#188: ALL THE DAMN VAMPIRES | Davey Oberlin: What Makes an '80s Synthwave Cover Truly Authentic?

What happens when a keyboard player for Korn and Five Finger Death Punch dives headfirst into the neon-soaked synthwave world? Davey Oberlin joins Marc Matthews to reveal how he transforms classic rock anthems into synthwave masterpieces through his project, All The Damn Vampires.

Davey breaks down his cover of Whitesnake's Is This Love, uncovering the creative process behind reinterpreting rock songs in a different musical style. From drop F guitar tunings that create wall-shaking heaviness to vocal production techniques that achieve 80s aesthetics in modern synthwave production, every decision is made with precision. "I picture that dark studio vocal booth in the '80s," Davey explains, "then try to get the sound that matches the vibe."

The conversation explores using vintage effects in synthwave production and the unique challenges of blending organic and electronic elements. Davey introduces “Vice Core,” his signature fusion of Miami Vice aesthetics, yacht rock sensibilities, and metal intensity—creating an entirely new sonic experience. He also shares insights into how audiences react to synthwave covers of rock classics, balancing nostalgia with innovation.

What You’ll Learn:

• Arrangement strategies for synthwave compositions that retain the emotional impact of rock originals
• Mixing and mastering techniques for synthwave tracks that balance analog warmth with modern polish
• Why so many metal musicians transition into synthwave and how the two genres overlap
• How to reinterpret rock songs while preserving their essence and avoiding common pitfalls
• The role of quad-tracking rhythm guitars in creating a massive yet controlled sound
• The importance of visual storytelling in synthwave production and its impact on sonic choices

Whether you're a producer experimenting with how to cover a rock song, a guitarist exploring electronic textures, or simply fascinated by the evolution of synthwave, Davey delivers an inspiring look at reinvention, collaboration, and pushing creative boundaries.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Follow Davey Oberlin

Follow All The Damn Vampires

Valhalla Vintage Verb

Nuro Audio Xvox

Fab Pro R 2

Chapters

• 0:48 Introducing Davey and his Synthwave Approach
• 3:58 From Metal to Synthwave: Musical Evolution
• 9:05 Breaking Down the Cover Process
• 13:37 Vocal Production Techniques
• 19:18 Working with Andy James on Guitar
• 26:53 Quantization and Rhythm in Synthwave

Transcript

Davey Oberlin: 0:22

Again, like for that vocal, I just wanted it to kind of have that air like where you picture that dark studio vocal booth in the 80s. You know, like that was really. The approach was like a visual first and then, you know, trying to get the sound that matches the vibe You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, mark Matthews.

Marc Matthews: 0:44

Welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for music creation and production. Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills, join me each week for expert interviews, practical tutorials and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry. Let's dive in. Hey folks, welcome to Inside the Mix. Today, we're diving into how to transform a classic rock song into a synthwave masterpiece, and who better to guide us than Davey Oberlin, the mastermind behind all the damn vampires? Davey, how are you, buddy? Thank you for joining me. Great Thanks for having me. Fantastic. So I've been looking forward to this, and I should have said this off air, but I'm on the other side of a sore throat, so my voice might break slightly at times, so my apologies.

Davey Oberlin: 1:33

You and me both, I've been fighting a cold.

Marc Matthews: 1:35

Have you. Yeah, same man, same Every time. I think I'm getting over it. Then I try and do something, some sort of content like this, and my voice just gives out. But hopefully, fingers crossed, we're on the same page. So by the end of this there would just be no audio whatsoever and either of us, they wouldn't talk. Fantastic.

Marc Matthews: 1:57

So for the audience listening who might not be familiar with davey and all the damn vampires, he's had a quite impressive career, from playing keyboard for five finger death punch and corn to I love that straight away to crafting cinematic synth-heavy music that's captivated fans worldwide. He's no stranger to reinterpreting iconic sounds and today he's going to share his process for covering classic rock songs in a synthwave style. Now, before we went live with this, I was just saying that I've always been a listener of your, your work and whatnot, but then I heard the the white snake cover of is this love, which, for anyone who knows me, it's probably one of my favorite songs, and I was like man, gotta get this guy on the podcast to chat about this, because it's uh, it's a belt or of a tune, um, to begin with. And and the synth wave cover to boot as well. So really excited for this man, really excited.

Marc Matthews: 2:44

Thank you, this is awesome, yeah, so in this episode you'll learn step by step how to approach covering a classic rock song. Where to start sound design, some vocal instrumentation and some production and mixing techniques. So I think the straight away I think to to begin with, uh, breaking down the process you covered, is this love, what drew you to want to do a sort of synth wave with guitar-esque sort of cover of this song?

