'Hard Believer' is the new album from Fink: Fin Greenall (vocals/guitar), together with Tim Thornton (drums/guitar) and Guy Whittaker (bass). Their first release on the R’COUP’D imprint - a label newly created by Greenall with the backing of the Ninja Tune team - it was recorded in seventeen days at Hollywood’s legendary Sound Factory studios with producer Billy Bush (Garbage, Beck, Foster the People). Here, the band talk us through some of the gear used to record the album...

With this album, the most creative moments came when we used the studio like a giant sandbox - looking around the place for something that could emphasise the atmosphere of the song... On "Pilgrim" we used an Ebow on a piano, which involved gaffa-taping a hammer to one of the piano keys, resulting in a weird kind of baroque drone... then we miked up chairs, drum cases and broken drum skins from the three of us to whack for the song's closing loop, adding to the urgency... On "Truth Begins" we played an upright piano and a grand piano at the same time for the lower and higher piano parts, which increased the scope of the instrumental section... then we blended two drum kits together, a softly played one, then a loudly played one with heavy gated delay- giving the ballad the bit of claustrophobia it needed... On "White Flag" we stuck the piano through a distortion pedal, then copied the vintage drum reverb from the track's demo version onto the final studio version- so the drums were played in LA while the reverb came from Amsterdam... all of which nailed the track's trashy dub-ness...

Fin Greenall (Vocals Guitar)

I took out my favourite Martin guitar - a family heirloom kinda thing - it was the last flight I promised myself that I would risk it on - and when it arrived I was overjoyed that it was there in one piece when we got there...the strings have been on it forever - I have never changed them...it's a Martin d35 from 1981 - lovely vibe. The few tracks that involved nylon strings involved my beautiful handmade Mal Brady guitar - another deal that I made, it's final flight, I promised, as it's fragile as hell now after 7 years of tours, festivals, rehearsals and writing. I have another one, an identical version, but there is just something about the first one that's magical.

Pedal wise I took out my touring pedal board. My feet instinctively know their way around it. My trusty Boss Space Echo pedal with an expression pedal Controlling the intensity of swell, and a simple Boss Reverb pedal - Umbreakably simple - it's either on or off. In the studio we also threw into the chain a few Eventide Pedals - the Pitchfactor, for the harmonising and synth effects, and the reverb pedal - for those kinda harmonic swelling reverbs that sound so cool when you're rocking out the ebow vibes ...

While we were there Billy Bush also learnt is this prototype kinda Binson pedal, which we used on a few tracks, morphing delays and playing with sounds whilst running it through my space echo to make it last, and of course the gorgeous prophet 12, which I really enjoyed mucking about on - so much control over so many parameters - maybe too much - and how any patches were named after James Blake ! Scary really...'"

Guy Whittaker (Bass)

I use my Taylor AB3 fretless acoustic bass - long since discontinued, widely regarded as the finest acoustic bass anywhere - every sound engineer that ever encounters it loves it, but it spins them right out with its funky blue styles...

Tim Thornton (Drums)

I use the cheapest drum brushes in existence - they are about five quid a pair and the cheapest plastic available but I love them - they're made by some dude in Hampshire and I'm praying that he keeps making them til I retire because I don't like any other brushed - photographed here with my homemade t-shirt and broken drum head combo which gives my snare drum the boxy feel.

Our sound engineer had the idea of miking up my knee because I whack it with the aforementioned cheap brush and it creates a clacky sound which not only keeps the band in time but also sounds like some sort of percussion instrument - can be heard for the first three minutes of our new track Pilgrim, which is awesome... he clips the mic to the floor tom and aims it at my knee... genius

Hard Believer is out now via Ninja Tune imprint R’COUP’D.