Nashville’s music scene has given birth to so many phenomenal guitar players: Brent Mason, Jerry McPherson, Kenny Greenberg, and Hunter Hayes’ current guitar slinger, Devin Malone. As fans, we often fall into the trap of idolizing guitar gods, but what many of us don’t realize is that the studio session musicians are often the ones that create the songs and sounds we fall in love with. Their names may not be the first across your lips when you mention your favorite guitar players, but many of them have written and played on the songs that are the soundtrack of your life. Devin Malone is one of those guitar players. His phrasing, solos, and melodic emotion has weaved it’s way into the fabric of songs by Keith Urban and most recently, country star Hunter Hayes. I had a chance to ask Devin Malone about guitars, tone, and two mutual passions: gear and English literature. What’s not to like about a man who knows his guitar as well as his English literature?
How did you get started as a musician and how did you get noticed in the Nashville scene?
My first experience playing music was taking up the violin and cello in the school orchestra. That really sparked my love of playing music as an ensemble and got me into the understanding of how parts fit together and how different sounds make up the whole spectrum. After that, I started getting into guitar in the early 90s when grunge and alt rock hit big. Suddenly the young garage band aesthetic was the coolest thing in the world and I wanted in on it. I started getting together with any like-minded friends and just hacking away at covers until we felt like we were getting somewhere. After college and a couple of years in bands in Virginia, I moved to Nashville at about age 25. I was already playing for an incredible singer named Emerson Hart who was based here and so I decided to take the leap. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a long road of applying myself and networking to stay busy but I know I had a lucky head start. I realize not everyone is lucky enough to have a gig and contacts when they move to town.  After playing for Emerson, I just started saying yes to about any gig I could find. It didn’t matter if it was horrible material and a long drive for little money. I needed work and I needed to meet other players so I did it. I also stuck to a lot of the personal tenets I knew from playing cello in college when I was playing those gigs. Maybe those disciplines can be tough to find in the music industry because I found that artists were highly impressed when I learned the music thoroughly and showed up on time with great sounding gear. I kinda thought that would be a given but I soon learned it wasn’t. I think there are a lot of people trying to get noticed with crazy improvisational jazz skills or their look while forgetting the serious basics that keep your number in people’s phones.
We hear you love to talk about gear. What does your current studio rig look like and how does it compare to what you play live for Hunter Hayes?
I do love to talk about gear! I’ve always found myself completely obsessed with the sound of the electric guitar and I have spent my career trying to get a handle on all the intricacies of it. Any time I’m playing, I love to have as wide a variety of options as possible (within reason, of course) and I find that the best way to do that is not to ever worry about having the single best of anything. I would always rather buy a standard Fender Strat and Tele, an Epiphone Sheraton and Casino, and a decent acoustic than spend all that money on one Fender Custom Shop Strat. In the studio, I like to have a ton of different pickups and wood/body combinations represented so I like to bring a Strat, a Tele, a 335, a Les Paul and Les Paul Jr, a Jazzmaster, a Gretsch, and whatever else I can fit! Also, I’ve got a pretty massive pedalboard with all kinds of toys. There’s a bunch of different drive pedals, compressors, octavers, delays, and an Eventide Modfactor for the weirder stuff. I often will barely touch any of the pedals but it’s always nice to have the option when you get a wacky idea in your head. I like to bring a range of amps from the tighter, more articulate stuff like my 60s Fender Bassman head and 70s Marshall Lead to the saggier lower wattage stuff like my trusty old Fender Deluxe Reverb and Sears Silvertone amps. I can’t carry every single thing I own in my car, so I try to do some research on the music beforehand so I can bring the right gear. Obviously, subtleties are massively more noticeable in the studio so I pare it down for live work but I still like a good color palate. I’ve been using a two amp rig that I switch between. Though I’ve switched amps around a couple of times, generally I have one amp that’s mid-rangey and saggy and pretty gained up while the other one is much tighter and cleaner. I carry as many guitars as we’ve got space for and hopefully I can cover all the types of sounds from the record. There are still tons of times that I know it’s not exactly what I’d like it to be but I try to let it go and just play.
Pickups are obviously a big part of anyone’s guitar sound, and your discography is a diverse one. How do you go about choosing the right pickups for the job at hand and which ones are your current favorites?
That’s a darn good question. I often both love and hate how much different pickups can alter the sound of a guitar. Sometimes it’s fun when you change your pickups out and find yourself in a perfect tonal nirvana, and then other times I find myself switching pickups endlessly in a guitar trying simply to decide which ones I like best. I suppose I try to focus on what it is that I want a guitar to be. If I’ve got a Tele, do I want it to sound thin and twangy like a classic vintage tele? Or would it be better suited to my purposes with a beefed up, midrange heavy set in there? Generally, I like guitars to try to capture the most classic version of their sound that I have in my head. It’s hard to go too wrong on stage or in the studio with the classics. To that end, I’ve found myself recently outfitting a bunch of my guitars with the Seymour Duncan Antiquities. I’ve now got them in a 335, Jazzmaster, Firebird, Strat, Tele, and others I can’t even think of and they sound freaking fabulous everywhere. The Seth Lover humbuckers are really, really cool too.
If you had to choose one guitar and one amp to play through for the rest of your career, what would be your selection?
Man- that is a REALLY tough call and I bet my answer could change depending on the day I was asked but I’ll make a call for today. It’s awfully hard to beat a 60s AB165 Bassman head and a 335-type guitar (the actual “335’s” that I play are an early 80’s Japanese Tokai and a newer Ibanez EKM-100, though). That’s a regular go-to guitar/amp combination for me in just about any situation.
