They might've met at Yale, but Brooklyn guitarists Geremy Schulick and Brett Parnell are hardly academics. And while they can certainly handle Handel, Bach and Brahms, it's the Coldplay covers and music from Nintendo games that really shine on their newest disc, Circles. Released late last month, the record was produced by guitar demigod Dominic Frasca — known throughout the ax world for his incredible dexterity as well as his customized ten-string guitar. Schulick and Parnell have twelve strings to work with though, and listening to them tear through half a millennium of guitar repertory in under an hour, it sure as hell sounds like they're playing on 350.

Free Times: What first brought you two together at school? I assume you both were studying with Ben Verdery?
Geremy Schulick: Actually, we had met briefly before Yale, but we didn’t really become friends until this one chamber music class. It was a required course, and I still remember the first piece we ever worked on together — Granados’ Two Spanish Dances. Of course, we also did some Bach, as well as a transcription of the Brahms Sextet in B-flat Major. Brett Parnell: After we played our first concert as a duo, it just hit us. We had this amazing performance chemistry, so we decided to take playing together much more seriously. I still remember the Granados piece, too. It’s kind of hard to forget. And yeah, we both were students of Benjamin Verdery at the time.

FT: Arrangement-wise, how do you two approach making duo guitar transcriptions of the classics? Groups like the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet have done stellar performances of pieces not originally written for guitar ensemble, but they’ve got two more guitars to help fill things out. What’s your process, or better yet philosophy, about arranging older pieces?
BP: I’m constantly reminded of something our teacher Ben Verdery said: “Any time you do a transcription, it has to sound like it was originally written for the guitar.” Obviously, the classical guitar is not a piano — or a violin, or a trumpet or a flute. We try our best to maintain the composer’s intentions, but ultimately, it’s about making the piece sound great on two guitars.
GS: First of all, when it comes to arrangements, we only pick pieces we’ve been in love with for a while. And most of the time, thankfully, the love of a certain piece is unanimous between us. Our second consideration concerns whether or not it will sound good, idiomatically, on two classical guitars. Finally, if we don’t think we can stay true to a large portion of what the composer had originally written, we simply won’t do it.

FT: Being sensitive, talented and enthusiastic performers of music of the past, it appears you both could’ve easily had successful careers playing nothing but the classics. What is it then that draws you to music like Coldplay’s “Fix You” or Kondo’s Nintendo-inspired Music from the Mushroom Kingdom?
GS: I was born in 1980, Brett in 1979. And like most people our age, musician or otherwise, we have this incredibly strong affinity with popular music. I never stopped loving rock ‘n roll, even when I was spending four hours a day on a Bach Partita. Once I got out of Yale though, I just decided to fully embrace this side of myself. There’s nothing wrong with loving Coldplay and Scarlatti, at the same time.
BP: Think of it this way: If you’re in a rock band that plays original music, you’d get pretty tired of playing nothing but covers night after night. Right? It’s the same with us. There’s this whole other aspect to our growth and development as musicians that, to ignore it, wouldn’t really be fair. I’d feel like we were being dishonest. And while we’re being honest, I think Nintendo was as big a part of our lives as rock ‘n roll. I mean, come on, everyone loves Super Mario Bros.

FT: In addition to your skills as performers, you both have recently begun writing your own music. How does this change the group dynamic? And given your varied tastes, did you find that composing your own music came out of necessity?
GS: For myself at least, writing was just a natural offshoot of my performing. After coming to terms with the classical and rock canons, my own unique voice started to emerge, and I wanted to capture that on paper. Having this desire to combine so many seemingly disparate elements of my musical education is what made me start to compose.
BP: And playing our own compositions is yet another way we try to stand out from all the other awesome guitar duos. It’s exciting, too, being in a duo where both members write their own stuff. When we’re rehearsing one another’s pieces, the composer is literally right there. We don’t get that when we’re practicing Bach. It can also be a bit nerve wracking putting your own work out there for everyone to hear. Critics can slam our performance or interpretation of Bach, but they can’t argue with his genius. It’s Bach, after all. But when it’s Geremy or myself playing our own music, the criticism can sting twice as hard.

FT: Regarding influences, in the classical realm at least, you both seem to have pretty much the same affinities. What about in a rock context though? Who are your favorite/most influential guitarists?
GS: I love Jimmy Page, but I think the guitarist I’ve modeled myself on most is Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits. He was definitely my first guitar hero. His solos never sound contrived, but at the same time, there’s also this underlying structure to them. He rarely ever vamps or noodles either, as if every single note was precious.
BP: When I was younger, I was a huge Randy Rhoads fan. And in some ways, I guess I still am. Right now, I’d have to go with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. Radiohead can get into so pretty thick textures at times, but his playing is always based on melody.

FT: Can you talk a little bit about what it was like working with Dominic Frasca in the studio? Everyone knows him as this monster guitar player, and I imagine he’s every bit the beast behind the boards as well. How did his production influence your latest effort Circles?
BP: Simply put, Dom is amazing, and his ears are astounding. He hears things in the mix that no one else possibly could. In retrospect, that’s probably why it took two years to get the record finished. We would have these marathon sessions starting at five o’clock in the afternoon going through, uninterrupted, to noon the next day. And it wasn’t exhausting at all. It was actually invigorating, empowering even. Dom will go to any lengths to get the sound he thinks is right. This one time, he convinced me to wrap my headstock in a full roll of duct tape, just to get this particular sound in a particular section of the piece. And of course, it totally worked.
GS: Dominic brought the record to a place we couldn’t on our own. He took us to task and would never let us settle on a first take. We never balked or fought back because, in the end, we knew that he knew what he was doing. Needless to say, the album would sound much different without him in the producer’s chair.

FT: After working with Frasca, I guess you’ll never play unamplified anymore?
GS: Exactly. From now on, we’ll always play with amplification. We have our own portable PA that we take on the road with us, and it’s kind of funny when we have to ask the venue or the promoter, “Yeah, so when can we load in, and what time is sound check?” All too often, the classical guitar is regarded only as this calm, soothing instrument. What Brett and I want to do with Threefifty Duo is illustrate all these other things it can do.
BP: By itself, the classical guitar is rather quiet. So to play the type of music we want to the way we want to we need a little more power.

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