Name: Luke Dowdy
Band: The Get Down

What guitarists inspire you?

When I was growing up, it was all about the grunge movement. I mean, I started really playing about the age of 15, so at that time Nirvana was huge, and then came the whole Rage era, so I was inspired by all that. But as I’ve gotten older I’m more inspired by the shred prog metal scene. Like the whole Twelve Foot Ninja, or Mandroid Echostar type stuff. But as far as a single guitarists, I’d go with Tom Morello, that dude does some wicked creative stuff.

What song has challenged you the most?

Most of the songs we play in our set don’t really even have guitar parts. It’s all dance music, so most are hard to replicate on guitar. I mean take “born this way” by Lady Gaga, there is no guitar at all….so why not just write a part over the chorus where all you do is guitar tapping? Why not!?

What’s your favorite song to play in your current band’s set?

My favorite song to play on our set is probably “shots” by LMAFO. We rock it up.

What’s the most overplayed song?

It’s hard for me to say, I don’t listen to much radio anymore. But I bet it’s “stairway to heaven”

What’s the most memorable thing that happened to you at a gig?

I was playing a show with an old original act, and at the time we were playing a house basement show. About 200 kids, all piled in this low ceiling basement. We decided to do an all acoustic version of a song we wrote, but not use actual acoustics. We used acoustic simulators. So it sounded awful, and we finished up the song to complete silence. No clapping or noises, except for my dad. Who out of the back yelled “that fucking sucked!” That was the highlight of that show.

What was your first guitar pedal?

First pedal was a DOD Grunge distortion.

What’s your current rig?

PRS guitar, Vox AC30 amp, OCD distortion. Pretty simple. Then I use a Fender strat mounted with a GK3 pickup for my guitar synth.

How long would it take for you to learn Van Halen’s Eruption?

You can’t learn eruption haha. Impossible.