Now five albums deep, Harakiri for the Sky was founded by guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Matthias Sollak (at right) and singer J.J. in 2011. Sollak composes the music and J.J. pens the band's lyrics.
For all the black-metal bona fides Matthias Sollak has accumulated as a guitarist, his musical range extends into areas you might not expect from a 31-year-old who's been running with headbangers for most of his life. Even during his long stint with Bifröst, the band he co-founded in his native Salzburg, Austria, at the age of 16, he brought elements as far afield as bagpipes, folk instruments, and keyboard samples to a freewheeling and unpredictable sound that helped set the group apart from their self-avowed "pagan metal" contemporaries.
Sollak launched Harakiri for the Sky with singer-lyricist Michael V. Wahntraum (known simply as J.J.) in 2011, while he was still a member of Bifröst. Conceived as an outlet to explore a more personal narrative in their songwriting, HFTS quickly became a full-time pursuit for Sollak, whose primal riffs, intricate melodic textures, and instinctive feel for subtle and moody dynamics put his peers on notice. A versatile guitarist with a producer's ear, Sollak wrote all the music and played all the instruments, including drums, on the duo's first three albums, only giving up the kit to veteran death metal drummer Kerim "Krimh" Lechner beginning with 2018's Arson.
In the past, I could always cheat a little bit with a lot of distortion, but as soon as you crank it down, it automatically forces you … to hit the downstrokes harder and play tighter.
Mӕre, the group's new double-disc epic, finds Sollak and friends crafting an even wider and more diverse sonic palette. Gloom, doom and redemptive catharsis still play their roles, but there's a quasi-shoegaze feel to the album opener "I, Pallbearer," which concludes with a lone guitar soloing in the murky distance behind a poignant piano melody. "Sing for the Damage We've Done" builds slowly and resolutely in its gradual onslaught before pivoting into an Opeth-like break, stripped down to the barest prog essentials with guest vocalist Stéphane Paut, known to French metal fans as Neige, from the band Alcest. And these are just the first two songs—so there's a lot more to Mӕre than the term "post-black metal" can do justice.
It was a long road to get there, and, as Sollak describes it, HFTS wrapped production under unusual circumstances. "We got pretty lucky because we finished the recording two weeks before we went into [COVID-19] lockdown," he recalls. "The only thing we still had going on were some of the guest vocals, which was a bit problematic because Neige is living in Paris, and they had the toughest lockdown of all. But by then we had to delay the release anyhow."
As it turned out, Sollak was able to make maximum use of the extra time during the album's mixing phase. But to grasp how he did, first it helps to understand how he changed up his routine to record the guitars on Mӕre. "We always have the music and the lyrics worked out before we go to the studio," he says. "I write the music and send it to Jimbo [J.J.], and he writes the lyrics—we have a strict separation because it just works for us." From there, Sollak relies on a Kemper Profiler to layer his guitar tracks, and normally records the rhythm parts on his trusty Jericho Elite with the Kemper's distortion effect cranked.
This time, however, he took a different approach. "I was definitely not going with the full-blast distorted sound," Sollak explains, "but I was listening to the actual DI track while we were recording. We had the distorted sound mixed into the background, because that automatically forces you to play way tighter. In the past, I could always cheat a little bit with a lot of distortion, but as soon as you crank it down, it automatically forces you, with the rhythm guitars, to hit the downstrokes harder and play tighter, and I think that's something you can hear in the overall sound."
Although Harakiri for the Sky have earned their place in the contemporary heavy music spotlight, Matthias Sollak has eschewed shredding, sweep picking, and other genre conventions to concentrate on songwriting and the specific techniques—and instruments—his songs require.
Photo by Soralover
Sollak mixed the album with Vienna-based producer Daniel Fellner, whose own history as lead singer and guitarist for the now-defunct Devastating Enemy was integral in raising the sonic stakes on Mӕre. "He has a huge amount of amplifiers," Sollak says, "so we decided to try them out and just reamp everything. We used some typical things, like a Peavey 5150, a Marshall JCM800, a Fender Bassman, and a really old Framus Dragon, but the freakiest thing was using a Roland Jazz Chorus for the clean sounds. It just sounded really good, and I would have never imagined using such an amplifier. It was just sitting around, so we thought, 'Hey let's try this out.' That was definitely a mind-opening experience."
