Jared Scharff: One more great thing about Saturday night
By Laura B. Whitmore
“Show up, be prepared, know the music.” Jared Scharff is the Eagle Scout of the guitar-playing world. OK, not really, but he does take his job as the guitar player on Saturday Night Live seriously, and he shows it by being 100% present, prepared, and ready to wail.
But that’s not the only thing Jared has brewing. Formerly the guitarist with Carbondale on RCA Records and later leader of Jared Scharff and the Royals, he is now actively writing and producing for major label artists. In fact he recently won the Billboard World Song Contest’s top prize for Americana/Folk and the top award in the Rock category for the 2010 Song of the Year contest.
The insanity and hilarity of SNL’s live scenario certainly keeps Jared on his toes. But to minimize the unexpected, he relies on a rock-solid, toneful 65amps rig that sits over his left shoulder on set. We caught up with Jared in NYC on a day off to talk about his gig, his gear and more.
Tell us about your SNL audition. How did you prepare?
I was recommended for the gig by a friend, and Lenny Pickett the bandleader, checked out some of my youtube videos. I knew that I would have to sight read, but I was so rusty – I went to NYU and had to read in school all the time for Jazz ensemble, but it had been a long time. So, I started sight-reading every day for like two hours a day. I borrowed the previous guitar player’s books. I practiced clarinet etudes, Bach sonatas; I had a real book for jazz stuff.
Of course, when I went to the audition, the first thing Lenny gave me was in the key of B, which has five sharps! That’s hard to read when you can’t read that well! I totally bombed it. But he gave me a second song, and it had a solo. So I thought, I’m just going to shred it! And he was like, “Sweet.” He understood that I hadn’t read in a while. He knows that a rock guy probably isn’t going to be a great reader. So, he told me he’d let me know. And I thought, ok, I’m going to read every day even if I don’t get called back.
But I did get called back about a month later, and my reading had improved a little bit. And for that audition I had to read eight songs back to back with just a minute to look at the charts. And this was with the whole rhythm section – everyone playing. I had never played with dudes that were this high caliber. I had played with great musicians, but not noted ones. I was scared! And it was a 9am call on Sunday morning, and I never go to sleep until like 4am every night. So I was already behind the eight ball. So I just showed up. I got there early to listen to the other guitar players. Hilariously enough, for the first song Lenny picked an easy funk song that I was really familiar with….
A couple weeks later they called me and said I got the gig. I kept reading, and they sent me about 150 SNL charts with CDs. So I was looking at the music and listening. And now I was getting into all of the R& B and blues solos, all of those kind of licks and funk rhythms. By track 3 of 50 I was starting to see the shapes and get it and become familiar with it.
Now we read every week, but we go over the songs during two rehearsals before the season starts, and we’ll got through 50 or 60 songs.
How many songs do you do a night on the show?
We do four or five during the intro as the audience is coming in. Then there’s some standup comedy, and we play two or three more. Then the show starts, and within the show we probably play about eight songs in between during commercials, and then we play the closing. And then we do it all again! But it’s the same set. There’s a dress rehearsal and then later we do the actual show. Plus, we rehearse those songs for two hours that morning as well. When I show up there’s a folder with the songs, and I go ok, this is it for today.
But we’ll do some new things too. Like we are going to rehearse a song next week that I’m bringing in that I wrote. So we’ll do new stuff during the season, but it’s usually not hard. And now I’m used to reading those kinds of charts, so it’s easier.
Are you still reading as you’re playing?
You have to. The show itself is nuts. Even what you see is not what’s happening. It’s really fast paced. You’ll see a commercial, and you’ll hear the band play out. Then you’ll hear the band end and think, oh yeah, they played their song. But it’s not like that. The conductor could be saying, “OK, keep going, take the coda now, extend the solo, horns drop out,” all these kinds of cues in your ear. And you’ll be like “Shit, we’ve gotta get out! OK, last chord!” And everybody’s like BOOM! It’s crazy! Or we’ll start the song and something will be wrong with the timing of a commercial, and they’ll say something like, “Jump to bar 89,” and we might be at 2! So you have to have the charts. You’re on your toes! It’s high pressure. And it’s never the same. I walk in and think, “Let’s see what happens tonight!”
Do you ever mess up?
Yeah! People mess up all the time. There’ll be times when they cut to commercial and they didn’t count us in and no one’s playing. So Shawn [Pelton, drummer] might just go in with a drum riff or something. Because there’s dead air! There are small train wrecks. But as professional musicians we make it work. Most people wouldn’t even notice. It is interesting! Keeps it fun.
Tell us about your amp setup.
I’m using the 65amps Monterey now on the show. I have a SoHo, too. My 65amps cabinet is back behind the stage in an isolation booth. Everything is in ear. The heads are on stage so that I can tweak.