Davey Oberlin: 3:11

it actually started um I.

Davey Oberlin: 3:13

I covered the song toy soldiers by martika and uh and I what I wanted to do was take, like you know that, just the vibe and the, the synths and the melodies, and I wanted to add, you know things that I like like heavier guitar. So in that song I'm using a guitar that's tuned to like drop a, so it's like super heavy but it's still palatable. The vocals are still true to the original. Um, I kind of wanted to like take the classic and have it meet modern. I'm a big typo negative fan.

Davey Oberlin: 3:43

That's one of my favorite bands, so there's a little bit of Typo Negative in everything I do with all the damn vampires and some people either know or they don't. But that was kind of where it kicked off and I'm like I want to keep introducing the heavier guitar to this stuff and still pay homage to music from a time that fits visuals so well. Like some of the Miami Vice stuff. I love all that blood sport, like how the music accompanies the visuals. So I was like how do I take that, produce it modern and then add, like these heavier guitars so that when I do it live it's like even more exciting? Um, and we could, you know, do shows with like corn or five finger, some of the bands that I played with. Like I want to fit within the same world and still honor, like my synth wave, you know, roots with all that typo negative as soon as you say I'm a massive, massive typo fan and it's.

Marc Matthews: 4:31

I'm so good I never got to see them live. Uh and yeah, I, I would have loved to, man, and there's, there's that, there's a performance of typo. I'm going off on a tangent here that I watch probably once a week I think I do too. Yeah, there's one shot with anesthesia as it pans across the crowd at like dusk and I'm like this is incredible. So Drop A as well. I mean, I was in a band and we played in Drop B yeah, but Drop A. What sort of strings are you using for Drop?

Davey Oberlin: 5:05

A man, I don't know, they're like just shy of bass strings. Is this love? Is drop f? So? But I'm actually using a, uh, a pedal that tunes it down, because during the clean guitar parts I'm playing in standard and then, uh, the guitar itself is that I've got right here is tuned to drop a, and then I hit that pedal and bring it down to drop f, so it's like super heavy. I mean by all standards it should be like a hardcore song, you know, but it doesn't. It doesn't come off like that. It still comes off like is this love? But you know it's easy to miss, like nobody's, like sitting there going oh dang, like you know. Yeah, so that's one of my favorite songs and, uh, maybe I shouldn't spill the beans too. I'll save it for later on why I got around to what that's going into for the body of work.

Marc Matthews: 5:49

But yeah, yeah, so of course, so is that are you. You say you go, you've got the pedal, then go to drop f. Is that happening in the chorus? Is that right? Yeah?

Davey Oberlin: 5:58

exactly as soon as that didn't, didn't, didn't? That's all like coming into drop f, which is it's a little bit of a mental uh mix up, because you know, you got to reposition yourself on the neck for drop f so differently so if I forgot to hit that pedal or something it would just sound so off, you know. And then I got to kick that off again for, like, even the guitar solo. Before I had andy james on it, I was doing the guitar solo, just playing basically the original solo and, um, the clean parts. You know, it's all like back to standard.

Marc Matthews: 6:28

That's impressive. That's that's. That is a low tuning, Really low. I can kind of see why, though, because when you say that you want it to be able to sort of share the stage with the bands that you've mentioned, you kind of you need that, don't you? You need that sort of sound.

Davey Oberlin: 6:45

Yeah, Compliment each other other you want to feel it in your chest. You know, like I I love like the midnight and time cop, but I mean I can't imagine going to their shows and feeling a sub kicking me in the chest with that heavy guitar and like so you get like the sense of, like you know, the great synth wave acts and then you'll get that like just heavy rock and metal guitar that like just sits so well in the mix, like with that big fat bass guitar, like I feel like that's going to be a really cool live show once we get that all you know kicked off yeah, you mentioned that.

Marc Matthews: 7:16

The midnight and time cop. Have you ever considered? This is total tangent here. Have you ever considered like covering any of their synth wave body of work, but with that heavier sort of sound that you've got?

Davey Oberlin: 7:27

that that would actually be really cool. I have, and I did a like a reimagining of uh river of darkness by the midnight and uh, people seem to love that one. Like. I just slowed it down and made it a lot dreamier, a little more like nine inch nails, but um, nice, nice, I haven't really reimagined anything. I talked to uh royce, the guitar player for the Midnight, a lot and he writes some heavy stuff too. We'll send each other demos we're working on and he's super into it. He sent me something that was heavy guitars. I was like this is so sick and so I could see a future where something like that occurs, but nothing officially yet.

