Ando San has spent nearly a decade melding crisp modern prog with experimental hip-hop. Born into a creative family where musicians were commonplace, he was introduced to the “weird, esoteric” sounds of MF Doom and Madlib early on, before his uncle turned him onto death and progressive metal.
After starting his musical journey as a vocalist, then a bassist, it was Tosin Abasi’s standout wizardry that turned him to the dark side.
“He brought something completely new to the guitar landscape,” San states. “I was super inspired to see this black man playing this genre and dominating in it.
“I fell in love with music even more. When you get a more diverse group of musicians, you get more interesting ideas and perspectives,” he adds. “That's what grows art.”
“Once I heard J Dilla, I knew I wanted to make beats,” San says. “But I was doing it in secret, because I was also in a prog metal band.
“I was trying to find a meeting point between the two, because a lot of times when people do it, they have this cliché viewpoint of hip-hop with trap high-hats and 808s – there are a lot of things missing.”
Of course, his proghop recipe wasn’t perfected overnight.
“Early on it was very clean, tappy, and ethereal sounding, and I sampled my guitar a lot. But with my new songs, Thick Neck and iLL, I’m mixing metal and distortion in. A few years ago I wouldn’t have been able to comprehend the music I’m making now. I needed to mature as an artist first.”
He’s a lover of thumping and selective picking techniques, which he tackled after years of fingerpicking the nylon acoustic guitar Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt had inspired him to buy. However, he lets the hip-hop element dictate his guitar parts.
“Rapping over my riffs helped me develop my own technique, because how I rap correlates with how I play,” he explains. “There’s a lot of syncopation and strong rhythms matching with the beats. I love percussion so I love dead notes – I really try to utilize them.”
Getting the right tone is important too. No one’s stopping you thumping on a Line 6 Spider on insane mode, but cleaner tones with lots of compression have a far greater impact; even if San dials in more dirt than most.
“Sometimes I like a bit of gain on my thumping,” he explains. “I’m using the Neural DSP Tim Henson plugin. It’s very low-mid gain, with the bass at five, the presence around eight, and the treble at six, since it’s going to be coil tapped with the middle pickup.
“There’s already a lot of treble there, but it depends on where you're thumping. I know Javier Reyes and Tosin thump in the middle, between the pickups. I usually do it over the neck pickup – I get a better sound in that area.
“When I started I was holding my thumb like a pick and moving my wrist instead of just my thumb. I had to relearn it to get that mobility. You really need to get the technique right.”
Elsewhere, there’s another nod to his hero. “I also use the Abasi Concepts Micro-Aggressor. That shit is crazy, bro! If you’ve got distortion or you’re doing selective picking, it adds so much more depth to your guitar.”
People tell me I’ve found my sound. But you’re never really going to find it if you're constantly evolving
His main guitars are a seven-string Kiesel Kyber and an eight-string headless version that came straight from the main man himself.
“Jeff Kiesel spec'd it out for me. I really like flame maple fretboards; I like classy-looking guitars, and the stock pickups [Kiesel Vantium humbuckers] are really good.
“If I ever had a signature Kiesel I’d use these. They have a very nice balance – but at the same time they have this really nice treble and presence that I want.”
Now proghop is getting heavier as San finds more ways to bring distortion and screaming vocals to the party. With every record his music mutates into something far larger.
“People tell me I’ve found my sound,” he says. “But you’re never really going to find it if you're constantly evolving.”
- Head to Ando San’s Bandcamp for more information on the man and his music.
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