How did you choose which model you wanted to use on the show?
I went to the factory with the owner, Dan Boul, one night when no one was there. I just hung out and went through all the amps in different combinations. We went through the SoHo, Lil Elvis, Monterey, and the London. I knew that the Monterey was the right sound for the show and for what Lenny likes, because he loves that Fender sound. And I do too. I needed a great clean sound first and foremost, because most of my stuff would be derived from that. So I wanted that to work with a more distorted head. So I chose the SoHo, because I thought I could use it for clean, too. It has a good amount of variety.
We went through cabinet choices, and talked about where the amp was going to be. I selected a 2x12 cabinet with one Celestion AlNiCo Gold and one G12H30 speaker. We tried to make a smart decision about what was going to be best for the gig.
Dan came to New York to help set up the rig when the season started, which was very cool. I love the clean and the Bump sound in the Monterey. That’s my main sound right now. I use it like a two channel amp. I’ll use that for all my rhythm stuff, and if I want to use that sound but boost it a little bit, I’ll use a boost pedal. Dan really helped with the cabinet micing when they set up the gear for the show. Dan helped me find the right mic and advocated with the sound guys so that it sounded just great.
I have to be psyched to play. And I just connected with the Monterey. All the funk and jangly stuff really worked. Within the first show I knew it felt great. It’s a big situation with all ten instruments. The Monterey cuts through, and I heard it on TV, and it sounds amazing. I got such positive feedback from so many people. I switch guitars for fun, and all the guitars I use with it just sound great!
How did you first become interested in 65amps?
SNL! I had never heard of 65amps before, and my friend James from Maroon 5 was getting into boutique amps. So I started to become aware of these new boutique amp makers in L.A. And one day Bon Jovi was playing on SNL, and I always look at the guests’ gear. You know how it is! So Richie Sambora was playing the 65, and Speedy, the SNL tech, told me that Dan, the owner, was there, and did I want to meet him? So I talked to Dan for a while, and he is such a great guy. Then when I was out in L.A., I went by the shop and tried out some amps and they sounded great. Eventually I was doing a session in L.A., and I Dan brought like three heads to the studio for me to use! They worked really well and the amps sounded great. And then one day at SNL rehearsal the amp I was using went down on the set and Dan hooked me up with a replacement the same day. He made it happen.
You recently tried out the new Tupelo. Any initial reactions?
Yeah, I just tried the Tupelo and loved that thing! Of course, I’m a total American amp loser! I love anything 6V6. It has the Fender Deluxe kind of chime or jangly thing, but when you turn it up, it won’t get farty or tubby. Know what I mean? It felt great. I just played it, and it felt instantly bell-like and jangly. And I really like that, especially for recording. On the open chords it has a little bit of chewy gain, but I can still be clear and piercing. For SNL I think it would be great because I play with a 10-pece band. I’m actually thinking of swapping the SoHo for the Tupelo to use for the show. The Tupelo is amazing. I felt right at home playing it immediately.
How do you express yourself in this sort of restricted playing environment?
When we do the Led Zeppelin or Hendrix covers, that’s when I can play more of what I like to play. That’s usually in the warm up. Some of the songs we do in the set do go to that world of a little more aggressive, so I can take it out a little bit more. Otherwise I try to play it more straight and dig in as hard as I can. We all jam and have solos and get to mess around. I try to just be in it and create.
I don’t always follow the music. You can’t just sit there and count measures and really be in the music. When Lenny hired me, he told me, “When you go for your solos, you go in it, and you go for it, and you’re there.” A lot of people don’t attack it, and forget about everything else and just go. So I have a foot on the ground, but I’m still kind of jumping!
Tell us about some other things you are working on.
I’m a writer and producer, and that’s what I work on outside of this gig. I really like to write hooks and guitar parts. I like being the creator. I was doing sessions, but it’s more important for me to write and produce than to just get paid to play on someone else’s song. I have a writing team in LA. and a production team in NY. If we don’t finish stuff while I’m in LA, we trade files back and forth…That’s the way production goes these days!
I have a single coming out with this one band on Hollywood Records for a song that we co-wrote. And I have a song coming out for a new band on Mercury Records. Plus there are a couple songs with a singer on Universal that I was part of the production team on that’s coming out soon. It’s a lot.
How are you coping with being bi-coastal?
I hate it! Any time there’s more than a week off, I’m out in L.A. The SNL job is the best job I ever asked for. It enables me to do all of these other projects. It’s hard, but I have the best of both worlds. But only time I get to relax and chill out and catch up on movies is when I’m on a plane…!
Catch up with Jared every Saturday night on SNL, or maybe on your next cross-country flight!
Friend Jared on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jaredscharff
