Spiral XP

SHOEGAZE SUPERFAN MAX KEYES EMBRACES OPEN TUNINGS, PITCH BENDS AND MORE ON HIS LATEST ENDEAVOR

- By Gregory Adams

SPIRAL XP'S MAX Keyes wasn't a natural-born guitarist. Though he tried picking up the instrument a few times in his youth, something about a six-string just didn't connect with him back then. That's why he started honing heavy rhythms as a drummer - most notably for Seattle-based noise-pop band Versing.

It wasn't until a Versing tour with cult Canadian jangle-pop trio the Courtneys - where he began obsessing over the latter outfit's gliding open-tuned melodies - that Keyes changed his, um, tune. Later, after a friend gifted him an old Epiphone SG, Keyes was inspired to experiment with drop-D and open-D arrangements from his living room. This led him toward developing an elementally intuitive approach to fretting that finally unlocked the guitar's potential for him.