Sound & Recording - TK - Whose Blue | August 2025

Clover Z
Feb 13
8 min read

TK from Ling tosite sigure —

The Air and Rawness He Found in a UK Studio

The solo project of TK, frontman of Ling tosite sigure, TK from Ling tosite sigure has released his fifth original album, Whose Blue. His first in five years.

Its sound, meticulously constructed from an enormous number of elements while still containing raw emotional intensity, is more artistic and sophisticated than ever before.

TK has previously chosen Berlin’s Hansa Studios for overseas recording, but this time he selected London’s Metropolis Studios, a notable shift. While continuing to build his mixes himself, he also embraced new approaches, collaborating with leading Japanese engineers and working with UK engineer Romesh Dodangoda.

We visited his private studio to hear the details.

Recording While Mixing

— Did you already have a connection to London?

My older sister went to university in Oxford, so I used to visit the UK a lot, but I’d never really stayed in London. Last October, I went there for the first time specifically to work on music.

Until then, my routine was usually to travel abroad, take photos to refresh myself, then return to Tokyo and focus on production. But this time, I wanted to createwhileI was feeling something, right at that moment. I started wondering if there was a way to combine travel and making music.

So I asked Yoshioka Jin at Metropolis, who handles mastering for Ling tosite sigure“Is there by any chance a room where you can write music?” And he said, “There is.”

They have writing rooms you can book by the week or month, so I decided to try one out.

The setup seems to change depending on the timing, but they had a KAHAYAN 12K72 preamp and UNITY AUDIO The Rock MKII monitors. Romesh arranged a Fender Telecaster, so all I brought with me were my audio interface and a few pedals.

It was a minimal setup, but it felt incredibly open and well-ventilated creatively.

I love being shut away in my own studio too but since it’s always the same place, memories of not being able to writestart piling up. You start thinking, “Can I even make something?”

So while it can switch you on, there’s also a kind of lurking demon there (laughs).

— Changing locations probably affects your output too.

London is hectic in some ways, like Tokyo, but visually and spatially it really pulls you in. I used to think,What’s the point of going overseas just to shut yourself in a studio?

But this time, getting stimulation from the city and immediately turning that into output was huge.

The writing room itself is tiny, but the entire Metropolis building feels like music is constantly being created there, it’s incredibly comfortable. That momentum led us to record BOBO’s drums there as well and eventually do the mastering at Metropolis too.

— After writing in the UK, did you return to Japan before coming back to record?

Yes. I first returned alone in late January, spent about four days in the writing room finishing lyrics and arrangements, then BOBO joined me and we recorded drums.

Honestly, I decided to record drums at Metropolis purely because the songwriting felt good. I didn’t even know if I’d like the drum sound until the day itself (laughs).

It was a gamble, but we got this raw, thick sound that feels like you canseethe room.

— Who handled the recording?

I recorded everything myself inSTEINBERG Cubase. That’s always how I work overseas. This time I borrowed anANTELOPE AUDIO Orion Studio Synergy Corefor the interface.

I don’t exactly “print effects,” but I always monitor with plugins on playback. Since I’m not an engineer, if I only hear the dry sound during recording, it’s hard for me to imagine what it’ll eventually become.

So I choose microphones and mic placement while listening through effects I expect to use in the mix.

For example, how much hi-hat bleed is acceptable in the snare depends on how much compression I plan to apply later. I want to make those decisions upfront, otherwise your brain switches into “let’s record this clean and safe so we can fix it later” mode.

For me, songwriting and mixing are one continuous process. Once we do a sound check, I immediately start a rough drum mix, so BOBO and I can share the image of the final sound as we record.

Drum Sound: Attack and Weight

— That explosive attack with a sticky, weighty release is still very present.

If drums are super compressed but don’t have that stickiness, they start sounding like pointillistic programming. I compress the drum bus quite heavily.

Sometimes I send ambience mics into that bus; other times I send them to the top L/R bus and avoid crushing them, just adding room feel. I choose depending on the song, but honestly, every track is unexpected. I discover combinations on the fly every time, so it’s pretty tough (laughs).

— Are ambience and top mics the key to that stickiness?

Yeah. You can’t reach the ideal sound without them.

— What effects do you use on the drum bus?

When exchanging data with engineer Someya Taku, I often passed tracks with aWES AUDIO NGBusCompon the final stage of the drum bus.

I’ve used IK Multimedia T-Racks Classic Comp + Classic Multiband Limiter for years. I love how it still comes as a solid mass, especially now that so many compressors are becoming hyper hi-fi.

I also often useDDMF MagicDeathEyeandPlugin Alliance Vertigo VSC-2.

I usually don’t use reverb since ambience mics handle that, but sometimes I blend in UAD Ocean Way Studios just a bit to create a solid, low-end depth.

The Value of a Co-Engineer’s Perspective

— Despite those powerful drums, you still recorded strings and horns live. Why not use samples?

I have tons of samples, so Icoulduse them. But when I program parts, it feels like evolution stops there.

Synths and soundscapes are better programmed, but when you replace real instruments with programming, it’s harder for me to feel something beyond that point.

Even if horns appear only briefly, I want to record them live. There’s romance in real sound (laughs).

