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^{Photo credit: Brandon Cummins}

We're all Russian Circles fans here on Guitarist – there is simply no other instrumental band making music as atmospheric, emotional and powerful as this US trio.

Back in issue 326 we featured guitarist Mike Sullivan but now here's the full transcript of our conversation with even more detail on the making of their third album Geneva and Mike's special playing approach.

One of the biggest changes to your sound on Geneva is bringing in musicians outside of the band for a number of tracks – string and brass players. How did that come about?

Mike Sullivan: "The strings were something we had planned out long in advance. We made sure we got together with the cellist and violinist, arranged the parts and had that all worked out.

"The brass came about because Greg [Norman engineer] plays trumpet and trombone. Late at night when we were done tracking he'd be kind of messing around after we'd had a few beers. He's try some stuff out and it started off as a joke but then we'd go away for an hour and he'd worked something out and we thought, these horns sound pretty good – let's do it. It was kind of a last minute thing."

How do you feel about your own playing on this album? In some ways it sounds like you're playing less on a technical level but bringing even more to the atmosphere and mood of the music…

"Exactly. It wasn't a conscious shift but in the evolution of what we've been doing so far, it just seemed natural. I guess we're more concerned about the actual arrangement than how technical it is. It's also fun to do the technical stuff too so I can't say that's behind us but it felt more natural this way for all three of us. We can play off of each other more – it's more open to that. More room for expression."

Were you less concerned with being able to completely recreate this album live than you have been in the past?

"Yes. At this point, this being our third album, we felt a little more freedom to add elements. If we hear more things that could go into a song – let's throw them in there. A nylon string guitar or a different drum that can add percussion over what is already there… if we can hear something let's try it and if it works cool, if it doesn't let's not push it. But at the root of it we are a three-piece band and we keep that in mind when we're in the studio and adding stuff. A lot of the songs would sound different live without the strings but I don't think they'd lose too much by that."

So using samples live isn't something you'd consider in the future?

"We're not opposed to that actually. We're leaving to go on tour in two weeks and we're still playing with ideas. Still deciding which songs we're going to perform.

"You do lose a some of the organic quality when it's for an actual instrument, like a cello per se, but we'll see how it goes. I think it will work out fine and a lot of the songs and a lot of the songs so far we're going to be playing live don't really involve strings that much so it's not an issue. A lot of the strings either came from a melody that Brian or I had on keyboard or guitar transposed to strings so it's something that one of us did originally, then we let the strings take care of it."

^{Russian Circles (from left): guitarist Mike Sullivan, bassist Brian Cook, drummer Dave Turncrantz}

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