Paul Jackson Jr. Breaks Down his Most Iconic Guitar Parts
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2023
Paul Jackson Jr. is an absolute legend in the world of music. Paul has worked with some of the world's biggest artists over the span of his career (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Kenny Loggins, Daft Punk, and the Weeknd -- to name a few). Today, Paul is telling stories from legendary sessions, talking about the gear he has used throughout his career, and sharing hard-earned guitar knowledge that the next generation of guitar players NEED to know!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
00:00 Intro Jam
00:19 Introducing Paul Jackson Jr.
02:12 "Thriller" Sessions (Michael Jackson)
06:20 Paul plays "Lady in My Life"
08:47 Paul plays "Beat It"
09:57 "Bad" Sessions (Michael Jackson)
12:17 Paul plays "Dirty Diana"
13:16 "PYT" Sessions (Michael Jackson)
14:17 "Rhythm of The Night" Sessions with Dann Huff
15:35 Paul plays "Rhythm of the Night" (DeBarge)
16:03 Paul's Valley Arts Custom Guitars
18:42 "Footloose" Sessions (Deniece Williams)
19:55 Paul Breaks Down his Hit-Making Clean Tone
21:35 Kenny Loggins Sessions
25:15 Working with Daft Punk
28:32 Paul plays "Get Lucky" (Daft Punk)
30:10 Paul plays "Give Life Back to Music" (Daft Punk)
32:20 Banned Guitar Terms (A Lesson in Rhythm Guitar)
35:32 How Paul Ended up on The Weeknd's Biggest Hit
37:32 Paul plays "I Feel It Coming" (The Weeknd)
39:24 Thank you Paul!
40:39 Thanks for Watching!
TRANSCRIPT
Intro Jam?
Introducing Paul Jackson Jr.
sir talk to me how are you today I'm doing great we have the one the only Mason Marangella is that it pronounce it
right yeah you did Mason Marangella the one the only Mason Marangella yes the genius behind Vertex
Effects the pedalboard guru
the do-it-yourself Mastermind and all-around nice guy
I hope I can give you as an illustrious of an introduction Mr Paul Jackson Jr
thank you so much for being here with us today in lovely Oakland California 25th
Street recording yes Studio here beautiful absolutely if you were looking for a studio in the greater Bay Area
please come here it is a wonderful wonderful place this studio is amazing I actually called my wife The Studio owner
Gabe is over there in the corner but I I call my wife and told her I said baby I said this place is amazing yeah yeah it
is it is unreal really really nice place so it is unreal and I don't think there's a better place uh around us
where we could take the opportunity to talk to you about your career the sessions that you've
played on and even get a chance to hear you play some of the iconic parts that
you have come up with as we know especially remember them if you can remember them and this is all cold by
the way folks like Paul hasn't like you know such musicians don't spend a bunch of their time like learning their old
parts so some of this stuff I'm asking you to go back 30 or 40 years in the memory banks to try to figure this stuff
out so thank you for being willing to go down this path with us you got it
well I appreciate that
so how about we start I think with with what everybody who is familiar with your
"Thriller" Sessions (Michael Jackson)
just amazing session career everybody always
wants to know about the Michael Jackson stuff okay and for those of you who know
Paul's work he's played on Thriller and bad and some of the most
iconic songs are on those records but there are also some other amazing songs that are on let's start in chronological
order let's start with Thriller uh lady in my life first of all amazing song yeah I want to firstly know about the
gear what was used on that because that that song is Iconic it was sampled by LL Cool J and Boyz II Men with the song hey
lover what did you use on that that was a Gibson ES335 okay and my Rivera modified
Fender Deluxe amplifier used on everything yeah pretty much that was like the go-to amp back then and
everybody had them yep and uh it's funny um I was talking to Paul Jr one day and
he said I said you want to sell your amp and I said well not really he said yeah there's a guy in Japan that wants to buy
it for fifteen thousand dollars and it's like well maybe not but here's the funny thing and and no Slam against anyone or
any gear but Paul were you know the fender the Rivera
modified Deluxe was kind of like the dumble before there was a dumble it was a go-to amp also you guys use them
they're on countless recordings and it's funny because you can't really find it
Well I take that back because what Paul Senior did and Junior is they release the stage four which for
all intents and purposes is that answer with a few uh upgrades but anyway so that was a a Gibson ES335 which I
purchased at Valley Arts Guitar Center nice interesting story behind that I had a really nice 335 and I walked into
Valley Arts one day and I met Mike McGuire and I picked up a ES335 on the wall and I said man this one
really plays great I said what can you do to make my guitar play just like this one he said well probably nothing you
