Void Sinker, the one-man project of Italian musician Guglielmo Allegro, crafts instrumental doom and drone metal that explores themes of isolation and transformation, weaving through evocative soundscapes that defy boundaries. In this interview, he offers a fascinating insight into the recording process from a solo artist’s perspective, focusing on his latest 2024 album, Stuck, while discussing the evolution of Void Sinker. He also shares his thoughts on the current Italian doom, sludge, and drone metal scene, reflecting on its vibrancy and influence, and the challenges and rewards of being an independent artist.
Your music is entirely instrumental. What draws you to this approach, and how do you communicate themes or emotions without lyrics?
The fact that music alone can communicate something on a sensorial and emotional level to the listener has always fascinated me in one way or another. Instrumental music of all genres from film soundtracks, jazz, blues and rock up to stoner, doom, sludge and drone from its origins to nowadays in all its nuances and forms mine has always been impressed. These last genres in particular are the ones in which I reflect myself most and which fascinated me to the point of wanting to shape something of my own.
The decision to compose in this way started from my irrepressible desire to play and dare to give free rein to musical creativity as well as the fact that I am not very inclined towards singing, personally.
As for wanting to communicate with the listener, however, I admit that I never thought about it until recently during the writing of my latest works. Until now I had concentrated on playing a feeling driven by the desire to experiment with new sounds by writing songs every day.
Instrumental music often leaves interpretation open to the listener. What do you hope listeners take away from Void Sinker’s music, and do you have a specific message in mind?
I never thought about it, until now, I always thought about composing music with the aim of experimenting as much as possible in my own small way.
At the beginning I was just excited to have completed three tracks in a row and then collect everything in an album and I didn’t think much about what my music could convey; Void Sinker was born as a free creative outlet dictated only by the idea of making music, no pressure, no limits whatsoever but only the freedom to play a new guitar, in a new tuning for me and only later did I gain courage and published everything. The same goes for “Gravity”, I simply said ‘why not?’ and released my first drone single born from a simple experiment, precisely on my birthday.
I think after the release of “The Watcher” I started thinking about what I actually wanted to convey to the listener through my music. Wanting to insert a context or message led me to create “Sunless/Moonless” as a first experiment.
The cover created by Doomolith immediately struck me, leading me to analyze and shape into music what is in fact the desert itself: an incandescent land during the day, Sunless, while at night the temperature drops drastically, Moonless. The difference in style between the two tracks is intended precisely to highlight how these two atmospheric aspects of a single place are in stark contrast to each other but at the same time are both part of it. I would add that this was also my personal homage to two of the cornerstones of the drone genre: SunnO))) and Earth, two sides of the same coin that still continue to inspire my music.
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The titles of the tracks on Stuck, like “Cold,” “Stuck,” and “Repel,” evoke strong feelings of isolation and struggle. How do these themes influence your songwriting?
Particularly regarding this album, these are just some of the elements and sensations that you can experience not only listening to my music but also in everyday life as it was for me during the writing process of this third album. Stuck is an album that circulates on the feeling of “block” and wants to empathize with the listener precisely on this experience, in my case mine was a creative block dictated by the desire to evolve the project from its previous releases and mature to shape that which is his personal imprint.
“Cold” is the first sensation you get when you are faced with a block, that cold that makes your veins freeze and doesn’t make you move driven by the fear that whatever you are doing is getting you nowhere; it is the refusal to give up, the attempt to do something despite feeling helpless driven by panic.
“Stuck” is acceptance, that moment when you realize that maybe the only thing you can do, sometimes, is just stop, stop fighting, stop struggling and accept that you need time and stop before throw it all away; it’s an unpleasant feeling because you feel that you could do something but at the same time you feel that it’s not the right time and your body and mind feel blocked too.
“Repel” is the end, the emotional and physical response to the feeling of blockage, the repelling of that feeling of nothingness to give new life and shape to what you were doing to move forward and escape from it.
This is what Stuck wants to communicate to the listener, it may last a while but we can all get out of our block in one way or another… we just need to keep playing.
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Void Sinker operates as a one-person project. What are the benefits and challenges of creating music entirely on your own?
Certainly one of the many advantages is the fact of being able to record at home everything that comes into my when I want, as I want, at any time and without having to rent, book or look for a studio; I think I would have spent a fortune to record everything I recorded for the published and unpublished project in one year.
It certainly wasn’t easy, at the beginning I was completely inexperienced and I immediately looked for someone to learn not only how to record but also how to edit music; I studied miking, mixing and mastering techniques at the NUT Academy in Naples for a whole year and I can say that the results from my first amateur productions on my SoundCloud channel can be felt today.
So yes, creative freedom is certainly one of the advantages of creating everything yourself but at the same time it is also a considerable challenge since it also involves knowledge of the other elements included in it.
I was born as a drummer and this shaped me especially in terms of my sense of rhythm and listening to as much music as possible. I slowly started playing bass and guitar too but I never took a lesson, I’m completely self-taught.
