36 Crazyfists first made their mark upon the metal scene via their widely acclaimed major label debut Bitterness the Star in 2002. Since then, the band has become a heavyweight touring outfit as well as, one of the metal genre’s most respected mainstays.
The band’s fourth studio outing, The Tide and Its Takers on their new label Ferret Music will surface on April 29th. The album was originally slated for a March 4th release date but due to the recording process taking a bit longer, the date was pushed back to late April.
The album was produced by the band’s guitarist Steve Holt and mixed by Andy Sneap. On the eve of the album’s release Joe Matera spoke to Steve Holt, about the new album, touring and Holt’s love of the studio.
Ultimate-Guitar: What was the recording process like for the new album, The Tide and Its Takers?
Steve Holt: We kind of did everything ourselves this time around. I think we’re just a little bit older and ready to do that kind of thing and go out on our own. Thomas (Noonan, drummer) and myself, really just sat down and started putting down anything that we could. We kind of had the setup going where we could record any ideas we were coming up with. We did that for a couple of months until we had compiled a good chunk of songs. Then we just started weeding them out and going through them and picking out which ones we really dug, until we got it down to the songs we wanted. Then we just put them together. We did it all in my recording studio so it was really easy to put down ideas on to tape and be able to go through them that way. It was also a different process this time as we were used to more of everybody being in the same room jamming the songs out. While this time around, we were like in writing mode all the time and not so much in a jamming it through kind of mode. And because it was my recording studio, we could work on things at our heart’s content and so, that was really cool.
The new album sees you in the production chair as well. Was it hard for you to put on the producer’s hat and be objective?
Yes, I thought it would be easier than it was. It was a little bit overwhelming once I got into it and it was a littler bit hard to be objective and subjective on my own guitar playing and stuff. It is just a little bit tougher when you’re trying to do the right thing for the band and you’re trying to do the right thing for the song too, whilst still being their guitar player. There is lot’s to think about. So it was a little bit more overwhelming than I had anticipated.
Musically speaking, what can fans expect to hear from the new album?
It is different to anything we’ve done. There are some really heavy songs, and then at the same time, there is some classic 36 type of stuff. There is also some mellower stuff where we have used keyboards and stuff. It is a little bit more experimental. And being on Ferret Music now is cool as those guys are really open to doing whatever we want. There was no label interference. Not that Roadrunner ever interfered either, but there was a little more pressure with Roadrunner, whereas with Ferret there isn’t. People are going to dig it as it is a really cool record. We did twelve songs for this album and I still don’t know which ones will make it onto the final record. But we did an interesting cover from a band called Satchel which most people will remember. They were like a Seattle era band and were a really cool band that had some cool mellower stuff. So we did a cover of one of their songs which has some keyboards on it and it came out really cool and it is super different for us. I’m not sure if that will track will make it on to the record but it will definitely be on some b-side.
The album has been pushed back to April 29th, while the delay?
We originally started writing the record this past summer and we had hoped to get it done by the end of the year. But I’m still finishing up a few things as we speak, like a few overdubs here and there and touching up stuff. Andy Sneap, who is mixing it, has got the most of it now. We just wanted to take our time and not get rushed into an early release date. It is always nice to stay on the schedule but it is also more important to put out a better record than to rush it.
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| "I think we're just a little bit older and ready to do that kind of thing and go out on our own." |
The band tours the UK quite heavily, so how do you find the responses of audiences there compared to those of the U.S?
Many see us as a weird band but we are used to it and we’re fine with it too, as we’re kind of unique. In the U.S, everything seems to be into certain bands, like you’re either into a hardcore band or a screamo band, but we consider ourselves a rock band. And in the UK and Australia as well, it just seems people are more open to liking something different. And they don’t expect you to be so cookie cutter and part of a same genre and stuff. I think we do kind of fall between the cracks of not fitting in anywhere. But because people are little more open to that in England and Australia, it doesn’t cause any problems.
