Board To Death Ep. 36 - David Okumu (The Invisible) | EarthQuaker Devices

It's Episode 36 of Board to Death, and it's a good one featuring Dave Okumu, producer, musician, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and frontman for the Mercury Price nominated band The Invisible. Dave, who has worked with Amy Winehouse, St. Vincent, Jessie Ware, and Jack DeJohnette, among many others, graciously takes us on a trip through his stage board and talks about what he looks for when deciding which devices go on his pedalboard.
"I love feeling out of control when I'm exploring things because that sort of introduces new ideas and takes me to places I otherwise wouldn't have gone," He says.
Dave doesn't just use pedals to match the sounds in his head; he also wants to discover new sounds and work with them.
"Pedals perform different roles," Dave says.
"There are some that are really functional, some that are very, very immediate, and there are some that you really want to really spend some time getting to know. There are others that every time you turn them on, they seem to do something different, and they feel sort of vital and alive."
Watch as Dave creates an ambient reverse and delay-based chord progression with the EHX Memory Man and the Line 6 POD and then adds the Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water and the Data Corrupter to well, corrupt the hell out of it turning his once ethereal chords into a brutal wash of low-end, square wave goodness.
Among the mainstays on Dave's board are the Boss OD-2 Turbo Overdrive, the Digitech Whammy, the EHX Memory Boy delay, and the Mel 9 and SuperEgo Synth pedals. Dave is relatively new to EQD pedals but so far, so good. "It's quite telling that the EQD stuff is taking over my board because I'm enjoying it so much," he says.
His EQD additions to his board include the EQD Disaster Transport Sr. modulated delay, the Bit Commander analog octave synth, and the Astral Destiny modulated reverb about which Dave says, "It's allowing me to explore that sort of rich, wet landscape but in a way that actually blends really well with everything it doesn't just wash everything out. It's got character and a mix knob which is great. I love that it's not just reverb and shimmer. There's wobble to it too."
When choosing pedals, Dave isn't looking for perfection; he's looking for exploration.
"I love imperfection. I love accidents. I love anything that rails against the pursuit of perfection that the digital age has foisted on us."

Link to all things Dave here(!): https://linktr.ee/DaveOkumu

Directed by Clint Trofa,
Director of Photography Fraser Stephen
Edited by Chris Tran

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