a bunch of his old hits. And i'm trying to get you on it. I'm like great. That's two people and it's it's funny because it's like one of those things We're like sometimes in the music business. I think it takes like, you know Multiple sources kind of saying like try this person, you know, because people are so reticent to try somebody new.
Yeah
Andrew Synowiec: , so I was like, okay great. That's two people, you know, so, ended up working out , we went into the studio. We did , I think two days at east west and , Did a whole bunch of his classic, , music. So then, , I get another call like, Hey, he's got this other idea for round ball rock, except he wants.
Almost like a Trans Siberian Orchestra kind of thing. Like, can we just give you the score and let you like kind of play all the violin parts and all the trumpet parts and all that kind of stuff and like turn it into a guitar orchestra? So it's like, yeah, challenge accepted. By the way, they were like, “…and you have like two hours to do it!”
Mason Marangella: So you, so you had already recorded all this stuff and kind of done an arrangement that he had already come up with, and then he kind of did an audible and said, “…we got a two hour deadline?”
Andrew Synowiec: Exactly. It was kind of like. You know, he had this other, you know, more traditional version where the strings are playing the melody and stuff like that. And the guitar is just kind of doubling the bass doing like power chord stuff. And then it was kind of like, you know, I just had this crazy idea…what if, you know, and we had a hard out at five o'clock and it's like three o'clock, you know, but, man, we got it done. I think, the results are pretty, pretty great.
Mason Marangella: And that's what made the cut?
Andrew Synowiec: That’s it - yeah. Yeah. So actually, so at the end of all that, he was so excited, he goes, man, “I'm going to start this, this whole like new chapter with this guitar,” he's calling it the “shredded” version.
Mason Marangella: the shredded version. And then that's presumably what's going to be playing now and all?
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's incredible. So yeah, there's going to be a piece of you in every NBA game.
For that, you know, 'cause it's, you know, you, you sent me a copy of it from, one of the radio shows or a podcast that had had aired it.
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, it's like some kind of sports, , yeah, popular like podcast or something.
Mason Marangella: And, and, and so I got to hear it's pretty rocking comparatively, you know, , to the original. What were you using to kinda get all that sound? And presumably there's some, there's some layers to that. You had kind of like some power cords and then you were kind of doing the
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, I did. We did that at an outside studio. So I used my other rig. I think I did all the power cord stuff with a Les Paul and then all the lead stuff I have a really great old, PRS Custom 24. So I did the leads on that.
Mason Marangella: And then what kind of amp did you use?
Andrew Synowiec: For that, that rig, I have an Aiken Amp that I like a lot.
It's like a channel switching thing. It's got a really beautiful clean channel and then like a really, heavy overdriven, you know, saturated lead sound.
Mason Marangella: Is it kind of more of a Marshall type sound or how would you kind of characterize the leads?
Andrew Synowiec: It’s kind of Soldano-y or Rectifier-y.
Mason Marangella: And any sort of pedals or processing that you used for that, or did they do all that in post?
Andrew Synowiec: No, I, , that's a stereo rig, so I definitely had some delay and reverb on there. And then probably, like, especially for the power chord stuff, I would use a boost. Kind of like, almost on the clean channel, but kind of pushed, you know, cranked up.
And then for the leads, a lot of times I like to use an EQ to like boost, to actually cut bass and then boost essentially like a treble booster.
Mason Marangella: Alright, so if for your booster, you are you a classic like Boss GE7 guy? Or are you a Parametric EQ kinda guy? Or?
Andrew Synowiec: I'm sort of an equal opportunity booster. I have, I have a GE7. In that rig I have, Earthquaker devices, 3-band EQ. Here at home, I have the Empress.
Mason Marangella: Yeah, that's great. And there, they have that new one too. That's like, I know I just saw that. Yeah. Yeah. So that that's already become sort of an instant classic for the Nashville.
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, it's cool. Cause it has a low cut on it. Although I'll tell you one thing I do with this, cause I was, I just saw it and I was checking it out. I do actually like to cut level a lot. Like if I'm playing a sound and the amp, you know, there's no like distortion on the amp, but it's still breaking up a little bit too much with this one.