should buy that one so I did yep and so that was the guitar on a lady in my life yeah nice and and it sounds like it's
pretty clean no pedals or is it just no pedals it was just you know and it was a line that that Rod tempered had already
come over the you know
yeah yeah so you know he came up and he came
up with that and when you were doing the session for this obviously you know I presume that Quincy Jones was there was
Michael Jackson there when you were recording these parts actually neither Quincy nor Michael were there that it was just myself and Rod okay and
obviously Bruce Swedien okay the uh the master engineer and the genius that he
that he still is even though he's passed away yeah yeah and so they kind of had how much of this part was sort of
developed versus like what you came out with obviously you said that you know that that line was already sort of right
constructed and then it was just kind of like bringing somebody who could bring like the essence and the vibe of the sound right so he had me play that the
actually the only line I came up with on that song was in the um in the B section or the end there's a rhythm part that
goes
so that's actually the only line I came away with with Bruce and Rod Temperton came up with the excuse me
and then I think there's one line sorry
that he came up with but or maybe I came up with that but definitely the opening line was his now would you have any
objections if we try to like bring in a little bit of the track and just had you play over a little let me make sure the octopus are in two women
yeah give him a shot all right you're gonna try a lady in my wife see what we got
Paul plays "Lady in My Life"?
Yeah so basically um Rod Temperton came up with all the octave you know all the melody things that I just
came up with the groove thing at the end I mean it's such a it's such an amazing song this guitar I mean just listening to it it's just like it's it's gonna
stop on the guitar in there there was actually no guitar really in the verses except you know the intros and then and the vamp right well but it's it's it's
knowing the placement like how to bring it in the vibe I mean like that's this is why people hired you because you
could take even in the most simplistic parts and turn them into something that's like an iconic hook and everybody knows that song and knows that line
they're like oh my gosh that's you know okay I'm gonna forgive the hundred bucks you owe me then yeah checks in the mail
Paul plays "Beat It"
um also on Thriller you're also on Beat it and they're I guess there are
multiple guitar credits on that Steve Lukather credited you're credited I'm curious what is the part that that you
did on Beat it obviously there's like different guitar layers and of course Van Halen's on it as well and the soul section so tell us a little bit about
that session oh I did and it was once again overdubs I think that one was just myself and Bruce okay and all I did was
the
with an overdrive sound with that in fact same amount and so just kind of using it for like a
crunch sound and then just and what was the guitar that was used on that one uh uh I believe that was uh Les Paul
Standard Les Paul Standard okay and it was it like a vintage one or was just like of the the time it was just of the
era just also purchased the Valley Arts valet back then was like the go-to right right now so uh yeah I just went in one
day and and bought it off the off the shelf yeah beautiful beautiful well let's fast forward to the the the the
"Bad" Sessions (Michael Jackson)
next Michael Jackson you played on bad okay going uh chronologically and on
that one one of the huge hits that you were playing on was Dirty Diana yeah and that had Steve Stevens on some of the
lead guitar parts right and then you were doing kind of all like the rhythm part that was kind of leading up to that kind of dirtier guitar part so um what
was the what was the gear what were you using anything remarkable about the session that you can share with us uh
well the interesting thing was the guitar part was actually conceived and and written down by Jerry Hey okay the
arranger and he had been working on the song he says hey Paul I have an idea for a part and written it out it says okay great and I used a um a Tom Anderson I
had a red Tom Anderson guitar with the three plus pickup in the back okay and
once again the same amount the Rivera amp and the part was if I can remember it was like [Music]
something like that you know it's got so much grease on it though it sounds so good but that was that was kind of the
part and and this is one thing I I tell people and tell my students regardless of genre Bebop hip-hop rock and roll
Straight Ahead whatever uh Funk every song has to have a Groove you know um
um I was telling my students because one of the songs they're working on in in school in performance class is Walk This Way and I consider Joe Perry to be one
of the greatest rhythm guitar players in the world I mean how do you how do you think of that you know
genius yeah it's got a lot of attitude
right and and you know the uh let's see
