Prashant Aswani: Rich Murray gets the inside track on the new album

Rich Murray gets the inside track on the new album over at Guitar Channel:

RM: Many pieces on the album include multiple guitar parts layered in the background; some of which are very subtle. “11 Miles” is a good example. Talk me through how you go about writing a piece like that, and where those extra background parts come into play when you’re putting the song together.

PA: Speaking specifically with "11 Miles" - I'll have a song, and I'll have a main idea. Sometimes it will be busier initially when I write it so I'll try to simplify it as much as possible. And then I like to layer melodies on top of each other. So where I have space, I'll have a different tone from a different guitar playing a melody. It almost becomes like melody overload, with different tones and in different spots where there's space. I like to keep space, but I also like to take advantage of it to throw in something that's going to either hit the rhythm - like hit a drum or a kick - or a tabla part, in a way where it's going to accentuate that. So everything connects to something. All the guitar parts that are there, they all connect to something - whether it be the bass or the drums, or the tablas, or the hi-hat or the kick, I'll always connect it to a pattern and develop a melodic structure from there. And tones are very important - I can't use the same tone everywhere otherwise when the time comes to mix it's all going to be a muddy mess. So I've got to be real selective with how I get my tones. read the full interview