You can, , you can cut the level into the amp and it kind of cleans up and it really interesting, interesting, which I noticed. I don't think the new version does that.
Mason Marangella: Yeah. So then maybe this is the one that the larger one is the, is the one for you.
Well, I'm wondering if you can play a little bit of “Roundball Rock” for us and we get to hear sort of this new arrangement and I guess the season for now, but come October, we're going to start hearing it again. Let's do it!
[Andrew performs “Roundball Rock]
Mason Marangella: First take. So do you remember how many takes it was in the studio when we did that one?
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, we, well, I actually have the score if we want to take a look. I mean, it's like really small print and stuff and you can only see a few bars at a time anyway, which is good because. I can usually only get through a few bars at a time without messing up.
So we, we kind of did like little sections, you know?
Mason Marangella: Well, I mean, here you, it seemed like it was pretty seamless. Thanks. Yeah. And
Andrew Synowiec: then also, you know, it's good. , Mike, the engineer, he's also a guitar player. So he had some great ideas about like, let's do a Brian May thing here. Let's put some, you know, we did a whole, maybe a few passes of just like, okay.
Every time it goes into a new section, give me like, you know, give me one of those or, you know, just to kind of ramp up the like sports energy. Right, right,
Mason Marangella: I think it's, it's, it's perfectly fitting for, for the vibe, you know, and I, I love the make over it's a, it's really awesome. And for the, for the sounds that we just got there.
What do we have here for guitar?
Andrew Synowiec: This is something I bought on a whim. I was, , I was kind of, I saw when they came out, I was like, man, that's kind of interesting. It's a, it's an Epiphone Alex Lifeson, , Les Paul, and I'm kind of a Les Paul guy. And I'm also kind of a Floyd guy. I'm like a wannabe Floyd guy.
So it's a Les Paul style with a Floyd. And it's got the full, like, , you know, whatever they call it, where you can go, kind of the contour is really, really easy. It's got kind of a belly cut
Mason Marangella: back there too. Right. Yeah.
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah. , but they sold out like right away and they were never in stock. And so it kind of fell off my radar.
And then, , I was actually, , doing some of my own, , I was touring with my own project and there's a store, up in a Atascadero called, Lightning Joe's, I think. It's a really great, like, mom and pop, like, been there for like 40 years.
Mason Marangella: Atascadero, kind of like near San Luis Obispo. Yeah, yeah. Paso Robles is kind of there.
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, exactly.
Andrew Synowiec: So, out in California. So, yeah, you know, it's like that's like the whole thing of like, you got your two hours on and 22 hours off. What are you going to do? Well, of course, guitar players find the closest guitar store.
Andrew Synowiec: And, I went in there and, you know, I'm just kind of tooling around and I'm like, that's “that” guitar.
“Let me check it out. “
Yeah, I checked it out. My buddy, Juergen Carlsson was there too. So he was like, “that sounds good!” He doesn't say much, so the fact that he was like, yeah, it sounds good. I'm like, all right, I guess I should get it, but it's always nice to like shop at Mom & Pop places.
Mason Marangella: Right. Yeah, it's definitely good to support brick and mortars.
Andrew Synowiec: So yeah, Lightning Joes, they said actually that day they set it up for me with Elixir .10s, and I used it on the gig that night. It was really, really fun.
Mason Marangella: And it should be said that you are a Elixir endorsing artist.
Andrew Synowiec: Very true. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for pointing that out.
Mason Marangella: Yeah. So what are, what are typically your strings of choice when you're dealing with the guitars? What do you, what do you like?
Andrew Synowiec: Usually .10s for electric.
Mason Marangella: And is there, I know that they have like different versions, like the Nanoweb and all this stuff, is there a specific?
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, mostly, Nanoweb, although I have some Optoweb, which is like. I guess it's, I mean, it basically feels like a non coated string. It's funny though. I've actually gotten used to the coated strings. I don't mind them. They kind of feel nice to me. It's a little bit softer.