Sollak and Fellner also used different amps on the left and right sides of the stereo mix, and reamped with very little gain. Taken together, the reamping and mixing techniques bring out all the articulation and complex melodies in "I'm All About the Dusk," an 11-minute excursion that, in some sections, rolls thick with as many as four guitar parts. "Silver Needle // Golden Dawn"—which features a cameo from the nameless lead singer of Portugal's mysterious black metallurgists Gaerea—is another instance where the song benefits from careful reamping and attention to dynamics. It actually recalls the compression-heavy, high-transient sound that Tom Scholz perfected back in the mid '70s on the first Boston album, only heavier.
TIDBIT: For Mӕre's solos and lead lines, Sollak dipped into producer Daniel Fellner's amp collection, which included a Peavey 5150, a Marshall JCM800, a Fender Bassman, a Framus Dragon, and a Roland JC-120.
But the song that really lights a roaring fire under Mӕre is "Us Against December Skies." Sollak's favored drop-D-flat tuning helps define the mood. He opens with a siren-like repeating octave, accentuated by chord punches that Lechner echoes with precision on the drumkit, before a soaring, almost Wagnerian wave of sound takes hold—a symphony of guitars that seems to inspire J.J. to pin his vocal performance in the red. About halfway through, everything stops on a dime, with another round of chord punches opening the door for a guitar lead (after J.J. full-throats the line "You can touch the sky") that Sollak develops into a theme, pushing the song to its coda: a dialed-back groove with stacked clean guitars that quickly surges into yet another wave—this one positive, powerful, and uplifting.
"I love when the song builds up, goes back a bit, and then explodes again," Sollak raves. "If you already have a repeating riff, and then, for example, the vocals drop out all of a sudden, it needs to expand in another way, which I usually do by adding another guitar melody so it doesn't totally die down. I try to alternate everything a little bit. So there are some parts that are similar, but then I might add a piano melody. If you want someone to pay attention for 10 minutes, then you have to create music in an interesting way."
As gifted as he is in arranging and producing, Sollak insists he's a shirker in the woodshed. He took up classical piano at a very young age but lost the patience for it. Getting his hands on his first electric guitar inspired him almost immediately to start writing and arranging. He used early versions of Guitar Pro and Magix Music Maker to teach himself how to sample beats, create sequences, and record tracks—so learning to shred became less of a priority.
Matthias Sollak's Gear
Guitars
- FGN Mythic 6
- Fender Limited-Edition Daybreak Telecaster
- Fender Jim Root Tele
- Jericho Fusion Blacktop
- Jericho Elite
- ESP Horizon
- Godin LGX
- Schecter JL-7
- Epiphone Les Paul Classic
- Sire Marcus Miller V7 bass
Amps
- Kemper Profiler
- Peavey Triple XXX
- Peavey 5150
- Fender Bassman (studio)
- Marshall JCM800 (studio)
- Roland JC-120 (studio)
- Framus Dragon (studio)
Effects
- TC Electronic Flashback
- TC Electronic Hall of Fame
- Maxon OD808
- ISP Technologies Decimator
Strings & Picks
- Elixir (.011–.049 and .012–.052 sets)
- Nologo picks .76 mm standard
"I'm really, really lazy when it comes to practicing," he quips. "I'm not a fast shredder, and I'm not good at sweep-picking and all this stuff, but by writing more music and trying to mature with it, I definitely got better—just less sloppy with everything, with no special focus on a certain technique. In general, it gets more important to me not just to play anything, but to play those things that I can play as tight as possible."
