On The Lunchbox with Stephen ‘Steps’ Lowe, reporter David Winter from the Luxembourg News Desk interviewed Mike Sullivan from the instrumental metal band Russian Circles. Together they discussed how tours form, the band’s writing, and their work with producer Kurt Ballou.
Tours with Russian Circles all happen very organically, they aren’t set up by labels, and don’t occur randomly. Russian Circles wants to make sure they know the bands they perform with, and they want to make sure the music they play suits their vibe accordingly. Often, they see another band perform and approach them directly about playing together.
Since COVID, their writing process has changed. They used to write entire songs collaboratively, based around a couple of riffs. But, when COVID hit, the band was living in different cities across the US. Mike, the guitarist, and Brian Cook, the bassist wrote and recorded all of the songs independently. When they were satisfied with the demo, the writer would send it out to the other two band mates and everyone would collaboratively edit the music. These recordings would become “Gnosis,” their 2022 album. The band agreed they liked this writing process better than their old school way.
Mike knows, though, there is no wrong way to write a song. As long as you communicate what you want to communicate, then it doesn’t matter how you get there.
Mike also spoke about recording with their producer Kurt Ballou. This is their third album working with Kurt, so at this point its more like working with a close friend than anything else. Mike admits that there is nothing particularly special about their recording process. Thy record drums and bass first in Chicago. Then, the guitar gets recorded in Salem, Massachusetts at Kurt’s GodCity Studio. There, Kurt has all of his different pedals and tools that the band can play around with to really change their sound.
This is part one of two. To heard the whole conversation between David and Mike, click here to visit RTL Play, or listen via the player below.
“There is no question that we are more comfortable with our approach now...it feels like a new breath for the band”
