{"id":749208,"date":"2026-08-25T12:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/749208\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:04:15","slug":"russian-circles-mike-sullivan-is-reinventing-his-approach-to-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/749208\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Circles\u2019 Mike Sullivan is reinventing his approach to guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Les Paul<\/a> Customs, three cabinets, 12 pedals<\/a>, 13 microphones and a bicycle. When Russian Circles<\/a> opened their U-haul truck outside of a California hotel in 2021, they found that all these things and more had been stolen from them overnight. As if that weren\u2019t calamitous enough, they were about to start the biggest tour of their lives, supporting System of a Down<\/a> and Korn<\/a> in stadiums, and were 2,100 miles away from their then-base of Chicago. The only thing that could have been worse was if someone had died.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an \u2018Oh, shit\u2019 moment, obviously,\u201d remembers guitarist Mike Sullivan<\/a>, talking to me from his home in Los Angeles. \u201cRight away, your brain goes into survival mode. We\u2019re in fucking Bumblefuck, California! Who do we know around here? How do we get their gear? How do we reach out to these people? Despite being on a huge tour at the time, there weren\u2019t many people looking to help us out in that world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The instru-metal trio took whatever they could to carry on. Chelsea Wolfe<\/a> lent Sullivan her Dunable<\/a> Gnarwahl guitar. Hiwatt<\/a>, a company they\u2019d never worked with before, let them borrow some amps<\/a>. They overcame \u2013 playing the shows, crowd-sourcing $60,000 (\u00a345,000) and getting some of their stuff back in 2024<\/a> \u2013 but the incident reinvented Sullivan\u2019s rig. Five years later, Dunable and Hiwatt are his go-to manufacturers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was desperate for anything that sounded like a Les Paul. Anything with humbuckers and a glued neck would have sufficed,\u201d he recalls. \u201cBut the Gnarwahl was such a cool-looking instrument, which sounded and felt great, and I was hooked on it. It\u2019s a fun guitar to play. You don\u2019t feel weighed down: it\u2019s so ergonomic for tapping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was blown away by how good the Hiwatt sounded,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt took pedals so well. All these pedals that I thought I needed no matter what, I started tossing them out of the pedal chain. Less is more. When your blueprint tone, your foundation, is that fucking good, then you don\u2019t need as much garbage to polish the turd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RussianImage: PressCutting The Chaff<\/p>\n

Hearing Sullivan talk about discarding pedals is like hearing Father Christmas talk about laying off elves. Since he co-founded Russian Circles in 2004, the guitarist\u2019s penchant for pedals has become a cornerstone of the band\u2019s identity. Many of their songs are centred around his loops, which help the three-man lineup, completed by drummer Dave Turncrantz and bassist Brian Cook, build bulletproof walls of noise.<\/p>\n

Their approach is so ear-grabbingly loud, and Sullivan\u2019s playing so immediately melodic, that they\u2019ve transcended the insular post-rock scene which ensnares most modern instrumental rockers. As well as Korn and System of a Down, they\u2019ve toured with Tool<\/a> and Mastodon<\/a>. Gojira<\/a>\u2019s Christian Andreu<\/a> sports their merch onstage, ex-Killswitch Engage<\/a> singer Howard Jones has touted them in interviews and Converge<\/a> guitarist Kurt Ballou<\/a> produced their four latest albums, including their brand-new ninth, aptly titled Nine. The soft-spoken Sullivan almost sounds uncomfortable with the elite company.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter doing the System of a Down\/Korn tour, I\u2019ve never been more proud to be part of the underground,\u201d he says. \u201cSome of the stories are jaw-dropping. I have a lot of good things to say about Korn. System of a Down? Next question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certain fans have talked about Nine as if it\u2019s Russian Circle\u2019s mainstream moment, pointing out the increased synths and electronics on the single Eluvial. But Sullivan only leaned further into his underground proclivities, such as on the punishing Empath and Seventh Seal. After being inspired by metal<\/a> bands Pantera<\/a> and At the Gates<\/a> for 2022\u2019s Gnosis, he went even deeper, turning to cult UK death metal luminaries Bolt Thrower.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeath metal tremolo picking can be very vocal,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s very minimal as far as melody. It\u2019s a hummable, simple melody. It\u2019s similar to black metal, where you can hold the chord shape and keep different voice lines interweaving in a cool way. You can rub an open string against a fretted string and create tension, a breathing pulse to the melodies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Unconventional Sources<\/p>\n