Marc Matthews: 8:06

That would be cool, man. This is um. This is a second interview of 2025, so the first one was actually tyler from the midnight, which is going to be recording. This is dropping the next week, which is the 24th or something of march, and um, I, when I first started the podcast, I interviewed a fair amount of artists and it was quite I. I noticed the pattern. There were so many, and I'm one of them like metalheads who came over to synthwave and like synth music, this just seems to be a this, this, um, no, I don't want to say calling, but I don't know some gravitational pull. So, like the synthwave and synth based music, uh, what a tangent. Again, what drew you to sort of move into and start dabbling in and in this realm with all the damn vampires?

Davey Oberlin: 8:51

so a long time ago I had this little project that I was dabbling with um called black zenith, and it was like dark wave, like um depeche mode, you know, maybe even darker, but my production skills were just not there. I was just like just making these little little songs I'd share with friends and maybe upload here and there. Um, and then I I started dating a girl who was really into, uh like FM 84 time cop, uh Calix, what else? Uh the Kavinsky, so like once I heard that I was like wait, people are like fully just grabbing onto this sound and like really leading into it. I was like I've always wanted to do that. I just didn't know there was like a, you know, there was like a bed position for it. So I started kind of messing with it on my own. I'd be on tour with Korn, I'd have a day off in the hotel and I'd start messing with music or you know. And then, uh, once I had some, some tracks done, I'd show the other guys, thinking like they're going to be like this is the goofy, you know, it's like female-fronted pop music. Like they're not going to be into it.

Davey Oberlin: 9:51

Everybody loved it, like even to this day, like if I run into, like Jacoby from Poppa Roach, he'll love synth wave, um, and it seems to just like translate so well. I have a friend that I grew up with out here, um, and we used to go to like all these hardcore shows and our bands would play in them, and he's in a band it's called like dance with the dead and they do yeah, yeah, yeah, tony Um, and he, you know he comes from the same background. It's like I don't know it. Just it seems to be like another logical step. Like a lot of people went from hardcore to like dubstep and like DJing. I think there's like a similar like energy behind all that, with that like kind of tempo and you know the stomp. So Synthwave kind of harkens into like metal a little bit, with those like kind of sad minor melodies that are still like it can be melodic yeah, that makes perfect sense and it's what I've experienced myself and what I've chatted to other people about.

Marc Matthews: 10:53

Like the sounds, because the great thing with synthesizers is you're not I suppose you're not limited anyway with any genre of music really but you can create what you want like sound wise.

Marc Matthews: 11:01

Yeah, make it as heavy or as light as you want. But the bands you mentioned then papa roach, man, that's a throwback for me. I remember listening to papa roach by the naughties man, I grew up listening to that sort of new metal sound and then you got under oath as well and I know you did a song. There's a song you released recently which was uh, I forget that. I forget the name of it now, but the singer on it. I was like I recognize that singer's voice and it took me an age to work out, but it's like 18 visions and it played with me yeah, and it played with me for so long and I was like I recognize that voice, I totally do.

Marc Matthews: 11:29

And then I dig a bit deeper and then I was like wow, and it just took me back because I hands in the air, I hadn't listened to 18 visions for quite a while, yeah, but it made me dig back in and go back to that again. So it's really cool, though, like say it's, it's interesting that you mentioned all those acts as well and they're listening to, uh, to synthwave. It'd be uh interesting to to dig into them as well man and great shout out to 18 visions.

Davey Oberlin: 11:53

I mean, that was like one of my favorite hardcore bands. And then keith, the guitar player, for 18v, he, he actually put me onto programming drums, which is how I got started like breaking away from, you know, doing rehearsals where drummers are flaking and we can't write songs because we don't have a drummer there. And then I just started doing everything in the box programming my drums, sending them to people, other drummers, you know. So Keith really like helped me out there. James is a good friend and I was like it'd be so cool to do a song together. And he came out with Runaway Dreams. He sounds kind of like a mix between Sebastian Bach and Ozzy Osbourne on that track. You know, it's like it's. It's really I was like I want to end the album with like a little bit of a hint towards some of the future stuff I'm doing. So then, you know, fast forward to today. We have, um, you know, the white snake cover, no-transcript, put it in my session and I find the the best way for me to work is to get the drums knocked out. So I'll recreate the drums, I'll follow along with the track. Um, I'll put my own sounds in, of course, but like I just want to have that backbone so that I can mute that track and then start working on my own.

