Latest news with #MarkSpeer
Boston Globe
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Khruangbin hone their identity with a blur of global influences
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up So do a lot of people, including the folks who'll gather to see the band perform at Advertisement Fueled in part by the song 'Maria También' appearing in the most recent season of 'The White Lotus,' the band's 2018 album 'Con Todo El Mundo' has amassed hundreds of millions of streams. Collaborations with modern soul singer Advertisement Such collaborations helped point the way to Khruangbin's fifth album, last year's 'A La Sala.' The band formed as a three-piece in Houston (Johnson is still there, while guitarist Mark Speer and bassist Laura Lee Ochoa currently live on opposite coasts), yet 'A La Sala' manages to be their first record without any outside musicians. The drummer sees the album as a reset following their recent work with Bridges, Touré, and various remixers. 'When it came around to getting ready to record 'A La Sala,' we were all kind of longing to get back to working with just the three of us,' Johnson said. 'There's always just three people on stage. And [making 'A La Sala'] was, in a sense, us getting back in a room together, writing and sharing ideas and just kind of doing it in an insular fashion.' But insular doesn't mean that Khruangbin's ears aren't open. If an Uber driver is listening to music, Johnson said he always asks what it is. 'Maybe you can put me on to something that I haven't heard,' he often says. Drawing on music that nobody in Khruangbin has direct cultural connections to potentially opens the band up to accusations of appropriation (the band's name is even the Thai word for 'airplane'). To that, Johnson demurred, 'we always try to give honor and respect to all of the music and artists that we listen to and we highlight them.' What's more, he feels that the time is right for Khruangbin's pan-global gumbo. 'I think the Western music palate is really expanding,' he said. 'You're seeing it in the rise of these bands that are coming out of Korea, like BTS and Blackpink. These bands have huge followings, not just in Asia but in America.' Advertisement He also points to the belated success of Nigerian artist Steve Monite's 1984 electrofunk track 'Only You,' recently heard in an American Express commercial. The song shows clear echoes of the clipped, reverbed sonics and arm's-length vocals that Khruangbin occasionally plays with. Those vocals mean that Khruangbin isn't, strictly speaking, an instrumental band, but the way voices are used and produced – low and distant, like a mirage that merely signifies the notion of vocals – make the distinction functionally irrelevant. 'No one in the band really is self-professed as a singer, so to speak,' said Johnson. 'So when we do sing, we sing together, because we like the sound of a group vocal. But the drums, bass, guitar — that always comes first. And when we get to the end of the process and it feels like we need something else or something's missing, then vocals are usually a nice texture to play with. It's a fourth instrument.' Accordingly, the band tends to invite listeners to glean whatever meaning they want out of their lyrics and titles. When confronted with a list of songs that suggest a thematic interest in the calendar and the passage of time – 'August 10,' 'Friday Morning,' 'May Ninth,' 'August Twelve,' possibly 'Fifteen Fifty-Three' – Johnson declined to elaborate, explain, or even agree. 'They all mean different things at different times,' he said. 'It depends on where we are in life when these songs get their titles. It's not really anything we try to give away.' Advertisement But the drummer admits to having seen memes involving dates memorialized in Khruangbin titles. 'Maybe also that could attribute to the success of 'Con Todo El Mundo,' because a lot of people were born on August 10,' he said, referencing the track from their 2018 album. 'I don't know, or 'Friday Morning.'' KHRUANGBIN With John Carroll Kirby. At The Stage at Suffolk Downs, 525 William F. McClellan Highway, Boston, Friday, June 27, 7 p.m. Tickets $84-$167. Marc Hirsh can be reached at or on Bluesky @
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Khruangbin's Laura Lee and Mark Speer on Recreating Their Signature Strat and Bass With Fender — But in Extremely Limited Quantities: ‘It Would be Weird for Everyone to Have Our Guitars'
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. When Fender reached out to Khruangbin's Laura Lee and Mark Speer — the wig-donning guitarists of the Texas-based, genre-blurring band — with the opportunity to create brand new, custom versions of their Stratocaster and Bass, it didn't even cross their mind that they would design instruments that were different than the ones they've played on stage for more than a decade. More from Variety Fender's Iconic Stratocaster and Telecaster Guitars Get Rare Discount in Surprise Online Sale Fender Teams With Jack White, Finneas and Blu DeTiger on Signature Guitars, Bass and Amplifier Khruangbin Brings It Back to Basics With the Low-Key Majesty of 'A La Sala': Album Review 'I think we literally handed them our instruments and just said 'Make it look like this,'' Speer tells Variety over Zoom. 