Edith Crash is a musician originally from Perpignan, France near the Mediterranean Coast. She spent time in Barcelona before locating to Los Angeles, where she is now based. This past September, she released her newest record Partir. Edith tells what gear she uses to be her own one-woman band in the latest installment of Tom Tom Magazine’s Gear, Diary.
At the time I started my solo project, I was living in Barcelona (Spain) and playing bass in a metal band. It wasn’t really easy to find venues where you could play loud in town so I took my guitar and started with a really stripped down set-up, only vocals and acoustic. Really quickly I started to use my boots as an instrument. I would hang an egg shaker with tape and keep the beat with them.
Little by little I added more elements. Right now I’m using a Ludwig 22′ bass drum and a tambourine with a percussion pedal mount. In some songs like the “St James Infirmary” cover, I use a Roland SPDS. This is a really cool percussion pad, you can sample your own sounds with a mic or from your computer with a Compact Flash card. For this song (“St James Infirmary”) I have an Organ Hammond note assigned to each pad. It would be like using a keyboard, but I play it with the drum sticks which is easier for me as I’m also playing bass drum, tambourine and a trash can from Ikea that I use as a snare. Sometimes I replace it with a beer keg if it’s available at the venue. You can listen the song here (or below).
Generally I play with two guitars, an Alhambra W-3 acoustic from Spain and a Fender Jazzmaster J Mascis signature with a Fender Blues Junior. I really love the sound of these guitars. I have a Gibson Les Paul Junior that has an incredible tone, and it’s not so heavy compared to other Les Paul. I couldn’t bring it from Europe, hopefully next time.
My pedal board includes a Boss Tremolo, Digital Reverb RV-3, Digital Delay DD7 and an Ibanez Tube Screamer.
That’s pretty much it. Thanks for reading!
Edith Crash will be performing at SXSW this March. See the promo video here for details on this show.