Mason Marangella: Yeah. Well, there's certainly a lot of brands now that have just kind of just gone to them permanently because of just the longevity.
And also like I can understand from a retail perspective if they're just like sitting there.
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, exactly.
Mason Marangella: Yeah. I definitely, I, I appreciate them because I have a lot of guitars and even if you just are using traditional uncoated strings and you're not using them, they are just kind of always dying.
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, I hate that when yeah, it's like you pick up a guitar and it's like, actually [dead]. When I was back in school, I had basically one guitar, actually that same, the PRS that I used, that I used to do a “Roundball Rock.” There's a great guitar player down there who is sadly no longer with us named Dan Warner. He’s like the king of session guitar playing.
Mason Marangella: Yeah, I mean he played on like a lot of didn't like they kind of like Jennifer Lopez, like Backstreet Boys… you know, a lot of boy-band Pop stuff.
Andrew Synowiec: Like everything that was done in that era. Yeah, but I mean he's an incredible musician an incredible guy.
Mason Marangella: Producer too!
Andrew Synowiec: right!
He came over one day. I mean, he was so nice. He came over to like help me with my rig and my sounds and everything. And he's like, well, let me see what you got here. Give me a guitar. And he picks up my guitar and he's like, dude, what's going on? Like, I'm going to need a tetanus shot. You know, this is before I was using elixirs, it's before they even came out, I think.
Mason Marangella: This is at University of Miami?
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah
Mason Marangella: They’ve produced a lot of great musicians.
Andrew Synowiec: Yes, they have a good track record.
Mason Marangella: Yeah, so Elixir Nanowebs [for electric], is it the same for acoustic guitars as well?
Andrew Synowiec: For the most part. I have a few sometimes you actually want more of like a dead sound so I'll use like either Martin strings or, [it] kind of doesn't matter because I just leave them on there until, like, as long as possible.
Mason Marangella: Right. Because you kind of want that, like, really dead sound.
Well, I, this has been really cool to get to kind of get the back story on, on all this and I look forward to kind of seeing it and, and man, it must feel great, you know, when you're getting to hear this. You know, week in and week out.
If you're a basketball fan, I'm a Golden State Warriors fan just because of where I live, and where I'm from. But, yeah, so cool.
Yeah, that's really cool. Speaking of other things that are on television, or in this case, Netflix. You are, are featured heavily in the show, Cobra Kai, and, a guy that we both know, Zach Robinson (America’s favorite left handed guitar player), as I call him, had got you to play on a bunch of these songs and they're great.
Andrew Synowiec: Thank you
Mason Marangella: Super cool because obviously like, you know the Karate Kid is what this arcs back to, and that was big in the 80s and they've kind of maintained sort of the 80s shreddy sort of element as the theme in terms of the scoring and music that's featured on it. And, I wanted to, you know, play a song from the first season that I think is really great called “Quiver."
But I want to hear about how you got involved with, with Zach and how you got involved with Cobra Kai and that's one of the biggest hits on Netflix in terms of series right now.
How did that all come about?
Andrew Synowiec: Well, should we switch over guitars?
Yeah. Do we want to switch guitars?
Mason Marangella: What are we going to use for Cobra Kai?
Andrew Synowiec: So I'm going to use a few different things. I'm going to try and use the original gear because we did all that stuff here.
Mason Marangella: Really?
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah. So I'm going to try and use, you know, the same stuff.
Mason Marangella: All right. All right. Let's do it. Let's change guitars.
Mason Marangella: All right. So guitar change. You got a Les Paul, and was this was what you used for a lot of this?
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah.
Mason Marangella: Nice! Anything special in terms of pickups? I mean, it looks kind of like a 50s style Les Paul.
Andrew Synowiec: I had this thing done, you know, like Reverend Guitars has a really cool thing where they have a traditional tone knob, but then they have another tone knob where it's actually a bass cut. So I had that done.
