I got hooked on Necromoon the first time that I heard their song ‘Sleepwalk’. However, there's not a lot of information about the band online. So I sought to remedy that by emailing Necromoon and asking them a bunch of questions that range between the obvious and the inane:
Can you let me know the names of the people in the band?
Tessa Brumbeloe, James Wadsworth, Connor Corwin.
What other bands are you in?
James- Swell Time, Thinning, Meat Flowers, Loomspore, and Sundog. Tessa- Soul Crushr. And Connor is- Thinning, Quiet/Creator, and Thumbrider.
The internet tells me that you based in Fort Wayne. What’s Fort Wayne like? Best things/worst things?
Best thing is a supportive art community. Worse thing is Sweetwater.
Where do you practice, how often and what’s your practice space like?
We practice in Connor’s room, usually twice a week, it’s a band house so there’s constant music going on. It took us a while to figure out the setup of the space but once we found it, we were locked in.
How do you write your songs? Alone, jamming etc?
I think it varies from time to time, song to song, album to album. One of us will bring something or we’ll all do something together. This album in particular is a lot of collaborative efforts. We were all feeling pretty confident in ourselves in terms of playing. So there’s a lot more that sticks out then stuff in the past. You get better moving forward, but have to kind of have a lid on it that way it isn’t just incoherent nonsense. -Connor
Do you demo your songs before you go in and record them?
Not really, we just rehearse them. We get phone recordings, if that means anything.
Do you mostly play around Indiana? Where’s the furthest away you’ve played?
Furthest is NYC. We actually play Ohio and Michigan more than Indiana actually.
Can you tell me what guitars, amps, and drums you usually use for recording and live?
For live stuff Tessa and Connor use a bunch of pedals, Tessa uses a Vox AC15C2, and Connor uses an older Hot Rod III. Guitars vary from time to time, same with drums. For recording, with this record in particular, Tessa used a JC120 a majority of the time. Connor used a lot of different heads, leaning towards a MIG 50 and an Ampeg Gemini 2. James used the house drums at Earth Analog, it was an older Ludwig set.
Each of your albums feels fairly different. Do you have a plan of what kind of album you want to make before you record it?
We let the songs come to us. We’ll go in with 12 songs, and maybe come out with 10. It just depends.
It feels like delay and reverb are a big part of your sound. What are your favourite devices for this?
Behringer Digital Reverb. We swear by those things. Lots of Walrus pedals, lots of EarthQuaker. We’re not incredibly picky. We’re just picky enough.
When you record, do you play live as a band or overdub each part?
We usually do drums first, bass second, guitars after, etc. Rarely will we do something live.
How many vocal takes do you usually do?
On average like 4 or 5? Depending on the song.
What are your preferred stimulants/snacks for recording sessions?
Fresh pots, caffeinated sparkling water, jugs of wine, the ganj.
Where did you record I'm So Lucky To Die Here and who recorded it?
We recorded it with our old guitar player, Will Heingartner. We did it in his basement.
What is that keyboard sound on Yuki Onna?
It’s an old Casio preset.
I love the acoustic feel of tracks like Cast and Flowers and Sleepwalk. Any plans for more rootsy songs or are you just going to keep blasting off into oblivion?
There’s acoustic hidden everywhere in Nature Makes Our Graves For Us. Most songs start out on acoustic guitars. But it just depends on what we’re feeling.
Your track ‘Onism’ sounds like a backwards something. What is it?
It’s the chorus of “Sleepwalk” reversed.
‘Warren’ and ‘Mermaid’ were released as stand-alone singles? Any other rare tracks that I’m missing?
There might be a few.
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The album Spirit Fair rocks hard. How did you record it?
Also a basement. With Matt Riefler. Lots of heartache, weed, Ace Ventura, Parasyte. It was serious.
I detect some Black Sabbath love on some songs from Spirit Fair like the title track and Exister. Did/do you worship at the shrine of metal?
That’s a big 10-4. We’re all fingers on the hand of doom.
Speaking of metal, what are your preferred distortion pedals/fuzzboxes?
Russian muffs and oddball fuzz pedals. We like the fuller fuzz as the to the shrill.
Boring question but do you use standard tunings? Exister sounds different somehow…
We’ve used a couple different tunings, but Exister is in standard.
Nice clunky bass tone on Night Dreams. Can you remember how you did that?
It’s an analog delay through a pushed Neve preamp.
I think that your latest album - Nature Makes Our Graves For Us - is the most ‘far-out’ in terms of song structure. Do you use wall charts, visual cues, memory or just jam it out?
We do all of that. Whatever feels good, whatever needs to happen. James is especially good at remembering structures and queues.
Where did you record Nature Makes Our Graves For Us?
Do you ever succumb to using a click-track for things like the start of Glowing One and Ritual?
We always use a click. Actually the end of Glowing One is a live take.
Songs like Shoshana almost have a mystical feel. Would you describe yourselves as spiritual beings?
Tessa believes in ghosts. James is a spider. You do the math.
How do you get that cool mushy vocal sound on songs like It Was So Good To See You?
Vocal saturation.
The weird echo effect on the big drum in Glowing One messes with my mind. How did you do this?
There’s multiple drummers on the track. Sprinkled with secret sauce.
Nice flanger on Waylaid. What kind of flanger was it?
That’s actually just a fuzz through a JC120.
As far as I can tell, you don’t have any physical music to buy. Any reason?
We just have CDs for now. We’re working on getting more physical media.
Any dream recording studios you like to record at, or producers/engineers?
Honestly we hit our dream stuff at Earth Analog with Zac Montez. But like in a crazy world, probably Brian Eno or Nigel Godrich.
Would you ever do a live album?
Yeah if the opportunity presented itself.
Burritos or tacos?
Depends on the day. James is a strong advocate for tacos.
Cats or dogs?
James is cats. Tessa and Connor are team both.
Art or science?
Both.
Pink Floyd or The Doors?
Pink Floyd. Tessa has a Doors tattoo though.