Video Premiere: El Ten Eleven’s “Point Breeze”

We’re proud to team up with Gallien-Krueger to premiere a new performance by the awe-inspiring duo El Ten Eleven. Formed by multi-instrumentalist Kristian Dunn and drummer Tim Fogarty, the duo utilizes a host of techniques and effects to build driving grooves with sublime sonic atmospheres.

Dunn and Fogarty both get creative with loop pedals to layer simpler foundations into a complex tapestry of sound. With the complex nature of the song and playing, we decided to ask Dunn to give us the insider scoop.

What’s the inspiration behind “Point Breeze”?

Point Breeze is an area in Pittsburgh in which Tim’s dad used to hang out when he was young. He died during the making of this record.

The song is very layered. What was the writing process like, and how do the loop pedals play into that?

Well it would be impossible to play the song without loop pedals! Unless we had something like five additional musicians. Writing it isn’t that hard, but playing it live is really tough. The video you see here is us playing it publicly for the very first time. We were terrified! You can kind of see how stiff we were. Now that we’ve played it live in front of audiences for an entire six week tour it’s much smoother.

Can you tell us about the bass you’re using in the video?

I start off with a Schecter Ultra Cure Bass VI. Once the intro is looped then I switch to my fretless. It’s a Wal MK2. For me it’s the best bass ever made. Of course, I haven’t played every bass ever made, but I’ve played a LOT of basses over the years and nothing else comes close. It has a low pass filter on it that comes it really handy for parts like the chorus in this song (where I’m using the Whammy pedal).

What effects and amp are you using?

The head is an GK MB Fusion 800 and the cab is a GK 115 RBH. GK really hooked us up and sent us a bunch of amps and cabs so we could do a “shoot out” and I was astonished at how great the 15 sounded (remember that I also play guitar through it). The high end is surprisingly good.

My pedal chain is this, I think: Lehle A/B switch —> Digitech Tuner —> Emerson Em Drive —> Boss Blues Driver —> Digitech Luxe —> Strymon Timeline —> Boomerang III —> Digitech Bass Whammy —> Boomerang III.