1. William Brent Hinds was born on January 16,1974 and is an American musician best known as the former lead guitarist of the Atlanta, Georgia heavy metal band Mastodon, in which he shared guitar duties with Bill Kelliher and vocal duties with Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor.
Brent Hinds left Alabama for Atlanta, Georgia in pursuit of a music career.
In 2012, Brent Hinds formed the supergroup Giraffe Tongue Orchestra with fellow guitarist Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan fame, Jane's Addiction former bassist Eric Avery and The Mars Volta former drummer Thomas Pridgen.
Brent Hinds will be working with psychedelic rock supergroup Legend of the Seagullmen along with Danny Carey of Tool and others.
Brent Hinds has two custom First Act guitars: a 6-string used in the video for "Colony of Birchmen" and a 12-string DC Lola, with a silverburst finish, used on the Unholy Alliance 3 tour to capture a fuller sound while guitarist Bill Kelliher was too ill to perform.
Brent Hinds owns a guitar similar to this one, though his has only nine strings.
Brent Hinds used a 1964 Fender Stratocaster and a 1952 Fender Telecaster while recording "Crack the Skye".
Brent Hinds was featured in Marshall magazine as a JCM 800 2203 player, though since 2010 has favored Orange's Thunderverb Series Amplifiers.
In 2021, Brent Hinds began endorsing the Victory Amplifiers Super Sheriff amps with custom Victory 412 speaker cabinets.
Brent Hinds uses a Boss Compressor CS-3, Boss Tuner TU-2, Monster Effects Mastortion, Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-9, Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler, Voodoo Labs Pedal Power, and the Enema FX Mingebox.
Originally playing the banjo, Brent Hinds learned his "signature style" of fast hybrid picking by emulating banjo fingerings on guitar.
Brent Hinds frequently utilizes the minor pentatonic, natural minor, and the harmonic minor scales in his playing as well as many hammer-ons, pull-offs, and legato slides.
Brent Hinds grew up listening to country, but when he entered his late teens he started listening to Neurosis and Melvins, bands that would have a profound influence on his musicianship.
Brent Hinds has stated that he is a big fan of the progressive and psychedelic rock genres, especially from the '70s.