Considering that Sollak started out by diving into the deep end—by age 10, he was already listening to In Flames classics like Whoracle and Clayman—it's no surprise that chasing the sound he had in his head became a lifelong mission. Along the way, he discovered Iron Maiden, and then eventually Deftones and Placebo—bands with low-tuned guitars who wrote distinctively melancholic melodies.
"I didn't have this classic thing going from '70s bands to harder music," he says. "It was all completely mixed up, but maybe it influenced me as well in my style of playing. Back then, I just went to the record stores with this really small, hard and heavy section, and I tried to listen to Sadist or other bands that sounded similar because I was just in love with old In Flames. Later on, I listened to Nirvana and all this other stuff that came."
Co-bandleaders Sollak and vocalist J.J. have recorded most of their group's catalog themselves, but onstage Harakiri for the Sky expands into a 5-piece.
Photo by Helsing Photo
Fittingly, Mӕre closes with a cover of Placebo's "Song to Say Goodbye," which was on a short list of tunes Sollak wanted to cover. "It was easy to choose," he says, "because J.J. said he has a personal connection with that song from when he was younger. He's not as big a fan as I am, but I think with Placebo in general, when you read their lyrics and listen to their music, it's not too different from what we do. They're very thoughtful, very melancholy songs, mostly."
YouTube It: Harakiri for the Sky - "Stillborn"
Performing in a repurposed ship on the Danube, in Budapest, Harakiri for the Sky deliver an impassioned version of "Stillborn," from 2018's Arson album. Matthias Sollak is at stage left, weaving melodies all the way.
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On her new record with her trio, Molly Miller executes a live-feeling work of structural harmony that mirrors her busy life.
Miller has a lot on her plate. In addition to gigs leading the Molly Miller Trio, she also plays guitar in Jason Mraz’s band, and teaches at her alma mater, the University of Southern California (USC), where, after a nine-year stint, she earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate in music. In 2022, she became a professor of studio guitar at USC. Prior to that, she was the chair of the guitar department at the Los Angeles College of Music.
Molly Miller's Gear
Miller plays a fair bit of jazz, but considers herself simply a guitarist first: “Why do I love the guitar? Because I discovered Jimi Hendrix.”
Photo by Anna Azarov
Guitars
- 1978 Gibson ES-335
- Fender 1952 Telecaster reissue with a different neck and a bad relic job (purchased from Craigslist)
- Gibson Les Paul goldtop with P-90s
Amps
- Benson Nathan Junior
- Benson Monarch
- Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue (modified to “widen sound”)
Effects
- Chase Bliss Audio Dark World
- Chase Bliss Audio Warped Vinyl
- EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master
- EarthQuaker Devices Dunes
- EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker
- JAM Pedals Wahcko
- JAM Pedals Ripply Fall
- Strymon Flint
- Fulltone Clyde Wah
- Line 6 Helix (for touring)
Strings & Picks
- Ernie Ball .011s for ES-335 and Les Paul
- Ernie Ball .0105s for Telecaster
- Fender Celluloid Confetti 351 Heavy Picks
To get things done, Miller has had to rely on a laser-focused approach to time management. “I’ve always kind of been juggling different aspects of my career. I was in grad school, getting a doctorate, TA-ing full time—so, teaching probably 20 hours a week, and then also doing probably four or five gigs a week, and getting a degree,” explains Miller. “I had to figure out how to create habits of, ‘I really want to play a lot of guitar, and gig a lot, but I also need to finish my degree and make extra money teaching, and I also want to practice.’ There’s a certain level of organization and thinking ahead that I always feel like I have to be doing.”
“The concept of the Molly Miller Trio—and also a part of my playing—is we are playing songs, we are bringing back the instrumental, we are thinking about the arrangement.”
The Molly Miller Trio’s latest release, The Battle of Hotspur, had its origins during the pandemic. Miller and bassist Jennifer Condos started writing the songs in March 2020, sending files back and forth to each other. They finally finished writing the album’s last song, “Head Out,” in December 2021, and four months later, recorded the album in just two days. The 12-song collection is subtle and cool, meandering like a warm, sparkling country river through a backwoods county. The arrangements feel spacious and distinctly Western—Miller’s guitar lines are clean and clear and dripped with just the right level of reverb, trem, and chorus, while Jay Bellerose’s brush-led percussion trots alongside like a trusty steed.
