At last! Javier is back with the final chapter of his series breaking down every Dark Matter song. In this episode, he’ll tackle the final 3 songs on the record – Something Special, Got To Give and Setting Sun. Check this one out, and let us know in the comments what you’d like to see Javi tackle next time he hits the garage!
Gear Garage Episodes
Hosted by Javier Hervas
So if it felt like you were waiting for a long time for this episode to arrive, it’s because you were. In order to bring you the best product for every episode, Javier works tirelessly to find what exactly it is that makes a song sound a certain way. As he’ll mention in the episode, the thing that was tripping him up the entire time was the intro to Upper Hand. He had sent me messages and audio clips and expressed his dissatisfaction for weeks, until it finally clicked.
Every episode presents the Guru’s best effort to break down the music in a way you may not have recognized before, but for this one especially, he’s gone above and beyond the call of duty. This is the meat and potatoes (pun?) of the record. He’ll break down Won’t Tell, Upper Hand, Waiting For Stevie and Running. The comments would be greatly appreciated on this one!
Javier is back with a jam packed edition of the Gear Garage where he kicks off a three part series breaking down every song from Dark Matter! We’ll start from the top – Scared Of Fear, React/Respond and Wreckage. Hear Javier explain what Mike and Stone have to offer on all three tracks and which one features “Caveman” Stone Gossard.
With new music set to come out very soon, Javier is eager to dig into all of the songs and find out what makes them whole. First up is the first single. Javier goes to lengths to piece together Dark Matter. He’ll go through the stark differences between the ER-1 and Mobius Tremolo and how each counteract with one another during the song.
Javier is back at it again and took on the daunting task of tackling Pearl Jam’s most vulnerable song. This episode is centered around Black. What Javier does is present where Mike and Stone connect and will talk a lot about the push and pull factor, where Mike let’s Stone’s guitar do the work until it’s time for him to find a heavy balance. Replicating the tone for this song was incredibly challenging, but our Guru will share with you how he was able to make that happen, which features an appearance of a guitar from the 1950’s. He nailed this guys. Check it out, and take in the deconstruction of this powerful song!
Javier is back with a brand new Gear Garage episode! If you listened to the last Evolution Series episode on Do The Evolution, Javier will be using that to springboard different conversations about both Stone and Mike’s approach on the recording and live. Much credit to Javier who took his time on this carefully researching the right guitars to recreate the precise tone you hear the boys play. That’s why he is our Guru! It’s fascinating stuff, if you have a half hour to spend, do yourself a favor and tune in!
In episode 2 of the Gear Garage, our Guru breaks down three of Pearl Jam’s most anthemic songs – Alive, Corduroy and Given To Fly, and talks about how the band is able to translate very powerful studio album tracks into cathartic live anthems. It’s another fascinating example of Javier’s ability to read and recognize the sum of a song’s parts and narrowly focus on the different elements that make it special. Give this a listen!
LO4L Patrons, it’s my pleasure to introduce to you the first episode in a brand new series featuring the Gear Guru Javier Hervas’ very own show! He’ll take you inside his Gear Garage and go through some of his favorite aspects of songs and break down how the band created the recognizable tones you’ve grown to love.
In the Pilate episode, Javier will be deconstructing the Avocado record, or as we like to say around here – the JAVocado record! Join him as he’ll isolate the guitars on Life Wasted, Army Reserve and Come Back to show you guys some of the band’s thought processes on the record. Give us a holler, if you enjoyed this and would like to see more, shoot Javier a comment down below!