The War On Drugs are now a major-label act with radio rotation, and with that kind of exposure comes other opportunities: for instance, opportunities to pontificate about guitars and the creative process for a 15-minute mini-documentary that doubles as an infomercial for Ernie Ball guitar strings.

Yes, about five minutes into his episode of Ernie Ball: String Theory, Granduciel takes time to sing the company’s praises: “I think really from the beginning I’ve probably been playing Ernie Balls.” He tells a story about buying a bright pink pack of the strings and learning how to put them on his guitar as a kid. (He prefers 11s because a thicker gauge sounds rich, but he thinks playing with 9s is super fun too.) Make no mistake, this is Branded Content.

However, it may be of interest to those who dig Granduciel’s guitar work. He gets into a lot of his origin story with the instrument: his first guitar and bass, his first jam sessions with his first band, his first eight-track recorder, his entry into songwriting, etc. He tells a few microscopic anecdotes, such as the one about playing basketball with Jeff with the knowledge that jamming would inevitably follow and opines about the instrument’s endless possibilities.

This is all interspersed with lots of shadowy clips of Granduciel playing guitar. It feels extremely anachronistic, as any earnest film about one’s love of the guitar is fated to feel, but also extremely familiar for anyone who spent hours in a basement attempting to rock.

Watch below to gain a deeper understanding of the man and his craft.