Welcome to a feature where we sit down and talk to bands and artists about their latest albums to find out all about it. Today we speak to Assemblage 23 to find out about the album Null.

 Hello nice to meet you, tell us about yourself!

My name is Tom Shear. I live outside Boston, Massachusetts and I’ve been making music for the past 25+ years as Assemblage 23.

Tell us about the new album

I really poured my heart into making this album the best that I could. Instead of doing an expanded, deluxe edition of the album, I just wanted to put everything I had into ten tracks to make them the best I possibly could. I’m really happy with how it turned out, and the critical reception so far has been far above what I ever could’ve expected.

Favourite track in new album and why?

Not copping out, but I really can’t choose one. I spent so much time working on each one. They’re like my kids.

Tell us a bit about the recording process, was it fun to do?

Yes! The studio is really my happy place. This was the first A23 album I’d written and recorded into the new place my family moved into a few years back and I finally had a large enough studio space to wire up all my hardware. We lived in a very small apartment before that and I only had room for a couple pieces. So getting back to working with and recording “real” synths was a lot of fun. Generally, I record tracks as I am going along. I find that the sooner I commit to things, the better off I am in terms of finishing stuff in a reasonable time. This new studio space also has panelling on the walls that makes it amazing for recording vocals. No treatment needed, it just sounds good as is.

What inspired the album name?

I like the concept of “zero” or “nothing” because it can represent both a beginning and an end. Seems like a good concept for a 10th album.

 Tell us the idea behind the album cover?

It’s a conceptual image of a black hole. I thought it was a good representation of the title.

What one of your songs on the new album do you think will the most difficult to rehearse for a live audience?

I wouldn’t say any of the songs are particularly difficult for me vocally. I experimented a bunch with recording the tracks in different keys until I found the ones where my voice sounded best. “Waited” is definitely sung in a higher range than I normally do, but it’s still within my comfortable range. Not sure if we’ll ever do “Lunatics”, but the verses on that are pretty rapid fire. Could definitely run out of breath live, but we’ll see!

Why should people listen to the album?

I think it’s a solid collection of songs that feels pretty matched to the times. The whole world feels like it’s gone mad, and these songs are just kind of a snapshot of that and the process we all go through in trying to make sense of it.

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