No Skull Broadens its horizon on "Wide Earth"

With a diverse and lengthy discography behind him, Ryan Andrews returns with another experimental blast of majestic heaviness, this time with his band No Skull. Over the years, Andrews (guitar/vocals) has issued stacks of lo-fi releases with past bands like Red Teeth and Bert. But with No Skull, it seems tape hiss is taking the backseat to sonic clarity, which fully displays his ever-growing talent for producing unnerving aural landscapes and otherworldly punk rock. The new four-song EP, “Wide Earth,” is out now. It will soon be released as a 10-inch vinyl, and a full-length album, “Fields of None,” is also coming soon via GTG Records.

How would you compare your current records to your earlier bands and projects?

Ryan Andrews: The biggest difference is that we’re older and more stable. In Red Teeth, our focus wandered a lot. We’d get into some style or band and want to make music in that vein: punk, prog, sludge, math-rock, pop, country or whatever. By the time we’d complete a recording, we’d be on to something else before we released it. That and lineup changes always seemed to push us back quite a bit. In Bert, near the end, we had more of a solid idea of what we were going for, but we still had similar issues. The writing and recording process was more focused, but we always had so many ideas that we couldn’t keep up.

Has No Skull also evolved over the last few years?

In the pre-COVID No Skull days, we looked back a lot and revamped my old songs, many of which I had written and demoed on four-track in the late ’90s. The current No Skull is a slower-moving beast because we’re all responsible adults with jobs, wives and kids, but it gives us more time to contemplate the ideas and move forward on the ones we like most. Now, we’re constantly looking ahead and writing new material rather than rehashing older material.

Who’s all in the band right now?

The current lineup includes Jason Wicks on electric guitar, who used to be in Red Teeth with me for years, played guitar in Bert for a spell and is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We’ve been playing music together for almost 25 years now. On drums, we have Dave Shilakes. He’s been in many bands in Lansing, including the Wild Honey Collective and Cutlass Supreme. He’s also the current drummer for Small Parks.

What are some records you’ve been digging lately?

I’ve been really into Sleep’s 2018 album, ‘The Sciences,’ for a few years now. Killer record. It’s amazing when a band can come back and make a better album than their previous efforts. Quicksand’s ‘Interiors’ is another current favorite. Another good comeback with great songwriting and some killer riffs. I’ve also been rediscovering Los Natas lately. ‘Corsario Negro’ and ‘El Gobernador’ are two of my very favorite albums. I think Sergio Ch. is one of the best guitarists, and his band is so underrated. Of course, I’m constantly listening to Pink Floyd, my all-time favorite band. I listen to most of their early catalog almost weekly.

Dave says his top three right now are Sonic Youth’s ‘Daydream Nation,’ Butthole Surfers’ ‘Locust Abortion Technician’ and Meat Puppets’ ‘Too High to Die.’ Jason’s top three most-listened-to albums right now are Los Natas’ ‘El Hombre Montana,’ Gentle Giant’s ‘Playing the Fool’ and Robin Trower’s ‘Twice Removed from Yesterday.’

Follow No Skull at instagram.com/noskullband and listen at noskull.bandcamp.com.