As much as I love Closer, it wouldn’t be my favourite from The Downward Spiral (that goes to Reptile), but I thought it would be a fun one to cover on the Syntakt. As usual, bass guitar’s going direct through the pedalboard into the Syntakt’s input - no overdubs, all sounds programmed and sound designed straight on the machine. For anyone curious - the wrist strap is due to a minor sprain, the goggles are just for fun. Looking forward to catching @nineinchnails live in Dublin next week! See you in the pit 🌀🤘😵💫🤘🌀#nineinchnails #thedownwardspiral #livecover #elektron #syntakt #steinberger #nin #closer #bassguitar #pedalboard #musicproducer #industrial #industrialmusic #synth #instrumental #dublin
Dayvan Cowboy by @boardsofcanada has been my all-time favourite song since I first heard it in 2008. Yesterday morning I was idly strumming the chords and thought — why not record a cover?
12 hours later, this is the result.
All the synths and drums are coming from the Elektron Syntakt — fully programmed and sound-designed from scratch. Guitar pedals + amp are fed straight into the Syntakt’s input, and I recorded everything live into Logic with no overdubs (hence the occasional rogue strum).
Big shoutout to YouTuber ‘Sheeco’ for his breakdown of the original track — a huge help.
Filmed on my phone, mixed with a bit of EQ and compression on the master, but otherwise it’s a live take.
If you’ve never seen the official Dayvan Cowboyvideo — do yourself a favour and give it a watch. Absolutely timeless, and one of my favourite music videos. Boards of Canada 🐐
#boardsofcanada #dayvancowboy #elektron #syntakt #ambientmusic #guitarcover #liveset #sounddesign #gearnerds #studiovibes #electronicmusic #warprecords
Last one!! New Wheel, adapted from a rhythmic guitar part I wrote for DRUGSCHOOL64. This is the most recent one from the EP and the most fun. Thanks for listening 👻
Sir Jeremy, a tribute to my grandfather written on the night of his passing. I posted a version of this a couple of years ago with more effects and distortion, which is maybe closer to my original intent. But this is how I’m most used to hearing the song, which I play pretty much every time I pick up a guitar.
Quantocks, from an EP I recorded this morning of 4 solo acoustic instrumentals for guitar. I had intended on doing one post with all 4 tracks, but forgot Instagram has pretty inflexible rules re: length / framing. So I’ll post them individually over the next few days instead.
This is quite a minimal thing I wrote in 2013 for an album I was working on at the time. Originally I had intended on building around this guitar part with lots of layers and other instruments, but I also quite like it stripped down like this. Really milking that open D major. The EP is over on simonbird.bandcamp.com - more to follow!
Enjoy 👻
NEW SONG 🎵 💥
I made this track and the accompanying video yesterday in the studio. This was a bit of a throwback to the way I first started making music – just get the ideas down as quick as possible, and lean into the mix sounding a bit dodgy. There’s something to be said for the immediacy of that approach – I know that this would probably sound a lot better if I spent a few weeks ironing out the details, but I am old now and have other things to do 🙏 The video gives a rare glimpse into my creative process – Please Enjoy 🌲👻
