London-based sextet, Lola Colt, is moody, enigmatic, and offer such a palpable, otherworldly music that it’s easy to find yourself swept up in their sound and tumbling down dark corridors led by a slew of fuzzy guitars, soaring melodic swells, and a set of siren-like vocals. With such a layered, dense sound, we here at the Deli were really curious about what was going on under the hood. Fortunately for us, guitarist Matt Loft tackled our questions and gave us a pedal-by-pedal takedown of his current set up.
Boss TU2 Tuner
Needs no explanation—it’s been a staple of most players at some point. One feature I do love though is the additional 9V power output which can be used to patch in another pedal quickly, to try out an idea, or to test a pedal you suspect is misbehaving.
Dunlop Crybaby Wah
Another industry standard, this one features the auto-off switching which bypasses the effect when your foot is off the pedal. I often have a lot of pedal dancing to do between sections so being able to jump straight onto the wah and it respond immediately is great. It can give some movement to lead runs but is also used as a slow sweeping, filter type effect.
It can be heard on our track “Eagle”:EHX Hog
I use this pedal for some of the darker, more twisted sounds on the record. In addition to octaves up and down, you can introduce 5th harmonics which create eerie overtones when used in conjunction with fuzz/distortion and delays.
It can be heard on the opening bars of “Gold” (video on top of the interview).
Death By Audio Interstellar Overdriver
This overdrive pedal can get really gnarly if you push it, but I actually use it on a low setting to add a little bite and edge to my clean sounds. It tightens up the tone, helping it cut through on stage.
Custom made Tube Screamer Clone
The plain silver cased pedal is a tube screamer clone I had made that basically has every mod you could possibly do to a tube screamer—most of which are accessible by the extra toggle switches. That’s useful in the studio, but live I just use a single setting I’ve dialed in and rarely change it. It has a very different color to the OCD and is great for pushing the amp to break up naturally.
Boss RV5 Delay
I have two of these on the board, one before the heavier gain pedals—which I use to send a wet signal into a distortion pedal for general, wall of noise-type mayhem—and one after, for adding extra depth to lead lines or washy chords.
Hear it on the intro riff of “At War”:
Prescription Electronics Fuzz
Prescription Electronics Fuzz
The pedal with the psychedelic paint splatter effect. It’s a wild octave fuzz that somehow remains quite focused, way warmer sounding and playable than something like a fuzz factory, yet hugely loud and textured. It’s great for punchy fuzzy lead lines through to full drone armageddon.
It can be heard on Dead Moon Jeopardy:
ProCo Rat Distortion
This is an 80’s model with a mod that squeezes out a little extra scuzzy-ness. I mainly use it with the RV5s whenever we want to hit the audience with the full wall of noise.
Fulltone OCD Overdrive
This is a workhorse overdrive pedal with a real classic sound. The kind of pedal every guitarist should have laying around somewhere. It reacts great to your playing, driving the amp smoothly, getting really mean as you dig in. Its powers can be harnessed for good or evil.
EHX Memory Man Delay
This is one of the old big box analog units from back in the day when EHX stuff didn’t break. I love these pedals for their ability to self-oscillate and break up in a really pleasing, natural way. We use them on organs too. The big dials are great for getting hands on with.
Hear it on the guitar swells at 1:18 of “Moksha Medicine”:
And also on the twisted organ sounds in “Gold” (video on top of the interview).
Wampler Spring Reverb
My old Fender amp doesn’t have a built-in spring reverb. I’ve got an external spring tank, but they’re notoriously hard to tour with, so on the road, I use a stomp box. This pedal is on throughout the set to give the guitar a little sparkle. On low settings, it has a cool plate style slap back to it.
Danelectro Talkback Reverse Delay
This pedal can introduce an element of randomness but is somehow still very playable. Perfect for opening up inter-dimensional portholes, or the occasional holiday back in time.
Hear it on the opening riff of the album’s title track and on the bass guitar from 4:15 on Kilimanjaro
MXR Micro Amp Boost
I use this pedal to boost/compress lead lines and to equalize the volume between guitars on stage. My main guitar, a ’66 Jazzmaster, has a higher output than the Epiphone 12 string we also use live.
