Second Square To None

Ed Devane - Clear by SSTN Strings

This week: Withering Zithering AKA Ed Devane in homemade-zither-and-effects mode.

Tell us a little about your musical background ie influences, formative experiences, bands you play/played in.

I started playing guitar age 14, and from listening to bands like Sonic Youth quickly started experimenting with feedback and non-standard ways of making sounds with amplified strings. I played in a couple of bedroom bands as a teen but lost interest in guitar music on hearing some now "classic" mid-to-late 90's electronica. A couple of years later I went back to the guitar, modifying it by taking out the frets, cutting off bits of the body that got in the way of the knife sharpener (which I used to play the strings, and which has the effect of slide and bow), adding more pickups etc. Eventually as I began playing in John Mary Trilogy around 2003 I started thinking about building my own instrument, which I eventually did a couple of years ago.


Withering Zithering is a side line for me from the music I produce under my own name, but I go through phases of just playing zither for a couple of weeks. It's a very different interaction with sound than using a computer to assemble music...humbling most of the time but very satisfying when something resembling music appears...

Describe your process of music-making/composition. Is this piece (ie the one submitted to SSTN) typical of this process?

I've always hated the idea of using presets, sounds or rhythms other people have made. For years I've been making every single sound from scratch (apart from a couple of exceptions), which led to making special patches and misuse of music software. In parallel with my electronic music I have taken time to make my own instruments and techniques for playing them, resulting in music that I can confidently say is my own, in tonal character at least!

This piece was the result of playing the strings with 2 specially made metal bars and using the nut pickup mentioned earlier. When the bar is rubbed off the strings it plays both sides of the string, instead of one side as you would have on finger fretted instruments. The nut pickup and bridge pickup amplify both sides of the string. At certain intervals these 2 notes have natural harmonic relationships which sound beautiful. This track was recorded live, with reverb as the only effect.

I found making the instrument very interesting so I've been making a lot of plans for more, some of which will see the light of day in the coming months. They will in turn be used in Withering Zithering music, so the sound palette will grow wider.

What sort of equipment (e.g. computer, hardware, home made gear, instruments etc.) do you use to make your sounds?

It depends on what approach I want to take. With this piece I just used one electronic effect, and played it with my hands. I have an array of purpose built objects for sounding the strings in different ways, so spend a lot time just using a clean signal through a mixer and monitors. Other times I use effects and looping chains in Ableton Live, and recently I've gone back to using my old Red Sound Cycloops phrase sampler, which has long been my weapon of choice for rapidly building up a wall of sound or creating rhythms. I record using either Live or Logic, depending on the project.

Info on upcoming gigs, preferred web address, releases etc.

I want to make a "proper" Withering Zithering release at some stage but I'm in no hurry. I see this as a long-term project, one which will improve over the coming years. Mainly this music is a by-product of sound design or composition sessions, so I haven't put time aside to do something properly using just the zither. No gigs planned but I haven't been looking and no-one's been asking!
myspace.com/witheringzithering
www.eddevane.com