Mickey Melchiando
An Interview with Dean Ween
www.sixstringsoul.com
3/1/2005
Both Mickey Melchiando (aka Dean Ween) and Aaron Freeman (aka Gene Ween),
form the songwriting force of the band Ween. They continue to amuse and
excite their fans in a manner that can only be described as a "brown"
experience. Whether your a fan of the song "Poopship Destroyer" or into the
more elegant songs like "The Mollusk," Ween offers just about every emotion
needed in a musical experience. In this SSS interview, Mickey takes us
closer to his style, his gear, and his experience as cofounder of Ween.
SSS: You have an extensive guitar collection. Can you talk a bit about some
of your favorite axes, and what specific traits you look for in guitars
(high/low action, pickups, style, etc.).
Mickey: I have always played Fender guitars pretty much. I own a lot of
guitars but they're mostly Stratocasters and telecasters. I have 2 main
guitars that I have used for everything over the years. I play a Dakota red
"Frankenstein" 1962 stratocaster which is a slab board 1962 neck bolted onto
some other pre-CBS fender body. It has 2 lace sensor pickups in the neck and
middle positions and a Seymour duncan hot rail in the lead position. This is
pretty much the same setup I have in all my strats. The other guitar is a
1961 Fender Musicmaster that was converted into a duo-sonic by adding the
2nd pickup. This also has a hot rail in the lead position. I have about 17
electric guitars but I have used these 2 for all our gigs and most of our
sessions since the beginning of Ween.
SSS: What is your live amp/pedal setup? Does it vary by tour? Does your live
setup differ from what you use in the studio? And, does that vary by album?
Mickey: I use either one or two mesa boogie dual rectifier tremor-verb heads
into two 4x12 cabinets. In the studio though I use my old mesa mark IV head
with a 2x10 cabinet. My pedalboard has a crybaby wah, electro harmonix micro
synthesizer, mu-tron III envelope filter, mxr phase 90 pedal, digitech
whammy pedal, mxr blue box, and a boss digital delay stompbox. I also use a
talkbox from time to time. In the studio I will play any guitar thru any amp
or any pedal to find the right sound for a song.
SSS: What are some of your favorite venues/cities that Ween has toured
through?
Mickey: I always enjoy playing in New Orleans, Minneapolis and Austin. Maybe
San Francisco too.
SSS: Which did you learn how to play first: guitar or drums? How does one
affect another in your style of playing? Which musicians have been big
influences on you for each instrument?
Mickey: I started playing drums first. I'm not that great at playing drums
but I can play "passably" well enough to record in the studio. My drumming
only sounds good when I'm playing the other instruments because I can
usually anticipate my mistakes enough to camouflage them. My favorite
players are Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eddie Hazel, Santana and Prince on guitar.
My favorite drummers are Ringo Starr, Claude Coleman and Stevie Wonder. And
John Bonham too.
SSS: Who is your guitar tech? Describe your relationship w/him (how long
have you worked together? how well do you work together? do you both
influence each other?, etc.).
Mickey: My guitar tech is Mick Preston, or "the douche," as we refer to him.
He's a lousy guitar tech but we are good friends so I let him keep his job.
SSS: What's in your CD player right now?
Mickey: The new Moistboyz record. I haven't really heard any music other
than this record because we've been working on it every day and night for
the past few months. I don't like to hear other music while writing a
record.
SSS: As you've gotten older, how do you still manage to keep it so brown?
Mickey: I am faking it. I don't know any more licks now than I did 15 years
ago. Actually I was probably a better player 15 years ago to be honest. Or
at least more obnoxious, which counts for quite a bit.
SSS: How much of your playing do you attribute to technique as opposed to
feel? Do you think having formal training is important for having a career
in music?
Mickey: I guess I'm probably a 100 percent feel player. I'm supposed to be
playing guitar for a living yet I can't really play any songs other than
Ween or Moistboyz tunes. I think that musicians should have formal training
unless they're playing rock and roll. 3 lessons when you're 13 years old
should be enough for any credible rock guitarist. The guy who taught me was
my friend Bill Tucker, he played a strat thru a mesa-boogie so that's what I
bought. I still sorta play like a bad imitation of him, he was a massive
influence on me.
SSS: Aaron (aka Gene Ween) has become quite the guitarist over the years.
How much have you taught each other? And what's his general set up?
Mickey: We sort of learned how to make music together so I'm not sure if
we've taught each other too much. His setup is pretty similar to mine except
he plays a lot more acoustic guitar and he favors Les Pauls.
SSS: Was there a moment when you realized that this was what you were going
to be doing for the rest of your life? If so, what was that moment like?
Mickey: Not really, I still feel like we're getting away with murder. I keep
waiting for people to figure out that we don't know what we're doing.
SSS: How do you view your fan base?
Mickey: From as far away as possible actually. I think the music means one
thing to me and Aaron and another thing entirely to our fans. We love our
fans and depend on them, but at the end of the day neither of us likes to
hang out or be bothered too much.
SSS: What are some of the things you took away after recording and touring
with the Shit Creek Boys (12 Golden Country Greats)?
Mickey: Their total lack of ego was really amazing. I know a million great
musicians but those guys were the best I've ever played with and I was very
comfortable in the studio and on the road with these guys. I think that
Aaron and Claude would say the same thing. They could play so furiously yet
so tastefully. When it was time to play trashy they could dumb down their
skills for the better of the song. That was impressive.
SSS: Favorite Ween record?
Mickey: I like the Mollusk and White Pepper.
SSS: Favorite non-Ween record?
Mickey: "There's a Riot Goin' On" by Sly and the Family Stone.
SSS: Can you talk about your upcoming album for your sideproject, Moistboyz?
Mickey: We're close to being finished. Ask me in about 6 years and I'll tell
you if it was any good.
SSS: Alright Mickey, around this time in the interview, SSS likes to ask an
absurd question. In the brownest way, please describe the funniest
experience you've had on stage!
Mickey: I always enjoy it when some drunken dumbass gets onstage and does a
stage dive to impress their friends, only to see the audience part and end
up doing a faceplant on the floor from about 12 feet up. I always get a real
kick out of that.
