For those of you with dogs in your life, you obviously know that common moment of frustration when your dog, for it’s very life, cannot stop sniffing some invisible corner of grass, dirt, trash… who knows what. It’s just something you accept that you’ll never understand because their noses are tuned so much better than ours. But now, we almost kind of get it – after a few sessions with NOKILL PEDAL CO‘s new Borzoi Glitch Fuzz, things were happening in our brain. New things. Crazy things. Things that had us rolling around on the ground in spasms of power.
For a concept that at first seems so simple, it seems silly. How could a fuzz pedal make us feel like we were smelling fresh grass for the first time or witnessing a brand new color? Well, we get into that here, thoroughly. We had so much fun we had to split this into two parts. But in this article, it gets even better – we’re ecstatic to present not just an amazing interview with NOKILL Pedal Co, but also an INCREDIBLE giveaway:
The rules are easy: order a standard pedal from NKPC for x1 entry to the raffle, or order a custom pedal for x5 entries. There will be two winners – one gets that Borzoi Glitch Fuzz we can’t stop raving about, and the other gets a secret pedal from NKPC! Use the code ‘fecking’ for from 5/2 to 5/23 for free shipping.
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We’ll spell it all out again at the end of the interview below, but remember, you don’t just get a sick pedal out of it (or two, if you win!) – 10% of all sales go to the Marfa, TX branch of One Tail At A Time, a non-profit dog rescue that puts in superhuman amounts of work to make the world a better place for man’s best friends. As we also get into in the other article, adopting a dog from Best Friend Animal Society changed our lives in so many ways, and we’re hoping this giveaway is just the beginning of us figuring out how to give back to the animals that helped us find meaning and joy in life more consistently.
For now, read on to learn about the beginnings of NOKILL Pedal Co, the actual wizardry behind the new Borzoi Glitch Fuzz, and which dogs respond best to synth-y, demonic noise rock.
FB: First of all, thank you for being a friend to dogs – what’s the story behind NOKILL Pedal Co?
NKPC: NOKILL started off as a hobby. When a friend and I first came up with the idea and the name, I decided that I would donate 10% of all sales to the rescue that saved two of my girls, One Tail at a Time PDX. After a lot of branding changes, I landed where I am currently at. I think my real jumping off point came after working with an artist friend in Bogota, Colombia on some line drawings of dogs that OTAT PDX had in foster, including one that had unfortunately and unexpectedly passed away while in foster.
Originally I was going to make wood etchings with my laser to auction off at their annual Bone Ball Gala, and after some research and a LOT of testing, I found I was able to etch the pedal enclosures themselves. The reception of those pedals was immense and ended up raising a couple thousand, which was all donated to them. From there on out, I knew that having a dog on the pedal was the route to go, and landed on the branding that I have now.
FB: A couple years ago I adopted a Staffy from Best Friends and it changed my entire perception of dogs in general – maybe it’s a dumb question, but are you fond of any particular dog breeds?
NPPC: Not dumb at all. While I love dogs, I have a strong connection to what my wife and I call “cattle mutts”. Red heelers, blue heelers, Kelpies, border collies, basically any herding dog and whatever else they are mixed with in their little puppy cocktail breeds. I find them to be loving, caring, loyal, and usually with a big pinch of madness. I also have a fondness for Borzois. I find them incredibly goofy and energetic and just always was drawn to them. I am also fond of staffy’s, the ones I have met are just big ol loveable velvet hippos.
FB: When did your journey with effects pedals begin?
I actually started building Eurorack modules before I even touched a pedal. I played guitar since I was a teenager, but fell off later in life, work and other things getting in the way. I got my first synth kit, a Bastl Kastle and asked my dad, who has worked in electronics his entire life, to help me build it. I fell in love with the whole process. Sourcing, placing, soldering, it was like a giant, intricate puzzle, but instead of a picture of a waterfall or something, this little synth made the most obscene noises. It was a pretty quick jump into Eurorack after that, searching for more and more difficult builds. A friend of mine, Leon del Muerte, reached out and asked if I wanted to build a couple pedal kits he got and decided he had no time to build. I thought I’d give it a shot and went for it. And then I absolutely fucked those up.
Feeling a little embarrassed, I bought a bunch of replacement boards from GCI Instruments and after a lot of time going over the instructions and schematics, I got them working. After that, I found PedalPCB and started building one off clones for friends. Over time, I learned more about how pedals work and how to read schematics, mod the existing circuits, and eventually decided to make my own boards. My first few boards were the Red Heeler Deluxe Drive, a take on EQD’s Crimson Drive with an additional clipping switch. I also made a Big Muff circuit, cause everyone needs more muffs, but built it in a way that I could make about 9 different versions. From there, it just became what I did in my free time. If I wasn’t building pedals, I was working on schematics and designing PCBs.
FB: Salem, the Staffy I mentioned, has always hated guitar that sounds acoustic, classical, or unplugged, but seems to enjoy bass. Do you ever find that dogs or animals in general react to the tones you create from the pedals?
NKPC: Haha Salem has good taste. I have three dogs, Emmylou, our oldest, Ruthie, the middle, wild child, and Juniper, who earned the nickname Demon. Unless there is food in my office, Emmylou and Ruthie are off napping somewhere or keeping an eye on the neighborhood for criminal squirrels. Meanwhile, Juniper loves to sit in the office with me, snoozing away while I’m either testing pedals or making just absolute noise from the synths. I always joke that the sounds I’m making fit her demon-like qualities. In reality, Juniper is a sweet dog that just has a thing about “smiling” when she gets too excited.
