In-demand guitarist takes repetitiveness to a whole new level
By Jon Liebman
Photo by Michael Weintrob
November 22, 2016
Teddy Kumpel is a guitarist, producer and “loopest,” very active in the New York music scene. The Long Island native has performed with a long list of music luminaries, including Joe Jackson, Rickie Lee Jones, Marshall Crenshaw, Nine Inch Nails, David Grisman, Chris Brown, Omar Hakim, Janet Jackson, Paquito D’Rivera, Toots Thielmans, Tower of Power and many others. He has also contributed to many feature film scores, including Anchorman, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Taladega Nights.
Teddy’s “LOOPestra,” an electronic ensemble built on a foundation of guitar loops, has gained a strong following in NYC. The band’s rhythm section, seldom if ever exactly the same from week to week, has included SNL band members Shawn Pelton and James Genus, Keith Carlock of Steely Dan, Aaron Comess of the Spin Doctors, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen of Bill Frisell’s band and many others.
FGPO: Do you come from a musical family?
TK: Yeah, my mom was sort of a musical genius. She played classical piano and church organ and theater organ. She went to Eastman School of Music and after she got out of school, she just had kids and started being a church organist and a music teacher locally. She had a lot of private students. She was like a walking “music appreciation” class for me and my sister, so we got to listen to everything from gospel to the Beatles to Bach to, you know, everything that you could imagine. She gave us a good musical upbringing. I was studying classical guitar when I was a little kid, around 9, 10, 11 years old, and also I played saxophone in the school band when I was in third grade.
FGPO: How did you become a guitar player, especially a classical guitar player? That’s a little unusual for somebody that young.
TK: I played guitar from when I was 3 or 4. My parents just stuck a ukulele in my hand and it was like the most natural thing for me to play. I never even really thought about playing piano because my mom was so good. It was really intimidating.
FGPO: Before you, presumably, discovered Hendrix, Van Halen and those guys, were you influenced by any of the great classical guitar players, like Segovia, Julian Bream, Christopher Parkening…?
TK: It’s funny ‘cause I guess from [the time] I picked up the ukulele till I got my first guitar, and through my classical studies, I never listened to anybody play the guitar, really. I mean, I listened to the records that we had at home, but they were so few and far between. We had a Beatles record, we had a Miles Davis record, we had a couple of those, but that was it. And we just played all the time. There was no, “Oh my God, I have to play like that!”
I think Tommy Tedesco was probably my main influence because I really loved TV show theme songs [laughs]. I would tape them on cassette and learn them when I was a little kid. Even though my mom was such a great musician and we had these records in the house and we were playing all the time, it was actually a pretty sheltered existence, socially and musically, because there wasn’t a lot going on out here in Long Island. It was farms and there was a university with people studying math and stuff. So I can’t say that I was enamored with any one particular person, guitar-wise. I just messed around with it a lot when I was a little kid.
FGPO: How did your career get rolling?
TK: I started doing sessions and gigs when I was in high school. I was the guitar player in the all-state jazz band when I was 16 and I just hooked up with everybody I could in high school after I had my first rock band and I kind of figured out how to play in the studio. I was given a lot of opportunities by people locally. They saw this little kid playing guitar and went, “Oh wow, we can use him!” [laughs] They probably wanted to save some money or something, right?
FGPO: What is this “LOOPestra” all about?
TK: The LOOPestra is an orchestra of guitar loops. I started that band because I wanted to find two other guitar players to play rhythm in a band with me. I wanted to play funk music that was repetitive and didn’t change much, but in New York, it’s hard to find people that play something that specific, you know what I mean? So I went through a couple of players and realized that everybody just wants to solo all the time, which is kind of not what I had in mind. So right about that time, which was probably around 2004, Boss came out with their big Loop Station, the RC-50, that had a built-in drum machine and you can use that as a click track to play to. It’s sort of like making records on the fly. You can improvise and, if you’re somewhat savvy about record making, you make something that has a lot of space in it and grooves and is interesting and also repetitive.
FGPO: Would you say it’s primarily what you’re known for these days?
TK: As much as I probably don’t want to be pigeonholed by that, I guess it is. I’m known as the loop-master! [laughs]. It’s a lot of fun and I really love doing it with different people every time I do it.
FGPO: Tell me a little more about your equipment.