The Battle of Hotspur has a live feel, and that aspect was 100-percent deliberate. Miller says, “That’s the exact intention of our records—we want to create a record that we can play live. Jason Wormer, the recording and mixing engineer that did our record, came to a show of ours and was like, ‘This is incredible.’ He’s recorded so many records and was like, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever recorded a record that sounds the same live.’ And that was our exact intention. Because I feel like [the goal of] the trio itself was to be full. It’s not supposed to be like, ‘Oh, let’s put saxophone and let’s put keys and other guitars on it.’ The concept of the record is a full trio like the way Booker T. & the M.G.’s were. It’s not, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if you added another instrument?’ No, we’re an instrumental trio.”
Musicality is what separates Miller from the rest of the pack. She has prodigious chops but uses them appropriately, when it makes musical sense, and her ability to honor a song’s written melody and bring it to life is one of her strong suits. “That’s a huge part of what we do,” she says. “The concept of the Molly Miller Trio—and also a part of my playing—is we are playing songs, we are bringing back the instrumental, we are thinking about the arrangement. The solo is a vehicle to further the story, to further the song, not just for me to shred. So often, you play a song, and you could be playing the solo over any song. There’s not enough time spent talking about how to play a melody convincingly, and then play a solo that’s connected to the melody.... Whether it’s a pop song, an original, or a standard, how you’re playing it is everything, and not just how you’re shredding over it.”
Miller still gets pigeonholed by expectations in the music industry, including the assumption that she’s a singer-songwriter: “I don’t sing. I’m a fucking guitar player.”
Photo by Anna Azarov
Miller’s strong sense of melody can be traced to her diverse palette of influences. Even though she’s a “jazzer” by definition, she’ll cover pop songs like the Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to Do is Dream” and the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Miller says, “I spent nine years in jazz school. I practice ‘Giant Steps’ still for fun because I think it’s good for my guitar playing. But it was a release to be like, ‘I am not just a jazz guitar player at all!’ Why do I love the guitar? Because I discovered Jimi Hendrix, right? What made me feel things in high school? Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and No Doubt. It’s like, Grant Green’s not why I play the guitar.
“I play jazz guitar, but I’m a guitar player that loves jazz. What do I put on my playlist? It’s not like I just listen to Wes Montgomery. I go from Wes Montgomery to the Beach Boys to freakin’ Big Thief to Bob Dylan to Dave Brubeck. The musicians I love are people who tell stories and have something to say—Brian Wilson, Cat Stevens.... They’re amazing songwriters.”
“Whether it’s a pop song, an original, or a standard, how you’re playing it is everything, and not just how you’re shredding over it.”
Despite a successful career, Miller continually faces sexism in the industry. “I went to a guitar hang two days ago. It was a big company, and they invited me to come and check out guitars. And I’m playing—I clearly know how to play the instrument—and this photographer there is like, ‘Oh, so are you a singer?’ And I’m just like, ‘No, I don’t sing. Fuck you,’” recalls Miller. “It’s such an internal struggle because of the interactions I have with the world. This kind of gets this thing in me where I feel like I need to prove to people, like, I am a guitar player. And at this point, I know I’m established enough. I play the guitar, and I know how to play it. I’m good, whatever. There still is this ego portion that I’m constantly fighting, and it comes from random people walking up to me and asking about me playing acoustic guitar and my singer-songwriter career or whatever. And I’m like, ‘I don’t sing. I’m a fucking guitar player.’”
YouTube It
Molly Miller gets to both tour with and open up for Jason Mraz’s band. Here’s a taste of Miller leading into Mraz’s set with some adeptly and intuitively performed riffs from a show in July 2022.
Bassist Sebastian Steinberg’s credits range from deep-cut avant-jazz to the highest levels of pop stardom.
