Pteroglyph: Learning To Let Go

The UK’s metal scene is bursting with phenomenally talented musicians who are all vying for the coveted festival performances to help bring their music to wider audiences and climb up that illustrious ladder to bigger and better opportunities. Leeds-based trio PTEROGLYPH have already been blessed with performances at Bloodstock Festival and UK Tech-Fest but are trying not to concern themselves too much with raising their status and focus more on just having fun.

“Ansley [guitarist] and Brady [drummer] came along in the band and we just spent the best part of two years touring and playing as much as we possibly could and just getting really tight as a unit,” discusses frontman and founding member Jimmy MacGregor. “We didn’t really worry about trying to achieve any sort of goal, we just wanted to have fun while doing it. We weren’t fussed about any success, we just wanted to enjoy ourselves and have a good time being in a band rather than stressing about it all.”

2017’s Death Of A Prince release opened up a lot of doors for the band with its experimental and progressive nature but for their impending release and follow up entitled Solaire, Jimmy felt it more appropriate this time round to streamline his approach and focus more on creating heavy, hard hitting material that would leave a definitive lasting impression. “I’m still writing all the material but I’ve just totally stripped everything back. A lot of the old stuff I kind of layered up loads of different things like pianos, atmospherics and all kinds of nonsense so I just decided ‘right, back to basics and just writing fat riffs’. We also wanted to go with a similar vibe and strip all the videos back too and just have footage of us playing without any of the fluff and bullshit whereas what I used to do was fill it up with loads of layers and different samples and all kinds of things.”

“We’re classed as a tech metal band but we kind of wanted to write aggressive, pissed off songs which don’t sound too technical. We love MESHUGGAH and GOJIRA but wanted to focus more on the songs flowing well and complimenting each other. Traditional song-writing with big choruses with a tech kind of vibe to it. Solaire was a means for me to get away from this project becoming too personal as initially, the songs were coming from a self absorbed kind of perspective about my feelings so I wanted to completely disassociate from that so I can enjoy playing music again and just have a good time. This time round I focused on a loose concept of a post apocalyptic world about the end of times and going through the stages of a global disaster. It’s pretty much about being miserable and dying! I wrote the song Black Death ages ago about a plague that ravages humanity and kills everyone and then look what happens, what a time to bring that out!”

Jimmy has poured copious amounts of blood, sweat and tears into PTEROGLYPH to get the project to the stage it is in today but as he has matured as an artist he has learned that adopting a more conservative approach has benefited him greatly when it comes to his song-writing. “It’s really weird as at times I will sit down and try and focus really hard and push myself to write something and it will sound shit but there are other times where I’ve just sat down and things have flown really naturally and came together very easily. It’s almost like the less I try the better it becomes. If I get a vibe I just roll with it and as soon as I try to make something happen it just stops being good and doesn’t work. I have a habit with songs that if I’m not feeling the end product I just bin them off entirely. People spend too much time trying to engineer songs and make them work. If they don’t feel right then just get rid of them. I get bored really quickly so if it doesn’t work it’s gone. Do better, try harder!”

As well as being the main orchestrator for PTEROGLYPH, Jimmy also handled the reins on the recording and mixing of previous releases and as time progressed he learned this was putting an unnecessary strain on himself and his creative process. This time round he decided to take the plunge and enlist the services of external experts to give him a nudge in the right direction.

“It was the best thing I ever did. With previous releases I really wanted to do the recording and mixing myself but it turns out I don’t really know what I’m doing. Brady recorded the drums at Greenmount Studios in Leeds and they mixed it. I know they do a good job and that took a load of pressure off me and made it an easier and more enjoyable experience for me. I still recorded all the guitars, vocals and bass myself but I gave them all the files and let them deal with it. With Death Of A Prince I just about drove myself insane with it and personally I feel like I overcooked it as I kept going over and over it and when you’re mixing you kind of need a set of fresh ears involved. That’s what I realised this time round. The importance of having a new perspective makes a huge difference. This whole journey has been about learning to have more confidence in myself and my music by letting go of it rather than trying to strangle my art.”

Solaire is out now via Blood Blast.

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