This [knob] is like a master bass cut, and I'll roll that off. Actually, it's funny, especially with, gain-y sounds, I find that actually a brighter sound from the guitar really just cuts through more. A lot of times with the Les Paul, you can get too much low end, so it's a really fun to thin it out.
Mason Marangella: Yeah. That's awesome. And then do you know what kind of pickups are in this thing?
Andrew Synowiec: I'm actually not sure. Cause they were hand-wired by the builder of the guitar.
Mason Marangella: All right. Awesome.
Andrew Synowiec: They're not super, , hot. They're just kind of vintage specs.
Mason Marangella: Yeah. Kind of just a PAF style thing? And do you remember what you used for amps on this?
Andrew Synowiec: Probably the Soldano. I like that crunch channel a lot. So not the super overdriven channel, but like the cleaner, slightly broken up channel.
Mason Marangella: I think that on the Soldano, that channel tends to take pedals better too, in my opinion.
Andrew Synowiec: Actually, right now. I'm using the Empress boost pedal [Parametric EQ]
Mason Marangella: The parametric EQ with the boost section of it?
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, it's funny. It's actually an EQ pedal.
Mason Marangella: Well, maybe we'll have to get you one of our Vertex Boosts to push a little harder.
So how did, how did Zach, you know to get in touch with you about this or were you already friends with them?
Andrew Synowiec: So there's actually two composers on the show, Zach Robinson and Leo Birenberg, and they both came out of Chris Beck's camp. So Chris Beck is a huge film composer and stuff.
And so I knew them when they were working for Chris.
And so the two of them, Zach and Leo, they read in some trade publication, that there's going to be the show, and at the time it was just a YouTube show, which they were trying to do like new content or whatever. And kind of everybody sort of wrote them off.
But, but Zach and Leo were like, “…man, this show sounds like it'd be right up our alley. What if we just like did some music and send it off to them? I'm sure there's no way anything would ever come of it, but what have we got to lose?”
So they put together this little reel and, they sent it off somehow.
They got in contact with the creators of the show, and they had no one doing the music. They hadn't even thought about it. And then this incredible, like perfect score lands on their desk. And so that's how Zach and Leo got the gig. It just goes to show you, like, if you work hard enough at something and go after what you want, you can do great things.
It's just such a great story.
Mason Marangella: Well, now they must feel vindicated. Cause again, that's one of the best performing shows on Netflix, and early on in that process or after the first season came out, Zach had come to our showroom and played some pedals and stuff like that.
So we got to talk to him a little bit about it, and I’d love to hear a little bit of “Quiver” which is just one of the pieces that that's featured on Cobra Kai and in the first season. I don't know if it, if it made it other appearance and other parts, but, I just love the music!
I watch it almost as much for that because it's got such an 80s kind of shred vibe to it. And, the kind of the, the pedigree of players that were involved in [the original] Karate Kid, had guys like Dann Huff playing on some of those theme songs. So I think it's really cool that it carries that tradition with the style of music.
Andrew Synowiec: It's really fun for me.
Mason Marangella: Well, let’s hear it!
[Andrew performs “Quiver”]
Mason Marangella: The layers are incredible. All the, all the harmonized guitars and all that stuff. It's kind of like, just embodies the, the perfect 80s thing, you know, and bringing out a few Jacksons in here, Floyd Rose’s. It's all part of it. I just, I love that you're bringing it exactly as it would have been in the original. So cool!
Well, I'm so appreciative to get to hear all these parts and, and to see how it was done, and I’m a huge fan of the Cobra Kai series. So I feel like I'm living it in the session right now, just getting to hear you do it.
So we've covered a lot of the stuff that you've done for television, Netflix, and NBA. I want to now move to some of the solo artists that you've worked with and one in particular, Meghan Trainor.
Andrew Synowiec: Sure. Yeah.
Mason Marangella: And the song is “Don't I Make It Look Easy.” Now, I'm curious how you got the call to work with Meghan, which is, of course, one of her biggest hits that she's recorded. Gear, session, all that good stuff.
So how did it, how did it all come about?