Davey Oberlin: 13:27

What really like kind of propelled me towards like focusing on some covers is I was asked to do like remixes, like Sumerian Records hit me up for a bunch of remixes, but what and what I ended up doing was barely listening to the original.

Davey Oberlin: 13:39

I just took the vocal stem and make my own song around it, you know. And so I realized like I'm not doing remixes, I'm doing like full reimaginings. And then you know, that ended up becoming like the Avenged Sevenfold collaboration I did, where they were just like let's make a synthwave song, and so we did that track. And then I started kind of hitting these covers a little bit harder and I found the process of starting with the drums really gets you there, and then behind that, you know, you can recreate the melody any way you want. So I could have done it with a synth, I could have done it with a guitar, you know, but for for this particular cover, the bass and the drums really like drive the whole song, you know, and the bass that do, do, do, do, do, do, do you know it really drives it.

Davey Oberlin: 14:21

So I got this, this nice LTD bass, and I slapped on some parallax uh from neural dsp. That's a great plug-in, it just makes it fat. I have a kemper, uh powered guitar head that I use with like a really clean channel. Put the bass in through that, slap parallax on it and then, uh, yeah, I mean it just gives you this massive bass sound. I barely had to adjust it in the mix, like I was. I was pretty happy with it right away.

Davey Oberlin: 14:45

I'm also like really into low end and bass, probably more than a lot of people like, uh, I had andy james and uh charlie from five finger in in my uh truck and they were here in town, uh, and I was driving them and I was showing them all these these new tracks, you know, um, and they were just getting blown away by all the bass in the back you know it was. It was so brutal. I was like I'm sorry, guys, like I can't help it. I don't even realize it till I get in you know, and do the car mix like that. The base is so cranked, but I just love it that way. I always have.

Marc Matthews: 15:15

What, what, what is it you think that drives you to to have that? What about LA?

Davey Oberlin: 15:33

I think there's multiple answers to that. A big part of it is growing up. I was a big West Coast hip-hop fan. I grew up in LA. I was listening to Doggy Style and all the Dre stuff so I love. And then when I heard Korn and they had 808s I was like okay, that's sick. And so I've always kind of gravitated towards bands that have a little bit more low end in their guitar mix and their drum mix. You know, then the other side of that is like I think all the years of live music I've lost some low frequency in my hearing. So I think I'm cranking it more to like compensate. And so it's like this unholy marriage of like wanting too much low end, so I kind of have to dial it back. But yeah, I do lean heavier into the low end. So I I kind of have to dial it back, but but yeah, I do lean heavier into the low end than most people you've kind of gone against.

Marc Matthews: 16:20

What is the natural tendency as we get older is the other the high frequencies tail off. You've kind of like it's gone the other way. They're like the lows, loads of total. But I didn't realize that corn used 808s. I didn't know that.

Davey Oberlin: 16:33

Well yeah in the beginning of uh I think it's blind boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, yeah, you know. So, like ray, uh the drummer, now he had a little sample pad with an 808 on it. That was that kind of iconic that and you'll hear it in like the older recordings now that I've mentioned it, like if you listen, like you're like, oh there, it is like it's just this one 808 sound and uh, right, yeah, so he's got that set up.

Marc Matthews: 16:57

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, nice, nice. Is there anything in particular? That, when it comes to cover songs, let's say we're sticking with the rock genre here. That is more challenging than what. What is the most challenging part of it, do you think?

Davey Oberlin: 17:13

let's say, well for me, I, I do everything by ear. I can't read music, like you know, so I'm. If I'm recreating something and there's like a small little nuance and I miss it, I'll. I like to send my music to a handful of friends that I trust for like their mix, uh, input, or you know, and then they'll be like, oh, something's off right here, and then I I can't hear it. They'll, they'll it out enough, and then all of a sudden it'll clear up in my head and I'll hear it. So some of those smaller nuances are a little bit more difficult.

Davey Oberlin: 17:44

A while ago I would have told you it would be like comping the vocals or mixing the vocals, but now I feel like I have a pretty good handle on that. But just being overcritical of the mix and just sitting there and just trying to rerun it until I can't even hear the difference anymore, I have to step away for a week. I think the biggest part is just going. I'm doing this by ear. I have to trust that I don't have anything in front of me on paper that's saying this is right or this is wrong. That's kind of been the biggest struggle. Some of these songs that Whitesnake are doing are like very technical. You know those guys were like masterclass musicians.

