Interview mit Lars (NECROPSY)

For today’s interview we got Lars of Necropsy for you, a very cool band with which Alex of Brutalsounds.tv had the opportunity to share the stage for one other occasion.

Necropsy’s current album „Deathprayer” is available for some time now and we really love it, not only because of the brutal groovy songs, but also because it delivers a superb production (check it out here ). Lars (guitarist) will tell us a bit more how they did it and provide you with some general information about the band.

Greetings to you Lars,

except for the drums, which sound a little bit synthetic, your new output has a really outstanding sound quality, brutal and tight, yet very detailed and everything is audible. A really addictive long player you got there

So, how much is this related to either arrangements or the production itself? Meaning, did you change the arrangements in the studio or did you play the songs the way you finished them in your rehearsal room?

Greetings Alex! “Deathprayer” was recorded exactly the way we finished the songs on our rehearsals…I think the production doesn’t really differ from our live sound, except for the drums, because we never used triggers live, but this is going to change in future.

In your record you credit Simon Hammer’s Rebound Studio in Nürnberg. The name rings a bell – Schistosoma and a Soul Demise-Demo. Did you do it because of the small local distance or how did you end up with Rebound?

Yes, Simon plays guitar in Schistosoma and we’ve been friends with them for a pretty long time. He produced the Schistosoma records, the said Soul Demise demo, as well as Plague Angel and Ash Inheritance. I think after he did our record, he caught the attention of many bands, especially in the area around Nürnberg and I really would recommend him to any band, whether rock or metal. Simon is a perfectionist, hearing details which others don’t hear. J

Did you record everything in the studio or was there some pre-recording in your rehearsal room? Did you record all at once or one after another? If latter, in which order?

Well now it’s getting interesting. The Rebound Studio doesn’t exist for real… At least not yet! Everything was done in the rehearsal room. Simon’s studio is a portable one – consisting of a computer, two firewire interfaces and borrowed microphones.

In my opinion, it’s more about the guy who’s handling the mixer than having great rooms, expensive equipment and studios – it’s a bit overrated…(your words in the ears of the metal gods! the author) For starters I played every song with a click track which was recorded as a guiding line. Afterwards we recorded the drums. Then the guiding track was deleted and we recorded the guitars again for real (4 times, 2 left, 2 right), playing on the click, and drum tracks. Finally, the bass and then the vocals were recorded. You guys should’ve seen our vocal recording booth – 2 mattresses left and right and one on top of it – yes, it really worked out nicely.

Now honestly, the drums are triggered completely, right? How come you decided to do them that way – because of the sound or because it is faster to record?

Of course, these are all trigger sounds  I would say – for both reasons… You have more possibilities to set up your desired drum kit (one you usually cannot effort). And especially when you record in a rehearsal room you’re not so dependent on room acoustics.

With certain programs you can simulate the desired room afterwards. All of them are “Drumkit from Hell”-Sounds (add-on for EZ Drummer of toontrack, the author). But I have to agree, although the drums sound really brutal and tight, they are indeed a little bit too synthetic. This is going to change on the next record. We hope that they will be more organic, but triggered nonetheless.

I’m talking about the Toontrack Metal Foundry which is even more advanced then Drumkit from Hell J

As you played all the guitars on the recording, tell us everything in detail about your settings and gear – what stuff are you using to make it sound so great?

As detailed as possible?! Oh, you’ll hear a long story now.J My set-up is pretty unusual which maybe nobody really understands but me and, well yes, our second guitar player. He was injured at the time of the album recording so I had to take over all the guitar duties. Additionally only Simon, our producer, contributed two solos.

In the studio I used the Schecter Hellraiser C-1 with a fixed bridge and EMGs. We use A tuning on six string guitars (A, D, G, C, E, A). Not a big deal if you use strings with an adequate gauge (.015 .020 .026 .035 .047 .059) and adjust the sound of your amp.

You don’t need to boost the low frequencies with such a down tuned guitar; it got enough of this already. It’s rather important to give it some clarity with certain mid-range and treble frequencies. As people might know, I‘m not really a fan of tube amps (holy crap! the translator). I just can’t get the sound that I like, no matter how expensive the amp might be. I’m not saying that you can’t get the desired sound out of it, but only with a lot of effort and stuff like EQs and stuff…(interesting opinion , the author)

My guitar is plugged in an old Digitech GSP 2112 studio preamp (doesn’t that one have 2 tube pre-amps? the author), but I’m only using the EQ, the noisegate and the input signal adjustment. From the FX send of the Digitech it goes into the input of my Boss GT8. With my GT8 I can use two amp simulations at once, so I use the Rectifier Modern1-simulation and the 5150-simulation at the same time. These two sounds fit perfectly together and I can even add a little time delay so it sounds like a massive sound wall. It’s like you play your guitar two times with two different amps.