When live orchestral instruments or piano enter my music, they bring air, fluctuation, and a kind of distortion that’s different from flat, planar distortion. That distortion eventually creates a rough transparency.

When recording overseas, I think I’m always searching for that boundary, between stinging distortion and clarity.

— Even with the same engineer, gear, and room, recording in a different country must change the result.

Absolutely. Even if you layer samples recorded overseas onto drums recorded in Japan, it never sounds the same. I tested it during COVID just to see how close I could get (laughs).

Romesh always sends back something that sounds “UK-like,” even when mixing Japanese recordings—but it’s still different from actually recording there.

That bursting feeling where distortion and impact explode together is something I can only get by recording overseasandmixing it myself.

And when I hear those violent, thick sounds recorded abroad, I want to cook them myself. Balance and frequency can be warped. I just want to experience the miracle of sound and song colliding firsthand.

— Does that mean someone else mixing would change the meaning?

Exactly. When I’m recording at Hansa or Metropolis, I’m constantly excited. Wow, this sound exists! so I want the final version to reflect that.

BOBO and I often talk about how important it is to communicate that these sounds exist and are being played.

It’s funny, because overseas music wasn’t really my roots, but still, that’s where my sound seems to go (laughs).

I also handle studio booking and gear arrangements myself. It’s part of sound creation, so it doesn’t feel like a burden, though I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re extremely motivated (laughs).

Stem Mixing and Objectivity

— Several co-mix engineers are credited this time.

For band projects, I work with Toru Takayama, and for production I might ask Kurihara but for solo work, I rarely hand over the entire mix. Recently, I’ve really liked stem mixing.

I only pass stems once I feel the mix is already basically complete. The idea is to increase the song’s strength further. I focus on injecting structure and passion, while they view it from above.

I first asked Someya during “Scratch.” He usually works more in R&B than rock, so he’s great at expanding range—and he’s been listening to Ling tosite sigure for years and even read my interviews in Sound & Recording Magazine.

Even though his main genre is different, he understands the quirks and appeal of my music better than anyone.

Sometimes I hate my own mix because engineers can do things I can’t, but Someya and Kurihara preserve the parts only I can do. Otherwise, the beautiful distortion I created would slowly disappear.

— How many stems did you deliver?

About 30–50. Some parts are fully wet, so it’s very detailed. Vocals, for example, I export the FX channels separately.

Most engineers want dry tracks, but Someya said, “I want everything wet.”

These drums are so crushed that you could ask,What do you expect me to do with this?(laughs)

But he interpreted it as “expressing chaos,” and worked to make that chaos feel even more chaotic by subtracting things.

Because of that, I can listen objectively when the tracks come back. I become a listener again, choosing between what should be audible and what should remain unheard.

Monitoring: Fun and Accuracy with GENELEC

— You switched your studio monitors to Genelec 8341A.

My KRK VXT8s broke during album production. Since I was already talking with Romesh, I asked for a recommendation—he suggested the 8341A.

They’re compact, powerful, and incredibly clear—perfect for where I am now. Using the GLM Kit and software, I can correct output based on room acoustics, ensuring not just enjoyment but reference accuracy. That’s the biggest appeal.

My studio isn’t overly deadened, I leave resonance in the room so I was surprised how well-balanced they sounded.

I prioritize immersion over perfect acoustics, so having accuracy added on top makes it much easier to focus on the sound I want.

— Whose Blue sounds great on headphones too.

I check mixes on the 8341A,NEUMANN NDH 20headphones, andApple AirPods Pro (2nd gen)while moving around. If something feels off when switching between them, I know there’s a problem.

I can’t fully account for every listener’s environment, so as long as it sounds best in my own, I send it out with confidence.

If you obsess too much over playback standards and loudness rules, it becomes harder to take risks.

For example, I record guitars extremely peaky. If I send that to an engineer without explanation, the peaks get shaved off. It becomes cleaner and vocals are easier to hear but often that’s not the music I want.

So yes, I keep it peaky (laughs).

On Mastering

— Mastering was handled by Metropolis engineer Stuart Hawkes.

Mastering is incredibly difficult. People like me who do everything ourselves, tend to expect magic from mastering, but also fear losing our original image.

Sometimes you think your rough master was better, but when a third party compares them, they’ll say, “The mastering engineer’s version is more balanced and easier to listen to.”

Still, I believe the unevenness I loved during mixing deserves protection, it’s something only I can feel, having lived with the song from the start.

And yet, I still feel like something lies beyond that. That tension between trusting and doubting yourself can lead to new sounds.

Stuart captured that delicate balance perfectly. It felt like the music stayed exactly as I made it, but somehow expanded forward.

— Any specific requests?

I asked for “just a bit more solidity in the bottom end.”

It feels cheeky to ask someone who’s mastered tens of thousands of records to revise anything (laughs).

The single version of “UN-APEX” was mastered by Matt Colton, but Stuart gave the album version a different texture, aggressive while maintaining a rich low end.

— The album really conveys your unique musical identity.

With streaming, everything… genres, sounds, volumes has diversified so much. I think even someone with sound design as peculiar as mine can turn that into a strength now.

My skewed taste used to feel like a complex. Lately, I’ve started to love it a little.

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