13th July 2023

Exclusive Interview: Aeffect talk writing and recording “Theory Of Mind”!

Aeffect mastermind, multi instrumentalist and vocalist Mark Broster is under the FBI Interrogation spotlight once more as we talk to him about writing and recording the punishing journey through notions of ambition, purpose, legacy, exploitation, neglect and despair that is album “Theory Of Mind” from his project. A beast of a record in very sense of the word, it finds the former Sarpanitum guitarist joined by Xerath drummer Mike Pitman with bleak dissonant down-tuned guitars and giant percussion creating night terrors in Progressive Technical Metal…

How did your previous experiences writing and recording help to smooth the path of the new record? “Not at all haha. When I was in Sarpanitum, I joined after the debut was written and wasn’t really around long enough to leave any imprint on the second album. I think the biggest contributing factor in writing Theory of Mind was having a hiatus from playing guitar. Since leaving Sarpanitum, I had been invested in other things: career, family etc. The thing that kick-started my creative passion was getting a 7-string guitar. I hadn’t really played any guitar for 7-8 years, and reacquainting myself with the instrument after so much time out, with a whole extra string, really impacted how my hands interacted with it. It’s quite hard to explain, but I was no longer naturally finding all of my old habits: rather, I was much more interested in the tone and percussive qualities. I’d previously had a bit of experience working with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). But I pretty much picked it up from scratch for Theory of Mind. My mindset was really to be competent enough with the tools available to get my ideas down, but then off-load the sophisticated stuff to a competent professional!”

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? “Writing Theory of Mind has told me that I’m quite a visual person. I think every song started with collecting a bunch of images that told a story, and the music was almost written as a score to convey the underlying theme behind that imagery.

In practical terms, I most often started writing the structure of the song with the drums, which is a bit weird for a guitarist. It felt like a more natural way of navigating the story behind images I was using. Working this way forced me to wrap some fairly unconventional guitar rhythms around the drum patterns. I was quite conscious not to draw on the Meshuggah formula, but inevitably, it impossible to avoid the comparison.

I’d say the guitar leads (if you can call them that) are very influenced by Mayhem – Chimera. I really like how unsettling the guitaring is on that album, with the sporadic note and rhythm changes. I didn’t really have any rules for when leads would appear on the album – just when it felt like they were going to add a dynamic or a transition dictated by the flow of the song.

I was quite conscious of releasing an end-to-end album, so did put some consideration into what type of songs would sit next to each other on the album. I originally planned to write 7 songs (so Acceptance was going to be the last song). However, when I finished writing it, I felt like it should naturally lead into a final ‘crescendo’ song to end the album. I quite vividly remember walking around my house after finishing writing Acceptance with a Nine Inch Nails-style industrial drum pattern in my head, which became the start of Dematerialise”

The album was notably produced, mixed and mastered by Buster Odeholm (Humanity’s Last Breath, Vildhjarta, Reflections). At what point did you decide he was the man for the task? How did you find working with him? “Buster’s technical and creative talent is inspiring and I’m extremely honoured that he has worked on this album. I was a fan of HLB and Vildhjarta and Välde was released when I was starting to think seriously about delivering a proper album. I basically got in touch with his studio (Odeholm Audio), sent across the demo and he agreed to do the album”

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? “Hmm, not sure. I think it depends heavily on the tone of the album. Once a second album is in development, I’m sure the ideal style of production will reveal itself!”

For us gear nerds out there, can you tell us what you’re using gear wise (pedals, strings, drums etc) to get your sound? “I play an Ibanez RGIM7BC, which has fanned frets, so it’s multi-scale (27″ at the seventh string and 25.5” at the first string). It’s tuned to F# standard. I really like it and it looks great. I’m probably going to change the EMG 808 humbucker pickups to Lundgren M7’s in the near future. The strings are Ernie Ball, running from 11-80 gauge. They are effectively from an 8-string pack, but you just disvard the lightest 9-gauge string for the 7-string guitar.

I think most of the sound of the album comes from Buster’s production. I basically sent him DI’s for all of the instruments and the album has been re-amped, the specifics of which I don’t actually know anything about. He’s got a bunch of production video’s on Youtube from Nail the Mix where he goes into minute detail about the various amp sims and effects chain’s he uses. The drums were a bit of a mish-mash in the studio, though they sounded great. The cymbals mics are the only part of the drums that have not have had some sound replacement in the mixing phase.

For vocals, I used the Shure SM7B with a Cloudlifter pre-amp. It’s pretty much an industry standard mic for metal vocals”

What difference would it make to you as a band if you could land an endorsement from a gear manufacturer? “As I’m not touring currently, I think gear endorsement is a less important. I actually quite like getting things second hand (but in good condition). My guitar was second hand and near-mint. Everyone likes free stuff obviously!”