Marcos Mena, who many of us know from standards, is generally known for two things – one, playing the absolute crap out of his guitars, and two, having a genuinely keen eye for branding, viral content, and social media management.
These combined skills took flight for Marcos at the perfect time, allowing his band to quickly capture the entire math rock scene with fruit-tactic imagery and intricately arranged tunes. But with every album, standards’ bar for impact is raised, and the same goes for the music – luckily, it’s been a success every time since 2018, culminating in the release of their most complete and successful record yet with this year’s Fruit Galaxy.
The band just returned from tour not long ago so we wondered what his next move would be, and it turns out he’s shaking it up with a new, but intimately related path: managing social media for Ground Control Audio.
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Ground Control is an effects pedal and accessory company based in Montreal. They’ve achieved a solid reputation within the tone-snob community already with a trio of well-received boosts (The Serpens, Tsukuyomi, and Ameratsu), but for us, what we love about them is their clear familiarity with math rock and emo. They’ve got a playlist on their site called Sad Songs featuring bands like Avec PlaisirDel Paxton, and Mineral, not to mention a section for tapes from bands like Tricot and Sweet Pill.
So really, it’s a perfect match. Especially when you take a look at GCA’s latest piece, the Uwu Virtual Pet Buffer – yep, that’s a real thing. But more on that in a minute – we had some time to chat with Marcos about his plans for Ground Control, edutainment for the masses, and yes, raising a virtual pet from the sheer power of playing electric guitar.
FB: Montreal’s Ground Control Audio has a uniquely modern approach to design, and just seem really innovative in general – what would you say sets Ground Control apart from other pedal manufacturers?
Marcos:I think Sebastien’s approach is really outside the box as he isn’t really concerned with trends, he just wants to make something that he hasn’t seen before. That’s a mindset I also follow for my own creativity. This mindset sometimes pays off and sometimes doesn’t, but I think everyone is sick of the same distortion pedal being released in the pedal community. I think Ground Control is the answer.
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FB: The artist roster on their website features math rock heavy hitters like Gulfer, Into It Over It, and Covet – do you ever use Ground Control pedals on stage or in the studio?
Marcos: In the past I’ve used the Noodles and UwU most recently! The Noodles is a 3-band EQ/boost pedal, a really unique looking pedal with a wide variety of applications. Plus, it looks mega cool.
FB: How did you meet / get to know Ground Control and end up managing their social media?
Marcos: My friend Nate Sherman from Floral showed me one of their pedals one day, which felt so rare because he rarely uses pedals. He was like “Dude this thing rips”. That was the Amaterasu drive. I contacted them and was like “how can I try these?” since I didn’t know where I could get my hands on one. They just sent me one and the rest is history. We’ve since collaborated on tape releases and my Ground Control pedal collection grew with each release. Before taking the social media position, I realized I already owned almost every pedal save for 2-3 so it was like wow…I already know how these things work!
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FB: What’s something you’re looking to take from the way you operate standards’ socials and apply it to Ground Control? Have you had to learn anything new?
Marcos: I plan on doing fun and entertaining videos as I do with standards but I also think social media is in dire need of more edu-tainment videos. It’s really big on YouTube but I see lots of people just downright confused or not in the know about things that I grew up learning because I thought everybody else knew them. I would make videos like this on my own socials and get a large response every time. I’d be happy to get some videos out there that not only explain the products but just concepts about pedals in general.
Nobody gets into playing music because they want to learn about electrical engineering, but sometimes you have to because otherwise you won’t be able to make music with guitar pedals unless you know! For instance, how do you know what power supply to use with what pedal? What is a correct pedal chain order? What is a buffer? I plan on going in depth on some topics that some pedal users might not know. One of my missions here is to position Ground Control as a hub for education as well as community.
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FB: The Uwu Virtual Pet Buffer seems like an incredible idea, almost forcing you to practice in order to level up your companion. Have you had any experience with this pedal? If not, are you curious about it?
Marcos: I started using it near the end of our last tour! It’s really fun and I plan on making a lot of videos showcasing the different ways you can use it.
FB: The Uwu apparently features three actual video games on it for when you’re bored between sets, sound checks, etc. including Long Cat, Fishy Blox, and Neko Invader. If you could add one more game to its roster, what would it be?
Marcos: 100% Brick Breaker. My dad, like many businessmen in 2006, used to have a BlackBerry so I would always ask to use his and play BrickBreaker. In the game “the player must smash a wall of bricks by deflecting a bouncing ball with a paddle” and it was so much fun. I just found out while Googling the game that it’s available on the iOS store so I know what I’ll be doing after this interview.
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FB: Despite generally playing with clean tones, it seems like you still push to expand your tonal palette every time you release a record with standards. What do you find yourself experimenting with more – compression or EQ?
Marcos: Definitely compression! One of the cool things about being close with a pedal maker is that you can tell him all of your crazy ideas so I’ve definitely relayed some ideas for a compressor that may or may not happen in the future!
Check out more Ground Control Audio at their website here.
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