Kevin Guyer - guitar tech

I play guitar, sing, play a little bass. Oh, and keep me away from the drums...bad idea.

It took nearly 30 years after starting my first band to suddenly write a bunch of songs I actually liked, develop them and record an album, and put together a good band willing to try it my way--on the assumption that I learned something along the way. Assumption...hmmm. Most people learn what that means earlier on. I'm a late bloomer.

Q & A with Kevin

Q: Why Hudu Engineers?

A:Have you ever tried to come up with a band name? Maybe it's easy for some people, but for me it's always pure torture. I can usually come up with names for bands that are solidly within a genre. I've got some surf band names and a bunch of goth and heavy metal options I'll probably never use. But when it comes to naming a band based on what the band is actually like, that's a lot tougher. We settled on the Hudu Engineers for a bunch of reasons. It comes from a book by one of my favorite sci-fi/ fantasy authors, Emma Bull. Emma is also a musician, so perhaps she'll forgive us for copping our name from her book Bonedance.

In Bonedance, the Hoodoo Engineers are "something of a family," a group of people who work together to simply do good, keep that energy circulating, and show other people how it's done."

One underlying theme of this band is that these songs are about positive things. One critic in the family even referred to them as "relentlessly cheerful." While I think that's a little overboard, they aren't about dark subjects and "Oh what a sad tortured life I've led." They are simple, stupid, and fun. If you want to see my cynical dark side, that's a whole different band. Think of us as the anti-Smiths.

Or you could just choose to believe we all have degrees in putting the hoodoo on you. Your choice.

Q: What do you use for equipment?

Give me a break. Do I look like a guitar geek? I'm the only guitar player in this group because I'm about as sick to death of guitar noodling as I can be. I'll take some leads, I'll make some noise and I'll have a little fun with it. But I'd much rather hear a good sax player wail or a B3 organ solo.

I've always liked Miami Steve Van Zandts comment on the subject: When asked the same question he said " I don't know. It doesn't really matter. When you turn the amp all the way up, everything pretty much sounds the same."

A friend of mine recently reminded me of something I once said about Eric Clapton --"Great guitar player! Who needs him?"

Q: Why would you write a dance craze song in this day and age?

A: You are referring to "Do the Spin" I take it. The answer is because my muse told me so. When I set out to write a bunch of songs for a live repertoire, I knew I had to follow my muse and be true to myself or the songs would suck. My muse, I call him Bob, is a weird guy. He thinks people should be trying to "stand on one leg and turn around again and again" as the song says. He thinks "Put it in, get it out" is a pretty good refrain and not simply a dumb adaptation of GIGO--garbage in garbage out.

Bob occasionally consults with my father's ghost. Dad was a musician in a bygone era. He died many years ago. When it comes to writing lyrics, I often borrow phrases from him. Things like "Rubbin' two thin dimes, havin' a time..." and "Pick you up at eight in my beat up bomb." They just sound better.

Anyhow Bob the muse says "Write songs about nothing that sound like something and take it from there. See what happens."