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, I mean, I just got a call from her producer. It's always like, “…can you get this to me yesterday,” so, that's all right. I like a challenge. So I did it really fast and he had it kind of mocked up.
You know, like many people, he plays a little bit of guitar, so he kind of had it mocked up with what he wanted kind of just do this, but better, and then add your own stuff. And I tried to not go like overboard in terms of like crazy, weird sounds and stuff. It just didn't seem to match, you know, the vibe of this song.
Mason Marangella: Yeah. Well, it definitely has an R& B feel to it. And then some of the arrangement is a little bit more modern.
Andrew Synowiec: I almost kind of thought of it as like a Motown thing, like what would it be like if back in the day you had like three guitar players, what would they do? So that was kind of my concept for this.
Mason Marangella: Yeah. So you're doing kind of a Ray Parker thing or something like that or yeah?
Was she there for this or was it all [done] here?
Andrew Synowiec: No, it was all here. Actually just all me by myself.
Mason Marangella: It's all just like a remote thing? He sent you the tracks?
Andrew Synowiec: Totally just self produced.
Mason Marangella: Did you have a sense that it was gonna get like hundreds of millions of plays on Spotify when you were listening to it?
Andrew Synowiec: No, I mean - gosh, I wish I had a crystal ball. I mean you kind of always hope and you do your best no matter what.
Mason Marangella: right!
Andrew Synowiec: But, yeah, it's turned out to be a really, really nice little thing.
Mason Marangella: Just as an aside, you know, because you've done so many and we are covering a small part of a pretty massive and illustrious career here when you play a song.
How often have you been able to call it?
Like, “..oh yeah, I think this is gonna make it!”
Andrew Synowiec: Never. Never. I mean, I usually think like everything's gonna make it. I mean, I didn't write it, it's not my name on it, but it's still, they're like your kids, you know? So you take ownership over it. You, you take pride in it, try and do your best, but then it goes out there in the world.
Andrew Synowiec: So, I mean, a lot of times it's like the, that track doesn't even make it on the album - it could be for a million reasons.
Mason Marangella: Well, I mean I have to think on some of the Disney stuff. At least you might have a sense like, “..well, it's gonna get exposure,” you know?
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah. Now, now I do. Now that you can almost kind of tell with that stuff..
Mason Marangella: Yeah. Well, guitar wise, probably not a Jackson?
Andrew Synowiec: Probably not a Jackson.
Mason Marangella: What do you want to use?
Andrew Synowiec: So, there's a like, kinda like, almost like a bass line. It's a guitar, but it's doing what a bass might do. I actually used a Jerry Jones.
Mason Marangella: Baritone. Wow!
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, right! It's a Jerry Jones version of it.
And then, and then amp wise, I have this, this company, unfortunately they're not in business anymore, I think he should have charged like three times the money and he'd still be in business, but, they’re called Texotica Amps. And I forget how I stumbled on them, but it's kind of like an old Tweed Fender Deluxe or something.
I think it's only about 9 watts or 12 watts. I forget. But, it's got that, you know, that thing where you can crank it right on the edge. So if you play hard, it kind of compresses on itself. I've used that for a lot of different stuff. And then he actually made me an outboard spring reverb unit too, which is just, it's like the most like syrupy drippy spring reverb thing.
Really sounds killer. So I have that reverb going into the front of that and no pedals.
Maybe just like some little like just gain structuring kind of stuff. Yeah, but you know, essentially a clean sound
Mason Marangella: Awesome! Well, I'd love to hear you play a little bit of it do a little guitar switch and hear it.
Andrew Synowiec: Sounds good
[Andrew performs “Don’t I Make It Look Easy”]
Mason Marangella: And one thing I'm noticing here, Andrew, is on the back of your guitars, you have them dated and the string gauge.
So, is this presumably the last time you changed strings?
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, actually that's pretty sad.
Mason Marangella: So that’s 10-30-23. So almost a year ago. So in October [2023].
Andrew Synowiec: Actually, yeah, I was about to do a tour for my record right around then. So that makes sense, yeah.
