Q&A: Scott Hedrick (Skeletonwitch) on His Debut Instrumental Solo Album, Devotional Drift Vol. 1

Photo by Nick Perry

We haven’t heard much from lefty guitarist Scott Hedrick since the last Skeletonwitch album, Devouring Radiant Light, in 2018. Hedrick’s played on a couple of avant metal releases (Ghosts in 2019 and Spectres in 2023) by improvisational Dutch duo Dead Neanderthals, but there’s been a definite lack of progressive black thrash riffage. With his first solo album (credited to SW Hedrick), Devotional Drift Vol. 1, set for release November 1, it’s clear that Hedrick’s still making music, but maybe not the kind one might expect. Devotional Drift Vol. 1, has literally no connection to metal (other than the dude who created it and plays most of it), which is likely why Hedrick is crediting himself as SW Hedrick. That said, the man’s first solo album is pretty stunning collection of cinematic, instrumental music performed on guitar, piano and saxophone, with assists on drums and percussion from Ryan Jewell and Greg Fox and more horns from Mark Cisneros and Brad Caulkins.

Devotional Drift Vol. 1 has a mellow, psychedelic and meditational vibe and was written, produced, and engineered by  Hedrick and mixed by Scott Hirsch at Echo Magic. It was mastered by Anthony Puglisi at SENTRALL Sound, Los Angeles. It’s set for release on vinyl and digitally via Hedrick’s Red Left Hand imprint November 1. You can place your preorder here.

We were so intrigued by Hedrick’s first solo album, after giving it a spin, we fired some questions his way via the Interhole, and here’s what we got back.

Compare and contrast the process of writing a thrash song versus the material on Devotional Drift Vol. 1.

We’ve established a certain identity for the band, though we can, and will, push and pull on the fringes of what “Skeletonwitch” sounds like. It’s loud. It’s fast. It’s metal. A lot of decisions are baked in when you sit down to write Skeletonwitch songs. Not so with this other material. So it took me quite a while to decide where to go with it.

I’ve been a music fanatic since I picked up a saxophone around 7th grade. My tastes are all over the place, and yet I hadn’t released any music outside of Skeletonwitch (save for my collaboration with Dead Neanderthals). So, what do I do? I was raised on the Nuggets compilations, so do I start a garage rock band? I’m obsessed with free jazz, so do I grab my favorite horn players and try to go for a Sonny Sharrock vibe? I’ve been doing a lot of film work and tend to lean toward instrumental music these days. So should I do my version of Eluvium, Tim Hecker or Library Tapes?

Eventually I just started amassing material and decided to group it into chunks that made sense to me. I’ll grant that it’s probably still a bit sporadic to some ears, but to my mind it makes sense.

What was the inspiration to do such a quiet and sort of meditational album?

The aforementioned amassing of material that was in this vein. I’ve always listened to music like this (instrumental, ambient adjacent, filmic, psych-ish etc.). I was growing increasingly tired of merely being a spectator in so many areas of music that I deeply loved and only participating in heavy metal (as much as I love heavy metal).

How did you connect with the other players who assisted you and did you know that you’d need, for instance, drums on one track or a horn on another? Were those things you envisioned from the beginning, or did adding those elements sort of evolve?

Those were all things I envisioned from the beginning. In fact, I approached most of these players out of the blue. I knew a couple of them from Ohio but, mostly, I cold-emailed, sent out rough ideas, and asked if they’d be interested. They’re players that I’m a fan of and I’m fortunate that they said “yes.” They make me look a hell of a lot better, that’s for sure! [Laughs]

As far as the performances themselves, in some instances I transcribed sheet music for them, because I wanted a very specific part. In other instances, I threw out a general guide or a vibe that I was looking for. For example, I asked Greg Fox to play as if he were Danny Carey playing Jaki Leibezeit’s kit (which became the drumming on “Explore, Exploit”). I asked Mark Cisneros to give me his best “Pharaoah Sander’s ripping a hole in the sky” etc.

Were there any specific artists or albums that inspired you?

