Sepsiss is a female-fronted metal band from Manchester, NH, founded in 2011 by Melissa Wolfe & William Savant.
They combine a traditional heavy metal sound with modern rhythms, light synths, & a blend of urban hardcore. Melissa sings clean vocals while William adds harsher vocal pieces. Then you have heavy percussion alongside William’s synths, composition, and multi-genre experience, delivering a wide variety of down-tuned gruelling bass, traditional, urban, modernized heavy ensembles. Usually a 6-piece; the group specializes in live shows, passionate fans, and hard work ethic.
1. Tell us your name and the band you play for
William Savant, Sepsiss
2. Who made you want to pick up the guitar
I was a DJ and hip hop composer, owned a hand full of keyboards and workstations. I would often dream up melodies on the road or out and about. I had no way of “auditioning “them for memory. I knew a hand full of country chords, so I planned to grab a cheap acoustic to record my ideas on the fly. I had no clue I was going to play rock music at the time. The rest is historical.
3. Are you self-taught or did you take lessons?
To this day I’m a major guitar creep and guitarted fan geek person. I read or spy on anything guitar and certainly had a hand full of cats that shaped my playing throughout the years
4. Can you read music, can you read tab?
I studied theory and reading early on. I read tab also. Every now and then I must force myself to read or it is massively slow. I’m very slow writing staff.
5. Do you feel like you have your own sound / tone ?
I’m hoping so . I say that but also I’m in the middle of this whole transition and feel I have grown up some. In technology and my ear. So no I have no clue what I’m doing I just love playing. The pursuit for that golden tone is part of my adventure.
6. Tell us about your guitar ( brand ,model, year , color )
Schecter diamond series, gunmetal grey. It has EMG pickups and it doesn’t like to be kissed on the cheek. My amp is 100 watts black orange rockerverb MK3 and matching half strait back stack. I absolutely cannot stand awkward big pedalboards that take up stage real estate and silly little noises. I have power button anxiety and by the time I get on stage, I just shit to work. A lot of people have asked me before what I do to get my sound on stage …. usually new, stretched strings proper warm-up. I might really create some panic this year and use a channel switch and wha this year. But probably won’t.
7. What about pickups? Passive or active? Tell us about them.
I use active pickups. There brilliant for my imagination. On another note, I record a lot of music and not always rock music. I would prefer something more passive and graceful for alternative articulations and deeper approach. Wonderful and affordable tool and wouldn’t change anything, only add.
8. Lets get into amplification, Same drill brand, model , speakers etc
The amp I used mostly last season was Crete blue voodoo. I had a ton of fun with it before moving to the orange. Every venue is different and so time even different coming out of the wall . So plugging in sounds different everywhere. The rockerverb has four Celeston 12 s and dual footswitch . I have a clean and angry channel. The thing about the rockerverb that pinpoints my challenges are that it comes with an attenuator knob that dials off extra valves while holding the integrity of gain characteristics. Some amps sound amazing cranked while some will boil over . That’s what makes my amplifier absolutely amazing. I can play with arena tone in my bedroom ….. or I can easily get the police called. It’s a total tossup .
9. Do you have a pedal board? Tell us about that badboy
I’m really quite terrified of a bunch of little computers on stage . I grew up and learned on acoustic guitars so the more buttons I have to push or jump on feels less musical to me . I want to be as isolated to the guitar as possible. I like to use my body and dance and be expressive so these things are distracting to me and don’t feel musical or fun .
10. Now tell us your Dream Rig in detail…..
I’m edging my way. Because of the simplicity of my set up there’s not too much I want to change. Would love my own custom guitar or small rack /kemper for travel. I would rather deliver a baby then put a rockerverb on a plane .
11. What guitarist can you not stand?
I couldn’t honestly say I have any I feel that way about. It’s a great question and I wish I had someone amazing to pick on , like here’s my opportunity! For fun I can stand Kurt Cobain because all he had to do was smack a few wobbly bar chords around to create such greatness . When I do that no one claps . Nothing at the top but a bucket and mop .
12. Is tone more important or is technique?
I’m a technique guy . I have to be because if I don’t practice applications and discipline I will totally suck. I learned how to play on broken equipment and cheap guitars. I was the king of spider line 6 and solid state garbage. Technology has come along way ( sorry line 6 ) and even the affordable stuff is getting better . But this is my roots here. So I had to continue playing well enough for terrible set up and weak technology.
13. Name your top 5 guitarist
Alexi ( Children of Bodom )
Al Dimiola
Jango Riaheart
Alex Scholnik (Testament)
Malmsteen
14. Who is the most overrated guitarist
Kurt Cobain lol.
15. Who would you like a one-hour private sit-down lessons with anyone dead or alive?
Jeff beck or Petruchi …. or Vai , or Jimmy
AXEMEN IS A GUITAR SERIES CREATED BY WES J.
Wes is the owner of Metal Moose , Metal Coffee , The Metal Times and The Pitchfork Syndicate, and he has 20 years of the biz under his belt, focused on the indie heavy music scene from the unlikely location of Oklahoma City.Wes is bringing his Guitar Series Axemen and Underground Spotlight to MHF.
