Earlier this month, when Machine Age dropped their latest single Dust, we were immediately on board with their new sound. While the track features the band’s signature blend of rock and electronica, it feels far rawer.
So fresh off the track’s release, we caught up with Adrian Mauro for a rundown of the gear that helped shape its sound. Take it away Adrian…
Fresh off the release of their latest single Dust, we caught up with Machine Age’s Adrian Mauro for a complete run-down of the gear that helped shape their new sound.
When we began jamming and recording Dust we made the intentional choice to keep things simple, particularly the rhythm section. Coming off the back of IDM influenced tracks like Fighting and the rock and trap beats on Daggers we knew we wanted something more primal.
Once we got the structure of the song together we built it from the ground up. Tracking drums at Dylan’s home studio.
Dylan’s Drum Setup
It’s a Ludwig club date kit. 22×14 Kick 12×8 rack and 14×14 floor. 14×5 Ludwig Acrolite snare. Running Roland triggers on the kick and snare into the SPDsx with more samples onboard. All Zildjian cymbals, 14 A custom hi-hats, 18 A custom crash, 20 A custom ride and the secret weapon the 12 A Zildjian special recording hi-hats for the auxiliary hats.
Bass
The main bassline was built in the box with Serum then added some Moog Sub 37 analogue beef when we starting mixing at Peter Holz studio in Sydney.
Guitars
I play a Fender Blacktop Jaguar HH that I bought second hand from Chrispy Lait lead guitarist of Brisbane rockers Osaka Punch. I had the Bigsby and vintage scratch plate added by Dan Gowen Boutique Guitars.
The main crunchy guitar sound comes from Brisbane legend Tym’s Guitars “mini mudd” with some glitchy voltage sag control from my power supply. They’re mostly DI’d via a JLM TG preamp or recorded via my Australian made 1960’s Moody Vibralux.
For the main riff, I ran the recorded parts back out through my favourite dirt box and sound shaper. The Sherman Filterbank.
The ambient sparkles in the bridge mostly come from my eventide H9 and my empress super-delay. And the crazy glitchy guitars in the outro come from my “revolver” glitch pedal by Hexe.
Shoutouts to Peter Holz mix engineer for taking the mix to the next level, singer-songwriter Amy Drew joining me on backing vocals and also to Pedal Empire and Signal Chain for enabling my pedal addiction.
Dust is available now. Listen here.
