Fulfilment

On ‘The New Now’, Vera explores country, rock ‘n’ roll, gospel and soul with his band, which includes JP Hoekstra on guitar. “On ‘The Outsider’ (2016), I did almost all the guitar parts myself,” says Vera. “I really enjoyed doing that and it gave me a lot of satisfaction. However, lately I prefer to record everything live. The four of us sit there, we tap out and play that song. And I sing and play guitar at the same time. It’s one take and then it’s nice that you don’t have to do guitar overdubs anymore. “I’m not a solo guitarist either. I really like to come up with themes, guitar lines and sounds, but I don’t just throw out a blues or jazz solo. When I was young, I focused on writing songs and singing. And I always really enjoyed the guitar to accompany myself, so I’m glad I’ve gotten better at it than I ever was, but I always feel more like someone who creates something. “I make demos at home and there is often a guitar part in there that it should be. JP plays it just a little bit better and more beautifully, with a better sound. I usually only make a minute of a song, because that is more than enough to know how it should sound.”

Old guitars

The brand name was mentioned earlier and when it comes to electric guitars, Vera has no other options than Gretsch. “I’ve never really played anything else,” he explains. “When I started playing guitars, I wanted a Gretsch. But I couldn’t afford it, so I had an Aria Pro II, from red to yellow with gold hardware. Also a kind of jazz guitar with an imitation Bigsby on it. When I was in the US at the age of seventeen, I bought a 1967 Gretsch Tennessean in New Orleans for 500 dollars. A good deal. “I often find old guitars more fun and special, but recently Gretsch gave me a Black Falcon that was truly an incredibly good guitar. Coincidentally, I’ve been given two guitars this year that I have nothing to complain about. I’ve also had another new Falcon in my hands, but that wasn’t quite the match for me.”

However, only older guitars can be heard on ‘The New Now’. “I hadn’t tried the Black Falcon yet,” Vera explains. “So I brought some old guitars with me. I also have an old White Falcon from 1989. It has a special, somewhat grittier sound because the output is a bit softer.”

Plugged-in

“Lately I’ve been taking three acoustic and three electric guitars to gigs. With this album I’ll have to take a few more. My new single The Weight, for example, is in a different tuning. It’s in E♭, but with the high E string in C♯. There are a few more like that, so you need a few extra guitars. Ideally you only want an electric, an acoustic and a backup. “I’m not really into a lot of effects, just reverbs. Since it came out I’ve always used the Strymon El Capistan, I think it’s one of the nicest. I also have a Brunetti Taxi Drive overdrive and a Boss digital and analogue delay with slapback. And I have a tremolo, but I usually get that from the amplifier itself because I like it that way. I have a Fender silverface Deluxe. And now a few of those Deluxe reissues with that ’68 and custom channel. Top amplifier. Before that I always had a Twin, but that’s way too heavy and way too loud. “When I play with the whole band, I bring horns, strings and backing vocals. Then there are fourteen or fifteen of us on stage and a microphone for the acoustic guitar doesn’t make much sense. If you have me alone, I have a microphone in front of my guitar. I hate plugged-in acoustic guitars. I’ve never heard a good one. That’s impossible, because the sound of the acoustic guitar is made in front of the guitar. That’s why I can’t play with in-ears. Imagine having a plugged-in acoustic guitar on your in-ears. I can’t listen to that. “I’ll probably start using that Homestead a lot soon. That sounds great to me. I just have to look at it, because there’s an LR Baggs in there and all my other guitars have a Fishman. Something has to be done about that difference.”

Pipe

By the way, ‘The New Now’ is not Vera’s first release of 2020. At the end of August, the EP ‘The New Black White Pt. IV: Home Recordings’ was released, which Vera recorded at home, in accordance with the title. “Because of Corona, all kinds of people started doing livestreams and I thought that would be fun too,” he explains. “So I thought: I’ll first record a song myself. I had bought some stuff at the music store and when I walked outside I saw a microphone lying there. So I said to the guy: what is that?
That was an AKG P120. And that pipe underneath? That was an AKG P170. That one cost 70 euros and the other one 80. “I said: well, it can’t be much, but give it to me, then at least I’ll have some microphones that I can record something with. But that pipe for 70 euros, that makes me very happy. I record everything with it. Somehow I really like how it gives your acoustic guitar the bottom that it needs. And many microphones don’t do that. “Those microphones were in my room. Then I would sit down and play a song. And then sometimes I only had to do a little bit of volume and reverb, while I had never recorded anything before, except on my phone. They were those AKG microphones that went straight into the Mac via the Focusrite Scarlett interface, and then mixed in GarageBand with everything that comes standard with it. I didn’t buy anything. I got better with every recording. “Everyone always thinks you have to spend a lot of money to record your acoustic guitar well at home, but that microphone was really only 70 euros. I just want another interface now, but that’s just because I like it. I want that Universal Audio Apollo, because then you get the Capitol reverb (plug-in of the echo chambers of the Capitol studio in Hollywood – ed.) with it. That’s a holy grail for me.”