Hi-Fives with Earthquaker Devices' Jamie Stillman

For this edition of the World-Famous Coast Sonic Hi-Fives we've managed to pester EarthQuaker Devices head-honcho Jamie Stillman with our rather pointless series of Top 5 questions.  Give it a read to get Jamie's take on strange office build-outs, shelved experiments and the best products to invest your money on at random truckstops.

Top five things about running your own company

1. Believing I can do whatever I want with my time.
2. Getting to travel.
3. Making the pedals I wish existed.
4. Working with my wife and employing our friends.
5. Being able to hire people who have way more expertise at running a company of our size.

Top five things that tend to interfere with said company

1. Not actually being able to do whatever I want with my time.
2. Travel
3. Ridiculous problems I never knew could exist.
4. My ability to procrastinate on everything.
5. The amount of meetings it takes to know what’s going on in a company of our size.

Top five pedal names that didn’t make the cut

1. Deal Roller
2. Amp Hammer (1 and 2)
3. Sonic Reducer
4. Surprise Machine
5. Arc Chute

Top five reasons people think you should send them free gear

1. They are “artists”
2. They are “up and coming artists”
3. They can get us in front of “soooo many people”
4. They’ll put our name on their shirts
5. They can’t afford it

Top five experiments that didn’t see the light of day

1. Envelope controlled delay
2. Dirty envelope filter
3. Arpeggio Delay
4. A whole series of experiments based around a robot voice modulator
5. Eno machine- 5 Dispatch Master in 1 box

Top five reasons to call in sick

1. I’m laying out PCB’s and can’t be distracted
2. I got something new that I need to “test out”
3. I’d rather play music
4. I’m travelling
5. I’m actually sick

Top five things we don’t know about EQD

1. I’m constantly working on building the best fuzz face.
2. If you have seen a facebook post, we’ve probably had a meeting about it.
3. I don’t have any formal training in electronics, I just go for it and hope for the best.
4. We currently have a maze and a makeshift space station built in our warehouse.
5. I’m not actually running the company, my wife Julie and a lot of our employees make all the important decisions.

Top five truck stop impulse purchases

1. A whole gallery of velvet paintings
2. Corn Cob pipe
3. Child sized cowboy hat
4. Gold aviators that slightly magnified
5. Eagles greatest hits CD

Top five embarrassing riffs you can play

I’m not necessarily embarrassed by these, but, you know…

1. “More than words” by Extreme
2. Some 3^rd eye blind song that I don’t know the name of
3. “Black or White”- Michael Jackson
4. “Party in the USA”- Miley Cyrus
5. “Your smiling Face”- James Taylor (this song actually rips)

Top five drummers

Drums are my first (and probably favorite) instrument so, here’s 10 in no particular order: 

1. John Bonham
2. Steve Shelley
3. John Theodore
4. Billy Cobham
5. Brooks Headley
6. Bill Bruford
7. Todd Trainer
8. Bill Ward
9. Dale Crover
10. Steven Drozd

Check out Jamie and the crew at Earthquaker Devices fine handiwork.