Shane Theriot: The Grease Factor (Shose Records)

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The Grease Factor.....what makes it "greasy"?

Shane goes through the whole project track by track and gives the inside view on what went into this record...

Where did you get the title?
"The title "Grease Factor" was inspired one day at a recording session, when I heard another musician on the session talking about trying to make a track a little funkier: " change this part and that will bring up the grease factor", or something like that was said. It really made me think about how perfect the title would be for this record; even though it is pretty heavy with guitars, I really built each tune around the drummer and for that reason each tune was specifically composed with each drummer in mind beforehand. And so I used that title — to really capture the feel of the tunes.

Engineer, Neal Cappellino on recording The Grease Factor:
Here's a typical signal path I used for recording Shane's guitar on The Grease Factor. Once he picked the guitar and amp/speaker cab combination I used two mics: a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser MD421 up close on the speakers. Each mic went through a Vintech X73 preamp, which is a loyal remake of the classic Neve 1073 mic pre. Each was then sent to a Distessor compressor and into Pro Tools on separate tracks so I could manipulate the levels of each mic for the blend we wanted. That's pretty much it. It was mostly getting the tone right coming out of the amplifier and capturing that without mucking it up. It's not hard when you've got great hands on a good instrument.

Track 1 (4:50): Little Hat This was one of the original tunes from the first batch written for the record, with drummer John Vidacovich in mind. Neal Cappellino came down from Nashville with tons of outboard gear and preamps and we set off to make the record!! I believe this was the first track we cut down off of Tulane Ave in New Orleans. It was also the first time I had worked with Vidacovich, who is one of my faves. The title came from Johnny V. himself. He asked what Neal's last name was and I said Cappellino. He repeated it several times and then informed me that "Cappellino is Italian for little hat", and then told me how much he dug the snare sound! I used a Hamer artist with P-90's for the main tracks and my old Hamer Strat, a Tele for the lead part and my old Marshall head through a 5150 cab. Some of the cleaner parts are through a Fender Deluxe. On pretty much each track I would leave my main pedal board rig hooked up, and switch out pedals from track to track. I added my old Boss Octave on this one.

Track 2 (5:12): Swish  This tune was based on a riff that I came up with while jamming one day at drummer Russell Batiste's house. I had a little handheld recorder that I used to carry around, and I recorded 40 seconds of this riff with Russ playing — it was the funkiest 40 seconds I've ever heard! (Funkier than it ended up as, actually.) I wore that piece of tape out and would play it for friends up in Nashville! Johnny Neel put down the baddest clav solo on this tune. He was actually out the night before partying pretty hard with Deep Purple, but managed to pull it off, hangover and all. I used my Hamer with P-90's, a Strat with Lindy Fralins, a PRS with Gibson pickups and I can't remember what else on this tune... .All of the amp tones were from my 66 Bassman through an old Fender 2/12. Neal put a serious mix on this one — he was pickier than me about the tones and textures we used!

Track 3 (4:08): Zodiac  Not inspired by, but titled after the book by Robert Graysmith about the infamous Zodiac killer — (that book scared the hell out of me!), this tune was actually based on the opening riff, which was written a few years back. Originally, Jeff Sipe was supposed to play on this and then I decided to drop the tempo and let Russ try it. Yeah right! We actually cut this track even faster than it ended up being, just to be funny. The problem was, I couldn't play the melody at that tempo — I had to practice that melody for a while before I could get it up to speed. Adam Nitti laid it down big time on this one. I used my PRS, Melancon, and Hamer with the P-90's through my Bassman for this. Some of the other parts that I layered in were cut at my house with my Peavey XXX head. I was told that George Lynch designed that amp — no wonder it sounds so good! My arm actually hurt after tracking this one!

Track 4 (3:40): Shrimp Boots The last tune to get cut. We went over to drummer Doug Belote's house on Magazine St. and came up with this riff, went into the studio the next day and let it rip. This was the 2nd pass we did and it seemed to flow better. Kirk Joseph is a baddass. I've never heard anyone play a horn like that — it's like Jaco on sousaphone! I used my Hamer Daytona Strat into Anders Osborne's old tube screamer and into a Marshall that was at the studio. I like this one — it's very live.