I‘m also using a pre-amp booster in my GT8 which gives both simulations even more power

A little complicated but here you find: Presets & signal-routing NECROPSY

From the GT8’s headphone-out (sic! author) the signal goes back to the FX return of the Digitech, where the midrange gets pumped up with yet another EQ (settings here), so the sound stays transparent. To amplify the final signal I use a normal T:amp Endstufe E400.

It’s actually a P.A. power amplifier and nobody can imagine that it really sounds good. But well, I want it to do its job, meaning making it loud and that’s about it. It works perfect for amp modulation things like Line6 or BOSS GT, much better than tube power stages or amps which start to distort the signal – that’s not what I want.

My main cabinet is an old Laney, can’t remember the name anymore. It has 320 watt mono and Celestion G12M70 speaker. Mid and treble range are very present and it has enormous bass boost (well, that’s why we love our Peavey Cabinets , the translator).

Everything was recorded with an SM57. The second cabinet I used was a cheap Harley Benton, with the original Harley Benton speakers! These cabinets are really good, a little more bass presence than the Laney so I thought they were a perfect match.

As I played every song 4 times, we got 8 guitar tracks in the mix.

Wow, thank you! Do you have any other stories or anecdotes from your recording diary?

We recorded in a relatively big room, so what we did to cut the reflections we didn’t want to record was that we covered the cabinet/microphone setting with blankets. They worked nice as a filter but nevertheless allowed us to catch some room impressions.

How often have you and the other members of Necropsy been in a studio before?

I think Lutz (bass) was once, but I don’t really know.   I’ve been two times, Sascha once with another band project, while Chriggy has never been to a studio before.

Tell us something about your Endorsement-Deal with Bernie Rico Jr. and Pyramid Strings.

I have to say I’m very proud, there are no better guitars then Bernie Rico Jr. (son of the founder of famous B.C. Rich guitars). The best guitars ever built in the B.C. Rich custom shop between 1998 and 2001 were the ones which ran through the very hands of Bernie Rico Jr. He learned everything from his father and when he died, he sold B.C. Rich and opened his own custom guitar shop. It exists since 2004 and it’s not really famous yet, but the ones who know it say that he is an absolute master in guitar building. I had a lot of guitars, but none was so perfect like my “Vixen”. Well, maybe my old B.C. Rich USA custom 7-string JrV (1999), but I don’t have that one anymore

Pyramid make absolute quality strings and they are not so expensive as well. And check their endorsement list I have the advantage to put together my desired string sets, as you can’t buy them in the shop like this (extreme tuning). They are from Erlangen which is very close to where I live, so I just drive by and pick up my strings.

About the album artwork, did you do the cover for “Deathprayer” yourself?

I didn’t do the cover for the album, only the layout. I found this picture online and just contacted the artist, asking him if we could use it and he luckily agreed.

How do you distribute the work in Necropsy, are you the main songwriter and the dictator of the band?

No, I’m surely not the boss of the band or some sort of a dictator. I mostly take care of all the managerial work, such as booking concerts and MySpace. But I also took care of the layout for the CD booklet as I’m relatively Photoshop savvy.

Concerning songwriting, this is something where everybody contributes – there is no finished song that one writes and the other musicians just have to learn it. It’s more like a jamming or riff session where we compile our ideas and form a song together. We are changing the arrangements and structure until everybody likes it. We are mostly self-taught, never had any proper lessons, and it all comes out of our gut, which is sometimes also good for the making of the music.

Many songs on “Deathprayer” exist since longer time (Blood on Me, Hostage of War, Hate, My Tormentor, The Chosen One and Preaching Insanity), even before I joined the band in 2004, and Necropsy was formed in 2001.

In the meantime we made 4 new songs for which I wrote all the riffs, but only because Jörg, our second guitar player, was injured for almost 2 years. We never looked for any replacement for him, hoping he will recover one day and come back. And here he is! This makes us very happy.

One can clearly see that the band is taking a rather professional approach concerning the entire label and booking stuff, Relapse distribution. You even made a video for the new record – what can you tell us about it?

Well, we wanted people to know about us and promote the album in the best possible way. And the best ways to do so are live shows and videos for example. So we asked a friend (Grimo of Extinctionist) who studies media and did some videos before.

We will surely hire him to do the video for the next album, because the final result was very satisfying, although it was accomplished with rather limited resources. If you’re interested in Grimo doing your video production, you can contact him via the Extinctionist-Myspace page.

Thank you in the name of BrutalSounds.TV for this very informative and brutally honest interview. We wish you and Necropsy all the best in the future! Here’s the place for your last words, prayers or call to arms….!

Oh, I thank you! I totally like the idea behind your website, keep up the good work! (we will, we will…the authors) If anybody out there has any further questions, especially regarding my set-up, feel free to contact me (myspace).

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