6 Questions For Snew Frontman Curtis DonVito

Lead singer and principle lyricist for the hard rock band SNEW, Curtis DonVito is also an extremely talented graphic artist and well-versed in social media. SNEW's excellent new album, "We Do What We Want," was just released last week and has already been a major add on terrestrial and online radio stations around the world. Check out the video for their first single "Feedback And Distortion," and visit their website at snewyou.com.


1) How did you break into the business?
When I was about 18, I knew a guy who was managing his brother's band and they were looking for a new singer. I said "let me try out for 'em." I had never sung a note outside of singing along to the radio before in my life but had always fantasized about it. He said "OK."

Needless to say, I didn't get the gig. BUT unbeknownst to me he put an ad in the Recycler "vocalist available". When I started getting calls I was wondering how the hell they knew about me. I called my friend up and he told he ran the ad. He said "You got a long way to go but I think you should stick with it, you got something." After a few more auditions, I was hired by a cover band, but after about three weeks the guitarist pulled me aside to let me know I was out. Their bass player said it was "Either him or me," because I was an amateur, but he told me to stick with it because "I had something."

I auditioned for a bunch of bands until I landed another one. At that time, I was only thinking about being in a cover band. I thought it would be great to actually be in a band and sing songs by all my favorite bands. So when I auditioned for this band, we did a few covers and then they played me one I had never heard before. It was really cool but I had to ask what song that was. They told me it was one of their own. I was blown away. A band that writes their own music? WOW. Then they played me another with no lyrics and said, "We want you to write the lyrics". WOW! A lightening bolt went off in my head. I can write my own music! I knew immediately I was going to do this for the rest of my life.

2) What makes you unique?
Years of practice.

3) Who was your biggest influence?
My parents. They are both musicians. When my mom was young she was part of a duet that appeared on American Bandstand. My dad played guitar and was in different bands. When they met they formed a group called the D'Lighters. They toured all over the country opening for Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima and the like. They quit for many years after starting a family.

They have always been my biggest supporters. They come to my shows and give me great advice and insights. Even though their music and mine are worlds apart, show business is show business and they know exactly what's going on. I've learned the most from them, especially when it comes to live performance. I'm even responsible for inspiring them to get back to playing and recording. They've been back on the live circuit for years now and have released three albums. Now I go to their shows and give advice.

4) What's the best thing about your job?
Making music and performing live are like water and air to me. I can't live without either. I'm truly alive when I'm on stage and writing and recording feed my soul. I wouldn't call it a job. It's LIFE.

5) When and where were you the happiest?
Every time I'm on stage.

6) What's the best piece of advice you ever received?
My uncle Don always used to say "Just do it, even if it's wrong... just DO IT." It's my mantra. In one form or another almost all of the songs I write contain that message.

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Can A New Instrument Sound Vintage?

Everyone who's ever played or heard a vintage stringed instrument can attest to the excellent sound, but the problem is it might take 30 or 40 years (or 100's in the case of classic instruments) until the wood and metal ages. If you don't have the money to buy a fine vintage instrument, you probably have no other choice but to wait until a new instrument becomes sufficiently resonant over time. But what if there was another choice?

Now comes the ToneRite, an add-on device that claims to accelerate the aging process by simulating years of playing by bombarding the wood with carefully selected frequencies. There's a different ToneRite for every kind of wooden stringed instrument, from guitar to violin to cello, etc.

The unit connects to the bridge of the instrument and never touches the body. It gets its power from a common AC outlet. Supposedly results can be heard after an initial 72 hour break-in period. Each unit costs $150 USD.

Does it work? If you look at the site, you don't really get any enthusiastic endorsements, but everyone claims that they can detect a least a little difference. The unit is so new, however, that no one has used the unit for that long, so who's to say.

While this might seem like a lot of snake-oil that we see so often (especially the kind aimed at the audiophile industry), inventor Augi Lye is a musician and electrical engineer who had been working on systems for unmanned intelligence drones, so at least he's a guy with a scientific and music background.

It should be noted that the ToneRite is primarily intended for classical instruments and no one is yet sure if it can enhance that new Les Paul you just bought. The implications are pretty large for the vintage instrument community though.

Imagine if this thing worked, even a little. What if you could buy a fairly inexpensive 10 or 20 year old instrument that was already well on it's way to those fine resonant characteristics that we all know and love, and you could use the ToneRite to quickly take it the rest of the way? It might not affect the price of those rare 59 Les Paul's, but it could take a chunk out of the prices of everything else.

We're still a ways off from that, but keep an eye on this device to see if and how it evolves. Here's a good article on the ToneRite in the New York Times.

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The Secret Of The Abbey Road Reverb

Through the years we've all listened to many classic albums recorded at EMI's famous Abbey Road studios, from The Beatles and Pink Floyd to Coldplay and Robbie Williams. One of the things that's always been distinctive about those recordings is the sound of the reverb. Here's one of the reasons for how that sound was achieved.

Regardless of whether the reverb was from one of Abbey Road's fine chambers or one of their plates, the secret is in the high and low-pass filters placed on the reverb send. These were set to roll-off everything below 600Hz and above 10kHz, since physical reverb tends to have trouble with low and very high end frequencies. A lot of low end on the verb tends to muddy everything up as well, with no audible benefits.

While there might have been a real necessity to use a bandpass filter set to those frequencies back in the day, rolling off everything below 600Hz and above 10kHz still works well today regardless of what kind of verb that you're using, whether it's a piece of hardware or in-the-box. Be sure to put the filter on the send before it hits the reverb though, since it will sound quite a bit different if placed in the return path (not as good, in my opinion.)

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Detuning Doubled Guitars

Sometimes you think that you've seen everything, but come to realize that you haven't. I don't know how I missed this over the years, but Kiss's Ace Frehley had a really good suggestion for doubled guitars in a great interview with my buddy Rich Tozzoli in the latest issue of Premier Guitar.

Ace mentioned that a trick he learned from producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Kiss, and a whole lot more) is to slightly detune your guitar when it comes time to play a double. That way, the double will make the sound a lot bigger and wider. Makes perfect sense and I can't wait to try it (can't believe I never have).

In the article, Ace also talks about playing an electric guitar without an amplifier before he buys it. This makes perfect sense in that you can feel how it rings and vibrates a lot better without the distraction of an amp. It also makes it a lot easier to cherry-pick to find the best one when you're trying a dozen of the same model guitar. I did this on when buying my last Les Paul and a long time ago with my favorite Strat and the method does indeed work.

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A Sideman's Journey

Don't know how I found this video but it's pretty cool. It's a trailer for an album by Klaus Voorman called "A Sideman's Journey." Klaus was one of those guys who was connected with The Beatles but always in the background. A talented graphic artist, he designed the famous "Revolver" cover, but he's better known as the bass player for Manfred Man, The Plastic Ono Band, and albums by John Lennon, George Harrison, Carly Simon and a host of other 70's rock artists. He was also once touted as a replacement for Paul McCartney in The Beatles after Macca left, which obviously never went that far.

You're probably thinking, "Here we go again with that 30 year old stuff again," and you're almost right except for one thing. Check out the way they're recording during the first couple of minutes of the video. They're in a studio without walls - a very large bedroom, if you will. Sure, where talking large format console here, but it's in the same room as the players and the engineers are wearing headphones.

Recording like this is as modern as it gets and the way 95% of us are recording these days. You have to love traditional studios and the sound you can get recording in them, but there's not many left and they're not coming back anytime soon.

This is a pretty good video. It's well edited and goes by quickly, and gives a pretty short, but candid look at the making of the album.