Sullivan\u2019s a metalhead at heart: he has a vinyl copy of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath on the table next to him and a 1981 Dean ML on his wall, in tribute to Dimebag Darrell<\/a>. To understand the essence of his guitar playing, though, you need to know about obscure math-rockers Don Caballero. Like Russian Circles, they were an instrumental three-piece whose guitarist, Ian Williams, used tapping and loops. Sullivan saw them in Chicago after moving there to study and was floored.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came from the world of [punk<\/a> legends] Fugazi<\/a>, where many people were like, \u2018Pedals? We don\u2019t need pedals! Do it with your fingers!\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cSo the first pedal I ever had that I used in a band was a looper<\/a>, and then a friend showed me, \u2018Hey, you ever mess with a delay pedal<\/a>?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Not really. Let me try it out. Oh, this is fucking awesome! Alright, what does a tremolo pedal do? Oh, reverb<\/a>\u2019s great! Oh, the volume pedal!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He admits that his approach to distortion<\/a> is pedal-first, \u201cnot out of preference, but utility\u201d: \u201cIf I had my way, I\u2019d probably draw upon a distorted amp channel and then boost it if need be. But I switch between gain stages so much. I want the decay of delay<\/a> to bleed through. If I change channels on-amp from clean to dirty, the delay trails will be bumped up to a distorted signal, and I don\u2019t want that. I want the delay to be after distortion, always.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Seeing What\u2019s Important<\/p>\n

By the 2021 robbery, his fixation had become a bit much. \u201cI had a bunch of tone sweeteners, like Klon<\/a> clones and shit, and EQ sculpting devices that I just didn\u2019t need,\u201d he laughs. \u201cToo many things were taking up space and compromising the tone.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Sullivan\u2019s setup has always revolved around the looper. Be it a Les Paul or a Gnarwahl, he uses instruments with humbucker pickups so he\u2019s not stacking layer upon layer of feedback. The Hiwatt amps have plenty of headroom so the loops don\u2019t \u201ccollapse\u201d. Unfortunately, other drawbacks can\u2019t be circumvented. Mistimed loops force drummer Turncrantz to adjust or improvise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all on me if it fucks up,\u201d the guitarist admits. \u201cIt\u2019s more about, do I know how to cheat to get the loop or the phrase sampled? If a loop\u2019s awful, I\u2019ll find a way to bury it and do some work-around.\u201d<\/p>\n

While making Nine, Sullivan was in his element. He recorded guitars at Ballou\u2019s own studio God City in Salem, Massachusetts, where he experimented with so many models and bits of gear that he can\u2019t remember what was used where. What he can say for certain is that he wrote some of the album with his favourite guitar, the 1985 Les Paul Custom that was stolen in 2021 then returned to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Les Pauls are a little bit different, and that one looks like it saw action in the Civil War,\u201d he grins. \u201cIt\u2019s falling apart, there are stress cracks everywhere, but it\u2019s the most resonant guitar I\u2019ve ever played. It just shakes for you and you can really feel it respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also dabbled in a variety of tunings. \u201cI\u2019ve always hovered around DADGAD tunings or that relative setup. The lowest [on this album] is DADGAD but tuned down to A. Other ones are that same shape of DADGAD but in B.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Get Low<\/p>\n

Across Russian Circles\u2019 career, as the guitar influences have grown heavier, the tunings have got lower. Although Sullivan\u2019s always imbued his riffs with a Sabbath<\/a>-esque sludge, the early albums were much higher, in D or C-sharp. It\u2019s a bit of a pickle for a man who tells me \u201cI don\u2019t like changing guitars during a set\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s enough changing pedals and settings, so to change guitars and all that takes so much time, and I end up getting gum in my hair or something like that while I\u2019m doing it,\u201d he elaborates. \u201cIt\u2019s a fucking trainwreck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then why do you use so many different guitars and tunings in the studio?!<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I fuck myself over at every opportunity. If you only knew. If there\u2019s a fork in the road, I seem to always take the more difficult route.\u201d<\/p>\n

He may self-deprecate, but the more difficult route clearly pays off. You don\u2019t get to support Korn and System of a Down by not knowing what you\u2019re doing. As our conversation turns towards the future, Sullivan tips his hat to Mastodon for gradually getting bigger without compromising their musical vision. Given he\u2019s still attached to his extreme metal and math-rock touchstones, even after getting a taste of stadiums, surely he wants the same thing?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it happens, that\u2019d be awesome, and I\u2019d be happy to go that course our own way,\u201d he answers. \u201cBut we\u2019re proud to be on an independent label. I\u2019ve had endorsees turn me down because we\u2019re not on late-night talk shows and tell me I\u2019m \u2018not pushing the brand hard enough\u2019. We\u2019re not going to be on a late-night talk show, and if we are, I don\u2019t want that to matter if I get an endorsement or not. I\u2019m fortunate that I have the ability to play, I get to play and people care enough to hear our records. That\u2019s a good spot to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nine is out on 28 August via Sargent House.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Les Paul Customs, three cabinets, 12 pedals, 13 microphones and a bicycle. When Russian Circles opened their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10240,96,5204,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-749208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-artist","tag-entertainment","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}