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Ah, the lead singer of the band.  Everyone loves a lead singer, and Rahshad of MOTHER II is no exception.  He loves lead singers too, especially Uriah Heap's lead singer Uriah Heap, Jethro Tull's lead singer Jethro Tull and Armageddon Dildos' lead singer Matthew Sweet.  All kidding aside, though, Rahshad decided to become the lead singer of the band not because he could sing well, but because he thought it would garner more royalties that he would use to jumpstart a nacient junk habit.  Besides, he has that cool shadow effect that covers him when he sings, which kind of scares the ladies, but does make him a hit at all the hip parties.  Well, it would make him a hit at parties if I were invited to any.  Usually, his invitation is sent to his infinitely hipper guitar...

Rahshad's guitar may look like a standard mid 90's Fender Squire Strat, but it is actually a heavily modified, customized and dropped mid 90's Fender Squire Strat.  The Dr. Frankenstein-like approach Rahshad takes to guitar ownership and care has allowed his guitar to take a personality of its own, and illicits the scorn of torch-bearing villagers.  This guitar is famous for its feedback, often heard between notes, phrases and when Rahshad leaves the guitar alone for a while.  In fact, during a routine (but woefully unnessisary) MOTHER II practice, Rahshad left his guitar plugged in and it played the entire "Carmina Burana" opera by Carl Orf in feedback.  Most shocking to Rahshad was not the event itself...

Rather, he was surprised that the guitar chose Orf and not Wagner or Verdi, favorite composers of the Strat.  Other elements go into making Rahshad's sound, of course, including his choices of amplifiers and pedals, his  "I know what a tritone, suspended 4th and an augmented chord is, and I'm not afraid to bore you with them" guitar technique and the placement and phase of the moon in the night sky.  His "I use whatever amp my bandmates lone me" sound contributes to the random nature of his tone, performance and hygene.  His "my effects pedals must match my shirt" rule forces him to use undesirable combinations of pedals on "high fashion fridays", being that very few pink distortions exist.

Lucky for the photographer, his bandmates and startving children the world over, he was able to use an Electro Harmonix Small Stone and Danelectro Black Coffee on the day of the pictures.  This combination comprises the basic Rahshad Black "sound".  He also tries to use old DOD overdrives and compression pedals, but he rarely wears yellow or orange shirts, respectively.  He had to stop using his Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi, not because he disliked the sound, but because Value Shirt's "Brian Wilson" Bryce Wayt "borrowed" Rahshad's army-green green army shirt.  Rahshad hopes to one day purchase Big Muff pedals in black and hopefully (once it is manufactured), pink.  On that day, and not until then, the MOTHER II sound will be complete...