artists » Sean Gould of Bandcamp

“Hey! We’re from New York, we’re in town, and we’re playing tonight!” Long Island based Bandcamp guitarist Sean Gould tells people, as the group visits a mall to spread the word. Most people would assume the name comes from a quote from the movie, American Pie, “So this one time at band camp…,” but actually, there is another reason behind the moniker. Sean explains, “I don’t know if you guys know this, but when you first become a roadie, and you go on your first tour, while they are breaking you in, they say they are sending you to band camp. So the rookies are at band camp.”

We recently had the chance to sit down with the guitarist as he told us about the band, his own experience, and his preference for VOX amps.
Bandcamp first formed about three years ago and consists of guitarist and singer/songwriter Matt Bair, drummer Kris Mazzarisi, bassist St3ve Shebby, and guitarist Sean Gould. “Matt and Kris are actually brothers, so they’ve been pretty much playing together their whole life. At some point along the way, they were recording demos with a producer who was a friend of mine. I had been working in the studio and was asked to help out. I met the guys, and they said they were looking for another guitarist, so I started playing. Then St3ve, our bass player, eventually joined up through friends,” says Sean.

After releasing their independent, full-length CD and EP, the band received a lot of positive feedback. With their next CD, which is due out in the fall of 2006, Sean reveals, “As the band has progressed and worked together, we’ve become more of a straight up rock band, not any one particular genre or scene. I think people who are familiar with our first two releases are going to be surprised by a lot of the songs that we’ve recorded. There’s a song called ‘Brightest Dark,’ which has a whole choral breakdown and layers of instruments.”

Currently, Bandcamp is on the Terra Tour 2006, and Sean had some positive things to say about recent shows. “Every place we’ve been to, the reactions have been really good. We’ve made great fans that have been responding well to the songs. One show we played in southern Illinois in a town called Quincy stands out in my mind,” Sean recalls. “It was our first time playing there, and we came into town not knowing what to expect. All these kids came out and they really got into it. And the next time we played at that venue, they all came in wearing Bandcamp shirts, singing along from the first song to the last. It was crazy!”

Sean has been using a VOX AC30CC2X Custom Classic and the VOX VBM-1 Brian May Special and had some very nice things to impart about both of them. “The AC30 Custom Classic is great. When we did the album, I think I used five different VOX’s. I used really old ones, like one from the ‘60s, and we even had one of the heads from the ‘70s, which are really rare and hard to get. So there were all these different eras of VOX’s that we were recording with, and I’ve pretty much been able to recreate all of those sounds with the new AC30 Custom Classic. It’s pretty versatile and rock solid. The reverb sounds really good and the tremolo is amazing. I also use a lot of pedals and effects, and the amp really allows the natural character of them to come through. I would say for the Custom Classic, it’s one of those amps that you can pretty much buy and use for the rest of your life. Brian May has been a huge influence on me, as well as The Edge, which is also the reason I like the AC30s.”

Sean then began talking about the VBM-1, “The sound is awesome! Even for the people who are just going for the Brian May guitar orchestra sound, you can do so much more than that with it. I’ve been using it in the studio. I’ll do something like take a signal and split it, one side into the amp and the other into a fuzz or something. People will ask, ‘How did you get that sound?’ but it’s my little secret.” (laughs)

Bandcamp is on the road for the summer. Find out tour info and more at www.bandcampmusic.com and www.myspace.com/bandcamp.

By Daniel Marc