At “Sweaty” Sayreville New Jersey, outside Starland Ballroom, Ryan and Jake from AMS are setting levels, the band is warming up, and within minutes we’re deep into one of the most BTBAM stories imaginable.
When you catch up with Between the Buried and Me, you’re going to get stories that zigzag as wildly as their music. Case in point: before we even got to the gear talk, we were knee-deep in a tale about a hotel shower gone so wrong! It’s chaotic, it’s funny, and it’s exactly the blend of absurdity and resilience that seems to follow this band around.
A Clean Smash
“I’m in there, done with my shower, and the door will not open,” one band member laughs. “I start slamming it, panic sets in, I’m butt-naked thinking I’m gonna have to smash through the glass.” Eventually, brute force won out, the shower door came off its hinges, and the story instantly became BTBAM tour lore.
Once the laughter settled, the conversation shifted to music and the new album, The Blue Nowhere. And if you thought the chaos stayed in the hotel bathroom, you haven’t heard their creative process.
Building Worlds, One Strange Spark at a Time
The band is quick to admit that their inspiration isn’t what you’d expect. Morning playlists are more likely to be sports podcasts than metal. At home, it might be Shrek: The Musical on repeat thanks to a daughter’s theater class. And yes those Broadway polyrhythms and Looney Tunes scores have a way of sneaking into the BTBAM DNA.
“There’s some influence on this record too,” they say. “Old cartoon composers like Carl Stalling there’s a lot of cartoony stuff happening.” It just becomes part of the palette.
That palette has grown more intricate in recent years. The band talks about obsessing over “ear candy”: tiny details tucked into the mix that reward deep listening. Percussive sparkles, synth layers, hidden textures, little pieces you might not notice until your third listen on headphones.
Pre-Production Over Perfectionism
BTBAM doesn’t walk into a studio and “see what happens.” They arrive with the record essentially built, thanks to heavy pre-production where every riff and transition is tested, rearranged, and molded. “Once we go in, it’s all about takes and fine-tuning,” they explain.
Sometimes a single riff will shift tempos and morph until it glues two songs together. Other times, producer Jamie King steps in with that first fresh set of ears, nudging arrangements longer, tighter, or weirder. Then Jens Bogren takes over in the mix, reamping guitars and making tough calls.Yes,even cutting harmonies that took “150 takes” if the song breathes better without them.
“More is more,” they joke. “You can always take away, but you’ve got to try everything first.”
The Gear That Shapes the Madness
For a band this adventurous, the gear list is as eclectic as the tracklist. Drummer Blake keeps two worlds: thinner Sabian cymbals and lower tuned Tama kits in the studio, then tighter live setups for consistency on the road.
Bass runs through a Spector and a trusty Sunn 300T in the studio, while live rigs lean on modelers and in-ears.
Guitars were tracked through Kemper profiles: Mesa Rectifier for rhymes, Friedman for leads, Port City for cleans. On top of that, signature Ibanez guitars handle most of the heavy lifting, while fan fret acoustics and a Takamine 12 string add surprising textures.
And then there’s the color: Gold Tone resonators, banjitars, and dobros sneak into arrangements, sometimes just to deliver one quirky thud. “Can you djent on a dobro? You can try.”
Keys and synths are equally essential. Much of The Blue Nowhere was sparked on a Korg Nautilus, giving ideas a direct path from writing to the stage. Layer in some Arturia analog emulations like Prophet, Juno, and Jupiter, and suddenly you’re in a different headspace.
“Gear makes you play differently,” they explain. “Sometimes you pick up a Tele, sometimes an eight-string, and what comes out is completely different.”
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Guitars were tracked through Kemper profiles: Mesa Rectifier for rhymes, Friedman for leads, Port City for cleans. On top of that, signature Ibanez guitars handle most of the heavy lifting, while fan fret acoustics and a Takamine 12 string add surprising textures.
And then there’s the color: Gold Tone resonators, banjitars, and dobros sneak into arrangements, sometimes just to deliver one quirky thud. “Can you djent on a dobro? You can try.”
Keys and synths are equally essential. Much of The Blue Nowhere was sparked on a Korg Nautilus, giving ideas a direct path from writing to the stage. Layer in some Arturia analog emulations like Prophet, Juno, and Jupiter, and suddenly you’re in a different headspace.
“Gear makes you play differently,” they explain. “Sometimes you pick up a Tele, sometimes an eight-string, and what comes out is completely different.”
What “Heavy” Really Means
Despite all the experimentation, BTBAM insists the “core heaviness” is still there. It’s just not always about distortion. “Heaviness can be a melody, it can be lyrics. Sometimes the heaviest song in the world is ‘I Am the Walrus.’ It’s about what hits you.”
That philosophy has carried them through 25 years of writing and touring, Fans don’t expect them to repeat themselves; they expect the opposite. And that freedom is something the band doesn’t take lightly.
“We’re so lucky we have fans that want us to go hog wild,” they say. “A lot of bands don’t have that luxury. For us, the expectation is that it’s going to get weird and that’s exciting.”
The Ride Continues
From shower-door battles to orchestral woodwinds, from crunchy riffs to lush synth layers, Between the Buried and Me thrives on surprise. They’ll be the first to tell you: they challenge themselves first. If it excites them, it usually finds its way to the record. And somehow their audience stays right there with them, ready for the next twist.
Big thanks to our friends at Ibanez, Korg, Spector, and Tama for getting us with Between the Buried and Me. If you want to craft your own “ear candy” explore the same tools BTBAM uses at AmericanMusical.com and see where your weird spark leads. And don’t forget to subscribe to the AMS YouTube Channel for more amazing content just like this.
