A last-minute booking for the ArcTanGent festival in 2013 was a turning point for Brighton three-piece Poly-Math. Only six months into the band’s existence, having started out as a side-project from guitarist Tim Walters’ then-main band Monsters Build Mean Robots, and with no real recorded material under their belts, the call from the world’s primary post- and math-rock festival was a surprising one.
“We were lucky to be asked to fill in at ArcTanGent, we’d barely released a thing at the time,” Walters tellsG&B。“这表明我们向前推动了我们，我们最终播放了一个完全包装的帐篷，卖掉商品。从那时起，我们更认真地处理乐队。该乐队在那段时间内发展了很多，并非最不重要是因为我们对购买新装备的不健康成瘾。此时，我们可能比平均五件式游览更多的装备。“
Poly-Math have a mini-album, entitledMelencolia, set for release on April 8. Recorded in just four days, it’s a piece of work inspired by other forms of art.
“我们的配方是独一无二的，我们在动作中而不是歌曲，”沃尔特斯说。“随着我们的乐器，没有声乐元素引导我们音乐的情绪或意义，我们倾向于选择主题并通过该主题决定进步。为了Melencolia,we’ve titled and based the mood of each track on an artist and their work. We focused on three lithographs by Albrecht Dürer. It’s nice to have something to focus on that can guide you through the writing process – being instrumental can be a little directionless otherwise.
“We recorded at Brighton Electric Studios over four days and had the album produced back in Ireland at Start Together Studio. The whole process involved more guitar tracks, effect pedals, amp heads and tying guitars to kick drums than I’ve experienced in my life. I don’t think we could be happier with the result.”
Despite their post-rock associations, Walters sees Poly-Math as being influenced more by 70s prog acts than typical bands from the former genre.
“我不认为我们曾经认为自己像岩石后那样，”他说。“我们的影响非常接地，70年代的渐进式摇滚运动。乐队像King Crimson一样，是的，骆驼和大篷车可能是我们方向的最沉重的影响，而且显然火星Volta在向我们和我们的一代引入这方面发挥了重要作用。“
Walters’ gear journey has been guided by the fact that he’s a left-handed player using right-handed guitars. “My dad was a left-handed guitarist who strung upside-down,” he says. “I think I just took guitar up in that fashion because it was how he played. I play my dad’s custom-built 60s Burns Duo-Sonic, which is left-handed but strung upside-down, and I’ve played a few left-handed Japanese Fender Telecasters with the same reverse-strung bridge. I think it encourages a more unusual approach, and I tune quite differently – often E standard with the bass string dropped to a low B, or in Fripp’s new standard 5ths tuning.
“作为颠倒的左撇子，我受到Hendrix的大规模影响;他所做的一切都是开创性的，他不断寻求重新发明吉他的声音。事实上，我的三个最大的影响是左撇子球员。罗伯特弗莱普，右手扮演，但左撇子，也是一个巨大的影响力 - 我喜欢他尴尬的阳性锯齿状的矛盾。
“Jonny Greenwood was a huge inspiration, he taught me all the tricks of atonality, and really got me started down this path. Omar Rodriguez-López is probably the most interesting guitarist I’ve ever heard. He tries to make his guitar sound as little like a guitar as possible. I loved that ethic, and I think it’s probably led to the 25-plus pedalboard that I now lug around.”
Walters’ current setup is a complicated one: “I’m playing an early-80s Japanese ’62 reissue bound Fender Telecaster, one of the early empress wood models,” he explains. “I use a double-amp setup; one for my standard sound and one for a high-gain sub-octave, which I punch in and out with an ABY.
“主放大器是一个旧的橙色摇杆30跑到橙色ppc212，子放大器是一个非常罕见的气垫船Dwarvenaut 25在绿色ottex中进入另一个橙色ppc212。从那里，我有两个单独的踏板链;Dwarvenaut只是将Digitech下降直接进入前端。橙色接收了我的其余部分的大部分，这对我来说有太多的踏板来列表：一些俯仰轮换器，分像师，延迟，振动和驱动器。可能最有趣的是多驾车;一个踏板，我们在布莱顿中与第三眼踏板共同设计，专门用于我们的声音。我董事会最好的新加入是新老板Waza Craft模拟延迟。“
装备：多数学
•Guitars日本'62 Recissue Bound Fender Telecaster，60岁烧了Duo-Sonic
•Pedals各种俯仰换档器，分像师，延迟，颤音和驱动器，包括Digitech Drop，第三只眼踏板多驱动器和Boss Waza Craft模拟延迟
•Amplifiers橙色摇臂30，橙色ppc212，气垫船矮人25
Check out this video of Poly-Math in the studio recording their new mini-album,Melencolia。