I can't remember you know you have to play it in the
pocket and it has to feel good you know so um yeah so that that Dirty Diana getting back to that it's like okay it's
it's a it's it's a really a Groove part yeah and you meet a guitar part with
overdrive on it yeah you know and so hats off to Jerry hey on that one yeah if we wanted to play a little section of
it to the track would you be I could give it a shot all right let's give it a shot let's give it a shot oh
Paul plays "Dirty Diana"
something like that it was that that's close yeah but like I said Jerry had written it out it's like just come in
and play it and so I remember it was the red Anderson because I think that was actually the first record I'd use the Anderson on yeah
yeah I mean it sounds it sounds great so Tom Anderson and of course the Rivera
Stage Modded which which state how many stages is your stage two stage three I think I hit stage two okay I think stage
three had an effects Loop and some other stuff that yeah you know yeah but uh yeah I think I had the stage two well
"PYT" Sessions (Michael Jackson)
that's that's amazing I mean again bad that whole record's amazing Dirty Diana
of course one of the big iconic songs and then Thriller that's just so cool to be you know hearing these stories about
the gear the session and so and interestingly so Michael and Quincy
typically were not president those names are just you and the engineer or or the the well it depended
it always depended on what the session was like for instance when we worked on
PYT initially when we cut it James Ingram wrote it right and uh so we did a
tracking date of it and then I went in by myself with and Quincy was the other day Quincy and Bruce and did like all
the parts that ended up on the record so it just kind of depended on on the day Paul's gonna be doing his own video
specifically about PYT so if you're interested in that check out the link above we're gonna post Paul's video
there so you can go check it out when he releases it because I'm sure it's going to be absolutely amazing also during
"Rhythm of The Night" Sessions with Dann Huff
that era one of you know my favorite guitar parts and just like rhythm guitar like clean tones was a lot of the stuff
that was coming out on DeBarge and of course you played on one of their biggest hits Rhythm of the Night yeah and it was you and Dann Huff that's
correct yep I'm curious in Arrangements like that like you know when both guitar players you had told me in advance of us
filming that you were both present at the session it was a tracking date yeah and was it typical that there would be if there were multiple guitar players on
a song that they'd be at the same date or where they usually have them mixed separately like how does the dynamic work when there's usually they were on
the same date okay uh you'd have uh two three sometimes as many as five a lot of the original Barry White records were
four and five guitar players in the studio at the same time wow so uh but that particular day was myself and Dan
off on the tracking date so how do you guys sort of ensure that you're not standing on each other's toes do you guys sort of like communicate before the
session starts like okay I'm going to be doing this part you're gonna be doing this how does that work not before the session starts always the you let the
song dictate where it's going to go okay and so we listened down the song and played it down and it's like okay you play there I'll play here and we had a
you know discussion and we worked out some parts and and so it was just you know pretty much that simple and do you remember which parts on uh Rhythm of the
Night that you took versus the ones that Dan took yeah I played all of the single note stuff uh in the verse and the
chorus and then in the B sections of the verses we did arpeggios together yeah yeah okay do you mind if we try to give
Paul plays "Rhythm of the Night" (DeBarge)
it a shot yeah I remember a little bit
I know that was uh it's such a it's such a cool
Paul's Valley Arts Custom Guitars
part and I love the the clean tones on it do you remember what you used on that it sounds like that might have been some
sort of Strat that was a strat uh probably your Valley Arts one or Valley
art strut the the uh the Rosewood the Rosewood uh guitar impossible to make
with the Bartolini pickups yeah yeah I believe it was that guitar Rosewood on Rosewood yeah I love it yeah I love it
Rosewood uh let's see Rosewood body uh Bird's Eye Maple neck ebony fingerboard bartolini pickups Floyd Rose
as God intended you know and uh yeah it's funny those guitars I have two of them I matched set back then it was like
I always wanted to spare in case something happened to the primary yeah and those guitars they still get you've done a lot of records They just never
leave the house yeah yeah so and I saw I think like Tim May or somebody like had tried to sell one similarly equipped
it's not exactly the same and I think it got like 15 grand or something like that yeah what happened was you know all of