Marc Matthews: 18:20

So there's there's all kinds of little nuances that you might miss if you, you know, aren't paying attention, that you don't think are important, but they actually are, I suppose, devil's advocate in a way, and I remember when reading sort of interviews with other musicians throughout throughout the decades and whatnot, when they say they haven't got that ability to to read music or the necessarily the musical theory in a way. It kind of not that you have limitations anyway, but it means you can be a bit more creative. I'm not more creative or opens up creative possibilities by accident, let's say, I guess yeah, happy accidents yeah yeah, that's the one.

Marc Matthews: 18:54

That's the one I was looking for yeah, yeah, that's very true.

Davey Oberlin: 18:58

Uh, so basically, um, is this love is like part of a bigger thing I'm doing. It's called we're coining it vice core and it's going to be like like la vice, miami vice, you know, and there's some like yacht rock covers on there, like oh, wow, and so it's going to be cool.

Davey Oberlin: 19:15

But one of the one of the tracks like um, that's going gonna come out, it's kind of like that. Like I started listening to it I was like man, I don't know like if I even want to recreate this, and then I ended up bringing it into this like lo-fi kind of synthy thing for the verses and then the chorus comes in all big. So that was like a one of those you know happy accidents where it just kind of settled into it without having that you know the sheet music or whatever. Like just just by ear it just felt right, you know. So that'll, I'm looking forward to putting that one out too. That'd be really cool.

Marc Matthews: 19:44

Yeah, man, yacht yacht rock sounds interesting. It reminds me of a uh, remember his name, so a friend of mine sent it to me, but he does. York rock covers of various um musical genres, and the first one I saw was pantera, five minutes alone like a york rock cover and I was just like I was blown away. I was like this is absolutely incredible just hearing a york rock version of that.

Marc Matthews: 20:08

You'll have to find it it's so good and it's, it's just the vocal on, it is just, it's fantastic. Um, yeah, it might be ai generate, but even so, okay, that's possible yeah, yeah, it just I was just like this this is actually I would listen to this. I genuinely would listen to that.

Davey Oberlin: 20:27

It just sounded so good yeah, I mean, like I wish I could list off all the like. It's a, it's a cross between like covers and originals. I wish I could list off more of the covers because it would illustrate it better. But basically, like you know, if you were to picture like a um, that white snake cover, this like modern universe of like la vice with like the you know the, the uh linen suits, you know the pastels and stuff, like in the mac machine guns, like it's kind of like we're leaning into um, there's even a track on there with uh sunglasses kid and oh nice, yeah, yeah yeah, I love edward.

Davey Oberlin: 21:04

He, I, I'm the uh, I don't know if anybody knows this, but he just put out an album and there's like an intro with a guy talking like a radio host yeah, uh, johnny thunder and then there's like a helicopter dude who's like illustrating every all the action that's going on. That's, that's all me, like I did all the voiceovers on that, yeah, yeah.

Davey Oberlin: 21:22

So we do a lot of like cool collaborations together. He's like one of my you know top five friends that are like production wizards that I bounce things off of. So, like you know, everything I finish I send to him on like whatsapp I'm like, hey, let me know if this mix sounds good. Yeah, he's one of the best he's always been so yeah, yeah, ed's great man.

Marc Matthews: 21:41

I've had him on the podcast a couple times, I think. Uh, I'm overdue. Actually, I think we said we're going to catch up in a year's time, so I should probably reach out to him, but yeah, oh yeah he's great, isn't he? He's a great bloke and like what he's doing on social media as well, with his, with his captions and his and his pov.

Davey Oberlin: 21:57

It's so good it's crazy like there's so many copycats that have sponsored that.

Marc Matthews: 22:01

You know indeed, indeed, a new one crop up every day. But no, that's cool, it's. It's really interesting because, um, obviously, speaking to yourself today, and then, uh, you mentioned ed sunglasses kid, and just how this sort of circle, this network, has sort of grown from all these people from different sort of uh walks of musical life, if you will. Uh, yeah, it's really really, really interesting yeah, it is.

Davey Oberlin: 22:27

I I think it's a cool place to be in a really cool time. I mean, I I feel like, with the resources we have now, with digital streaming and that whole, like the financial structure behind that, it's kind of holding back this like incredible moment in time where we could all be in the same space and, you know, putting on these giant festivals and there's just so many cool opportunities. But, um, you know, there's little bits, like if people follow really close, um, where we're like helping each other out and we're doing cool little things like those voiceovers. And you know, obviously there's a lot of a track or two coming out with ed like um for this vice core stuff, so that'll be really cool to show people I look forward to listening to that.

