“The most important thing for me is playability and I find the Aerodyne jazz very smooth to play.”
Thief, the solo project of Dylan Neal, who previously contributed to the experimental black metal band Botanist, has recently released Bleed, Memory under Prophecy Productions. The album, noted for its unique blending of ambient, industrial, and choral elements, draws upon deeply personal themes of memory and dementia, which Neal has explored following his father’s diagnosis with the condition.
Dylan Neal shared insights on the primary equipment used during the recording process: “I used a Fender Aerodyne Jazz bass. The most important thing for me is playability and I find the AJ very smooth to play. I bought this bass second hand and I really loved how they had it set up. I find its sound to be pretty utilitarian and easy to sculpt into whatever sound I needed.”
Regarding the use of effects and other gear, Neal elaborated on the specifics: “I run the bass through an LA-610 with the compressor turned on. It has a really nice, smooth transparent compression and driving the tube preamp through it gives it a nice little grit.” He added, “The only other outboard effect I used was the Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff pedal. The rest of the album’s bass production was all done ‘in the box’. For the clean tone, after coming in from the LA-610, I would usually further process the sound with the TSE Audio BOD and the CLA Bass Multi FX plugin, and sometimes with a very light touch from the TAL-Chorus-LX just to give it some movement and width. For the heavy/distorted bass, I would crank the Bass Big Muff and layer it with one or more takes through the OMEGA Ampworks Granophyre amp modeller. I have an old Earth Sound Research B2000 amp, but it being in need of repair and my living in an apartment necessitate doing most of the bass shaping in the box; however, it’s amazing what you can do digitally nowadays. For the production of the really heavy riffs, like at the end of the track Cinderland, I would have as many as eight different bass tracks playing at once. There’s actually no guitar there; it’s all bass, and I would hard pan a few takes while high-passing the low end, and then in the centre have a fuzz and clean DI take.”
Live bassist Chris Hackman also contributed to the conversation, noting his setup for live performances: “I use a Fender Jazz Bass, strung with Hi-Beam bright strings, and play it with a pick. I run my bass through an Acoustic 140 solid-state bass head from the 70s and the original 2×15 cabinet. I love this setup because the amp has tons of headroom, so you can create a massive, lush sound without really pushing the amp head or cabinet too hard. The 2x15s give you an insane amount of low-end, but the solid-state head has tons of crispness to compensate. Thief’s studio recordings have a huge palette of crunchy, fuzzy bass and synth sounds, so my goal with the live pedalboard was to be able to have several different ways to break up my sound, depending on what is needed for each song. The Malekko B:ASSMASTER is my main ‘distortion’ tone; I use a Roland DS-1 for more grimy, chunky overdriven sections where each note really needs to be articulated, and I have an EarthQuaker Erupter (my personal favourite) for anything where I need a massive warm fuzz with tons of sub frequencies on long notes. And just to spice things up, I have a Moogerfooger flange pedal I can toss on – but a little goes a long way, so I use it sparingly. For those moments, though, it sounds hard – I love it. But my real secret weapon is actually a Boss bass EQ pedal… All of these tones react differently in different venues, and my bass cab resonates differently depending on the stage and the acoustic space of the room. I have the EQ at the end of my signal chain, which gives me the ability to basically sweep the frequencies of the bass tone and dial it in specifically for each show. Once I started using it, I became addicted – I don’t know how anyone plays without one!”
Neal further explained his approach to integrating samples and creating bass lines: “Bass and samples are often what came first when writing a lot of these tracks. I think this helps direct me into the ‘sonic identity’ that is Thief.” He detailed his process, “Sometimes it is bass guitar and sometimes a bass synth, but usually one or the other before I even start with a beat, keys or vocals.”
On the theme of dementia, Neal expressed the emotional depth that influenced the album: “There is a lot of sadness and fear surrounding dementia for me… All of these thoughts and feelings dictated what I was writing and they came out as haunted, angry sadness.”
In terms of the album’s sonic influences, Neal discussed the use of granular synthesis and how it contributes to the album’s atmosphere: “It’s a lot of experimentation and happy mistakes. Sometimes I will find a sample that speaks to me in some way, and I’ll then run it through a plethora of effects or through my Eurorack setup, and just play with the sound for a long time while recording the process. After a 30-60 minute session of experimenting like this, I’ll go back and find little moments that I like, and then use that as a starting point to write a track around. So, for a technical example, in the track Paramnesia, I sampled some opera and choir that I really loved and then processed them via granular synthesis in Ableton. The source becomes totally obscured, but its textures have a very witchy quality I couldn’t produce with any normal synth. For the track Hexproof, that was a one-track-one-take modular jam where I ran some choir through a Make Noise Morphagene which functions as a granular synthesiser in a tape-like way… And of course, tons of reverb. The bonus CD has about 14 minutes of different ambient tracks, many of which used granular synthesis as well. You can’t help but capture a kind of ‘spooky’ atmosphere when working with sacred choral music. Maybe spooky isn’t the right word, but otherworldly. Sacred music is designed to sound that way in order to inspire a sense of profundity or awe.”
Neal concluded with reflections on the potential impact of Bleed, Memory: “You know, I really have no idea how it will resonate with people. I think it will though… I hope that it also makes an emotional connection with others.”
Bleed, Memory is available for purchase through Prophecy Productions as of 19 April 2024.
