Peter Holmström

Peter Holmström is the guitarist of The Dandy Warhols, and nearly as famed for his pedal knowledge as for his playing in the band¹. His gear history includes a Bradshaw Custom Audio switching system that runs his board, an early prototype of the Malekko Charlie Foxtrot, a pedal he co-conceived, uniquely cased in a Malekko Scrutator housing¹. Lately he has been getting into the Cooper FX Moment Machine and the Meris Enzo¹.

First pedals: Crybaby, Rat and a DOD Stereo Flanger

Holmström's first pedals were a Crybaby wah and a Rat distortion, with a DOD Stereo Flanger perhaps the third¹. The Rat has stayed with him ever since.

The DOD Stereo Flanger earned its place in Dandy Warhols history on "The Dandy Warhol's TV Theme Song." He describes letting go of the strings and stomping on the Flanger going into a Rat, and the noise that resulted becoming the solo for that song¹. The pedal had a practical downside, though: the switches used to go bad quickly, nobody could fix them for a long time, and he went through three of them¹.

The board today: Boss SY-300 and a Bradshaw switching system

Holmström's current rig is organized around a Bradshaw Custom Audio switching system¹. When he upgraded to it, he had a rackmount Rat R2DU modified to not use the footswitch function, and later switched to a Malekko Fetish¹.

The Boss SY-300 is a central piece of his modern sound. He says it is all over new Dandys material, where he uses it as an EQ and as a replacement for his pitch shifter and harmonizer¹. The SY-300 is a guitar synth pedal that replicates an analog style synth designed to be used with traditional guitar pickups³. Its four footswitches let a player adjust several parameters on the fly, which matters for a synth pedal since tweaking sounds live is much of the fun⁴. The bypass footswitch works like that of any other pedal, switching the synth sound on and off⁵, and a TRS control jack accepts a double footswitch or a BOSS/Roland expression pedal⁵. Two external footswitches or an expression pedal can be connected for more real-time control³.

Lately he has also been getting into the Cooper FX Moment Machine and the Meris Enzo¹.

Signature pedals and the Portland connection

Holmström co-conceived the Malekko Charlie Foxtrot, a digital buffer and granular pedal with both autocapture and manual-capture of the input signal¹⁶. It was released in 2015 alongside the Malekko Scrutator, a sample rate and bit reducer pedal built on Malekko's DSP platform⁷⁸. Malekko's newer pedal platform, which includes the Scrutator, Charlie Foxtrot and Downer, offers user-assignable CV control over as many as five knobs simultaneously, in any direction⁹. Holmström owns an early Charlie Foxtrot prototype, uniquely cased in a Scrutator housing¹.

His signature and band-related pedals include:

• Malekko Charlie Foxtrot, co-conceived¹
• Spaceman Wow!¹
• The Dandy Warhols Distortland pedal by Malekko¹
• The ultra-rare Dandy Warhols Mission Control by Death By Audio¹
• Malekko Polyamorator, a signature pedal for Holmström across The Dandy Warhols, Pete International Airport, Rebel Drones and Radis Noir²

He is tight with Portland's community of local pedal makers, including Spaceman Effects¹. Of Spaceman he says:

Pedal makers also seek him out for input, which is how he came to own many prototypes from Scandinavian boutique builder Locomofon, introduced to him by Norwegian band friends. In his words, "They make crazy fuzz pedals and a really extreme version of a Tube Screamer."¹

Pete International Airport

Pete International Airport is Holmström's solo project, one of several musical associations he keeps alongside The Dandy Warhols¹². Its album art was cannibalized for the Charlie Foxtrot's distinctive graphics¹.

Questions