Russell Lissack

Russell Lissack
Russell Lissack
Background information
Birth name	Russell Dean Lissack
Born	11 March 1981 (1981-03-11)
Origin	Chingford, England
Genres	Indie rock, post punk revival, electronica
Instruments	Guitar, synthesiser
Years active	2002–present
Associated acts	Bloc Party Pin Me Down Ash
Notable instruments
Fender Telecaster

Russell Dean Lissack (born 11 March 1981 in Chingford, England) is an English musician best known as the lead guitarist of London based indie rock band, Bloc Party. Lissack is also in the electronica band Pin Me Down; a duo of himself and Milena Mepris. He has recently joined Northern Irish rock band Ash as a touring guitarist.

Biography

Lissack grew up in Chingford, east London, and went to local private school Bancroft's School in Woodford. He met Kele Okereke there and developed a close friendship. He then studied Sociology at London South Bank University, dropping out weeks before graduation so he could tour with Bloc Party.

He is a committed vegetarian, and once appeared in Vegetarian Magazine dressed as a banana to talk about his Christmas dinner, which he likes 'traditional, with a Quorn fillet to replace the meat'. He also wrote an article for the online magazine Slush Pile about the difficulty of finding vegetarian food while touring.

Lissack cites some of his major influences as Manic Street Preachers, Suede, Blur, Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins, New Order, The Smiths, Prince, Weezer, the anime series Escaflowne and late 1990 trance music. Guitar influences include Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, Prince and Graham Coxon of Blur who are users of the Fender Telecaster.

In an interview, Okereke stated that Lissack used to play guitar in an Ash tribute band. Okereke jokingly adds that as Lissack was playing lead guitar he filled the role of Charlotte Hatherley. He has since been approached by Tim Wheeler to join Ash as a touring guitarist in 2010.

Lissack remixed Kate Nash's single, "Pumpkin Soup".

Lissack also plays with Milena Mepris in 'Pin Me Down' who released a single, 'Cryptic' through French label Kitsune in 2008. 'Pin Me Down' released their debut album "Pin Me Down' on April 19, 2010.

Lissack is accompanied Ash on their UK tour, whilst Bloc Party were on hiatus.

On the 30th September 2010, Lissack was bitten by a lion cub as he visited a sanctuary in South Africa on Ash's tour with the Parlotones and was taken to hospital for treatment.

Influences

Suede, Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins, New Order, The Smiths, Prince, Weezer, Escaflowne.

Musical equipment

Guitars

• Fender Telecaster – Lissack's main guitar; used in almost all live songs. An American blonde model with a black pickguard that features an array of stickers, including Pokémon and Disney characters. The guitar also features a set of Seymour Duncan pickups, as opposed to a stock pair. The strap is covered with countless badges, including the one that the Spanish band TvToys gave him on Bloc Party's last concert in Madrid. Also, Russell received a badge featuring the image of 60's rock 'n' roll icon Jim Morrison, given to Lissack via an encounter from an Australian fan in 2008. He claims this to be his favourite badge.
• Fender Telecaster – Blueburst, black pickguard, maple fretboard. Seen on Later with Jools Holland. First used for Signs.
• Fender Telecaster – White, white pickguard, maple fretboard, several Family Guy badges on strap.
• Fender Telecaster – White, mint green pickguard, rosewood fretboard. Probably a Fender 60's Classic Series Telecaster.
• Fender Telecaster – Bubble-gum pink, used earlier in the band's career, as seen in Little Thoughts video.
• Fender Telecaster Custom – Black, maple fretboard, 1 humbucker and 1 single coil bridge pickup, flashing LED lights on pickguard. Used on "Uniform" live, and seen in the Hunting for Witches video. Features the unusual modification of a children's toy fitted next to the guitar's pickups, which produces a series of futuristic sound effects when activated from a switch on the scratchplate. These sounds are picked up by the guitar's humbuckers and are amplified as normal.
• Epiphone SG – White, used earlier in the band's career.
• Fender Jaguar – Blue, tortoise shell pickguard, used earlier in the band's career.
• It has also been suggested that he has an affinity for multicoloured fake Stratocasters.
• He also uses producers' Gibsons in the studio, for example the Gibson Les Paul in Uniform
• Fender Telecaster – Black, White pickguard. Used when playing live with Pin Me Down

Effects pedals

Lissack uses a variety of guitar effects live and in the studio, so many that it is difficult to track exactly which are used at any given point. From eyewitness accounts and interviews it has been suggested that he has used all of these following effects:

• BOSS LS-2 Line Selector
• BOSS DD-6 Digital Delay
• BOSS DD-5 (x2) (1 set to reverse) Digital Delay
• BOSS OS-2 OverDrive/Distortion
• BOSS PS-5 SUPER Shifter (x2)
• BOSS PW-10 Wah
• BOSS TR-2 Tremolo
• BOSS TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
• BOSS RV-5 Digital Reverb
• BOSS RE-20 Space Echo
• Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
• Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man
• Ernie Ball 6165 Stereo Volume/Pan Pedal
• Electro-Harmonix POG
• DigiTech Whammy
• Pigtronix Envelope Phaser
• Roland Bee Baa
• Korg Kaoss Pad KP3

Lissack also uses an EBow

Amplifiers

• Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 3 out front unmic'd

• Fender Blues Deluxe and 2 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Mic'd Behind Riser out of view.

• Marshall stack (used in Bloc Party's earlier career)

• THD Hot Plate Power Attenuator on each amp that's mic'd

Keyboards

• Korg X-50 Synthesizer