Peace Love Productions - got loops?

Being Dethklok: Metalocalypse Co-Creator Brendon Small (Part One)

January 24, 2007
An interview with Brendon Small, co-creator of Cartoon Network's Metalocalypse
Brendon Small is one of the creators of Adult Swim's Metalocalypse. The animated series has a rabid following of fans, obsessed with the epic-but-goofy misadventures of "the most popular band in the world." said Brendon Small, "An extreme death metal band. It's about our love for metal, combined with a bizarre comic book atmosphere. At its core the show is about celebrity-ism, and the kinds of people we look up to, and could possibly be dangerous."

A goood portion of Small's work on Metalocalypse is writing and recording all the music for the show's fictional metal outfit, Dethklok. In Metalocalypse, the band is a five-piece; in reality, Small is Dethklok, doing all the parts himself on very tight deadlines. "The reason the show is what it is is because we didn't need that many people to do the show, the music..." According to Small, bringing a full-size band into the mix would be counter-productive, and too expensive.

"The whole thing about the gear that I use is that I can write and record as quickly as possible. It's just me, it's not exciting at all. I have a dog there!" (In the studio)."

The challenge of Metalocalypse is composing new, original music on a regular basis. For composers like Small, pressure drives performance.

"It's funny, I don't think I can do anything unless I have a deadline. Every show promises a new song, and there's a score on top of it, themes and songs and little cues. Sometimes I'll write 17 to 20 cues of music that have nothing to do with metal."

How does he come up with new, innovative ideas "on-demand"? Having the right recording gear is a good start, but good composers also rely on a set of mental tools.

"I interned at jingle houses when I was getting started, and it was fun watching these guys come up with music on the spot and have to bid for jobs. . . each one of these writers, I noticed, had a little bag of tricks. They had a certain chord grouping that they liked. I would pick out things that I liked, little chord changes that I could use. I developed my own for Dethklok, and it's very simple. The best thing you can have is that bag of tricks. I feel I can write things pretty quickly.

Even with the bag of tricks, there are plenty of technical issues to overcome. One challenge of the production is creating the appropriate metal drum sound; Small prefers Reason to get the job done. The use of sequenced drum tracks may bring scorn from metal purists who believe that a "real" band playing heavy music should stick to using a real drummer, but Small's recordings are convincing enough to bring Dethklock to life every week.

"I use Re-Drum on Reason, and use a Rock Kit Five and EQ the double kick to make sure they are very 'present,' then use the reverb, then go straight into Pro Tools from there," he said. "It's funny, the way a lot of Metal drums are EQed, they take a lot of low-end out, and a lot of people are using MIDI triggers live and they sound exactly like some of the drum samples in Reason."

"So it's funny sometimes, real drums are trying to sound like fake drums in some way. Plus the samples in Reason are very good. The only reason I'm using these drums now is that we couldn't lock down a drummer in a kit every week."

For guitars, Small chose the Line 6 Floor Pod, but he sometimes prefers to run signal into a Krank cabinet. He says he doesn't rely on compression or a large collection of plug-ins. "I do a very simple thing for every song. I track two or three guitars on every song, hard left, hard right, and then sometimes one right down the middle. I'm tuned down to a C tuning, so it's very simple."

With each episode's work contributing to an ever-growing collection of songs, could an actual album by the fictional band be forthcoming? Small admits a Dethklok disc is definitely in the front of his mind. "With all the recording that I'm doing, I consider these songs demos for an album that will hopefully come out sooner or later for the show, which will be recorded much better than what I'm doing now."

Will the "real" Dethklok become as wildly famous as the current version? It's impossible to predict, since the notion of a Dethklok tour is practically out of the question. Small says the amount of time and energy needed to do that, combined with the demands of the TV show, would just about do him in. While the option of a "cartoon tour" similar to the one pulled off by Gorillaz is a possibility, who knows? In the meantime, Metalocalypse was recently renewed for a second season; Brendon Small has plenty of work cut out for him.

Dethklock graphic TM & (c) 2006 Cartoon Network. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

More information is at Adult Swim's Metalocalypse website.


