ShockHound

Interview by Joshua Glazer

For better or worse, some bands find themselves pigeonholed from the get-go; early in their existence, some breathless writer will coin a catchy phrase, and it winds up following them until the end of their career.
    Such is the case with Brooklyn's A Place To Bury Strangers, who will forever carry the tag of "loudest band in New York." It's a claim of unknown origin, but based on the group's second album, Exploding Head, it's clearly not a tag they're trying to shy away from. One listen to the band's searing wall of guitar fuzz, courtesy of guitarist, singer, songwriter Oliver Ackermann's own line of guitar effects pedals — appropriately called Death By Audio — and you can imagine yourself trapped in a small Brooklyn basement, hands clasped hard over your ears while simultaneously horrified and enthralled by the sonic maelstrom.
    Of course, the group is more than just noise. On Exploding Head, Ackermann's obsession with '60s girl group melodies and pop hooks begin to find their way out of the distorted haze, with a little help from producer Andy Smith, whose resume includes everyone from Paul Simon and Mariah Carey to Public Enemy and David Bowie. But make no mistake, APTBS still excel (and revel) in creating a fucked-up wall of sound that's a perverse pleasure for the listener to climb over.
    In this exclusive interview, Ackermann sat down with ShockHound to help us separate the melody from the noise. 

SHOCKHOUND: The first record was a collection of various singles and extra songs. Exploding Head is your first record recorded purposefully as an album. Was the process different?

OLIVER ACKERMANN: It was different. For one, I just felt a lot more confident in what we were doing because people liked the first record. They liked all the stuff I had done. We spent the time and got the sounds we really wanted to get for this record.

SHOCKHOUND: Your music is so sound-oriented; is the sound itself usually the lead catalyst in writing?

ACKERMANN: I won't back away from any inspiration. Sometimes you'll be messing around with guitar sounds and that will become the basis of a song, or you'll be taking a shower and hear a really cool melody in your head. You can't predict. You just have to be open and aware so when something you really like comes out, you can use it.

SHOCKHOUND: When you're in the studio, do you have a preferred method of recording?

ACKERMANN: We've done stuff that's very digital, other stuff is done straight to tape. It's fun to experiment with everything. Show me some new medium to record onto and I'll try it out.

SHOCKHOUND: And you recorded the new album with Andy Smith, who has some real mainstream credentials.

ACKERMANN: He's a really great guy. He had some cool ideas. He got into the really precise science of recording. He would move around the time difference between the mic on the floor tom and the snare so the phase would be perfect. It was cool.

SHOCKHOUND: Did you learn a lot from working with him?

ACKERMANN:I learned about some things I wasn't totally aware of. Some of the precise bits in editing and whatnot. I don't think all of those elements are totally necessary, but it's cool to learn that stuff.

SHOCKHOUND: And yet, the album doesn't sound "produced."

ACKERMANN: We recorded all the tracks ourselves, in our junky studio in Brooklyn. All we did with Andy was record the vocals, and he worked on the post-production. He was a good voice of reason about making things a little too fucked-up.


WATCH: A Place To Bury Strangers — "In Your Heart"

SHOCKHOUND: Your album is titled Exploding Head, which can have a pretty obvious explanation for a noisy band like yours. But I'm guessing there's more to it.

ACKERMANN: It's taken after the song [of the same name on the album], which is about when things are getting really intense in your life and you can't handle what's going on. Be it relationships or what not. It blows your mind. It's about when things are too much to handle.

SHOCKHOUND: What's more fun to name — songs, albums or guitar pedals?

ACKERMANN: Naming guitar pedals! It's really ridiculous. When it comes to guitar pedals I don't take myself so seriously, so it can be fun.

SHOCKHOUND: Have you been surprised by any of Death By Audio's clientele?

ACKERMANN: I hear that Lou Reed suggested to someone that they get our pedals. That blew my mind. The dude from Lady Ga-Ga's band ordered some pedals, too.

SHOCKHOUND: You've been called the loudest band in New York. I'm wondering how you can be louder when you're playing through the same shitty club PA as everyone else?

ACKERMANN: We have a lot of hot-rodded amps. I was a big speaker enthusiast and just look for the speakers that are the loudest you can possibly get. It's also a little bit of perceived volume. Some of the effect that we're using, some of those pedals have a gain of 1000x. So the input into your amp is 1000 times louder than a guitar, which jacks your amp to the extreme. But also playing with the frequencies can do a lot. You can bring in really loud frequencies; then, as they fade out, bring in another frequency, so it seems like it's building and building, louder and louder. We'll also just ask the sound dude to crank it up.

SHOCKHOUND: But can that make a difference on a big stage?

ACKERMANN: We just played Reading Festival in England, using the equipment that the festival provided in this huge outdoor stage, and the promoters were trying to tell us that we couldn't play because we're too loud. Seriously!? I think they thought we were going to distract from Faith No More or something, who were playing the other stage.

SHOCKHOUND: You toured with Nine Inch Nails last year. What's that experience like for a young band?

ACKERMANN: I guess Trent had been into the pedals but didn't know the band; then, when he heard the band, he was just into it. It was really cool. Going from playing club shows to these stadiums was surreal. They shut the lights out and everyone starts screaming...it was awesome. I had heard from other people that we should watch out, and sometimes the fans won't like [NIN's opening acts]. One time there was this dude with his middle finger in the air, so I stared that dude down and he changed it to a pumping fist.

SHOCKHOUND: Do folks really get mad because they don't expect there to be an opening band?

ACKERMANN: Nine Inch Nails have some hardcore fans. We met kids with, like, ten NIN tattoos, and a NIN hat on and NIN patches on their pants.

SHOCKHOUND: Have you seen any A Place To Bury Strangers tattoos?

ACKERMANN: Not yet. But if I do, maybe I'll get them some laser surgery.

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