Just a couple months ago, Stephen Brodsky (Cave In, Old Man Gloom, Mutoid Man) gave us Cut to the Core Vol. 1, a set of 11 covers of hardcore songs that are in some way central to Brodsky’s love of this music. He reimagined each song for maximum impact on acoustic guitar and his emotive voice, and he has since been performing these covers live.
On February 3, Brodsky will release a second volume of acoustic hardcore covers, including an excellently conceived version of the Neurosis song, “Under the Surface.” In anticipation of the full Cut to the Core Vol. 2, we bring you this song right now, along with Brodsky’s commentary on the process of choosing and developing this version of the song.
Cut To The Core Vol. 2 by Stephen Brodsky
Given the nature of this whole Cut to the Core collection of covers, we’d love to hear how you encountered Neurosis’ music generally, and what was going on in your life when you heard Times of Grace.
My introduction to Neurosis was Adam McGrath (Cave In) talking about seeing them on the Through Silver in Blood tour and being completely overwhelmed – that definitely got my attention. Fast forward to early 1999, and Cave In is hanging out at the Hydra Head Records office in Mission Hill, aka Aaron Turner’s bedroom. Aaron mentions he has an unmastered cassette of the new Neurosis album that someone at Relapse sent him discreetly. He’s already listened to it multiple times and assures us it’s GOOD, like REAL good. Because we’re dying to know – what does Neurosis sound like recorded by Steve Albini?! In 2026, it’s hard to imagine how or why this combination of band/engineer would seem so shocking, but back then it was a different story. We just sat there listening and my first impression was “Holy shit, this is LOUD. Like, DANGEROUSLY loud.” It was a righteous time for Cave In, as we were writing the Jupiter album and drawing inspiration from Neurosis among other influences new and exciting to us.
When did you start working on playing “Under the Surface” this way?
It happened in May of last year. The real trick was to make it all feel natural. There’s a strong sense of spirituality in Neurosis’s music, which thankfully lends itself well to acoustic instruments. The eight-string baritone was an obvious choice, to keep things heavy sounding. And I made sure to feature the Mooger Fooger analog delay that I’ve had for 25 years after Steve Von Till convinced me to get one. Playing the melodica through it resulted in some approximation of those cool Noah Landis noises in the spacey section. All in all, it took maybe a few days to reimagine/rehearse/record/film.
For your version, you had to choose a pitch to anchor the vocals. How easy of a decision was it to settle on that pitch? Did you consider any broader melodic range for the vocals, or was this just the obvious approach?
When in doubt, sing the root! And sometimes in these situations, I’ll ask myself “What would PJ Harvey do?” It’s a good trick, and it usually works.
How did you choose “Under the Surface” over other Neurosis songs?
In the spirit of the other covers, I wanted to do something from Times of Grace because that record is the gateway to my full immersion of Neurosis. And it’s usually easy for me to learn and transform something that’s been baked into my psyche for a while – in this case, over two decades! Some of their later jams would’ve been less of a stretch to transform in this realm, but the challenge of “Under the Surface” was also the fun of it.
Have you been playing this song in your live sets already, like the other songs in the Cut to the Core collection?
Actually, I’ve yet to play it live! Seems appropriate for this to happen next month in California, where all that killer music started. Here’s where I’ll be. Hope to see you there.
2/5 San Diego @ Whistle Stop
2/6 Los Angeles @ Harvard & Stone
2/7 Costa Mesa @ Wayfarer
Order the digital album here.
The post Track Premiere: Stephen Brodsky – “Under the Surface” (Neurosis) appeared first on Decibel Magazine.