Yamaha GL1 Guitalele Ukulele / Guitar And Yamaha FGX700SC Acoustic-Electric Guitar Released
Taylor Guitars Koa Ukulele And Grand Symphony Set: A Matched Pair
PRS Guitars SE Angelus Standard Model Guitars Get Pickups
Reverend Guitars Eastsider, Reverend Guitars Fifteenth Anniversary Flatroc, Reverend Guitars Sensei RA Guitars
Krank Revolution 1 Is A Healthy Part Of The Everkrunch Lineup In Kylesa
Krank Krankenstein -- The Amp That Complements The Dean Dimebag Darrell Razorback
Krank Rev Jr. Pro: Vertically, Not Tonally-Challenged
Gibson Les Paul Studio, Krankenstein Cabinet 100 Watt Head And Series One Cabinet -- the Gear Of The Friendship Trust
Line 6 StageScape M20D: New Digital Mixer For Live Sound
Line 6 Mobile Keys 25 And Line 6 Mobile Keys 49: New Keyboard Controllers Introduced
Line 6 Mobile IN Digital Guitar Interface And Line 6 Mobile POD App Released For Mobile Musicians
Line 6 DT25 Now Shipping: New Line Of Tube Amplifiers For Guitarists
Roland Space Echo An Integral Part Of Meredith Bragg's Music
Oliver Ditson Italian-Style Mandolin And Singer Songwriter, Mike Bloom
Pearlman TM-1 Microphone And Singer Songwriter Mike Bloom
Boomerang Phrase Sampler And Blackfire Revelation's J.R. Fields
DC Voltage P3 Signature Series David Barber Overdrive Pedal Introduced
Blackstar Amplification HT Metal / Pure Valve Filth Pedal Intro'd
DigiTech IStomp Effects Pedal Into'd For IOS-Using Guitarists
Visual Sound Tap Delay, Visual Sound Time Bandit, Visual Sound Pure Tone Buffer Effect Pedals Introduced
Origin Convergence: 6-String And 7-String Shred Guitars Introduced
PRS Guitars Limited-Edition PRS Artist Model Guitars Updated For 2012: New SE Dave Navarro, Revamped SE Orianthi And More
PRS Guitars Custom 24 Model Updated With Contoured Pickup Bobbins
PRS Guitars P22: A 22-Fret Piezo Electric
Daring Audio Edge Activator HD Pedal Announced
Boss GT-100 Amp Effects Processor Features New Boss DSP Engine
Korg Mini Kaoss Pad 2: Handheld Processor Debuts
Source Audio Multiwave Distortions And Source Audio Dimension Reverb Intro'd For SoundBlox 2 Series
Steinberg CI2+ Production Kit: CI2+, Cubase AI 6, Plus WaveLab LE 7
CyberStep KDJ-ONE: DAW Touchscreen Smartbook, At Your Fingertips
Hartke HA3000 Gets The Right Tone For Vonnegutt Bassist, Patrick Postlewait
M-Audio Avid Recording Studio: Pro Tools SE Plus Fast Track Audio Interface
Bluenoise Plugins The Upright: New Software Piano Released
EastWest Quantum Leap Solo Violin Sample Library Released
HG Fortune The Tiger: Virtual Synth Plugin Released
Sound Magic Piano Thor Virtual Instrument Introduced
printer friendly version

respond this topic

By: personal loans (not verified)

I had got a dream to make my firm, nevertheless I did not have got enough amount of cash to do that. Thank God my mate advised to utilize the business loans. Thence I used the sba loan and made real my old dream.

Mon, 2011-08-22 03:17

I read this information with

By: Thesis Paper Writing (not verified)

I read this information with great pleasure. Thanks for such nice post!

Wed, 2011-11-02 02:29

What I gained from reading

By: cell phone lookup (not verified)

What I gained from reading this post will benefit not just me, but also those for whom I have affection for many months. This is what I'm saying.

Thu, 2012-01-26 12:40

respond

By: Ivy21Watts (not verified)

Essays writing corporations will advice the ideas as this topic and people guess that should be no problem to buy term papers or if you want to buy essays just about that thing!

Mon, 2011-08-29 16:33

Free international calls

By: Free international calls (not verified)

I wonder how you got so good. This is really a fascinating blog, lots of stuff that I can Get into. One thing I just want to say is that your Blog is so perfect!

Wed, 2011-12-28 07:23

answer

By: essay paper (not verified)

Have writing an essay assignment and don’t know the correct way to move? Don’t worry, because the order an essay service could assist you with your papers for sale very abruptly. Hence why not to use it?

Tue, 2011-08-30 09:56

re

By: online essays (not verified)

Only strong people are able to complete perfect essays term papers and the essays writers, which work for custom writing service would do it.

Thu, 2011-09-01 03:36

respond this topic

By: buy custom essay papers (not verified)

Perfect way to get some more information about this good topic, is to buy an essay and custom written essay.

Thu, 2011-09-01 03:36

respond

By: blog posting services (not verified)

Do you think that is extra expensive to use blog posting service? However, it will be more expensive if you make your SEO work yourself!

Mon, 2011-09-05 20:52

reply this post

By: buy thesis (not verified)

I know that you have done difficult search, creating your great tought referring to this post. Thus, this kind of work students perform composing the thesis and dissertation idea searching.

Mon, 2011-09-12 10:52

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • No HTML tags allowed
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Please type in the lowercase letters that are shown in the image above.
I need awesome gear... I'd like a free gear catalog!
My opinion is awesome. I'd like to take a gear survey