the guitars were one off everybody kind of had their own thing and Mike McGuire made all of them yep and uh like Lukather
and Larry Carlton had them and stuff and Larry still has a few yeah um but they were all they were all one-offs
yeah and uh one I remember one thing I do remember is I was in the shop one day and I picked up one of Larry's guitars
and it felt really really good and I said you know I said what'd you do to his neck he said
well I you know I kind of shaved it and did some other things I said can you make all my necks like this and he said sure So all of my necks that from the
period of the guitars that Mike made were the same as Larry's the other distinction is Larry has acoustic
guitars made by Valley Arts I actually have a nylon string guitar made by Valley arts true story back then I had a
Jose Uribe classical guitar nylon string guitar and it was my primary guitar and
I didn't want to take it back and forth the sessions all the time right so I said to Mike I said Mike can you make a nylon string just like this one he said
yeah I think we can give it a try and it just so happens one of the builders in the shop used to work for Jose Uribe and
I think he in fact said you know this guitar I think I built your original guitar wow so I have a valley Arts
um nylon string guitar acoustic guitar and I don't know if it's the only one but it might be the only one in
existence well it's got to be rare and I mean I guess the only other choice at that time or maybe it wasn't even out yet is this chat Atkins uh Gibson's they
kind of have like you know well this wasn't even a thin line or with a pickup or any of that kind of stuff it was a legit you know classical guitar blown
nylon string no pickup nothing wow wow that's incredible yeah I still use it for recording to this day amazing
amazing and and do you remember the amp that you might have used on Rhythm and I think it was was I think that was a boogie I think I'd gone to boogies at
that point okay yeah okay um how about uh another one kind of during that era Denise Williams let's
"Footloose" Sessions (Deniece Williams)
hear for the boys another movie soundtrack On yeah
Footloose yeah um that was the Strat that was the the one
with the Bartolini's um George Duke was the producer and it was myself George, Eric Zobler the
engineer and uh we did that actually George's Studio Boogie on that one as well that was
it was a boogie and I think direct as well okay was it doubled or was it just dependent on the part or the section you
just changed I was just a single part the one thing I do remember was the solo he remember one he won
because he wanted something that was country-ish but still funky yeah and so I said well let's let's do something as
simple and memorable so I think it was something like that something you know
and I think if you listen to the record yeah that's the solo but I don't really remember the guitar the rhythm guitar parts on that one yeah I mean I think
it's yeah I think it's just the it's just a beautiful clean tone and who's clean yeah and so and so you think it
Paul Breaks Down his Hit-Making Clean Tone
was just like it's like the DI was just off the guitar and like once I went to the Boogie and the other side went direct and then they just mix it yeah we
you still blend back in a lot of Records okay yeah yeah I mean I guess it explains sometimes like almost on on some of your clean tones it's like
there's almost like an acoustic quality and then it feels like you feel like some the elements of the tube amp well
yeah well the thing about it is that you know when you're going direct obviously the sound is not as warm and full but
the transient response can be a lot faster yeah and so you get kind of the attack from the from the DI and then you
get the warmth from the tube so that's why I did a lot of times is combining the tubes and the the the tube the amp and the DI the thing you have to be
careful of is the phase yeah phasing and uh because sometimes it could be a little weird and cancel each other out
so but I did that on a lot of records and would you normally go into a compressor from the DI first
um like when you hit the board or would you use compression on the amp side as well at that point I I always would
probably I think I usually did compression before the amps uh and it's
weird at that time I uh like in not on this particular record but I was using a Bradshaw rig and Bob had wired up a uh I
used a DBX 160x yep it was my go-to compressor yep and uh it just you
sounded real good on guitars and it had the thing called Over Easy you hit the button it was kind of like you know idiot proof but I used that actually a
lot and I would do that before the amp okay and then the di1 would just be like whatever the producer well they were both you know they're both compressed
and I you know then we split it after that got it got it and and for like sweet Freedom like we were talking about
before Rhythm of the Night let's hear for the boy were those all Bradshaw racks at that point or were they sort of I think at that point they were Bradshaw
