APlacetoBuryStrangers
creating sounds from scratch
by Maria Schettino

Seeing the demise of the big studios, musicians have gained a lot of ground as burgeoning engineers and the term “self-produced” has risen to a whole new level. A Place to Bury Strangers has managed to exploit their DIY tendencies to stretch their production to the fullest extent of their imaginations. Feeling akin to the shoegazer movement, they have managed to finagle some studio magic to create those beautiful walls of lightning guitar sounds that make for dreamy My Bloody Valentine scapes while employing bits of industrial charm with real and programmed drums. The result is something both wistful and driving, drawing it’s credibility from a summation of influences and a commitment to creating sounds from scratch.

You produced this album? Where did you record it?

Everything was recorded and produced by us at wherever I lived at the time. I always make sure to get a space that is raw so we can build a recording/practice room. That way you can get good monitoring of whatever you are recording, and be able to play at normal volume levels (which is very loud) without neighbors complaining.

How do you accomplish that Kevin Shields-eaque sound?

I feel like he would experiment with the possibilities for manipulation of sound and work with that to create something new. Even go so far as to make a recording obviously a recording and experimenting with things that could only be done feasibly with recording, like 100 guitars, synthetic/live drums, samples, playing things backwards, pitch shifting, time stretching, and lots of other mixing techniques that would really be too complicated unless you were using midi controlled effects psyched up to a sequencer.


Do you program some drums and mix in live ones?

Most songs start out with an idea, mostly starting on the drum machine, then if the songs get re-recorded we use live drums. If the original track is to our liking we keep the drum machines.


Do you want to make people dance?

I don't care. Yes dance, no dance. I don't know if the kind of music we make is the kind that will really give someone the bug to get up and dance, but damn dancing is fun.

Are you all about the DIY thing?
I guess I like things to be a certain way and if that means you have to do it yourself, then so be it.† I do love help and other peoples ideas, if someone has a better idea then that sounds good to me. If someone wants to help out in anyway, I love that too. There is only so much time and so many things to get involved with.

What have been your most successful promotional ideas?
You would have to tell me.

Do you tour often?
Not really, we have yet to release an official album, which is in the works. And are kind of waiting for that to be finished to really set up more tours.

Oliver, tell me about the Death by Audio pedals. How did you get into this?

I always would modify my own gear for a while to make it sound the way I wanted and work with what sounds I wanted to create. At that time, I was just reading as much as I could about electronics and messing around with anything I could get my hands on. Eventually I found I had a lot of ideas for pedals that were not available so I decided to start the company to hopefully inspire musicians to take their sound further.

 How long have you been making the pedals?

I have been making pedals maybe since 1999 and started the company in 2002.


Do you use them exclusively for A Place to Bury Strangers?

Yes, as much as we can, there are some things like tuners where it is just more economical to go out and buy them.


What kind of scene have you guys found?

I think New York has a lot of kids who are willing to go out and see shows and get into the music. There are 1000's of scenes all around the city and it is really cool to be a part of that. There are definitely other scenes that we are a part of like the continuing Shoegazer scene which is starting to get popular again, but living in NY things are so diverse and I'm not sure there is really one scene in particular, just kids going out and wanting to have fun.


Where do you like to play?

I like to play anywhere.


Is touring a major part of your life?

Not at the moment, we've been recording a lot.