Board to Death Ep. 12: Paramore's Taylor York
Aaron Rogers
“[Pedals] inspire me to do things differently. It’s such a big part of what I do and how I create,” says Paramore guitarist Taylor York.
We caught up with the guitarist of Nashville pop-punk sensations Paramore to check out the gear he uses to bring to life the band’s stadium-sized hooks stuffed with enough ear candy to make every day feel like Halloween.
York plugs his Bilt and Supro axes into an RJM Mastermind switcher used to trigger the plethora of pedals stashed away in his rack, which feeds a pair of Supro Statesman amps and a Top Hat Emplexador, all of which blast through a trio of Supro cabinets live onstage.
Taylor’s main overdrive sound comes courtesy of a pair of RawkWorks Light Overdrives, and for raunchier fuzz tones, he uses the Dirt Transmitter and Terminal. “I got [the Terminal] because [Tame Impala frontman] Kevin Parker has it,” he adds. “Everyone loves Kevin”.
York’s modulation palette includes two Boss DC-2s, a CE-2w, and the Rainbow Machine, which Taylor says he originally used for the weirdness factor, but has since discovered a number of day-to-day uses. “I used it for one its wacky things - it sounded almost like a car. I didn’t realize how useable it was…until I found this really cool modulated slapback. I use that all over the place,” he says.
In addition, York uses the Grand Orbiter for a swirly, resonant phaser that’s FOH engineer approved, without any of the harsh frequencies found in other units. “Phasers are always really tricky,” he says. “You can really dial it in right.”
Paramore’s After Laughter is out now on Fueled by Ramen.
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