Think weird samples, colliding harmonies, and half-sung boho poetry, all over some seriously sick grooves, with Steinberg driving the bus to Beelzebub with his thick upright tone and funky feel.
“In the middle of every groove, there’s the stupid part,” he told me then, drawing my attention to, as an example, the steady high-hat part in Sly & the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” If a groove makes your head nod, he said, “there’s something absolutely idiotic weaving its way down the middle.” As a bass player, he cautioned: “Sometimes you’re it.”
This idea stuck with me over the years, so I thought I’d see what Sebastian was up to. I caught him at a good time. After three well-received albums in the ’90s, Soul Coughing went their separate ways, and Steinberg went on to play both upright and electric with a variety of artists, including several that he describes as “fearlessly original.” That’s him on Fiona Apple’s acclaimed pandemic release, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, as well as singer-songwriter Iron & Wine’s latest album, Light Verse. This summer he’s touring Europe in a trio with drummer Matt Chamberlain and pianist Diana Krall (who didn’t want to play with “jazz guys”), and in the fall, he’s hitting the road with a reunited Soul Coughing.
I asked what it was about his approach that appeals to certain artists. “I like to play songs,” he answered. “But I have a musical curiosity and I can throw in my own ideas. My hands tend to be the smartest part of my body, so I can follow where the music leads.”
Steinberg says Fiona Apple’s 2020 record, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, “surpasses anything I’ve ever been involved in.”
Interestingly, when Sebastian started working at different points with Apple, Iron & Wine, and Krall, all three artists asked him not to listen to their previous albums. They wanted to create something new, current, and genuine, rather than, as Sebastian puts it, “trying to do stuff that’s already happened.”
“I’m not the bass player for everyone, which I’m really delighted to discover,” Steinberg continued. “But I’ve been sort of working out that there is a place for me. I’ve always been drawn to music that tends to ruffle feathers rather than smooth them. I gravitate towards people who are really strong individual thinkers, sometimes very much at the cost of their convenience, comfort, and public opinion. But the music is real. When musicians are real with each other, they’re as real as it gets.”
Sebastian describes the making of Fetch the Bolt Cutters as this kind of very real, exceptional experience. “It surpasses anything I’ve ever been involved in, including Soul Coughing,” he says. “I haven’t made an album so true, where nothing like this music has existed before, since Soul Coughing’s first album,” he said, referring to 1994’s Ruby Vroom. “Both albums were alive, unfettered, and truly unexplored territory.”
Fiona put the band together in 2016, inviting Steinberg, drummer Amy Aileen Wood, and multi-instrumentalist David Garza. “The four of us would go to the house, stomp around, sing in a chant she’d made up, and literally play like children or birds. After a while, songs began appearing. By the time we started going into the studio, we’d developed a level of trust and intimacy with each other, because we’d been playing in this non-specific but very personal way together. It's the most powerful band I’ve ever been in.”
“There are so many ways to approach music that transcend what the instrument was built to do. But you should know what it was built to do, because that’s a great job. It’s the best seat in the house.”
Sebastian notes that you do have to balance this kind of boldness with musical functionality. “Bass is a function, not an instrument,” he says. “There are so many ways to approach music that transcend what the instrument was built to do. But you should know what it was built to do, because that’s a great job. It’s the best seat in the house.”
So how does one go about getting real? “It’s about getting out of the way of whatever niceties musicians tend to inflict on each other,” he says. “You have to overcome fear and let the truth speak. Find the music and play it. Don’t bring your ego into it, but don’t let somebody scare you off from the music. And if you believe in what you’re doing, stick to it.”
A note of clarification
Last month’s column was about playing style, with Funkadelic bassist Billy Bass Nelson as an example. However, the magazine was already off to the printer when I finally connected with Nelson after several attempts. He told me that he did not play with a pick on Fred Wesley’s “Half A Man,” but often used his fingernails to get a similar attack. He also suggested two other songs that exemplify his style: Parlet’s 1978 track “Love Amnesia,” and the Temptations’ 1975 single “Shakey Ground.”
