How It Was Made: Attawalpa – Experience (Daydream Library Series + Alternative Rock)
Attawalpa’s new record Experience, out September 19 via Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz’s Daydream Library Series, finds the London-based South American artist expanding his sound into something vivid, unpredictable, and alive. The album arrives in a Dolby Atmos mix mastered by Dyre Gormsen, marking a first-of-its-kind release for the label and a bold statement from an artist who has always thrived on experimentation. Built on collaboration and instinct, Experience captures Attawalpa’s ongoing commitment to texture, tone, and emotional honesty.
The album came together through a process that feels as spontaneous as it does deliberate. Attawalpa wrote the songs alone before developing them with longtime collaborator Matt Allchin, then shaped them with the band over extended sessions that encouraged play and exploration. From quiet vocal takes recorded on a Casiotone to live reamping through rare pedals, every sound was treated as a moment to be caught rather than constructed. The result is an album that feels immediate and handcrafted, full of color and movement.
In this How It Was Made feature, Attawalpa opens up about the tools that helped him shape Experience. He breaks down how Soundtoys’ Devil-Loc Deluxe brought weight and character to early demos, how his Deucetone Rat pedal became essential for live energy and reamping synths, and how his favorite delay and reverb chains helped him find that “psychedelic bubble bath” sound he chases in every mix. His workflow blends intuition and discipline, showing how great songs can evolve from raw sketches into fully realized worlds without losing their edge.
Soundtoys Devil-Loc Deluxe
The Devil-Loc Deluxe is a gorgeously juicy distorting/ crushing compressor. It allows me to dial in a nice vocal tone into my demos.
I used it a lot when we were demoing the songs for my Sophomore Attawalpa record ‘Experience’ and I am still using it now for my future projects.
My process up to now has been that I tend to write on my own first and then bring the song to a co-writer/ producer, aka Matt Allchin. We tend to strip the song down and iron out the melody and the words together. Then we demo something with acoustic , vocal and drums so we can really feel and hear , live with the song.
I then take that demo back to mine and start fleshing it out with guitars, bass , sometimes strings (our viola player Freya Hicks adds pure magic) before we bring it to the band. We do this in 15 song increments, like a squad of songs. I use about 10-11 ( a la golden days of the music industry). This way, everyone in the band tends to fall into the pocket easier, and by the end of the process, we have a record!
The Devil-Loc Deluxe helps me get to a place where I find it enjoyable to listen again and again at such an early stage of the songs life.
I would use the Devil-Loc Deluxe on my vocals at this early stage as it gives them so much colour without having to have a massive plug in chain. When I am inspired, I want to work quickly, I have my amps , my mic, and a Casiotone 405 set up, so that when ideas come, they can be caught like lighting in a bottle.
We are in the business of catching lightning, and I believe the pioneering people at Soundtoys know this, as when you open the Devil Lock Deluxe, its preset setting barely needs tweaking. The ‘mix’ on 10 and ‘crush’ on 1. This tends to do the trick with my vocals as I tend to sing quite quietly especially when we are fleshing out the track. When it comes to grunging up acoustic guitars (recorded badly on a mono mic) I tend to put the mix down and add some ‘crush’ and ‘darkness’.
I think of myself as a song writer primarily and a producer out of need to make and distribute my songs. I think this plug in helps as most plug ins do for me – to add colour to my pallet and space to my landscape.
Reverb Chain
This is a (blasphemy permitted) godly reverb. The second you apply it to a chain or make it a bus you add magic beans to your mix. I usually add this to its own bus and then have another bus and add a delay (usually waves’ H DELAY on a tape setting).
Then I am then sorted and covered for overall tickle. I will add a whisper of these tickles to my vocals primarily but also guitars and maybe even drums/ percussion especially when making something posh. I love modulation. I make psychedelic bubble baths. If you are of a similar disposition then jump right in!
ProCo Deucetone Rat
The Deucetone Rat is fast becoming my favourite distortion pedal.
I bought it under the strange circumstances of writing a character for a Netflix TV show I co created called TOO MUCH. The character is called Felix (played by the dreamy Will Sharpe) and this character played a mustang , sang my songs and I wanted him to have a rat on his pedal board. I never played a rat, I was always a T REX MUDHONEY kind of guy. But I found this rare find in Denmark Street in soho and I noticed it had two channels. If you look at the back of it you can see one has the option of ‘Clean Rat’ and the other is more ‘Dirty’, ‘Turbo’ and ‘Vintage’. You can also have them on together for a more fuzzy feedback flavour. I now use this pedal at every live Attawalpa Show. I reamped a lot of synths through it on our last score (Too Much) and it’s just a general good heavy time. Less Johnny thunders more Cobain/ Coxon.
I tend to use the rare ‘Clean rat’ setting as my main clean sound. I love a good amp sound, don’t get me wrong but as much as I would love to be a puritain this slightly cut up sound just gives me a good feeling. I tend to solo with the vintage and boost with both of these on.
I feel vulnerable giving aware my tricks but fuck it. If you have this and a decent delay (any strymon will do) you can reamp any synth and make it 100 times more interesting sounding than it was in the box.
Delay Pedal
In simple terms this box is a delay pedal. It takes sound and expands on it. I love this pedal dearly as it got me out of my late teen ‘boss’ depression hump.
I love a psychedelic bubble bath. This is a term my co writer and co producer Matt Allchin and I throw around the most around the studio.
This pedal was my gate way drug to said bath. I will never leave this bath. I will let my fingers and toes get wrinkly till death do us part.
We have re amped whole midi synth sections for scores through this. I love how you can latch the delay by holding down the tap button. It feels very much like an extension of my foot. I would love to get one built into the back of my guitar one day.
Quick-Fire Hot Takes About The Industry From The Artist
Hot Take #1:
In an industry driven by algorithms where worth is measured in data, making music can feel like shouting into the void. The only thing that matters is creating the kind of music you would actually want to listen to. Connect and express. Find your people, support your local scene, and keep independent venues alive. Buy records.
Hot Take #2:
Get off the grid. Music is becoming too robotic, and no machine will ever replace human feel. Turn off the click track, play by instinct, and let the imperfections give your song life.
Hot Take #3:
Pay attention to live music, musicianship, and songcraft — that’s the real nucleus of creativity. Forget the pop idols and the overproduced stars; focus on honest songwriting and take risks. Jump into the psychedelic sea of creation, get uncomfortable, and make mistakes.
Hot Take #4:
Keep AI out of art. Guitar solos are coming back.
Hot Take #5:
Guitar music is back, but without a sense of humor — especially about ourselves — we’re nothing.
