Ketman: Unorthodox Mic'ing and Rock AutoHarp

By P. Nick Curran

Ketman's El Torro is a freaked out amalgam of gnarled guitars, rockabilly infused country anthems, and hooks so mind-numbingly abrasive they feel like a hard slap in the face. The songs at their most basic are a twisted call response system between guitarist Erik Penna and bassist Joseph Marret, laced among blazing guitars and drummer Mora Precarious' overwhelmingly dense beats. Give the Meat Puppets some cohesion, or Nirvana a production budget, Ketman takes everything post-punk and early grunge, rips it down and makes it their own.

Ketman recorded the entirety of El Torro in their basement studio in Allston before committing it to two inch tape at New Alliance in Cambridge. The songs jump from wretched, angular guitar riffs to fluid post-rock instrumentals, making mockeries of time signatures with abrupt changes in tempo and emotive dynamics. "We just throw in every weird idea we can think of," says Marret. "Oh man, I just saw this person get hit by a car, I just saw a train run by, then I listened to a Charles Mingus record, and I had this idea, so let's put it in a song."

Ketman toured for eleven days along the east coast before entering the studio, road testing their songs and solidifying their arrangements. "Punching is much trickier [recording to tape], so we wanted to make sure that everything was in the performance rather than cover it up digitally," Penna said. "So even though it was tracked individually, our performance had to be pretty good to make full use of the two weeks we worked on it."

El Torro is slated as a vinyl release, a move not entirely in line with modern trends, but totally consistent with Ketman's idea of an album. "It's kind of a sign of the times, with everything going digital, everything being less cohesive and more song oriented," Penna said. "We sorta did the opposite of everything." Marret agrees. "A record should be fuzzy, dirty and tangible.... when you put out a record, on vinyl, you can eat it, chew it, you can put it on your stereo with no electronics and hear little bits of it."

The lead song on El Torro's b-side, "Sinking Ships," showcases a warped guitar that sounds like Penna ravaged his guitar's pickups with a slide. "I played with some stereo guitar tones, and that was stereo chorus with a whammy," Penna said. "I was thinking of Link Wray, the guitar player, and wanted it to be like he was up here on one part." On "Oubliette," an alt-country gem and the last song on the a-side, Ketman opts for an autoharp for added sonic density instead of turning to delay or an acoustic guitar. "I've always wanted to do certain things and not rely on delay or acoustic," Penna said. "The autoharp feels like an acoustic, but doesn't have that acoustic vibe."

Soon after their intended release of El Torro, Ketman will begin recording another full length, a freakier, horn filled, home-recorded effort.

Performer spoke with Ketman and sound engineer Ethan Dussault of New Alliance audio about the techniques and ideas behind their new album, El Torro.

The drums on the album are huge - like you can feel them physically pushing the songs to their conclusion - how'd you get that drum sound?

Mora: We used a big ass kick drum, like a 32"

Erik: We also built a canopy around them, with far mics at the other end, and close mics on the kick-drum. We made a dragon of a

canopy that helped propel some of the lows that you hear.

Joe: There was talk of it sounding like Steve Albini recording Jon Bonham

(same question)

Ethan: First and foremost, Mora got the sound, not me. Secondly, tape decks and drums should be sold as a package at music stores. For El Toro, we set out to do all the recording and mixing in the analog domain. We did it and it rocks hard.

Initially, what did you think of the material and how did you originally plan to approach it?

Ethan: Ketman are a solid bunch of performers with a great take on intricate heavy noisy rock! The only way to approach it was to let the band steamroll over the studio. The Result? The Bull.

How much input did you have on what gear was used? Did you have any type of "secret weapon?

I basically made the majority of the decisions on the recording end; i.e. mic choice, preamp choice etc. I have few mics I rely on that most people don't use for guitar but overall no secret weapons; Just our ears, a set of NS-10s [studio monitors] and a 24 track limit.

(On his guitar sound)

Eric: I can’t take a lot of credit. I have an amp, you just turn it on and it sounds good, it’s an old vox ac30. It’s really hard to mess up recording it or getting a certain sound.

Joe: Yeah, it just works.

Did the more intricate guitar parts need a lot of punch-ins? What was the strategy behind them?

I did a lot of punching but mostly it was to clean up noise in the gaps between parts. In Pro Tools, to get amp buzz out, you just select and delete. With tape, you have to punch silence into the track. That was fun and scary.

You could wipe a great take if you aren't careful.