rigs okay okay yeah awesome let's move into the 90s and talk a little bit about
Kenny Loggins Sessions
uh sorry A Different Kenny Loggins
um but even though we did talk about Footloose I guess is that appropriate um but this is moving into leap of faith
in the 90s and I think it's again one of the the Kenny Loggins records that a lot of people Overlook but it really sounds
great again people on it are incredible and uh I'd love to just listen to like a two or two off this and just kind of you
know see if it jogs your memory on anything that you might have played on at the gear so let's have a listen and then we'll we'll come back and and talk
about it you got it yeah I remember now yeah we actually I
think this one we actually did in Santa Barbara yeah yeah that's me
back back then the two main guitar builders you know were obviously Valley Arts Mike
McGuire and James Tyler yep and well you know both made incredible incredible
instruments I think on this particular date Dan was playing a Tyler that sounds like
a Tyler yeah through probably a tricera chorus he's had that mid boost the Demeter thing yeah what I was using was
actually a thing that was actually made in the Bay Area by Ada called The Stereotype delay oh the STD yeah and um
it was cool because you could split the stereo and you know one side would modulate the other guy because it would
be straight see Allan Holdsworth yeah and then you know for delay back then I was using a believe it or not a lexicon
Prime Time two yeah those are great and you know back then it's like there was no such thing as multi-effects pretty
much it's like you had one big piece of gear right that did basically one thing right and one of the things the prime
time 2 did was the the ping pong delay yep you know so that was probably listening to it that sounds like the try
the um The Stereotype delay and the uh the Alexa gun prime time too in in reusing like a rack based preamps and
power amps at that point are we using physical amps or what do you think you were using that time I think it was uh Premium Power Amp okay and we're using
the Bradshaw one like the CAE like three plus are we no I didn't get to see uh three plus until a lot later okay
um that would have been oh shoot it's amazing Boogie like excuse me some Boogie Studio preamp yeah and
then like uh that's like a simul class uh like or the 50th yeah I mean it's still it's still a great
sound um and um man that that Kenny Loggins record to me uh leap of faith I think it
came out '91 or '92. it was uh my parents had the tape and so I used to listen to
it a lot in the car yeah my mom had like a I know like a late 80s Nissan Sentra
and uh we just uh we listened to that that Kenny Loggins you know and I and I lived in Santa Barbara when I was a kid
and so he was kind of the hometown hero right um and uh you know you'd see him
sometimes around town and and uh yeah it was a great record I think I think it's one of the most underrated records again
just looking at the Personnel on that it's like you Dean Parks,Tim Pierce, you know Greg Phillinganes, Nathan East,
I always appreciate about Kenny was not only his songwriting but also his approach to production yeah and it's
like he always likes experiments like let's get you know really good players but let's experiment let's try different
ideas let's you know what if you did this what if you did this what if you did this and when people take that type of care and and and give that much input
and and are willing to try that many ideas you know you stumble onto more stuff yeah you know which is cool and so
you know working with him was always you know it was a little taxing but it was always great yeah yeah so let's now fast
Working with Daft Punk
forward to the last 10 years
and talk about Daft Punk because the Random Access Memories thing is a huge
record grammy-winning you have credits on some of these songs as well and you played on
the the biggest hits get lucky give life back to music tell me about how that
whole thing came about the gear any anything that you can tell us about that well I can you know tell you without a
doubt that was Bradshaw rig okay at the time it was uh and actually still is
in that particular rack um a uh oh gosh drawing a blank preamp uh midi
preamp the um Triaxis okay
tracks is preamp okay uh the um use a variety of power amps I use the
the uh the I think it's a dual 20 watt that they make that has a el-84s in it
okay and I also would use a Fryette uh power at the 100 Watts a side that has I
think he has uh is he is he KT I think it's KT88s in there yeah yeah so uh I don't remember
which I think it was the project that I used the power amp on that one guitar wise it was obviously the brown Strat
yep uh from Valley hours it was um a few different prs's
because there's so many layers of guitars yeah when you're listening to it it's just like I have a PRS called a 245
and it's based on the name of the scale of guitars 24.5 inches kind of shaped
kind of like this actually yeah but uh has a it had a um you know vibrato tail piece and uh so it was primarily that