Absolutely! The biggest influence has got to be Popol Vuh. Probably my favorite “band” of all time. The way they flow back and forth from “rock” music to something we might call “ambient,” or even meditation or devotional music, is incredible. I’ve been enamored with them since discovering them years ago.

A lot of other Krautrock stuff was influential, like Michael Rother, Harmonia, Agitation Free and Can. Also some of the American guitar players at the forefront of what developed from the Fahey/American primitive guitar movement: Danny Paul Grody, William Tyler, Elkhorn.

I actually made a playlist of music that was inspirational for this record which you can listen to here.

Did you write the songs on both guitar and piano? Maybe sax, too?

I mostly wrote on guitar and piano, though I’m a shit piano player. I didn’t write any entire “songs” on the sax, but I did bust out my alto and write lines and riffs on it. Alto sax was actually the first instrument I learned to play. It felt great to play it again even if my embouchure is trash because I don’t play it enough these days.

It feels like there is a definite cinematic vibe to the whole album. Did you sort of have visual cues in your head for some of these pieces or even the album as a whole?

Thanks. I always think in terms of the scope of an album—an ebb and flow—even during the writing process. If I have a track that really feels like, for example, an opening or closing track, I’ll  sit down and intentionally write the track that precedes or follows it. I’m acutely aware that the way most folks digest music in the streaming age is not in entire albums, chronologically.  But I’m also self-aware enough to know that the music nerds who might actually be into something as niche as what I’m doing, are the sort who may sit down and listen to the record all the way through. Regardless, and pardon my language here, fuck everybody else. It’s a good organizing principle, for my brain at least, to think in macro terms about the album.

Visually speaking, once I settled on Ogawa Kazumasa’s flower collotype for the cover art, certain tracks started to fall into place and feel “right.” “Brightened by Small Things” and “Early Golden,” for example, feel particularly well suited to the aesthetic. That being said, I typically think more in terms of aural tone, color and emotion, more than narratively. There’s not a “story” behind the album but there is a lot of attention paid to how all the material is pieced together to create a vibe or a journey that makes tonal or emotional sense to me.

What, if anything, did your years in Skeletonwitch bring to your current gig doing scoring and editing? 

Skeletonwitch did a ton for my skill-set as it relates to music editing for film and television. It should go without saying, that for Skeletonwitch and music editing it’s important to know how to write music on a capable level. It’s extra important to understand how that music functions. To a large degree, how it functions mechanically, but, equally as important, how it functions emotionally. What will this music make the viewer/listener feel? Why and how will it do that?

For many years of the band’s existence, I was the de-facto tour manager. We couldn’t afford to pay for one, so I took care of all the logistics on the road. I advanced the shows, planned the schedule, told everyone where we needed to be and when, took care of the hospitality, scheduled the press opportunities, did most of the press, settled the shows with the promoter at the end of the night, interfaced with our merch company, ordered all the merch for tours, acted as liaison with the record label and played left-handed guitar in the band. There were a lot of moving parts to keep track of and a lot of herding cats.

As a music editor, I’m responsible for all of the music in a film. I work with the directors and help decide where it’s going to go and why. I work with the composer to make sure they’re on task to finish on time and that they’re musically in the ballpark of where we need to be. They send me their demos and I cut the music into the film and submit it to the directors. Sometimes they also ask me to help write the music or critique what they’re doing. Or I’ll take a suite of music that they wrote based on the script and I’ll cut it to picture . . . essentially using their stems to “write” music cues. Additionally, I cut in all the music that is licensed from bands/artists. I also interface with the studio folks as needed and can act as a buffer between the composer and the suits. I also have to keep track of where every bit of music is in the film, who wrote it, and exactly how long it is. Just the other day I was in a situation where I had a licensed piece of music and if it was 1 second longer it was going to cost $22,000 dollars more.

So, just like in Skeletonwitch, I have a lot of proverbial balls in the air at the same time and my work is an odd mixture of the creative, clerical and even socio-political. Film folks are incredibly talented, driven and often bicker like babies about the work, just like bands on a tour. [Laughs]