STRAPPING YOUNG LAD guitarist, Jed Simon, sheds a little light for us on the hazards of being on the road, some great new and vintage music to listen to, the virtues of dual rectifiers, and pointy guitars:

“SYL has been writing and compiling video footage lately… except our video camera got stolen at the Hultsfred Festival (Sweden). How fucking lame is that? I think the festival folks are going to get us a new one though, which is cool. The festival itself was great: hung out with Jensen [THE HAUNTED guitarist] all day and got to see my fave band again (THE HAUNTED).Then immediately after our show, we had to get in a van, drive all night to the airport, get on the plane to Holland, get in another van, drive two hours to the Fields of Rock Fest, and arrived 30 minutes before show time. Talk about tired, but we pulled it off to a freakin’ full house and it was killer! Then we hung out with the NILE boys, MUDVAYNE, PRONG, ARCH ENEMY. (Jed meets Angela [Gassow, ARCH ENEMY vocalist], loses mind. Ultra cool to chat with Mike Amott as well.) Then it was sleepy fuckin’ time. It was a blur. Me and Byron [Stroud, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD bassist] have started buying the new AC/DC re-releases, so it has been nothing but ACDCACDCACDC for a month. Strange, but we have been doing some heavy partying lately. Hmmm… Have also been spinning One Kill Wonder (THE HAUNTED), The Last DJ (TOM PETTY… my hero), Restless and Wild (ACCEPT), Animal Magnetism (SCORPIONS), Fair Warning (VAN HALEN) to name a few. I’ve recently hooked up [an endorsement deal with] with Mesa Boogie, so I am a proud member of the MB family (DUAL RECTIFIERS!!). We’ve also hooked up with ESP/LTD again and got some new sweet pointed guitars!”

As previously reported here, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD will be returning to the U.S. with SAMAEL and CATHEDRAL for a tour that will kick-off in New York on September 4th.