Exclusive Interview: Demoralizer talk writing and recording “This World is Suffering”!

When we started our writing and recording interview series we had no freakin’ idea that it would be as successful as it has subsequently turned out to be. Hells teeth, these are loved by all of you as much as, if not more than our regular interview series. So as long as you keep reading, we’ll keep asking the bands to get involved. This week we pick up where we left off with guitarist Yuri de Wolf from Demoralizer as he tells us about everything that went on behind the scenes during the making of “This World is Suffering“. Ok, well not everything. The sour milk pranks, one chip challenges and what not they’re saving for their memoirs…

How did your previous experiences writing and recording help to smooth the path of the new record? “Well for the whole band yes definitely. For every song we wrote we composed everything in Guitar Pro and made pre-productions of our recordings before we started with the real recording process and entering the studio. Also with the experience and guidance of our producer Roelof Klop Productions we could not go wrong”

How does the writing process of a new track start? Melody, riff or rhythm first? How does it evolve from there before you consider it the finished article? “Normally I start with writing guitar riffs and create sort of a song theme. If I think the theme fits our Demoralizer concept I start to compose everything with Guitar Pro software so I know exactly the tempo, the time signatures, finger positions. When I have completed a song concept I record it and send the whole concept to the other bandmembers. If they approve my concept they start to write their our musical parts until we get a complete song. But everyone in the band can propose his ideas, so for example our song “The Stones of my Tomb” are mostly written by our vocalist Reinder. And during our rehearsal sessions we also jam some riffs and new ideas come up spontaneously”

Being a four piece with one guitar player, when it comes to playing live do you drop the rhythm part to play the solo, use a loop pedal or have a backing track that picks it up? What made you choose that option rather than get a second guitarist on board? “Good question, as I mentioned in Q6 of interview 1, we definitely need a second guitarist. It will be impossible for me to play all guitar tracks because everything is written for 2 guitarists”

If you had the opportunity to work with a guest in the studio next time around, who would you like to work with and why? “I never thought about this question, so I took me some to time to think about this. But I think it would be Devin Townsend I guess…in my opinion this guy is a musical genius and his productions are incredible”

For us gear nerds out there, can you tell us what you’re using gear wise (pedals, strings, drums etc) to get your sound?

“Lead guitars: I used a 7 string LTD SH7-ET (with Evertune bridge and Fishman Fluence pickups) for all songs. Strings I use are D’addario and Ernie Ball for 7 string guitars. Depending on the type of guitar I am using.

Solo parts: ESP EII Horizon NT-7 purple fade: solo “This World is Suffering”. Music Man JP7 for one solo part in our song “Children of Armageddon”. I did the dry guitar recordings at home with the Antelope Discrete 4 external audio interface and I did not used any effect pedals or VST. And Reaper Audio software was used as DAW.

Amplifier: In the studio all guitar recordings where reamped with 2 different mics. So you hear the real sound of my amp and guitars. We used a small tube amplifier which is a Yerasov Gavrosh and 2×12 Zilla Fattboy cabinet that’s it! No overdrive pedals or digital VST’s were involved. Only for one short solo part in our last song some delay was added in the studio.

Drums: The drums were recorded in Wildman Studios and we used their Tama drumkit which absolutely sounded amazing. Snare: Mapex Black Panther and cymbals from the Paiste series (Rude & Alpha series).

Bass guitars: For the bass guitar a warwick streamer LX Jazzman was used for the recordings. At our Facebook page you can find some short clips from the studio recordings.

Recording & Mixing process: This was done by Roelof Klop https://www.roelofklopmusic.com/. I know Roelof for many years and he has already done succesfull productions for many metalbands.

Mastering: The mastering was done by 2 times Grammy Award and 3 times Latin Grammy Award winner Nacho Molino https://nachomolino.com/”

What difference would it make to you as a band if you could land an endorsement from a gear manufacturer? “I think when you are 100% convinced by one brand or gear-manufacturer you feel the most comfortable with, it will improve playability and maintain your perfect sound for sure. Also I would be proud and would love to represent to other musicians what the brand offers and demonstrate with our own music what the instrument / gear has to offer”

“This World is Suffering” by Demoralizer is out now and available over at bandcamp.