TK: Looper-wise, right now I’m using both a Pigtronix Infinity Looper and also a TC Electronic Ditto X4. I have a tap tempo MIDI start and stop box. I tap the tempo into the box and then push the start button that starts to record the first loop on the Infinity and starts sending MIDI clock to a Boss DB-90, that the drummer and I hear in out ears. I push the Loop 1 button on the infinity to close the loop and off we go. Then I can add loops on top of that initial one, reverse them, turn them on and off. I have 4 stereo loops to work with, so that’s 8 loops total.
Sometimes people ask, “Why do you use a click track? Why not just make a loop that will keep the band in time and play to that?” What if I don’t want to be the time keeper? What if I want my first loop to be ambient? Another thing I’ve found is that if I’m in the studio with a drummer, playing to the drummer, I’m not going to be ahead of the drummer rhythmically. I like to play behind the drummer most of the time. That’s just where it feels comfortable to be. And because of the wacky nature of the LOOPestra and the even quirkier-than-normal kind of rhythm playing that I do in that band, I think it’s better to have a click track for the drummer to follow, so that he’s got some forward motion against what I'[m doing. If he’s following me, the whole thing’s just gonna fall down or I’ll sound like I’m rushing.
FGPO: Do you use a MIDI guitar or is it a regular guitar that’s modified once it goes through the system?
TK: I play a normal guitar. I just use a lot of effects. But I also know that they all have “on” and “off” switches, so a lot of the time, there’s nothing on. I like to mix it up and use effects as a variety. I kind of have a one-at-a-time rule. You don’t want to have four things on at once. “Why?” [laughs]
FGPO: What about MONO cases? Tell me what you like about them.
TK: I really like their “Vertigo” bag. I think it’s pretty indestructible and it’s lightweight and fits your guitar and protects it really well. They’re practical. And also, they are the only case – this is very special about MONO to me – they are the only one that doesn’t hit the top of the subway when I walk under the door! [laughs]. I tried a few other ones [but] I kept having to bend down and I don’t like that! [laughs]
FGPO: Do you have a main guitar that you use all the time, or do you switch them up?
TK: I switch them up quite a bit, but mainly right now using a Fret-King “Elise.” Fret-King is a company that Trev Wilkinson of Wilkinson Hardware started. They’re out of England and this is a really cool semi-hollow body guitar that has pickups that Trev wound on a machine that he got from Seth Lover.
FGPO: What about strings? Are there strings that respond particularly well to your effects and your looping?
TK: D’Addario, New York XLs, baby! Nothing better.
FGPO: What about amps?
TK: Supros only. I use a Supro “Comet” and a Supro “Tremo-Verb.” When I play, I use three different amps and I always use different flavors of amps and Supro makes a variety of amps that have different flavors, so I like to mix it up with them.
FGPO: What’s keeping you busy these days?
TK: Well Joe Jackson’s tour ended in July and now I play with the amazing Chely Wright. She’s really a great, great songwriter. She had a bunch of hits in Nashville in the ‘90s. She was sort of the pre-cursor to Shania Twain. She had a big hit song called “Single White Female” and another one called “Shut Up and Drive.” Now she’s got these really cool deep songs that are very, very interesting and her last record was produced by Joe Henry. He’s a legend. That guy’s just a great songwriter, kind of a crazy producer, really interesting Nashville guy.
FGPO: I would imagine you have to change your approach and get your head in a whole different place when you’re playing with Chely or Joe compared to when you’re doing the LOOPestra thing.
TK: Well, that’s what we do as sidemen, right? I mean when I do my own thing, I’m free to express whatever I feel like doing and when I play with Joe, I do what Joe wants. My favorite artists to play with, I would describe like this: they have something specific in mind, but they have room for you to be yourself.
FGPO: What about the future for you, Teddy? What else would you like to do that you haven’t already accomplished?
TK: I want to make two more LOOPestra records. I came out with the first one last year and I have two other ones in mind. I want to use Jojo Mayer on one and Aaron Comess from the Spin Doctors. I have so many drummers I want to play with that I got to make a couple more of those. I [also] have a whole bunch of songs that are not loop-able because they’re not repetitive things and I want to start another band that just does that.
FGPO: What would you be if you weren’t a guitar player? Something outside of music.
TK: I don’t know. Maybe I’d sell hats or something. (British accent): You know, “What size are you, sir? What color do you want? Brown or black?” [laughs] No, actually, I’ve thought about that and I have no idea what I’d be. Maybe a therapist. [laughs]
For more info on Teddy and his LOOPestra, go to www.teddyjam.com.