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FB: Many of your designs seem to have little bonuses or add-on’s – at what point do you think about putting a little extra when you’re designing?
NKPC: Regarding the circuits I design, there’s a common thing with DIY builders and even bigger pedal companies where we are all kinda using the same circuits that have been floating around for decades. What I have found from doing a lot of testing is putting certain circuits before or after another one, usually in ways that are not meant to be, creates absolute chaos, in the best way.
My Doberman Eldritch Glitch Fuzz should actually be a very versatile fuzz pedal, an Acapulco Gold circuit with a 3 band EQ to open up a little more range. What I found is that if you put that EQ after the fuzz, and throw it on a momentary switch, it creates just a destruction of the original fuzz, mainly in creating and controlling feedback when nothing is played. Since then, I have always thought about what I can add to a pedal to push it into a new and unexpected territory. Growing up listening to noise punk, grindcore, and anything that has a song under 1 minute, I started looking to create pedals that are common, with a switch that can create insanity, if only for a second.
FB: The new Borzoi Glitch Fuzz is particularly insane – can you tell us about the Octave Glitch mode?
NKPC: The Borzoi quickly became one of my favorite pedals I’ve built. At its core, it’s a slightly modified Seppuku Sub-Octave Synth. I changed a few values to make the glitch extra wild, and swapped the 2 down footswitch to a normal switch and instead of a normal switch for the glitch, I put that as a momentary footswitch. Pushing that glitch effect even further made for an insane quick hit, creating a wall of noise chaos. The circuit itself uses a common 4046 phase-locked loop chip, often used in synths, but in a not so common way. The main clipping comes from 2 transistors, but the blend control takes the VCOOUT part of the chip and introduces a synth texture that is a lot of fun. The glitch part is also utilizing that chip, essentially pusing it to extreme levels, very quickly. I am not the greatest at fully understanding everything that chip does, but I do know that it makes some pure insanity. I am actually working on a way to have that added to other pedals to test what that chip can do.
FB: Some of your other designs are also rather mind-bending, like the Basenji Tremolo Fuzz or the Fila Brasileiro – has there been one that’s been the most challenging?
NKPC: A lot of the ideas I come up with are mashing two pedals that shouldn’t necessarily be put together. The Basenji was after someone asked for a basic trem pedal. I thought it was a little boring just on its own, and didn’t want to just make another clone, so I added a fuzz circuit into the mix. Most of these are just two modded circuits added together that I think would sound good, or crazy, or insane. A common additon to my pedals is also a no knob octave circuit, found in EQD’s Tentacle and Life pedal, but again, pushed to the extreme so it really disrupts the overall sound.
The most challenging is a 4 glitch/octave/fuzz pedal that includes a patch bay so you can choose the signal path of the pedal and essentially arrange them any way, just from the enclosure. A little bit of my eurorack roots meeting pedals. That pedal will also have a secret to it, where using stacking or splitting cables will allow effect loops and just be the noisiest thing that exists.It currently exists, with the board sitting at about 13 inches long. My goal is to get this down even smaller and inside some custom cases.
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FB” What’s next for NOKILL Pedal Co?
NKPC: I am currently working on quite a few things. The previously mentioned glitch pedal, aptly named the Xoloitzcuintle Glitch Overlord is a big one that I am hoping to have out soon. I also am working with the band Melted Bodies on releasing a collab pedal, which should be out in the next month or so. I also have my Pink Poodle Club, which is in R&D right now, but is based on the guitar solo from “Pink Pony Club.” It’s based on the EVH 5150 gain stages, but in a pedal form. It works, but it’s not quite there. And before I get too much slack for that, this came about to bring trans awareness and I am actually going to be donating 10% of all sales to the Trevor Project for that one! Besides that, I am always leaning into the noisy, glitchy pedals. I have some ideas for a new delay pedal that gets to the self oscillation without blowing your speakers out, and giving it a bit more control.
I also began doing customs for people. I open these up to about 10-12 at a time. Basically, I take a bunch of pictures they send and create a drawing. Once we land on the drawing, I etch those off. Each pedal can have a different circuit. I am actually opening these up soon, and expanding to something like 10 different circuits, including the Borzoi.
Thanks again, Alex!
Again, below are the rules for said giveaway, and then within a couple hours the link should be live here for the second part where we provide a ton of audio samples and recount going absolutely mad in the best way possible over the beauty of the Borzoi Glitch Fuzz. Anyway.
Rules:
Two Winners: One Winner Receives a Borzoi Glitch Fuzz // One Winner Recieves a secret NKPC Pedal.
To enter, purchase one standard pedal from NKPC from 5/2 to 5/23 – one standard pedal = 1 entry, one custom pedal = 5 entries.
Use the code ‘fecking’ for free shipping!
U.S. ONLY (sorry everyone shipping hard)
Go to the NKPC website nokillpedal.co to check out their glorious array of options!
(Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for more music, check out our Bandcamp compilations here. If you like us, or possibly even love us, donations are always appreciated at the Buy Me A Coffee page here, but if you’re in a generous mood you can also donate to folks like Doctors Without Borders, the PCRF, Charity Water, Kindness Ranch, One Tail at A Time, Canopy Cat Rescue, or Best Friends Animal Sanctuary that could probably use it more – click on their names above to check ‘em out if you’re so inclined. Thanks again!)