How did you get into guitar?
“I grew up as a pastor’s kid in Oklahoma.
The music minister of our church happened
to be an incredible guitarist. He gave a
group of us boys one hour of jazz lessons
and one hour of ‘jam’ lessons every
week, for years. It was serendipitous that
I happened to have an opportunity like
that in a small college town, but I am so
thankful for it.”
When did you start tinkering with gear?
“My first experience modding gear was
thumbing through a Musician’s Friend
catalogue as an 11-year-old. I saw a listing
for ‘DiMarzio Distortion Pickups’ and
thought, ‘Man, that’s a great idea. I could
have distortion on at all times!’ I bought
them and soldered them in with my dad’s
soldering iron, plugged it in to hear that
sweet distortion ‘inside’ the pickups...
well... no cigar. I went to re-read the listing
to find out ‘Distortion Pickups’ means
they have a super-hot output to hit the
amp hard, not provide always-on
distortion. A first failure, but that’s what
got me into gear.”Did Walrus get any initial help when you
were starting out?
“Walrus started out with an initial investor.
We’ve since parted ways and they’re onto
bigger and better things, but it provided us
with an opportunity to develop top-shelf
gear at a healthy rate, creating a lot of buzz
in the MI world and with artists I grew up
listening to.”At what point did you feel like you ‘nailed’
your branding?
“Never! I have a few campaigns that
were my favourite, but we’re always
tweaking and doing things we think
are improvements. My favourite campaignsto date are the Luminary Quad Octave,
385 Overdrive and Monument Tremolo.”What’s your best-selling product?
“The Julia Chorus/Vibrato is one of our
top-sellers. What pedal company plans on
having a chorus as a top-moving product?
Probably none. It was a complete happy
accident. We started to hear chorus coming
back into indie-rock and the Top 40 since
its hibernation in the late 90s. The Julia
was us messing around with sounds that
inspired us and it seems to have inspired
many others as well.”What’s your proudest moment to date?
“We film a series for YouTube called Songs
At The Shop. It’s a moment when bands we
love and sponsor come in to film one of
their favourite songs from their catalogue
in our warehouse. We got Mutemath to say
yes to filming one, but they were playing in
Tulsa, which is 100 miles from our shop.
“We still wanted to film it, so we thought
hard about how to make it work. I called a
buddy in Tulsa, Isaac Hanson from the band
Hanson, who happened to have a studio
across the street from the venue where
Mutemath was playing. I asked him if there
was any way a band, a film crew and a few
fans could crash the studio and film some
music videos and he was electric about
the idea! It was when I was watching and
listening to Mutemath play through the
songs in Hanson’s studio in downtown Tulsa
that I thought, ‘Yeah man, this is cool.’”What are the guitar industry’s biggest
challenges and opportunities in 2019?
“The biggest challenge is making gear that
people need. There are so many pedal
companies now that you can’t just hold
something up saying, ‘Here’s my take on the
Tube Screamer, who wants it!?’ and expect
a line out the door like you could in 2010.
You have to work tirelessly to make gear
that offers something innovative... Which
I think is a good thing, because I enjoy
the challenge.”Can you give us any details of your plans
for the future?
“The future is huge. We’ll keep up what
we’re known for, but in the next couple
years, we are reaching for higher goals.”For more on Walrus Audio, visit walrusaudio.comINDUSTRY INSIDER
WALRUS AUDIO
INTERVIEW JOSH GARDNER
Oklahoma-based Walrus Audio has quickly become one of the most
beloved and respected names in the effects world. We speak to company
president, Colt Westbrook, about rising to the top of the boutique pile...
INDUSTRY INSIDER
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