Teetering past the magic third album, Methyl Ethel – the nom de plume of multi-instrumentalist Jake Webb – will drop a fourth next month. Where its predecessors were turned around quickly, Are You Haunted? sees Webb pull back and take a fine-tooth comb to the release. There’s not an air of perfectionism about him when he chats with Australian Guitar, though – rather, Webb was careful to cultivate a particular sound: one, he says, which could only come about once he endeavoured to employ a new creative process.
An intricate and delicate approach to wasn’t restricted to Webb’s songwriting; it manifested in the execution and indeed, his perception of his craft. The unique choice of tools meant Webb was able to come up with a plethora of tones for this release, from rich and dark, rounded and robust, to… Well, flat and dead, as he puts it – that particular sound achieved with a guitar equipped with just four strings.
