For their fifth studio album, TANGK, IDLES went down a slightly different sonic route, enlisting Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich's expertise to shape their record. One of Godrich's recommendations? Not tuning their guitars.
“On this album, we didn’t really tune our guitars. We’d tune to the track,” reveals guitarist Mark Bowen in the new issue of Total Guitar. “Nigel wouldn’t allow us to use tuners. We’d go, ‘I’ll just tune that.’ And he’s like, ‘No, listen to what you’re playing.’ So it wouldn’t be like a strict 440hz across the across the strings.”
Nick Cave’s Jubilee Street and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Scar Tissue are two classic recordings that served as inspiration, as they both used the approach of tuning by ear to compensate for the guitar's infamously approximate intonation.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Bowen and fellow guitarist Lee Kiernan explain how Godrich was also responsible for encouraging the band to build TANGK around tape loops.
“The first thing Nigel wanted us to get into was understanding tape loops,” says Bowen. “He just gets you to play, and he’ll take bits and bobs and snapshots. Sometimes that’s a means to create texture that then you can write a song based off.
“Sometimes, as with the track Gratitude, it’s the basis for the whole song. Jon [Beavis, drummer] played this 6/8 pattern. Then, I played this riff that was like three fives and then a three, so it joined up with him every 18 beats.
“Dev [bassist Adam Devonshire] plays in 4/4. Basically, every 18 beats it kind of lines up and then falls out and lines up. That was something I was interested in with the tape. It sparks creativity.”
In a recent interview with Guitarist, Bowen confirmed this album was all about pure experimentation. “I felt like I had reached the limitations of what a guitar band is. Our goal has always been to expand what guitars can do, rather than disregard them completely.”
IDLES have a busy festival season coming right up, followed by an extensive UK tour in November.
For more IDLES, plus new interviews with Joe Perry, The Last Dinner Party, and Mdou Moctar, pick up issue 385 of Total Guitar at Magazines Direct.
