Keyan is bringing something new to the guitar.
A self-proclaimed ‘modern guitarist’, Keyan infuses shred with melody, metal with fusion and a host of other influences. Most recently, he released a collaboration with Marcus Vik of Invent Animate in the single “Arrest”.
By ‘modern guitarist’, Keyan is referring to the new wave of metal players pushing the envelope; not quite metalcore, they include fusion and prog influences, but deviate away from prog metal and rock per se.
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“It’s funny, I’ve been writing the term ‘modern guitarist’ for so long that the term ‘modern’ is kinda blurring a little bit?” he muses.
“I guess the adjective of ‘modern’ relates to things that are in the more metalcore and proggy spaces, where there’s a lot more acceptance of things like eight-string guitars, and these weird Evertune systems, elevated chord structures in songs, all that stuff.”
Keyan continues, explaining that ‘modern’ metal to him is heavy music, but including musical choices that you may not usually hear on a traditional, older metal track.
We laugh for a moment about the clear delineation between progressive metal and prog metal, citing Periphery as a great example. Progressive metal for sure, but not ‘prog’! Keyan cites Sleep Token, Spiritbox, Erra and Invent Animate as great examples of modern metalcore.
We switch back to what Keyan was saying about eight-string guitars, the weight of the riffs on his new single “Arrest” sounding suspiciously low-tuned.
“I’m completely in the box, I produce and record, mix and master all my music. It’s such a weird process, ‘cause it takes so long and by the end of it I’m so sick of the song,” he laughs. “And I have to put myself back in the shoes of someone who’s about to listen to it for the first time.”
“This song in particular is extremely low [tuned]. It’s a whole octave below Drop D, which I call double Drop D, but apparently that’s not the right way to say it. It’s low.”
Ibanez
“You can hear, even though it is that low, there is still melody. The reason for that is the gear I used: I recently got my hands on this Ibanez M80M Meshuggah signature guitar. The reason I use this guitar is it’s exactly 29.4” in scale length, which is the length from the bridge to the nut, and basically the longer that is, the more string tension you can get and the lower tunings you can get away with.”
Keyan explains that 29.4” is more than 3” longer than most conventional six and seven strings guitar scale lengths, typically sitting between 24.75” and 25.5”.
“I think I put an .85 gauge [string] on the bottom,” Keyan laughs. “Which is thicker than I would usually go for.”
Keyan opted for a Submission Audio plugin for the bass guitar, pursuing a machine-like sound.
“I think it was DjinnBass 2,” he explains, referring to Submission Audio’s Dingwall emulation plugin. “I just really wanted that artificial character. Because the guitar is so low, all I wanted in the mix was consistency.”
Keyan continues, saying the bass guitar and guitars sit in the same octave, instead of an octave apart that’s more traditional. This helped the guitar and bass to sit together like one big tone. “That’s a thick string man, it wasn’t enjoyable to play, wasn’t enjoyable to track.” he laughs.
Live, Keyan isn’t ready to add an eight string to the arsenal just yet.
“We’ve played [Arrest] live a couple of times, and we’re just experimenting with what works best. I use the Neural DSP Quad Cortex, and luckily the down tuning function in that sounds good. Especially for a song like this, where it’s much more forgiving, I’m not playing massive chords on a clean tone. It’s big single notes with distortion.” explains Keyan.
“It even adds a character to it, the sound of the Neural pitch-shifting.”
“So right now [live] I’m using my Josh Smith Jackson signature, which is tuned to F#, so I have to go four semitones lower. I would love to take an eight string on the road, but it’s just the logistical limitations of gear.”
“Arrest” is out now, you can keep up with Keyan here.