You’ve toured with Hunter Hayes and played in the studio for Keith Urban. How has your experience being a studio musician help you while you’re out on the road on a North American tour? 
I’ve been fortunate to get to play on a lot of records (including Hunter’s most recent, ‘Storyline’) and it’s always a rewarding experience. It forces you into a room full of people who are putting the microscope on every bit of what you’re doing. That can be terrifying but if you’re lucky enough to be in a group of folks who care then you really can makes leaps and bounds in your playing. It’s a great opportunity to be coaxed out of your element and find suggestions for new techniques or equipment that may be an improvement over your current situation. I also find it helpful to spend time in the studio really listening to the playback and hearing the reality of what you’re doing out in the tracking room. I often find that simpler patterns and parts contribute more to the song and that’s a good thing for me to cement into my mind. That way, when you’re on stage, you can try to remember what got the best effect and stick to it even when the rumble and the energy of the crowd are pushing you towards overplaying.
Guitar is just one of the instruments you play. What are the others and how has being a multi-instrumentalist helped your career in Nashville?
I’ve always considered myself as a musician first and an instrumentalist at a distant second. I always like to try to think of a great part and I try to play it on whatever instrument sounds best for it in my head. Again, I think it goes back to my history as an ensemble player in orchestras. I’m most capable on stringed instruments and I routinely play guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, cello, dobro, pedal steel, etc. I’ve played many gigs and sessions on keyboards too but it takes a lot more preparation and practice for me to pull that off. I’ve only gotten to play drums in a band a couple of times but it was an absolute blast! Playing multiple instruments can really help your musical career in a number of ways. First off, music is a language and I find it’s really useful to be able to talk to your fellow musicians in their specific language. Past that, the music industry can get real tight on their budgets and artists love to be able to hire folks that can wear several hats. If you’re up against another guitar player who’s great and sings and everything but you can play mandolin on one song too then they might be more likely to go with you. There are plenty of artists I’ve worked for who never ended up actually asking me to play pedal steel (or some other instrument) but they enjoyed knowing that I could and it contributed to me getting the job.
The music scene is a lot different than it was even 20 years ago. What advice do you have for guitarists that are looking to find their “signature sound” without breaking the bank in terms of gear and accessories?
The sheer wealth of companies these days that are making products to create new and old sounds can be pretty overwhelming. My first trip to the NAMM show nearly sent me into shock. It might possibly even be safe to say that if you can imagine it, there’s something out there that you can buy that creates it. I’m sure there are a lot of players out there that truly have no idea what gear they ought to pick. Partly because of that wide array, there are tons of new products like the Kemper profiling amp and Line 6 effect modelers being introduced to put an almost infinite range of options at the fingertips of every musician. There’s a part of me that appreciates that but I’ve found myself resistant for a couple of reasons. I LOVE options (as I noted above) but only to a degree. I feel that limitations often force musicians to pick a sound more quickly and move on to the playing. Ultimately, that should always be the most important thing and I feel that many people who are trying to find their sound should remember that their “sound” really means their “voice”. The voice part of it comes from you. Your choices as a player are the only thing that will really distinguish you. Everything else that you’re using is a piece of equipment that someone else can buy or mod just as you did. If you’re relying on that to be your distinguishing quality then you’re going to be heartbroken when someone else shows up with the exact same guitar and amp. I recommend starting with the classics gear-wise, and trying to develop a musicality that becomes your signature sound. A guy like Slash isn’t using any piece of gear that you can’t buy but he sounds like Slash and we don’t.
What is the most important thing a musician can do to make sure that they keep getting the call from Nashville producers and/or artists to be their go-to studio and/or tour guitarist?
Well- the single most important thing is, of course, to be creative and capable in your job but I’m assuming you’re talking about what’s past that baseline of ability. Provided you can really do the job properly, the absolute most important thing is to do everything you can on a daily basis to be a pleasure to work with. In a town like Nashville where there are so many talented people, ultimately people hire folks that they just love to be around. Everyone loves people who are conscientious, kind, helpful, and funny. If you genuinely make people laugh, nobody’s ever going to want to fire you. Everybody enjoys showing up to the studio or the airport and finding colleagues who are smiling and laughing and excited for a good day ahead.
What’s next for you after the Hunter Hayes tour? Where can people come and hear you play?
Well- to be honest, I’m not really sure! The calendar is often pretty unpredictable. I take it a step at a time so, at the moment, I’m just concentrating on heading into rehearsals next week for Hunter’s upcoming tour. Everybody’s looking forward to building this new show and I haven’t really heard what’s after that in the next year. Tour dates for this fall and anything beyond will all be at www.hunterhayes.com and anything else I’m involved in usually ends up on my twitter or Facebook page if anyone’s interested! (www.twitter.com/theotherdevo & www.facebook.com/devinmalonemusic)
Fair game question. You’re a fan of Charles Dickens. What is your favorite Charles Dickens novel?
I’m a huge fan. My favorite has got to be A Tale of Two Cities though it’s a tough call. I got to go visit the Dickens museum in London while we were there doing promo for this last record- amazing!
Thanks to Devin for being so enthusiastic while answering our questions. It’s easy to see the passion behind what he does – no doubt something that keeps him on the list of go-to players in the industry today. Be sure to catch him with Hunter Hayes when they roll through your town.