“It sounds church-organy if you’re just playing acoustic… then you add the dollar bill and the pen and it sounds like a steel drum”: Songwriter Sean Rowe on tonal experiments, modding acoustics –and why he keeps wearing out his Takamine dreadnoughts

Sean Rowe.

Was that a guitar? Was it a steel drum? How did he do that? How do I do that? And what’s with all the colorful tape? You may find yourself asking these questions when getting acquainted with the inventive, stormy alt-folk stylings of Sean Rowe.

The singer-songwriter from Troy, New York, has been turning heads with his mesmerizing approach, and that booming baritone voice, since the mid-2000s. This year sees the release of his sixth studio record,Good Fiction, and he’s also completed a movie soundtrack, both out soon.