“IT WAS LIKE A GEAR NERD'S DREAM!”

Danish post-punk band Iceage recorded their new album with a wizard-like producer, an array of rare, esoteric offset guitars and an amp favoured by metal hero Zakk Wylde. Guitarist Johan Wieth reveals how this strange combination “works out perfectly”

- Jonny Scaramanga

The members of Iceage were teenagers when their debut album New Brigade, a burst of post-punk-infused hardcore, was released in 2011. “When I saw an amp I just turned everything up to full,” says guitarist Johan Wieth of his early approach. Over three subsequent albums the band’s sound has grown, smoothing rough edges and embracing melody without losing their emotional core. New release Seek Shelter takes that a stage further.

Seek Shelter is the first time Iceage have worked with a producer besides longtime collaborator Nis Bysted. On discovering Peter Kember was a fan they headed to his base in Portugal to record. Kember, better known as Sonic Boom of British psychedelic rockers Spacemen 3, was “more a wizard than a producer,” according to frontman Elias Rønnenfelt, and his influence finds Iceage treading anthemic, ecstatic ground.

As Johan recalls: “We found this old public radio studio in Lisbon, where they would do symphonies and stuff. It had this really beautiful roof, but it was very worn down so it when it rained, it was literally raining inside the studio.” In just 12 days, the band’s four longest-serving members recorded the basic tracks, but Seek Shelter was given another dimension by new recruit, guitarist Casper Fernandez, who overdubbed his parts in Copenhagen.

Johan explains: “You can’t tell Casper to play something. Well, you can and he will, but he has so much soul and spirit that he’ll make it his own. We quickly realized that was very much a part of these new songs. For me, playing with someone you’re comfortable with opens up your own playing. It makes me a better musician to play with him. You give each other space.”