In the half-decade-plus since he emerged with a bang with the frenetic indie-dance favorite how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//, singer-songwriter/guitarist KennyHoopla has carved a distinctly original musical path.
He joined forces with Blink-182 pop-punk king Travis Barker for a spirited and modern swing at the genre on his 2021 release, Survivors Guilt: The Mixtape, before moving back to more indie territory on his two recent EPs.
With all this musical restlessness, we were curious to know what six-string the Cleveland native considers his home base, so to speak. To that end, Guitar World recently tracked him down and asked him to share his #1 guitar with us.
It's a Fender Modern Player Telecaster Thinline Deluxe, he tells us, with some heartfelt personal touches, and the sort of origin story familiar to any player who's been dead set on getting their dream guitar, no matter what it takes.
“I got it about two-and-a-half years ago on Facebook Marketplace,” he recounts. “I picked it up in Detroit, at like 9:30 p.m. in some sketchy neighborhood, scaring my management and my band members. I said, ‘Nah, trust me, it's worth it!’”
Lightweight, loaded with a pair of P-90s, and adorned with a photo of his late childhood cat and an engraving of Garbage Hill Skateboards' logo – the latter two, he says, “help me bring home with me wherever I go” – the Tele has become a constant companion for KennyHoopla.
“It's just my go-to guitar,” he says. “I use it on tour and in the studio, and I used it on my last project for the most part.
“What it comes down to is what inspires you to keep picking up the guitar every day and wanting to learn, and I feel like this guitar does that. It's beautiful, has great tone, it's light, and it just keeps me inspired.”