record was primarily the brown Strat and the 245 okay got it and uh anything like
about the session like was it how long was was the was like the Arc of you know
playing on these songs was it like days weeks it was about a week I want to say and the good thing once again about them
is is trial and error it's like hey you know these are the changes the song this is where it's going right just play some
stuff right and so you end up playing a lot of things and uh and then you know because the Pro Tools we have an
infinite amount of tracks right so you try this and try that and try this and try that and and uh and then you know
what they like ended up on the record right right and is in obviously Nile Rodgers was also involved in this project
did how much Direction was he giving you as far as like this is this is the direction we want to go or like I'll
take these parts you take these parts or was it just sort of like an organic just kind of came together when I did my
parts and I wasn't there okay and I think that was partially intentional because you know I think they just
wanted everyone to kind of just play what they heard right you know so uh you just kind of went for stuff so they had
like kind of the the basic like they kind of like the beat the rhythmic parts of the song already created when you came in like what was there when you
basically you know the harmonic structure and the beats and things and some of the vocals and okay and it's like okay and just play what you hear okay yeah uh would you be willing to
play a little bit of the part for us sure absolutely should we start with give life back music or get lucky uh we
can well get lucky is pretty straight ahead we can do that that's simple because you know all I did really on that was was a very simple part
Paul plays "Get Lucky" (Daft Punk)
and there's a little thing in the intro I did uh it was like that little thing that that starts it
and ends it but yeah yeah and otherwise this is Nile kind of doing the shocking part okay yeah let's play a little bit
of it just to the distance to the track that we could and get lucky again
see if we get lucky that that's it
that was me
yeah so far and so on yeah but that was that was basically what I did in that song and like I said the
little interesting all that stuff here beautiful beautiful
Paul plays "Give Life Back to Music" (Daft Punk)
um you want to give give life back to music now there's like three three guitars four guitars four guitars just
listening to it because in in the verses there was the let's see let's see I want to put Keys let's see uh
and the harmony of that and then there were some arpeggios right yeah
and then low part
and the middle of the parts
yeah like that yeah yeah man what a cool song so four layers
Banned Guitar Terms (A Lesson in Rhythm Guitar)
of guitar and then and then like the Rhythm shocking in the back is that Nile or is that also you no that's that's a
Nile that's now okay what did you call it shucking yeah yeah I don't use that term don't use that term terrible term
what's the term what's the term please correct me rhythm guitar rhythm guitar yeah yeah shocking is what you do to corn and
oysters and oysters yes
yeah no that is that is deliberate rhythm guitar yeah man it's it's all just like yeah skank and bubble
picking are three of my least favorite terms and when you're talking to your students
are those like you know terrible terrible words yeah Paul Jackson yeah
absolutely bad call it what it is you know it is you know it's not a stab it
is a BackBeat you know it's you know it's a good thing we're not bubble picking we are playing we're playing
rhythm guitar or single note rhythm guitar and see that's an interesting thing okay when you say okay single
rhythm guitar okay is it is it is it
or is it you know so what is it or is it a
combination of the three you know um there's a record by um
it's done by Shalimar great guitar player by the name of Ernest Pepper Reed he played a very Monumental party
get ready it's called Knight to remember actually remember yeah yeah but then you have a
song by Evelyn King called love come down which was done by um Iris eagle
birthday
you know that's kind of a combination of the two
because he's playing hard let's see
uh I think it's actually yeah yeah
but he's digging in
so you know so
it's their levels of intensity levels of muting sometimes and it's interesting because
a lot of people mute with their right hand Nile does a lot of muting with his left hand as sometimes he's playing
somebody something's playing
which is left hand so you know so that's why it's like and I just don't like to generalize yeah you know so that's the
thing and so anyway so those are those are terms I never use so band terms stab stabs bubble picking shucking and
there's one more oh skank skank yeah okay gank Parts yeah so now now we know yeah
we have a list illegal in the Jackson house
How Paul Ended up on The Weeknd's Biggest Hit
so you did this work with Daft Punk yes correct Daft Punk also is
