Tristan Bowls picked up the guitar at 11 because Guitar Hero 2 and 3 made him want to play a real one. AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Iron Maiden, Slash. That was the foundation.

Now he's 29, runs Eastlake Studios on a private property in Lake Elsinore, plays guitar in Eastlake Rhythm Section, and tests amps at Suhr during the day.

In this episode, Tristan and Brian get into:

- Learning guitar by jamming with neighbors and best friends down the street

- The hard rock and heavy metal foundation that started everything (AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Guns N' Roses, King Diamond)

- Branching into jazz fusion, R&B, and funk in college and beyond

- How Eastlake Studios came to be: getting invited to jam there in 2021 after COVID, finding the studio empty, and revamping it into his own space

- Why he prefers being behind the console listening, rather than recording himself

- Recording Hypno Sapo live at Eastlake and what made the band's theory knowledge stand out

- His mic setup for guitar cabinets: Sennheiser 421 paired with an SM57

- Why a Warm Audio U47 clone became his go-to vocal mic

- Working volume and tone knobs on the guitar instead of just relying on pedals

- His current rig: a Suhr Bella head, a Fender Princeton, and an Engl head he's borrowing for a punk project

- His pedalboard: Polytune, Vertex boost, Cornerstone Gladio overdrive, Boss delay, Strymon Flint

- Why he sold his SG Standard to pay for his Suhr Tele-style guitar

- The Eastlake Rhythm Section origin story: 14 years of friendship and multiple bands before landing in one project in 2021

- Why playing covers your own way matters more than copy-pasting the original

- His original projects: producing Red Hook in 2017, recording Quicksands, and a new punk/hardcore EP coming up

- The community of musicians at Suhr, including Apollo from Hypno Sapo

Memorable moments from the episode:

When Brian asked if Tristan ever pushes back on a band's tone in the studio: "If I'm really hearing something, I don't have a problem with being like, hey, can you turn down your treble on your amp? Because I'd rather do it that way than have to go and do it after I've recorded it."

On why comfort in the studio matters: "If you're nervous when you're recording, it's never going to come out like how you want it to. You could listen back to it. It could be good, but there's going to be little things where you're like, oh, that could have been better."

On guitar tone, sharing something a mentor told him early on: "You can control a lot of the tone just through your volume, your tone knob."

On how Eastlake Rhythm Section approaches covers: "We're going to play what we want to play. And we're going to play it good enough or just tight to where people are like, yeah, that's good."

Where to find Tristan and Eastlake Studios:

Eastlake Studios: recording, mixing, rehearsal space, music and video production. See Eastlake's and Tristan's credited work: https://linktr.ee/eastlakestudios

- Next Eastlake Rhythm Section gig: Saturday, May 16 at Bel Vino Winery (residency runs through June 21)

- East Lake Studio Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastlake_studios_/

- East Lake Rhythm Section Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastlake_rhythmsection/

- Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tristan_bowls/