Line 6 and State Shirt
 Independent
solo artist State Shirt maintains the do-it-yourself indie attitude in
writing, recording, producing, and promoting his first full-length album,
Don’t Die. The 11-song collection was recorded entirely in his
bedroom studio in the outskirts of Los Angeles. The self-financed and self-
released CD is an emotional and reflective work of melancholic intensity, and
Line 6 played an integral part in its production.
State Shirt puts it bluntly, “For me, what was really cool was
how my Line 6 stuff inspired creativity. I used the Echo Pro
to cut and slice up vocal samples, using the tape echo model and tweaking
the time. The PODxt Pro and Flextone III were used exclusively for guitar
tones. I fiddled around with my old Blues DeVille but it turns out the Fender
models on my POD sounded better than the real thing. And I used the Variax 500 for
some elements as well. Come on, there is a sitar in the Variax. How could I
not use that?”
Although the name State Shirt may imply the presence of
an entire band, he is merely a one-man operation—an enigmatic multi-
instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. Influenced by a wide-ranging
collection of artists such as Radiohead, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Beck,
State Shirt has been playing, writing and recording music since as early as 5
years old. His music has been praised as being “powerful music that almost
makes you forget that we’re all going to die someday.”
Even with such intense and gloomy elements running through
State Shirt’s music, there is still quite a bit of room for humor and
experimentation. State Shirt has been acclaimed for his vocal scratching
techniques and beatboxing on several of his songs. “I like to work with weird
sounds. I’ll make some stupid sound with my mouth and base an entire song
around it. That’s why I used my Line 6 stuff so much, it really allows me to
experiment.”
Support this Line 6-lovin’ indie artist and visit www.stateshirt.net. Receive State
Shirt’s latest CD Don’t Die for free when you donate $10 or more to
The Brittany Foundation all-breed dog rescue through his site www.stateshirt.net. One hundred
percent of the donation goes to the charity.
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