Managing the production side of the project in all its areas also requires time, patience and dedication; I have learned and am learning over time that it is not enough to simply publish an album on Bandcamp and spam it everywhere but the work behind a production is really a lot and doing it yourself is really, really tough but not impossible.
What music and bands inspire the project?
Conan, Bongripper, Slomatics and Ufomammut are the main inspiration of the project as much as SunnO))) regarding the singles. It is undeniable that other projects in the stoner, doom and sludge genre, such as Black Sabbath, Sleep, Thou, Primitive Man, YOB and many others that I listen to every day, have influenced my creative streak in one way or another. Jazz in particular has often influenced me in the arrangement of my pieces, Miles Davis, Tony Allen and Charles Mingus are just some of the names I could cite as examples.
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Does Void Sinker have any non-musical inspirations?
Surely everything that surrounds me and that I see plays its part in the composition of the songs. I have a terrible habit of playing while watching movies or TV series and I often pause and record what I’m playing with the guitar, bass or synths; it was like this for almost all the pieces of Debris. Sometimes I take it as a game and rewrite the soundtrack of the films I’m watching, other times I simply can’t stop and the impulse to play comes by itself.
I particularly go after the psychological and cosmic horror genre, some films that I can mention are definitely Alien, The Thing, Pearl, The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Blair Witch. Even some video games such as Silent Hill, Bloodborne, Dead Space, Death Stranding, and authors such as H.P.Lovecraft, Robert William Chambers and Stephen King have strongly influenced my creative streak in one way or another.
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It seems that DIY and independent music production are central to Void Sinker. Can you share insights into your recording and production process?
Sure! The production is totally independent and, as I said previously, I studied mixing and recording techniques for pre- and post-production in an academy precisely to be able to work independently; There are still some things I would like to improve but over time I will make up for these shortcomings too.
First of all we start from the basics: I take my mini amplifier, a distortion pedal, a delay and the guitar and I simply start playing, nothing could be simpler. Once I have something concrete, I record everything with my cell phone, listening back on headphones while I start laying out the various parts in MIDI with the drums and bass, after which I move on to the guitar and then to the physical bass, recording everything into the DAW. Living in a condominium, unfortunately, I can’t physically record a drum kit and amplifiers but I’m working hard to have my own space to be able to work on them too.
While I record the guitars I write new verses at the same time, sometimes with my cell phone I record only a small part of what will be the finished song such as a riff, a chorus or simply an intro from which to start for the whole piece.
Sometimes it takes me a couple of hours, sometimes whole days but in the end I don’t stop until the final result satisfies me 100%. Once recording is finished, we move on to audio mixing and mastering on a second DAW, personally I use Ableton to record and do a first mixing and Cubase to edit and finish the mastering, finally we put everything together to form what will be the next release.
I leave the artistic work for my covers to Doomolith, an excellent artist who has always fully satisfied my expectations, perfectly capturing what my music wanted to convey and inspiring me in turn for my works, an example of this is my latest single “Sunless” where I was inspired by the artwork he had created for me.
Once everything is finished, I wait at least a month to publish the final work, in the meantime publicizing everything on the project’s various and personal social networks until distribution, via Sepulchral Silence, on the various platforms so that my music reaches more and more audiences.
This is only a small part of the work behind the Void Sinker project and said like this it seems quite easy but as I said it is a job that requires time and dedication to ensure that everything runs smoothly until the end; I’m learning over time how it actually works and each publication becomes more and more challenging… but I don’t give up and in fact I’m always curious and fascinated by the work I do every day.
How do you see the current doom, sludge and drone metal scene in Italy? Are there specific bands or regional characteristics that influence or inspire your work?
I think the scene is more alive than ever. There are hundreds of bands that are coming out and contributing to it in one way or another. Bands like Zolfo, Naga, Circle of Witches, Black Rainbows, Funeral Boogie, Tons, The Ossuary, 1782, Deadsmoke…there are thousands of us!
I believe that the greatest impact was also the birth of several local record labels that gave prominence to the genre and helped it grow, see Heavy Psych Sounds, Electric Valley Records or Argonauta Records. In particular, I would like to mention Ufomammut for the enormous impact they have had over the years both in Italy and abroad, my continuous source of inspiration and production point of reference.
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What’s next for Void Sinker? Are there plans to collaborate, experiment with new sounds, or perform live?
Only time will tell. I’m working on a couple of projects, first of all a split with the DevilsHarvest project coming out next year and for the first time I will have a physical format for my release.
Although I wanted to take a break after the release of Stuck, I am continuing to write and record new material every day, both in terms of drone singles and for future full-lengths or EPs…I am putting some pieces together.
Regarding live activity, I’m actively looking for members to bring the project live, unfortunately, it’s not easy to find someone who wants to play in such low tunings but I hope to be able to find a drummer and a bass player by the end of next year.
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