Karl Schramm discusses the recording process and gear for Blaze Bayley’s “Circle of Stone”

Karl Schramm, the bass player for Blaze Bayley, the British metal band fronted by the former Iron Maiden vocalist, recently shared his insights and experiences working on the band’s latest album, Circle of Stone.

Schramm described to BassEmpi.re the process of working with Blaze Bayley “just as interesting as it has always been”. “He has such specific things in mind, both musically and lyrically. When we worked on the Infinite Entanglement trilogy, we all got together as a band to work on the songs for around three weeks in pre-production before heading into the studio to work on demo versions that ranged from complete acoustic songs to individual riffs. We played around with these and tried to figure out what works best. These days, we take a more streamlined approach, with Blaze often working one-to-one with Absolva guitarist Chris Appleton to compose the songs before sending demos out to the rest of the band. We then get the opportunity to share our input, and this works especially well for me as I live in the south of England and the rest of the band are spread between Manchester and Birmingham. For Circle of Stone specifically, I went to Chris’s home studio, and we worked together to lay down the bass for the album before sending it onto Blaze for his input. I think my writing and playing is consistent enough for Blaze to trust the process after nearly a decade of working together.”

For the recording sessions, Karl Schramm chose a Mexican-made Fender Precision bass: “I use a Mexican model, modified with Seymour Duncan SPB-4 Steve Harris signature pickups. Currently, I’m using D’Addario 45-105 nickel strings for the brightness in the tone, which I think really came through on the album. I’ve been playing my Fender for a while, so recently I purchased a Sandberg as a bit of a change, which has become my new main bass for live shows during the tour for Circle of Stone. I’m very much looking forward to recording with the Sandberg in the future and seeing how it compares to the Fender in the studio.”

When writing bass lines for the album, Schramm employed a dual approach, crafting both a minimalist and a more complex version for each track: “What I tend to do when writing a bass line is to figure out two ways to play the track: one being the most stripped-back version that could be played, and the other being an amalgamation of all my ideas for the song. Once I’m in the studio with the rest of the band, I’ll go through each version, and we will work out together which parts serve the song the best. It’s very much a collaborative effort, and sometimes a completely different idea will spring to mind, which is why I enjoy writing with the band. In terms of gear, I use a SansAmp bass D.I. pedal both in the studio and live. In the studio, we take a clean signal and a distorted channel from this and tend to use one tone for the whole record. This gave us a consistent sound throughout the songs on Circle of Stone, whether a heavier song like Rage or a ballad like Broken Man.”

Karl Schramm expressed particular excitement for fans to experience Rage and A Day of Reckoning, highlighting their standout qualities within the album: “There are so many great songs on Circle of Stone, and I think it is truly one of the best in Blaze’s catalogue. One of my immediate favourites was Rage; it has that groovy heaviness that you can find scattered through Blaze’s solo career, and lyrically it tells a fantastically tragic story. A Day of Reckoning is another stand-out track for me, with a fantastic vocal performance once more. The Absolva era of Blaze’s career feels very different from the rest of his work, as we are a stand-alone band in our own right but have worked with Blaze exclusively in writing, recording, and touring many of his albums. It’s been great to be a part of the evolution of Blaze’s solo career and taking the sound of his work to the next level.”

Fans are invited to explore Circle of Stone on Spotify.