In January, Dopapod officially announced their return after a yearlong absence with a headlining show on the historic stage of Port Chester, NY’s The Capitol Theatre on Saturday, April 27th, 2019.
Now, the quartet has announced their forthcoming studio effort, Emit Time, due out on Friday, May 24th. Recorded at a recent session in Philadelphia, Emit Time marks the follow-up to the band’s 2017 Megagem release. The band—comprised of guitarist Rob Compa, drummer Neal “Fro” Evans, bassist Chuck Jones, and keyboardist Eli Winderman—has a deep history dating back to 2007, with over 1,000 live shows under their belt.
Ahead of Emit Time‘s forthcoming release, Dopapod shared the album’s lead single, “Numbers Need Humans”, which premiered via Guitar World. “Numbers Need Humans” opens up with a funky groove out of Winderman’s corner before the quartet crashes into the song’s rockin’ main theme. Compa unleashes a series of explosive, gritty guitar solos, backed by Evans and Jones holding down a tight-knit rhythm.
Compa shared his thoughts on the recent recording session with Guitar World:
When I arrived at the studio for the initial recording for ‘Numbers Need Humans,’ the studio already had a Sunn head running into a closed back Mesa 412 cabinet set up and miked for me. I gave it a shot, but I really couldn’t get used to the sound of that rig. At live shows, I’m not super picky about what amps I use, but the recording studio is the one place where I’m pretty particular about that, because every little detail is painfully evident.
Luckily I brought along my 1978 Fender Vibrolux that I’ve been using since I was in college. It’s had some mods done to it, including a blackface mod. The speakers in it are a Weber DT10 and a Kendrick Gold label speaker. We miked both of them and blended the sounds of both speakers.
Both the intro licks of the song and the middle guitar solo are the scratch guitar tracks from that session, going into the Vibrolux. I used my 2005 Paul Reed Smith Hollowbody II, which has been my main guitar for nearly 15 years. My gain for those solos came from an Analogman King of Tone overdrive and a Maxon VOP9 overdrive. We also had the engineer add some delay to those parts during the mixing stage.
When I overdub guitar parts, I like to do it all at home on my own. My recording set-up is laughably primitive, but all I really care about is that I have a sound and am in a place where I’m totally comfortable and can be myself. As long as that’s happening then I’m more likely to create good, musical results.
Listen to Dopapod’s new single “Numbers Need Humans” below, and stay tuned for more information about the upcoming release.
Dopapod – “Numbers Need Humans”
[Video: Dopapod]
You can grab your tickets to Dopapod’s comeback show at The Capitol Theatre on April 27th here.