Marc Matthews: 23:06

Um, yeah, excellent man, but once again I've gone off on a tangent, steering back to the to the cover side of things. Um, so there was one thing I wanted to touch on, and that was it's actually a couple things actually before we sort of wrap things up, and that was the the vocal on is this love? Now, obviously, david coverdale's voice is, uh, is an impressive voice, as as we, as we, well know. How did you approach handling the vocals and sort of the vocal production on that?

Davey Oberlin: 23:31

well. So, uh, ryan rose is the singer. He's singing on pretty much all the new stuff. I have a track that is a popular older track called Breaking Up, that Ryan sings on. So a lot of people that are following my music will know him from that and he's just an incredible vocalist through and through.

Davey Oberlin: 23:48

He's almost too powerful to where, if he's tracking, we really have to be careful with the vocal stems, because there's so much in there, um, so I really just wanted to. I wanted it to be very clear and present. But also, you know, I needed that, that reverb and that delay to kind of tail in there a little bit, and especially if you want to get that kind of iconic sound. So what I did was I actually side chained all of the effects, so I have the, the main vocal, and then I'm sending, sending it to another bus with, like you know, delay reverb just cranked up, and then I turned that down very low. So then you don't lose any of the volume on the vocal and you're not getting too muddy and crowded, but you still have that. You know those effects and I think I used a lot of like Valhalla vintage verb, cause they have some of the gated stuff and that that's, uh, has been working really well with this um. And then, uh, sometimes I'll use, like FabFilter Pro R, you know, I like, I like the FabFilter plug-in suites and the visuals of them, um, and then I just I work in Cubase so I just slapped on a Cubase stock like ping pong delay and just, you know, put that at like 15 mix, uh, 15 mix, you know, just keep it like nice and low.

Davey Oberlin: 24:59

So I, I really tried to just keep the vocals out front and, uh, I I definitely did a lot, a little bit less effects processing on than I normally would. Sometimes I'll really saturate them. But I felt, like um with ryan, like his voice is just so, so powerful and distinct, like it doesn't need much. You know, like a lot of vocals I'll comp and I'll get I'll have to like you can tune them up melody and like all that you know, just to clean things up. But really, once I get stems from Ryan, it's it's always just a matter of like taming those those really powerful moments, you know, because it's so, so brutal. But, um, again, like for that vocal, I just wanted it to kind of have that air like where you you picture that dark studio vocal booth in the 80s. You know like that was really the approach, was like a visual first and then, you know, trying to get the sound that matches the vibe nice if I had a reverb vintage.

Marc Matthews: 25:52

There's my voice going there. Uh, it's a fantastic reverb. I'll be using that for years as well, and it's it's great to hear as well that, um I think this would be really good for the audience listening that you're also using stock, like delays and and stock plugins, because they're often overlooked. I find, I mean, you're a cubase user, um, but regardless of what sort of daw so daw, sort of um agnostic like using just stock plugins it's great to hear that as well, you know, because sometimes they're overlooked.

Davey Oberlin: 26:22

As I say, yeah, there's a lot of good stuff in there, like cubase does a really good job. I started on pro tools, then I would rewire with reason to do synth stuff and now I'm all in on cubase. Um, I have a good friend, he's, he goes by dj zed and uh, he uses cubase and I loved his production. So I was like man, just teach me, and so it was a really easy transition. You know, just very similar to pro tools and and it's just a lot better for midi and everything. So, um, I I go in there and then what I can't get out of the stock stuff I'll you know I'll do, like external plugins.

Davey Oberlin: 26:54

Oh, another, another plugin I like with vocals that people might dig is, uh, it's called x folks, x vo, x, um, and it's a great starting point. Like if you just need you know a little bit more in your vocal, you need a little push, you need some effects, like it kind of has everything. You can almost just put it on their default. Like I like to carve out the low end, you know frequencies and like really just get, get all the frequencies clean. But, um, x folks is awesome, like I sometimes will just slap that on right away and and uh and just go from there is.

Marc Matthews: 27:26

Is that native plug-in for cubase or is that a third party plug-in?

Davey Oberlin: 27:29

that's a third party. I wish I could tell you what company makes it, but that's got.