I hear that you and Brock [Lindow] like to jam on acoustic guitars?
Absolutely, we always sit around with acoustic guitars and write whatever comes into our heads.
So do a lot of the songs given birth from those acoustic jam sessions?
Yes, we actually have done it that way before. It was how we did Rest Inside The Flames where we did that acoustic song that was tagged on at the end. We kind of did something like that again this time, though this one wasn’t a take-off. We just wrote an acoustic song from top to bottom and it turned out really cool.
Any chance of an acoustic album forthcoming in the future from the band?
We would love to do that. Brock and I have spoken about it before we even got going on this record where it would have been super cool to do a regular record, a two disc thing where on the second disc you could have like four or five, like an EP’s worth of acoustic songs. We really wanted to do that this time. But of course time constraints and all that, made it impossible.
What sort of gear do you use?
I’m stuck to all my standard stuff really. I only use Ibanez guitars, the SZ series as I love them. When it comes to strings, I go for a heavy gauge as I’m more of a ham fisted guitar player. For acoustics, it is a Fender. Effects wise, I’ve always been addicted to Electro-Harmonix Small Stone pedals. I just can’t get away from them. Aside from a Delay pedal and a MXR Phaser, that is about it. For amps, I use the Mesa-Boogie though I have the old rack mount version of the dual rectifier that came out in the 1990s, and of which, they don’t make anymore. It is an awesome sounding amp. I’ve used it for over ten years now.
Does your live set-up differ much from that of the studio?
No it is really similar. I have the rack mount amp and I run that through an Equalizer and then I just use a Compressor and that is pretty much it. That is my live set-up and I run it through tube amps and tube cabs and that’s it. It’s really a bare bones set-up. I take three guitars with me out on the road, I have my main one that I use and a back-up and a third back-up just in case anything really goes haywire. And all my guitars are tuned the same way, all in Drop C.
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| "I just love the process of writing music and I'm kind of addicted to that." |
You’re a studio junkie of sorts?
Yeah I’m nuts for it I don’t know what is wrong with me. [laughs] A lot of musicians will say to me, ‘I hate the studio’ and I’m like, ‘I love it!’ I just love the process of writing music and I’m kind of addicted to that. And being able to make music and creating is just so awesome. Whether it is my band or when I’m recording other bands, I just love the whole process of it all where you’re working for a final goal.
So what is your favorite piece of studio gear?
Lately it has been the Empirical Labs Distressor. It is an awesome sounding compressor for vocals and for anything really. It adds this great grittiness to the vocals whether it is clean singing or screaming. It just smoothes everything out and it is really great for the digital world because you tend to get pretty sterile in there. And so it really warms every thing up and makes it sounds awesome.
Finally looking over the band’s career, how do you view its evolution to date and where it may lead you to in the future?
We’re a lot older now and there are so many bands out there these days, especially younger guys and everybody are just great musicians. It is awesome to be part of that scene. We’re really happy with where we are at. That was the kind of feeling we got even doing this record. When we were younger and first signed to Roadrunner, the excitement and the passion that came with it, was about wanting to know what we had to do to become successful. Nowadays we’re like, we’re just writing music that we love and that is why we are kind of able to try out different sounds and not be too worried with, I don’t know, I don’t want to say this, but disappointing people. But being able to try stuff is because we’re a bit more comfortable with who our fans are and what they do expect from us. And we do deliver on that but we’re also able to go out on a limb and stuff. So we’re comfortable being us now and we’re not trying to be a big huge world success. Which of course would be lovely, but we’re just comfortable with where we are at. And in five years time, if we were doing the same exact thing and having the same exact success that we’re having right now, I think we’d all be super happy with it all too.
Interview by Joe Matera
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making music within a sub-genre of metal (even a fusion genre) would have to make you inherently "metal". Somehow i dont think people would readily argue that, for instance, At The Gates are not "metal" because they are classified Melodic Death Metal... these guys have been making this kind of music since 1994, they well deserve the credit.
