The Wayo are a four piece band that met during their Foundation Year At King’s.We got to take a tour of their rehearsal space, and they told us about their gear.
1. Drum Kit: “It’s the first kit I ever bought,” said Kingston, “I’m using a 1973 Slingerland snare that I bought for $20 from Kijiji. It’s rare and I’m happy with the way it sounds.”
2. Saxophone: “I started playing in grade six school bands,” said Wilson, “I always thought it was the coolest because I love soul music.”
“I have a love hate relationship with it. It’s physically demanding and I get cankers all the time,but it sounds nice.”
3. Fender P-Bass: My uncle passed it on to me when I was 13 and I was getting into playing guitar and bass,” said Rowan, “He still asks
“He’s played some great gigs with it. He backed Chuck Berry,” Rowan said, “It’ was a funny experience for him because (Berry) never toured with a band. He would just play with the house band and assumed they knew his songs.”
4. Vocal Pedal: I just like having control of my vocal effects rather than the sound guy having control of it,” said Wilson. “Mostly I use reverb and echo.”
“I (also) call it the man pedal. I pitch my voice down to sound like a man,” she said, “it’s fun because that’s what I do when I’m rapping sometimes because I get nervouse mostly and I like to play with gender roles.”
5. Akai MPC Sampler: It’s this sord of standard, or classic beatmaking machine,” said Kingston.
“Everything you put into it has to be done from a floppy disk.” said Kingston, “It’s got this really ‘in your face’, grimey sound.”
6. Suzuki Omnichord: “That’s another Kijiji find,” said Rowan, “It has it’s own drum machine and basslines and this digital strings sound. It can make these cool 8-bitty sounding organ chords”
7. Guitar Pedals: “I like to create atmospheric sounds and make the guitar sound like a keyboard in a sense,” said Fong, “I like getting some really non-analog sounding stuff.”
“I use a diamond tremolo pedal, and a little shim verb, which is based off a 70s spring reverb. I use a two echo pedals as well.”
8. Epiphone Royal Wildcat Guitar: I also use a Fender Telecaster because I like the jangly sounds it can make.
9. Midi Keyboard: “We use Midi keys because it’s an easy way to create and edit sounds,” said Rowan, “used an organ sample to create an eerie sound, you can hear on our Girls Love Beyonce cover.”
10. Brand New Wayo: It’s a compilation of Nigerian disco funk,” said Rowan
“We listened to that and really liked it. That was around the time we were trying to think of a name for the band,” said Kingston.
11. Microkorg Synthesizer
12. J-Dilla’s Doughnuts
13. D’Angelo’s Voodoo
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Inside King's: the Wayo's rehearsal space