Marc Matthews: 27:33

I'll put a link in the episode notes. I'll do a bit of research afterwards and chuck it in the audience as well, but now that's really cool man. So moving on, um, in the interest of time here to the actual guitar. So you've got andy james, phenomenal guitarist. Um, I followed his work for quite some time. Um, so we touched on earlier that you're using quite low tunings, uh, to say really so, when it comes to sort of the, the lead guitar elements, it. Have you got any tips for making? Actually, let's start first with how you approached and why you approached Andy James. Let's start with that story first.

Davey Oberlin: 28:05

Okay, so Andy is on one of my favorite All the Damn Vampire songs I've ever written, called Carolina Lies, so he plays the solo on that song. We were actually out on tour together and he was. I hadn't been tracking guitar or anything on cubase, like I just wasn't confident. And then I saw him working with it. He'd bring his kemper in and he'd be tracking on cubase and I'm like dude, like what's your process? And so he, he helped me, you know, get myself set up to, uh, basically track instruments again in a way I hadn't been doing for years. I came home home I wrote like nine super heavy songs like very typo, negative catatonia, just like moody stuff. I'll send you. I have a private link for that, I'll send you.

Davey Oberlin: 28:47

Yeah, yeah, please do man it was like the first thing I did when I got home. So I was like, all right, this is killer. And Andy also loves synth waves. So we'd be in the dressing room getting ready. You know we were doing all those Metallica shows. So we'd be at the stadiums and we'd have like the midnight playing, you know, as our warm-up music, while we're getting ready just doing push-ups, whatever. Like Charlie and Andy love Synthwave, we all listen to a little bit of everything. You know Sleep, token, whatever. So that's always kind of there.

Davey Oberlin: 29:15

And I think once Andy did carolina lies that the track did really well. It got received really well. Um, toy soldiers, andy plays a solo on that one. So I was like this is another great song for andy. Like I played I've originally recorded myself playing the solo on it and I was like this is cool, but it's basically just the original solo. I want to hear andy james take on this because, to be honest, he's one of my favorite guitar players. I think he's maybe one of the best guitar players right now. Like, uh, modern technicality feel he does everything looks so well. It's like the best of dime bag and the best of like yngwie malmsteen all in one person, you know so yeah, I don't.

Davey Oberlin: 29:49

I hope he doesn't listen to this because this one played his ego, but uh, but anyway. So I was like let me throw this to andy if he's got time, if he's interested, you know. And he got right back to me, you know, with his take on the solo. It was awesome and it was one of those moments where he pointed out one of those things that I was missing. So like there's that dun dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun dun. I wasn't stepping up like soon enough, so there's a step up that goes a little bit like one sooner than I was doing.

Davey Oberlin: 30:18

Andy was like something's wrong, mate. He's like, you know, there's just something that's off on this part and I was like I can't hear it. Man, it's driving me crazy. He's like listen. And then he did it. I was like ah, so you know, he helped me sort that, got the solo on it. It was cool, I'm, the other guitars are me. So I'm like oh man, if andy doesn't like these guitars, you know I gotta listen to what he says because he's like the ultimate.

Davey Oberlin: 30:40

so yeah, but it, but it all worked out and I'm I'm always hoping I can get andy on something. You know I in a perfect world he'd be in the all the damn vampires live band when I start doing that, you know. But uh, that just depends on his schedule and like what he's interested in yeah, interesting, interesting stuff.

Marc Matthews: 30:56

I have to reach out to andy once again. This is an eye opener for me because you mentioned these artists that I had no idea. Obviously I know andy's recorded on and you've you've worked with andy on your stuff, um, but a lot of them I had no idea they were sort of like these, these, these synth fans. So it'd be interesting to um, I'll aim high and and start approaching them randomly and it would be great.

Davey Oberlin: 31:17

He's yeah, he's also a Cubase user, like I said, and so you know he's a great producer. He does all of his own solo stuff, he produces all of that and the production's awesome. I think we use the same drum kits.

Marc Matthews: 31:32

Amazing, amazing. So with regards to that and recording guitar for Synthwave because I know it happens a lot because the the sort of core listeners for this podcast started out, it really did start out with, like, synthwave artists and it's sort of grown organically and ballooned from that into various sort of sectors and whatnot, but then it's sort of steering its way back to synth now and I know there are a lot out there who do use guitar. In particular, what was your sort of top tip for incorporating guitar let's say, both rhythm and lead into synth wave or synth music?

