Metal Anarchy

During an interview with Bandcamp, Neurosis discussed their decision to recruit Aaron Turner (SUMAC, Old Man Gloom, Isis, etc.) as their new guitarist/vocalist. According to guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till, the idea “seemed so obvious.”

Von Till said the following:

“We were thinking about how we could reinvent ourselves with the same energy that we reinvented ourselves with when I first joined, when we went from ‘The Word As Law‘ [1990] to ‘Souls At Zero‘ [1992]. But we’re no longer young men. What kind of puzzles could we put in front of us to create that level of reinvention when time doesn’t move the same way it used to? It came down to finding the right energy.

Honestly, the only hesitation about Aaron at first was that it seemed so obvious. And we weren’t convinced that he wasn’t too busy with his own work to just want to drop everything and join our dysfunctional old man band.”

Turner also commented:

“It’s not like Steve and I had never spoken, and he all of a sudden asked me to join. Our paths became interwoven a long time ago. Numerous projects of mine released stuff on [Neurosis’s label] Neurot. I did some artwork for Neurosis. Neurosis took my old band [ISIS] on tour. I don’t know if Steve remembers this, but in the early 2000s, he proposed that I come up to the Bay Area and do some stuff with him and one of the guys from Enablers.

This is a relationship of community where everybody is doing stuff with each other constantly, and there are always ideas flowing back and forth. In that way, it wasn’t surprising to me. I’d had an open dialogue with Steve for many years. At the same time, it was definitely a what-the-fuck moment for me because this is a band that I had been deeply influenced by in many ways, both musically and ideologically.”

Von Till continued when asked if they wanted someone who can contribute new ideas:

“We’ve always been a collective, and we need the energy. As much as people may think they understand what happens behind the scenes in certain bands, Neurosis has always been collaborative. This album being a reinvention, we didn’t want the same old shit. We wanted somebody to come up with new ideas and a fresh approach—to make not only the old stuff their own, but to bring new stuff. All “Neur-Isis” jokes aside, it’s really been what Aaron has done with SUMAC, the really unhinged sonic dynamics and mastery of raw emotion, and his unique approach to guitar, that we felt was really going to click with our energy.”