So Hideous (Brandon Cruz)
SPB: What instrument (or instrument combo) was the hardest to capture in the studio when recording None But A Pure Heart Can Sing?
Cruz: We’ve used strings on every single one of our releases but it was particularly challenging on this album as we tried a different methodology. On the last two records we used increasingly larger ensembles so paring it back down to a quartet with SEVEN) SUNS was a nice kick to the head because there’s no faking it, no one is buried.
It’s all very upfront and naked… every bow and every pluck. The energy of the songs and our wonderful new rhythm section also drove the orchestrations on a more jagged and immediate path than our older, more lyrical stuff – less Olafur Arnalds and more Bernard Herrmann.
Sure, we still sneak a weepy Italian opera part in there for good measure but it was a really fun, vexing, rewarding task to look in different directions and stretch our capabilities a bit.
