“My writing for bass is to try and simply occupy the unoccupied spaces”: Eddie Rees of Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard on ‘Skinwalker’

Cardiff’s Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard have returned with their latest offering, Skinwalker, a follow-up to their Welsh Music Prize-nominated debut album Backhand Deals. This new record, influenced by the raw rock ‘n’ roll ethos of frontman Thomas Rees, reflects a heavier and more disquieting sound, drawing inspiration from acts like Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, and Black Sabbath.

Eddie Rees discussed his main bass guitar, stating, “My main bass guitar is a Burns Nu Sonic short scale. I originally got drawn to it truthfully because of the aesthetic nature of it; it just looks incredibly nice. But, as I did some more research, I found that it’s been used on a few cool records. Most notably, it was used a lot by George Harrison throughout his career in The Beatles. I bought it in 2019 when I was a pretty big fan of The Beatles, so that quite quickly piqued my interest in the bass.”

Discussing his equipment choices for the new record, Rees mentioned, “The bass has such a robust sound that I am quite literally happy to plug it in and see what happens with not a great deal of sculpting on the bass head. I use an Ampeg PF-500 head along with a PF210 cab. Alongside these, I use an Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff as a fuzz/boost for the majority of the songs on the new album. There’s also brief use of a high pass filter for the introduction of ‘Therapy’ along with the Bass Big Muff, and I use a Memory Toy for ‘National Rust’ for a slapback. Ultimately, it’s extremely simple.”

When it comes to conceptualising and developing bass lines, Rees explained his approach: “I usually just try to make the bass function as more of a harmonic instrument than a rhythmic one. I always love the way that bass harmonies sound, like when the guitars are playing the root notes and the bass is doing something mega freaky. I think the bass offers up a pretty good opportunity to fill the harmonic space in a song too. It’s a deadly-cool instrument to play in breakdowns and gaps in the music, so usually my writing for bass is to try and simply occupy the unoccupied spaces.”

The band’s direction for Skinwalker emerged organically during the writing process. Rees elaborated, “I think somewhere throughout the writing process we became obsessed with making everything sound dreadful, and I mean that in the sense that inspires a sense of dread, not that the music is awful,” he laughs. “I think once we started down that path, we all kind of converged around one simplistic idea of being a slamming rock band. So now, under any circumstances we find ourselves in, we know the answer is simple – what would a slamming rock band do?”

Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard’s new album Skinwalker is available for purchase through Communion Records.