Bloodyarvo give us a rundown on their gear, focusing on the psychedelic tones in their track Feel My Heart Sleeps.
Bloodyarvo have burst onto the scene with thick melodic atmospheres melded through velvety loose guitars. The band came to life as a response to the depression and isolation that came with the coronavirus pandemic. Escapism through songwriting was a way for multi-instrumentalist, Ariq to process and trudge through these heavy feelings.
In 2021, Ariq and three of his university friends formed the band through the bonds of their struggles and turned it into riff rock melodies. Now, he gives Happy a rundown on the band’s studio gear used for Feel My Heart Sleeps, and dives into the mechanisms Bloodyarvo utilized through these instruments and equipment.
Bedroom Recording
“Everything you hear in our newest single Feel My Heart Sleeps was recorded and mixed all by myself in my bedroom – I used an old 2012 MacBook Pro, a Scarlett 18i8 audio interface, and Logic Pro X. so it’s a real DIY!
It wasn’t because I could do it, but it was because I couldn’t afford studio times nor audio engineer, so I did it all myself. But in Feel My Heart Sleeps case, the recording was meant to be a demo, but we ended up using it as the final product. It was a spontaneous thing! so I recorded the song while I was coming up with the idea and the melody.
Production is really important to me especially guitar tone and drums sound. You can argue the main voice of Feel My Heart Sleeps is the guitar tone. The idea was to design a lush and spacey atmospheric guitar sound to portray the song theme of isolation and escapism.
In Feel my Heart Sleeps, I use Strymon Big Sky for all the reverb sound using the ‘cloud’ & ‘hall’ setting with a long decay and a pre-delay to bring out the reverb sound and avoid muddiness. as far as delay concerned, I love the dark-haunting, and lo-fi echo sound of Walrus Audio ARP-87 so I used it all over the place in Feel My Heart Sleeps. Lastly, I use GFI Synesthesia for all the modulation and Sunset Overdrive for drive sound.
All guitar tracks were played on my beloved Gibson Custom Shop 1961 LP/SG Standard plugged into Marshal JCM 800. And I use the same exact guitar and pedalboards for live performance setting.
To achieve the Psychedelic tone I desire, the drum sound in the song is heavily compressed and saturated. I used an artificial stock compressor from logic and run it through RC-20 Retro Colour to give it a lo-fi flavour. The drum kit is a Gretsch Kit with 22×14 kick, 14×6 Ludwig Snare, 16” Istanbul dry dark hi-hats, and 20” crash and 24” Ride from Meinl”
For live situations Feel my Heart Sleeps is performed by the whole band:
Fender Santa Ana Overdrive: A beautiful, two-mode overdrive with a boost switch for an extra layer of drive, I use the A mode to get the sound right for the outro of the song.
Berry Pedals Lunar Phaser: Groovy pedal from Wollongong-based builder, Berry Pedals. It helps me create a spaced-out atmosphere.
Walrus Audio Julia Chorus: A modern classic of chorus pedals, this one in a pretty floral finish, definitely gets used a lot through our live work.
Boss Reverb RV-6: One of the first pedals I was given, the RV-6 will stay, it’s an immensely flexible reverb with everything from modulation to shimmer effects. I used to use almost exclusively Boss pedals for their versatility and size, but the RV-6 is a wonderful jack for every trade.
What an intricate insight into Bloodyarvo’s gear set-up! If you haven’t heard Feel My Heart Sleeps, then check out via Spotify below and escape along with the band.
