Billed as a thematic sequel to their 2006 second full-length ‘Still Searching’, Senses Fail’s eighth record ‘Hell Is In Your Head’ questions the meaning of life itself. Vocalist Buddy Nielsen lets us in on some need-to-know tidbits.
This record is based on two different poems, one called The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot and To Think of Time by Walt Whitman. The first half of the record is broken down into five songs named after each part of The Wasteland. It is a musical interpretation of the poem.
This was the first time that I played all the guitar on a Senses Fail record or any record for that matter. I have been recording for 18 years and never played guitar on a record until Hell Is In Your Head. It was the first time I had a chance to sculpt the guitar sound and playing style.
We had to stop recording because of the pandemic. We were two weeks away from wrapping up the album, and then on 11th March the NBA basically shut down, and we decided we needed to do the same.
Dan Trapp, who was the original drummer for Senses Fail, plays on the record; even though he left the band in 2014, he has come back to record the last two records.
My wife sings on the last song on the record with me. It is a song for our daughter, and actually, because of the pandemic, we got to track it at my house, and I was able to engineer it. It is the first time I have had her on a record and the first time she has ever sang in the studio.
Most of the guitars used on the record are single coil. We used about ten different guitars for this one, and most of them were Fenders with P90s or tele pickups. I wanted to give the record a different sound that other SF records by using more single coil paired with higher gain amps than humbuckers. Traditionally most high gain louder record bands won’t employ single coils for rhythm tracks choosing to use them for leads, if at all. I heavily use the Jim Adkins Tele Thinline, A Rosewood Tele and the J Mascis Jazzmaster.
Taken from the August issue of Upset. Senses Fail’s new album ‘Hell Is In Your Head’ is out 15th July.