'It's just what I've been used to. Picking up other guitars I'm like, 'This feels a little different.' There's a distinct clunkiness to the guitar I play and [Fender] was able to accommodate that for me, thank goodness.' 'For us, the most epic guitar that we could put out in the world is the one that we play,' Lee adds. 'And so the reason that we like it is because it's ours.' The storied guitar manufacturer, who has created custom instruments for everyone from Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton to George Harrison, is still going strong in partnering with contemporary musicians. Most recently, they've partnered with who released a custom Player II Telecaster and Brad Paisley on a restored version of a 1967 Telecaster. In the 1940s, Fender revolutionized the industry with the release of the Telecaster (the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar), the Stratocaster and the Precision Bass. So, for Lee and Speer, widely respected in the industry for their distinctive playing style on electric guitar and bass, respectively, the collaboration made perfect sense. While Speer thought the process of recreating his Strat — 'verbatim,' as he says — would be relatively easy, he realized during the process that one of his favorite aspects of his guitar was the outcome of a manufacturing mistake when it was first made in the early 2000s. ''Well, I like it like that,' he recalls telling the Fender design team. 'So it needs to be that.'' The result is the Mark Speer Stratocaster, featuring an Aged Natural ash body, custom-wired DiMarzio Pro Track pickups and a vintage-style synchronized tremolo. Packed with a Custom 'C' neck, jumbo frets and minimalist aesthetic, it's tailored for Speer's expressive tone and fluid, psychedelic playing style. The Strat, which Speer has fondly compared to a DJ console in its ability to change EQ, is at the core of Khruangbin's genre-bending style. 'That's what the guitar is able to do for me,' he says, noting its influence on the very deep jazz-like qualities to the brighter, pluckier tones you hear in Khruangbin's music. 'I'm used to it. I don't really like playing on other guitars. I'm sorry to say, but I just like this one and I know how this paintbrush works.' Lee, meanwhile, found her musical sensibility through her bass, which she's had since 2009. When she began the recreation process with Fender, she wanted it to feel as approachable to new players as she felt when she first began playing. 'It's a really easy, it's not too complicated,' she says of the Fender release. 'It's comfy and I hope that it's warm to people.' The Laura Lee Jazz Bass arrives in a Vintage White finish with matching headstock and gold pickguard. Built with DiMarzio Ultra Jazz pickups, concentric volume/tone controls, and a Custom 'U' neck, it's a playful, precision-crafted instrument that reflects her minimalist, dub-inspired approach. Aside from essentially creating near replicas of their worn-in instruments, another non-negotiable for the pair was making sure their custom six-strings would only be released in limited quantities. 'I don't want to just have a bazillion guitars that look just like mine flooding the marketplace,' Speer says. 'I know some people make heavy changes to their signature model but that is my guitar. It would be weird to have everyone have my guitar.' Of course, if you're fast enough, you can get your hands on Lee and Speer's exact Fender Strat and Bass. Shop the limited-edition guitars below: Buy Now $1,499.99 $1,499.99 Buy Now $1,499.99 $1,499.99 Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mark Speer's celebrated playing style is due to playing him only one guitar for over two decades
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Genre-blenders Khruangbin may have transitioned from psych-tinged instrumental upstarts to an arena-ready trio with a bulging repertoire and a Grammy nomination to boot – but guitarist Mark Speer still leans on the trusty Stratocaster that has accompanied him from day one (i.e. the past two decades or so): an early 2000s reissue. 'If someone handed me their guitar I'd be like, 'Wow, what a nice instrument,' but I won't sound very good on it,' he tells 'I'm used to mine. I'm not a guitar player – I play that guitar. I've been using that one thing for the whole time. I know exactly where certain notes are going to sing more than others. 'Or if I play here versus here, I can really control the timbre of where things are happening and why – the volume knob, things that I do against the gain structure, it's all part of the voice. Really, it's my voice, right?' Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Speer's recently-announced signature model with Fender is a near-replica of what he plays on the daily – with a '70s Strat pickup sandwiched between DiMarzio Pro TrackTMs, jumbo frets, Graph Tech saddles and string trees, and a Custom 'C'-shape neck with a 7.25' radius – packaged in an Aged Natural finish. 'The guitar is very similar to my main one and that was the whole point,' he adds. 'It also feels the same way. The bit that routes the body out – it was a discontinued way they used to do it. They were very kind to bring that back. I think they just went and found the bit and put it back on the router to make it.' Speaking of signature models, his bandmate Laura Lee has also released her own – marking the first time Fender has simultaneously released a signature electric guitar and bass for two members of the same band.
