Between his noise rock outfit A Place To Bury Strangers – dubbed 'the loudest band in New York' – and his pedal company Death By Audio, Oliver Ackermann is no stranger to DIY noisemaking. The band's latest album, Synthesizer, takes things a step further though.
Not only did Ackermann design and build his own DIY synth, which is featured on every track of the album, but the instrument's circuit design also provides the cover art for the vinyl LP, allowing fans to recreate the synth at home – albeit with a substantial amount of DIY required.
“Originally I was thinking that the circuit board itself just looks so cool, it'd be such an awesome object to be a vinyl cover,” Ackermann explains. “Since we'd been building tons of synthesizers and all these different things, it was the perfect time to make it all come together.”
When we caught up with Ackermann on the band’s recent UK tour, he explained how the various hand-built effects and instruments he’s worked on in the past fed into the development of the titular synthesizer.
“We'd been developing some things which were turning, like, guitars into oscillators and drum machines and stuff. So there were enough of these wacky ideas that we could throw all into one thing and it wouldn't just be a fancy looking cover. It would also become something that functioned as an instrument.”
“Once we came up with that concept, it was like, we've got to record this on every track of the record,” he continues. “Because how cool would that be? If you can play the songs with the synthesizer.”
The synth itself, which you can hear in action in our video above, features three oscillators alongside a noise generator, filter, LFO and delay module, all triggered by a capacitive touch sensor. Turning the vinyl cover into a working instrument isn’t for the faint of heart though.
“Yeah, good luck,” Ackermann laughs. “We sell a parts kit from Death By Audio, but you have to be able to solder them all in, so you have to have some technical ability. You don't want this to be your first kit. It's kind of complicated, but also a lot of this stuff will function even if you don't get the whole thing to work. And so, you know, maybe you'll make a broken synthesizer, or it'll be your own version of the thing.”
In our interview, Ackermann – who recorded and produced the album – also discusses the challenges of translating the band’s notoriously intense live shows to record.
“It's really about the energy that you're giving off for these moments [when you’re recording],” he explains. “If you're kind of, excited and thrilled, or feel scared, or it's kind of dangerous, that gets captured and translates.”
"If you're excited and thrilled, or feel scared, or it's kind of dangerous, that gets captured [on the record]"
He also discusses the foundation of Death By Audio, creator of hand-built stompboxes including the Disturbance modulator and Germanium Filter pedals, among others.
“I usually don't listen to what other people are requesting,” he tells us, on the origins of the brand’s designs. “[They stem from] interest in certain technologies and things where you're like, ‘Oh, I wonder how this stuff works”’, or ‘What are the possibilities of this technology?’
“It's just like, let's try to make something that's unique and different and crazy and does these cool things and like, interacts with the human body in a particular way.”
You can watch our interview in full and hear the synth in action in the video above.
Synthesizer by A Place To Bury Strangers is out now. Find out more about Death By Audio pedals at the brand’s site.
