What Brendon Small of Dethklok Learned from a Metal Master]

When Dethklok’s Brendon Small lost a dozen guitars in a recording studio robbery, he responded not by replacing them – but by deciding to part with even more of his collection.

“I love having lots of guitars; it’s inspiring,” the Berklee College of Music alum says. “It’s our job as artists to be inspired in one way or another, and sometimes getting a new guitar really does that trick. But I don’t need to be a hoarder.”

Accordingly, last year he sold off a slew of gear on Reverb – including prototypes of his signature Epiphone Explorer and one of its successors, the GhostHorse. But as the Metalocalypse mastermind explains, he’s not finished with the instrument.

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Truth is, I never really had an emotional attachment to my guitars. I had my favorites, but they were just guitars. What I learned was that they can take my guitars away from me, but they can’t take my fingers away – unless they do take my fingers away. Then I’m in big trouble!

I had a bunch of guitars in storage and I thought, “These are really cool guitars, but I’m not playing them, and someone else should be.” The robbery helped me get to that conclusion. I think I listed them at pretty reasonable prices.

Actually, I think because of the robbery, they were easy to part with. The ones I kept – the ones you didn’t see – were the ones I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to.

(Image credit: Courtesy Brendon Small)

What’s fun is that through losing all these guitars, it made me experiment with some others I hadn’t played before. I got a couple of really cool new ones, from eight-string Strandbergs to a Jason Richardson Music Man to an Abasi Larada. The thieves took one of my Satriani guitars with a Sustaniac, so I got a new candy apple red one. I love the way that guitar sounds.

You’ve been playing with Nili Brosh in Dethklok for a few years now. Have you had a chance to play her new Ibanez signature model yet?

No, but I’m probably going to have to get one. I’m known for playing Gibsons – if you can even see me in my shadowed state on stage, you’ll see a pointy guitar, which is either a V or an Explorer – but I love all guitars. I had a Satriani Ibanez in high school. I love RGs. Those Nick Johnston Schecters are beautiful.

How did Nili come into the Dethklok orbit, and what does she bring to the band?

She was nice enough to invite me to the Cirque du Soleil show [Michael Jackson ONE] that she did. I loved the way she played, and I loved her tone and vibrato. She can do anything. I saw her bouncing around and shooting flames out of her guitar, dancing and performing.

For our live show, I’d been learning a lot about what I wanted to see. I thought, “I’ve gotten to direct some music videos, and I’ve gotten to play with lighting and effects and all kinds of crazy stuff. I’ve learned a lot, and I know what I want it to look and feel like.”

Metalocalypse: Dethklok | Go Forth and Die (Lyric Video) | Adult Swim – YouTube

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Nili checked all those boxes, and she fits into the sound cleanly and effortlessly. It was a huge workload, but she knocked it out of the park. In an hour-long show with Dethklok, there aren’t gaps between our songs. It’s almost perpetual motion – it’s a serious gig. But she’s a powerhouse.

You recently took a lesson from Jason Richardson. What did you learn?

I don’t know how it happened, but somewhere along the way, my right hand got – not uncomfortable, but it just wasn’t doing the job. I was overgripping, or I was not really considering my posture, and I was straining to play these long, crazy shows. But I thought, ‘OK, I can get on top of this.’

Jason’s a great teacher. I said, “Come over to my house. Whatever you charge people for lessons, charge me that. I’m going to ask you, like a golf pro, to watch my swing and tell me where I’m fucking up.” And he did a great job of isolating and reminding me of some things that I was like, “Dammit, I knew all these tricks at some point!”

Basically I’d do anything to hit a note, but now I’m really concerned about arching my fingers better and getting my thumb behind the neck and getting better reach. Throughout the past year I’ve been employing all of what Jason taught me, and it gets me closer to having that perfect show. That’s what I’m looking for.

Brendon Small

(Image credit: Courtesy Brendon Small)

Do you have any new signature instruments in the works?

Maybe someday I’ll come up with another one. The more I play, the more I start carving out things I’d like to have in a perfect instrument. I’m starting to make one in my mind – kind of Frankensteining parts of my Ernie Ball, my Abasi, my classic Gibsons and all that stuff.

I do think that Epiphone knocked it out of the park with the GhostHorse. It’s 24 frets and a whammy bar on an Explorer, which you just don’t see. And I like the way it feels. I kept pushing the bridge pickup farther back so that I could push my neck pickup farther up, to get it closer to where it’s supposed to be on a 22-fret guitar. I got a great SG-kind of punch out of the bridge pickup that I really loved.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Metalocalypse, a show in which a number of guitar heroes have served as guest voice actors.

A lot of guitar players are mush-mouthed shoegazers. You’re talking to one of them

On stage, guitar players have their guitar, and it’s a protective shield. I know what it feels like to take the guitar off and go, “What am I supposed to do?” You feel like you’re going to spontaneously combust – it’s scary! So it’s fun to take the guitar off and then, hopefully, get them to a place where they’re having fun.

Satriani and Vai – we just laughed all day. They have such great senses of humor, and I knew they would deliver because they’re such good communicators. Billy Gibbons is such a great storyteller and communicator. All these successful players are famous because they can communicate their ideas.

Metalocalypse: Dethklok | Murmaider III (Lyric Video) | Adult Swim – YouTube

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A lot of guitar players are mush-mouthed shoegazers. You’re talking to one of them – I had to start doing stand-up to break out of my shy pupa stage. I say to guitar players, “Get used to putting the guitar down and talking to people and expressing ideas in a calm, clear way, because you’ll probably be more successful.”

Slash was outstanding. He’s not known for being funny with his voice, but he was great. The one who was a natural was Michael Amott from Arch Enemy. He had really great control. His voice was kind of trashed from doing backup vocals on the road, but he still sounded like a professional voice actor. He could do it for a living, doing movie trailers or something.

Dethklok are about to hit the road with Amon Amarth. What should fans expect?

If you’re going to see a show and pay for parking and all kinds of stuff, we want to make sure it’s the best show you’re going to see this year. I want to make it more exciting than any other show you go to. And I’m talking about big stadium shows – I want our show to be more memorable, more fun, more exciting.