Track 5 (5:43): Dublin In 1992-93 I was on tour in the U.K. with a few artists after having just moved to Nashville. I was still jetlagged and learning some of the material in the hotel room in Dublin, Ireland. I started playing around with this riff and came up with the main changes. Years later the melody was added and realizing how "Scofield-ish" the chords are, I knew Vidacovich was the man for this. He loves this tune, and that made me happy. Mark Mullins was called in to add some vibe to it. Most of the tracks (guitar) were cut up at the Tipitina's studio on Tulane — I think this was a Melancon prototype that Gerard had loaned me and my little Yamaha amp. I had Johnny Neel overdub the keys up in Nashville later on.

Track 6 (5:57): Mr. Longhair This tune is inspired by the Professor Longhair tune "Tipitina" which the Meters also based "Cabbage Alley" on later. It's classic New Orleans style funk, heavy Meters vibe but with a busier bass line. I knew Russell would just eat this up — this feel is as natural as breathing to him. This was the first tune we cut with this rhythm section. It was Russ's idea to flange out the drums after the guitar solo and add a second snare. I wrote the melody in the front room of my house near Bayou Lafourche in literally 15 minutes. It's one of those tunes that just stuck in my head and I just added a simple harmony for the quirkiness. It's simple but it works. I used my Hamer Artist with P-90's and a Bassman head/cab that Kenny and Dan Baird from the blues band "The Dusters" were kind enough to loan me.

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Track 7 (5:44): The Apartment A different story with this one. Bassist Adam Nitti had flown me to Atlanta to work on his project and while I was there I thought I would ask Sipe to cut a few tunes with me on the off days. I ended up going over to Vic Wooten's house later with just the drums and guitar tracks because I wanted a fretless sound on it. Victor Wooten is a saint — one of the most patient and focused people I've met. My father-in-law, Kiyoshi Tamai, was visiting us from Japan last year and I got him to put down a few songs on tape. He was working on 3000-year-old Japanese prayers — really beautiful melodies. Neal and I stuck a piece of one of the songs on the front of this tune. I called it The Apartment because Jeff Sipes' alias is Apt-Q258. The main melody is my battered and treasured Yamaha Pacifica that I've had since I was about 19 years old. The solo and backing parts are my custom Melancon and Hamer Strat. I think I did some stuff direct with a stereo signal being sent out of an older Boss Dimension-C Chorus on the "4" setting. Amps were my Deluxe and XXX head.

Track 8 (5:42): Slow This tune was originally entitled "Nothing Down" and was written for a harmonica player that I was supposed to be working with. He felt the tune was a little adventurous for him and so I decided to cut it myself. I'm pretty sure that the guitars were all my Hamer with P-90s and I went through the Fender Bassman. There are some great moments at the end of the tune between Russ and Adam — for a minute you think the whole thing is gonna fall apart and then you kind of land on your feet! Johnny Neel played a great solo on this...

Track 9 (5:17): Woody Inspired by my love of Woody Allen's books and movies, the tune has nothing whatsoever to do with him, but I just liked the title. This one was from the Vidacovich tracking session. Johnny Neel put down some Rhodes on it and I had Jeff Coffin from the Flecktones pretend that he was Ornette Coleman! The solo is my Strat through my old Marshall head. I'm pretty sure I used a Telecaster through a Deluxe on the main riff. I had Johnny V. emulate the sound of a loop that I had used for the demo — he used brushes on the whole thing. He managed to pull so much power out of those drums with only the brushes....amazing!

Track 10 (3:52): Zydefaux This tune was a bit of a stretch for me, but it turned out to be a really "fun" sounding track. I enlisted David Northrup, friend/drummer, who was on a lot of Hwy 90. I knew he would keep that simple but hard to keep from dragging Zydeco beat going strong. Kind of a Buckwheat Zydeco groove. My dad used to take me to the Festival De' Acadiens in Lafayette sometimes and that is where my love of this kind of groove probably evolved. I had Steve Conn, a great keyboardist and solo artist who also works with Sonny Landreth lay down some accordion over at Alison Kraus's house, where we did some final overdubs and mixing. I think I freaked him out when he heard the first #11 chord come in, haha! I remember him saying — "OK, so we've definitely left the zyedeco world now..." I really don't remember what we used on this one; I know I did the solo through my Marshall in the front room of my house.

Track 11 (1:14): Dear Ellen This is a very personal tune for me. I dedicated and wrote this for my sister Ellen Theriot, who I haven't seen in many years. I know it wasn't the best take I could have done on the record since I'm usually really particular about acoustic guitar recording, but I felt that one pass with a lot of emotion to it would do. I left it alone.

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