A Q&A with No Skull

Stoner/doom-influenced jams, from Michigan…

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
It’s called ‘Fields of None’ and what it means is endless possibilities. It’s a reference to The Can-Ka No Rey or Red Fields of None from The Dark Tower by Stephen King.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
I guess getting a band together maybe? The writing, recording and finishing of the record was all pretty easy honestly. In 2020 the original No Skull line up dissolved because of the pandemic lockdowns but, shortly after I had a new rhythm section and started writing the material for ‘Fields’. This line up didn’t end up  working out but, I had added a second guitarist, Jason, who stayed on as guitarist and I moved over to bass. Once we landed our drummer Dave it was off to the races as far as a line up but, now we had to learn the material for the record. I had to re-learn all the parts on bass, get reacquainted with the bass, playing bass and singing, getting the right bass tone and rig set up and pedals!!! God, I had forgotten how much different pedals react to a bass compared to a guitar. Yeah, that was the big challenge. Once that was ironed out, we learned the material fast and everything after went smooth as can be.

Who produced the release – what did they bring to it?
We sort of co-produced it with our long-time collaborator Corey Derushia at Troubadour Recording Studios in Lansing. I’ve known Corey a long time and he has had a hand in almost every recording I’ve done in the last 15 years or so. He has a really good ear and our mixes benefit a great deal from that. We laugh a lot and he makes stuff super comfortable. We also recorded a bunch of material and did overdubs at our home studio and brought those recordings in to Corey which was another super comfortable and easy aspect to the recording.

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
We want to give people something heavy but also melodic. We aren’t trying to create anything too extreme or over people’s heads, we want to make interesting music that still has somewhat of a hook or groove that is easily digestible by folks looking for something familiar but also some new idea interjected to hopefully create something fresh as well.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
Yeah, once we have a group of songs we want to record, we hit the studio with the soul purpose of tracking the main band live. Just drums, bass and guitar. Then we take those tracks home and work on overdubbing other guitars and effects and alternate instruments if any of those are necessary. Another thing I do is I work out my vocal parts and any harmony vocals I want to add, recording vocal demos with the track. After I have the vocals all worked out I’ll go back into the studio and re track the vocals and harmonies with better mics. Mixing is usually not too involved. Mostly just some EQing and a splash of reverb in most cases. Sometimes we get creative with effects of whathaveyou but, mostly we just keep it fairly simple.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
Sleep because they released The Sciences and that is one hell of an album. It really brought me to this idea of grooves leading the song. Pink Floyd – It’s my all-time favourite band so they are always influencing me. The menacing darkness held within the chillness is just the best vibe.  Conan – they may be the Earth’s heaviest band. Wilco – I really like these guys and their ability to not care about genre. Each of their albums has a fairly unique identity. Buck Owens and Don Rich – These are two of the most badass dudes to ever play a Tele. Hank Williams – Hank wrote some of the most simple and brilliant songs ever. His emotion is so apparent in his songs.

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
Would love to play anywhere that would have us. It’d be rad to tour Europe, Australia or Japan.

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
‘Opopanax’ from our album Fields of None is a great example of our style. Sorta bluesy, sorta doomy, a bit 90’s alt-rock, kinda jammy, has various vibes throughout but not such a drastic switch it catches you off guard, has a decent melody and is fairly heavy.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
We are really interested in focusing on the art of album making and not the grind of trying to record and tour round and round…making our own merch by hand and doing as much of the process of making an album as we have the ability to do. Making things with art in mind more than anything else. We also want to make some video or short films with some of our music in the near future.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Be kind and play loud! Forget about your troubles once in a while and make art or music or write or just be creative. And if you rock, crank that sh*t up!!!

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