We sit down with Heriot frontwoman and modern metal queen Debbie Gough to find out about her longstanding love of Jackson guitars, her days working in guitar stores, and why her American Series Soloist is such a special guitar to her.
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00:00 (heavy metal music)
00:03 I'm Debbie Gough from Heriot,
00:11 and I'm with Guitar.com today,
00:13 and you're watching My Guitars and Me.
00:15 (heavy metal music)
00:18 My first metal guitar was a Dean ZX Explorer,
00:25 which was massive on me at the time,
00:27 'cause I think I was maybe 13 or 14.
00:30 So that was my first like pointy kind of guitar.
00:33 I think what made me just go back to Jackson
00:35 was the fact that we were then playing in,
00:38 we were now playing in drop I,
00:40 so really, really low tunings.
00:42 I just felt as though I wanted a more kind of ballsy guitar.
00:46 Everybody wants to be a musician
00:47 and say that they sound like loads of things,
00:50 but if I was just being honest,
00:51 I think we sound, there's bits of black metal,
00:55 bits of hardcore, but if you were to say a HM2 band,
01:00 I think that's what accurately describes us best.
01:03 (heavy metal music)
01:06 I first saw this guitar when I used to work
01:16 in the guitar shop, and it came into our showroom,
01:19 and everybody debated about whether they loved it
01:21 or hated it, and I was really on the fence at first.
01:24 I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not,
01:27 and then I went on holiday, and when I come back,
01:30 it had sold, and I was like absolutely devastated.
01:33 So I was like, no, I need to get this guitar,
01:36 and this feels very much like one guitar
01:39 that I'll have forever.
01:41 There's a DiMazio, the chopper pickup in the bridge.
01:46 In the neck in the middle pickup,
01:47 I've still got the Duncan Designed Hot Rails.
01:50 It's put through its paces with the HM2.
01:52 I just wanted to try and tame it down a little bit
01:54 with the chopper.
01:56 I've got Floyds on all my guitars now
01:59 is because I started putting dive bombs
02:02 into Harriet's songs, which was really, really fun.
02:05 (high-pitched guitar music)
02:09 First ever Jackson had a Floyd on it,
02:11 and I just was not ready for a Floyd at that time,
02:15 but now I feel quite confident with them.
02:18 I think a band that made me fall in love
02:20 with dive bombs all over again would be Powertree.
02:23 I think the solos in Powertree are awesome,
02:26 how they use the whammy for like another pedal almost.
02:31 I really, really love that.
02:36 I've tried to do it a little bit
02:37 with how we play with the like.
02:41 (high-pitched guitar music)
02:44 That kind of stuff I like.
02:47 (high-pitched guitar music)
02:51 (high-pitched guitar music)
02:55 This guitar definitely helped us form
03:00 the kind of tone that we've got at the moment.
03:03 (high-pitched guitar music)
03:06 I had my SR3 just after summer last year.
03:19 It's the first ever American guitar
03:21 that I've ever had in my life.
03:23 So to be able to own this guitar is insane.
03:27 I'm really, really, really lucky
03:29 to have this in my collection.
03:31 It sounds really silly to say,
03:33 but when I've played other guitars
03:35 that don't have a through neck,
03:37 because there are a couple of solos
03:38 where we go right to like the 23rd fret,
03:42 it's quite hard to get up there.
03:44 I played my Monarch the other day,
03:47 which is like a Les Paul shaped body,
03:50 and the shape of a Les Paul was quite funny to play
03:54 'cause I couldn't get up to the top fret
03:56 in the same kind of way,
03:57 or feel as comfortable doing so.
04:00 I really like having a slim neck,
04:02 and this one is quite flat as well.
04:04 So I think that helps with touring
04:10 and the hot stages and stuff like that
04:13 because you get slippy and slidy.
04:16 It's quite nice that it's matte as well for that reason
04:18 'cause I'm not sliding as much as I do on the SL4X.
04:23 When it's chunky riffs,
04:27 this guitar definitely outweighs this one.
04:31 So when there's songs where I'm not doing any
04:34 like lead work or anything like that,
04:35 it is nicer to have the humbucker in the bridge
04:40 that's a little bit more able to cope with drop A.
04:44 (gentle guitar music)
04:47 In normal playing, I definitely do switch
05:03 to the neck pickup when I'm at home
05:06 or like previous projects that I've been involved in
05:10 or played different kind of styles and things like that.
05:14 Playing new guitars live is a totally different kettle of fish
05:17 to playing them at home.
05:19 So the biggest struggle that I've had in touring
05:23 is trying to allow just enough distortion in.
05:28 Now that we're home from touring,
05:31 I am definitely ready to sit down and write some more songs.
05:36 And we have kind of been doing that
05:37 in the breaks between touring.
05:39 Obviously I've had loads of different guitars
05:41 over the years, but this one I feel as though like
05:44 in a cheesy way I've made loads of memories with.
05:47 It's been with me through all of the amazing things
05:50 that we've been able to do over the last few years.
05:53 I think it would be my Desert Island guitar.
05:56 (guitar playing)
05:58 When I'm in these situations,
06:06 I forget how to play guitar entirely.
06:08 (guitar playing)
06:11 I feel as though when people talk about bands like Nails
06:25 and like, oh, how did you go down that route?
06:28 Bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Lamb of God
06:30 and even like Cancer Bats and things like that,
06:33 they kind of, there has to be a next step of like, okay,
06:36 well, if you're going to carry on listening to heavy music,
06:38 what else can you go to?
06:39 And I feel as though people who've stuck it out
06:42 for a little while end up gravitating towards bands
06:45 like Nails and Full of Hell and things like that.
06:48 And I was really, really excited to find something,
06:51 found something heavier than what I thought was like
06:54 the heaviest that I could kind of listen to.
06:56 And then there's this whole other world of like heavy bands
07:00 that you can discover,
07:01 which feels like you're getting into heavy music
07:02 all over again.
07:03 The UK scene right now is amazing for heavy music
07:06 and also like to bands that don't necessarily fit
07:09 into one genre in particular.
07:11 It's really nice to be a part of that scene
07:14 and to feel inspired watching other bands.
07:17 Before this guitar,
07:18 I never really had any outrageous colored guitars.
07:20 And now I feel as though I just want to stick
07:22 to having outrageous colors
07:24 'cause they're really fun to play.
07:26 I'm really, really happy with all three of these guitars.
07:30 These guitars will always be out on the road with me.
07:34 (guitar playing)
07:37 Thank you for watching my guitars and me.
08:00 If you'd like to listen to my band, Herry,
08:02 you can do so on all good streaming platforms.
08:04 (upbeat music)
08:07 (upbeat music)
08:09 (gunshots)