My October 2023 Interview with Gutted Alive:
1. Walk us through the recording process for Human Taxidermy. What challenges did you face? What went well, etc.?
GA: Usually we spend a day for drums, a day for drum editing, a day for strings, a day for vocals and mixing, and a day for mastering. We keep it pretty raw, not a lot of re-recording or anything. Most stuff is done in 1 to 3 takes. Everything went pretty smoothly. We mess up here and there but luckily we can just patch right back in. If there's anything challenging it's usually the mixing and mastering. It's easy to get picky about stuff. It's crazy to get everything done within 5 days but we don't have much of a budget lol!
2. Did anything change or was anything written during the recording process as opposed to during prepro?
GA: We work with Doug White of Watchmen Studios and he's a true pro! He had a couple ideas that helped. He even recorded a guitar part in the last song "Necropervert" that he came up with. But nothing too drastic otherwise. So other than Doug's addition nothing changed musically. We knew we wanted a sample before "Severed Head Ritual" and Doug managed to have it time perfectly with the intro. That's pretty much it.
3. Who created the artwork and what is the story or thought process behind it?
A: Christopher Castillo Diaz is the artist. He did a great job and captured exactly what we were looking for. The album is about Ed Gein and the art is based on a crime scene photo. We wanted to get a scene where the detectives are first walking into the horror left by Gein in his woodshed. We think it's exactly as shocking as it was for them. Jason had sent him a rough sketch of what we were looking for and Christopher nailed it!
4. Talk about the sound engineer you guys ended up going with and how having that outside influence impacted the album.
GA: Well Doug has decades of metal recording experience. So we just kinda leave it up to him as far as the process goes. If anything this time around the sound is really clear. Not super compressed. Very raw and kinda chaotic. Which we feel really adds to the overall album. We have worked with Doug since our first release. He is a great guy to work with and very accommodating. We're super familiar with his work ethic and it makes for an easy experience.
5. Talk about the death metal records that inspired the songwriting on this album above all others.
GA: Well with the addition of Rick on second guitar he took the reins on a couple songs. And Brandon wrote much of the rest. Rick comes from a very old school Cannibal Corpse kind of approach. Brandon wanted to bring some of the classic OSDM sound around. Jason and Joe had riffs they contributed. But there aren't really any specific albums that inspired it. We knew we wanted to write about Ed Gein and went from there.
6. In what ways did you guys challenge yourselves when writing this material prior to entering the studio?
GA: Well with Brandon and Rick mostly writing the songs it was different than last time. When we wrote Killing Desire a lot of it was done during practice. Lots of piecing riffs together and coming up with riffs just fucking around. This time around Jason was busy getting Rick caught up on old material, which meant he needed to brush up on it too lol! So the challenge was more just Jason and Joe learning what was written and then adding their own thoughts. The writing process is usually different for each album. But everyone has their say on things. We want to make sure everyone is happy with the final results. Sometimes that means throwing entire songs away because we don't feel they're "us". But this time nothing was really scrapped.
7. Do you have any plans for any live-action/performance style music videos for any of the new singles?
GA: There have been talks of doing one. And we have a vague idea of what it's gonna be. But nothing in concrete at the moment. It will definitely play into the narrative of Ed Gein. So it might get a little... gory if we nail a good idea down.
8. What are your personal favorites from Human Taxidermy?
GA:
Jason: Butchered in the Woodshed
Ryan: Hoarder of the Dead
Joe: Severed Head Ritual
Rick: Flesh Stretched Leather
Brandon: Butchered in the Woodshed
9. Talk about the album release show. How were you guys received? Was it everything you hoped it would be?
GA: It was held at Photo CIty Music Hall here in Rochester, NY and it was pretty amazing! Absolutely great turnout. Order of the Dead, Sastruga, and Burndwiller were on the bill. And they all brought their 'A' game. Great crowd, great energy all night. We put on a bit of a stage show. We came out splattered with blood and bloody shirts. Had a few surprises throughout the set. Even had Adam from Burndwiller come up and perform a song with us as he was with us from 2017-2020. The show was an absolute blast and we couldn't have been more satisfied with it!
10. I found Human Taxidermy to be the most diverse death metal album in your discography as it stands. What were the initial conversations about writing for this album like? Did you make a conscious decision to incorporate more influences than before, or is this just what naturally came out of you guys?
GA: We did indeed go in knowing we wanted to write a concept album. And we knew we wanted it to be about a true crime event. Brandon brought up Ed Gein and we thought it was a cool idea. He was so creepy and provided great context to what we were going for. We tossed a few other names like H.H. Holmes and Jack the Ripper. But we felt Gein was so much more of a unique subject. He wasn't necessarily a serial killer. More of a very sick individual with mother issues and a fondness of death. So in the back of everyone's mind we knew it needed a different feel. Having new members bringing new ideas was also a factor. Plus, we never wrote for two guitars before and we will be further exploring that in the future.
11. Specifically for Ryan: A few years back, another publication wrote about the natural "decay" or "echo" you perform live with your gutturals while pulling the mic away from yourself a little bit each repetition. Have you discovered any other unique tricks that make you stand out even more as a death metal vocalist?
Ryan: Yes, that was a blog by Will from Artificial Brain. The only new self made technique I've been toying with is shaking the mic back and forth quickly mid pig squeal. Mostly during our song Stump Grinder, trying to emulate an engine noise. Still working on it but it sounds pretty gnarly live at times!
12. Killing Desire , the previous album, had its fair share of challenges due to Covid. Would you say that Human Taxidermy has put you guys back on track in terms of public reception? I see many publications glowing about this record and it's awesome!
GA: Yeah, definitely wasn't cool that Covid hit 3 months after Killing Desire released. Luckily we managed a tour in Jan. 2020 so that was great to get in. This time around we have PR from Metal Devastation and that has helped a lot. We still have a long way to go as far as exposure but hopefully within the next few months hopefully people will catch on. We have some other plans in the works for the coming year so hopefully you'll be seeing more of us soon!
In closure, we wanna thank you for this opportunity. And thanks to CDN Records and all our fans! We'll keep doing this as long as we have you for support. Stay brutal \m/
No comments:
Post a Comment