OLD WAYS
“At the beginning of the recording we summoned spirits to take part, and then when we finished the record, we let those spirits go,” says Hexvessel founder, frontman and guitarist Mat McNerney, of the recording process for the band’s new album, Kindred. “It’s a very pagan way of working, working in harmony with the spirits of the place and nature. Out of respect, you don’t wear band T-shirts into the studio and you don’t bring in the wrong energy. We go somewhere else to do our drinking and talking rubbish. I just wanted it to be about that record.”
Hexvessel have always done things their own way. Having left the cramped bustle of London and lived in the Netherlands and Norway, McNerney eventually settled in the lush expanse of Finland, each imbued with spiritual, naturalistic undertones that burrow underfoot like ancient tree roots. And although McNerney himself has described the band’s earthy, eerie sound as “psychedelic folk rock”, the tag doesn’t quite capture the progressive nature of their music, which is as intrinsically linked to the hushed whisper of the pine forest and traditional folklore as it is to any genre or instrument.