Davey Oberlin: 32:08

that's a tough one, like I mean, there's a lot of ways you can incorporate it. Obviously leads are easy, like you can. Just you can play cool little leads over most synth wave music. It fits it really well. But when you're doing the, the heavier guitars or like anything distorted or rhythmic, if you're not doing that kind of clean sender, like kind of bouncy picking which you can hear in like bad dreamers stuff, you know the 1975, like that stuff's all great. But like if stuff, like what I'm doing with the heavier stuff, I feel like the drums really have to match it. So like whether that's a pure electronic sub kick like a like that would work really well with some heavier guitar, something like I use which is like a really punchy. You know kicking and snare um work really well. So I think that's a big part of it is. Is that percussive element element like it really needs to match? If not, like you need to mix it low or just like have it sit nicely in the mix.

Davey Oberlin: 33:02

Um, I like to quad track my rhythms so I do like two, two left, two right. Um, my uh leads are usually stereo right down the center. Uh, bass guitar I'll do like a mono down the center and I have a stereo delay in cubase that I've modified to kind of put on that and it widens it out. But yeah, there's a lot of different tricks. I think guitar is a little bit touchy just because you can't just slap distorted guitar over anything. If you're doing those kind of lean drum sounds like some of those classic smaller synth drums that distorted guitar is going to sound really messy. You kind of got to tuck that far back in the mix at that point.

Marc Matthews: 33:45

So I would just be mindful of the entire composition if you're going to lean into guitars on your stuff, like absolutely, yeah, what you mentioned there about the percussive element of it, sort of. My final question is and I was listening to a podcast and uh, they mentioned I think it was warren hurt was on it when our podcasting he was talking about it which was regards to sort of quantizing and to the grid. Um, with regards to production, how, how do you find your sort of approach to quantization? Is that, say, with like bass and guitar? And then, because you mentioned there about drums and tying that all in together, is it quite sort of to the grid or is there a bit of flex there? Is it a bit looser in terms of timing or I guess does it depend on the song?

Davey Oberlin: 34:21

it depends on the song. But I'll be honest with you, I never touch quantize like I. I just try to play in time. Like I, my drums are usually locked in the grid and then my guitar and bass I'm just like I mean, I've been doing it for so long that I I lock in pretty quick. I've played with a lot of really great drummers. Before I was with uh corn.

Davey Oberlin: 34:42

I played guitar for a band whose drummer was gil chiron and he's like a master class drummer and he's playing for manson right now. But he was in like dillinger escape plan and you know. So he he puts out a lot of drum clinics and stuff and I learned a lot playing with him because I had to lock in, you you know, and I thought I was great. And then I went to rehearsal and I left and they were just like dude, it's not good enough. I was like what? So I'm like really locking in with those kicks and so now when I track I'm like pretty much in the pocket.

Davey Oberlin: 35:10

But if I want that little bit of swing, you know, like I, I just again, I don't touch quantize unless it's like synth stuff that I'm drawing in, you know, vsts or like MIDI. I stay away from that. I like to just like that just a slight bit of push or a slight bit of lag like can add a lot of feel to things. You know that the baseline is is a great example, like it's really. You know, there's a little bit of push and pull on it.

Marc Matthews: 35:35

Yeah on it. Yeah, yeah, it makes perfect sense. Makes perfect sense. Uh, davey, it's been an absolute pleasure. This is flown by and, as I said, I generally don't get through all the questions there's a lot more here but it's been a pleasure talking to you today and it's been quite eye opening as well. Some of the stuff you've dropped, uh, that I wasn't aware of. Just the interest in synthwave and your production techniques and whatnot, and I know the all the audience is going to get a lot from this. Uh, with regards to covering, um, not just rock songs, but cover songs in general. So a huge thank you. And before we wrap things up, uh, is there anything you'd like to share with the audience? And also, where is the best place for them to find you online if they want to know more and listen to more?

Davey Oberlin: 36:12

if you, uh, if you need like kind of a central hub to just find all my stuff, I would just go to my instagram, which is just davy oberlin d-a-v-e-y oberlin, um, and uh, I have a new track I just finished with mint simon that's going to be set to release soon, uh, called leaving los angeles, and it's a very, very twin peaks kind of romantic ballad and uh. And then I've got a lot of vice core lined up, so there'll be, uh, there'll be an announcement on that, and then we'll have an entire album coming out, uh. So, yeah, I got a lot of new music coming out, but all the damn vampires in particular, and a couple other projects. So just, uh, follow me on instagram and all my links are through there.

Marc Matthews: 36:54

I share everything I do in real time on that fantastic man, vice core, that I'm not gonna lie, that was a new one on me today, but I'm uh that, that that term in particular. So I'm excited to yeah, to listen to more david. It's been an absolute pleasure and I will leave you to enjoy the rest of your day and I'll catch up with you soon.