working when and still continues to work I believe in in some capacity uh with the week with The Weeknd yeah okay and
yes and somehow you got to work on one of the weekend's biggest hits uh I feel
it coming right how did that materialize was it an introduction from Daft Punk or there's like you should use Paul Jackson
Jr on this or well actually neither I was actually in the studio with Daft Punk similar session different musical
ideas coming up with different things you know different parts for the same way when you were working on that that right this was another occasion okay
yeah this was not the Random Access Memories this was a separate occasion okay so we're just working on different things trying different ideas you know
and uh this particular song came up so I came up with those parts and so didn't
think about it I said okay well maybe they used it maybe they didn't because they lots of things they would use and not use
um so I'm driving down the street one day and I hear this week this record with the weekend I said oh man it's
pretty cool record I'm listening I said man I kind of like that guitar part wait a minute that's me so I called
their uh call their manager on the phone and said hey did they use that on the weekend said she did I said man it sounds great so so that's how I ended up
on the on the record we it was a Daft Punk session yeah and I guess they ended up collaborating with on that particular song with the weekend yeah and uh the
rest is and that was also the Bradshaw rig on that that was a Bradshaw rig same setup like a vht or fryette uh
uh Triaxis preamp right preamp and then and then obviously some compression it sounds like on there yeah uh that was a
Demeter what he calls his optical calculator yep yeah which is a real Optical compressor yeah and so that was
that beautiful it was that the Strat or that was in listening to it I think it was a brown Strand and also the 245.
okay yeah it was that it just did it's not different parts or was it doubled it was two different parts okay yeah there's a rhythm part like
Paul plays "I Feel It Coming" (The Weeknd)
and there's a separate part Laura awesome yeah can we try playing through a little bit sure there's yeah I'll
remember it in a second because I was fooling with it earlier this one
like that so so as you know different ranges different sound you know and then
a calling response a lot of you know a lot of things are calling response you know so you yeah so that's what that was
that's it's such a cool part in in like I said when I first heard it um I guess like some of the stuff that I
heard of the weekend leading up to it it wasn't as like uh I didn't seem to have like the same sort of like funk groove
that this song had okay and it was just like man I was totally sucked in by the guitar part I had no idea that you'd played on until I was like trying to
research others sort of the offshoots of of Daft Punk and man it's such a cool part and yeah like that kind of like the
lower register stuff that the single notes it's just like so it's in the consolation I didn't know I had played on it either until I'm driving down the
street and it's like oh man I'm gonna hit record yes you know so that's kind of cool yeah I mean and so so like you
were just playing to like some sort of you know Skeleton version of kind of like the chords and laid out in the groove and everything yeah so you know
once again just you know come up with some parts and do some things and and fortunately you know with Pro Tools I
say Fortune let's say fortunately most of the time you never run out of track so you can always try things you know well man this has been such a cool
Thank you Paul!
opportunity and obviously this could have been a multiple day or week-long version of this you've played on so many
different songs and just so many hit records that you know again we could be we could be doing this for for weeks and
weeks and weeks and still not run out of tracks and I just really appreciate you Paul taking the time to go through some
of the stuff I know the value to people out there and getting to kind of see how you do it exactly the way that it was
playing on the record and you hear about the gear it's like nobody we can know this from except for you and and I'm just really grateful that you allowed us
the opportunity to kind of tell the story at least of some of the songs that have kind of outlined your session Korean of course an amazing solo career
which I'm I'm hoping I get to see you tonight at Yoshi's yay so man just thank
you so much Paul for for agreeing to do this and again I know that I speak for the people watching this too that we're
just so grateful that you you uh were willing to share your stories with us well Mason I thank you Lord bless you man I appreciate being here and and uh
you know got to leave some knowledge here you know for us for folks you know as as we move on and stuff like that
it'd be good to leave some of the knowledge and some of the things we know still here so I am very appreciative
that you have me and very grateful thank you thank you my pleasure
Thanks for Watching!