Mason Marangella: So, one thing that I think is really interesting about this is, I'm just looking at these strings, if you could turn it back over.
These are silky smooth and this is, I think, probably the greatest testimony to why people would use Elixirs. They're almost a year old and they look and feel and sound as though it were day one.
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah, pretty amazing.
Mason Marangella: So I could get why somebody in your shoes, who is a professional making their living every day using these instruments, does not want to be burdened with having to change their strings.
If this were a regular set of strings, this would have been changed, I would think, 10 to 12 times at least, between that date and today.
Mason Marangella: So when a producer hires you for this, do they sort of dictate the number of layers? Or is it at your discretion?
Andrew Synowiec: It’s usually at your discretion. I mean, of course, the thing to do is, like, to really wow them, you know? Like, I try and put as much paint on there as I can.
Mason Marangella: And then they can just subtract whatever they need?
Andrew Synowiec: I mean without going totally overboard, where it's like, clearly this is not in the scope of what this song should be.
That's why I was kind of, kind of picturing it like.
This is, what can I do with this.
Mason Marangella: For the aspiring session guitarist out there, when you're delivering tracks in terms of like effects and processing, how are you kind of treating that in terms of what's printed versus what’s not?
Andrew Synowiec: That's a good question. So I actually learned the hard way like a long time ago to have a backup, which for me is I always split the signal. So I simultaneously go to the amp, and then I also go to a DI, and that's what I give them like 99% of the time.
Because I give them the amp with everything I hear. It's a real amp, it's outboard gear or whatever, just what we're hearing now.
But then I'm also recording a DI that's totally clean. So, if for some reason, they want that or they want to change the sound. They can.
Mason Marangella: They could re-amp it
Andrew Synowiec: Exactly! And, depending on the situation, sometimes I don't even send that, because it's like, I don't want to give them the option, you know?
Mason Marangella: Right.
Andrew Synowiec: But, it has saved me a few times I would say.
Mason Marangella: Right. Or if they didn't like it, at least you have it too. You can do it.
Andrew Synowiec: I mean, that comes in handy if it's like really a performance where it's like, “…man, it's going to be hard to replay that or something.”
Yeah, it really helps for that.
Mason Marangella: I know now you’ve got your Strat, but you also did a layer with the Silvertone, right?
What's kind of the place where you would use something like that?
Andrew Synowiec: On that guitar I use with flat wounds on it. So I use that kind of anytime I want something to sound old.
Andrew Synowiec: Yeah. It's weird. Certain instruments have like more of a neutral sound, which is not a bad thing. That sometimes that's what you want because you can really dictate where the instrument goes tonally.
And then other things like that Silvertone, or even the Strat, it really sounds like a Strat, you know, you plug in, it's like kind of helping you in a way. It’s sort of like, in a good way, painting you into a corner.
Mason Marangella: And again, with the with the amplifier here , I think it sounds it's kind of the perfect type of vibe again going for a Motown kind of more of a late 50s style Fender amp and then using that that Reverb in front of it.
And I've mentioned in other videos that there is a distinct sound from a recording standpoint when you're taking a reverb tank and going into the input of an amp versus using, let's say a 60s Fender where the reverb is after the preamp. They sound fundamentally different. And that splash is kind of quintessential to the to the sound.
Andrew Synowiec: It really is.
Mason Marangella: And really nailed it here. And I appreciate that. You know, you painstakingly kind of crafted the sound to sort of match the vibe.
Andrew Synowiec: Well, it's funny, I think when you speak about effects and things like that, guitar players tend to think about, it's like they go to like the 80s or something, but there's a way to get character, to use your word, like “spill” onto the track.
I love the 80s, but it can also be 60s or 50s or whatever. And I've definitely tried to search out pieces of gear that it might only do one thing, but it does that one thing really, really well.You know?
So just try and find ways of bringing out as much character as possible, even if it's only three guitars or something or one.
Mason Marangella: And then if you’re playing, obviously this is, this is different
for sessions because you can sort of craft
