Author & Punisher is like the musical equivalent to everyone in my generation telling me at some point in their twenties that their five-year plan involves uprooting their life in the city and moving to a farm where they’ll live a life entirely outside of capitalism—only with his music, Tristan Shone has been able to make that idyllic pipe dream happen. The reason his output under the moniker feels so far removed from any other artist you might dare to lump his industrial clamor in with is because Shone swaps out conventional instruments for self-designed machines that have evolved over the course of nine albums just as his music has.
Ever open-minded as a collaborator and consumer of music, his latest project Krüller sees Shone teaming up with members of Tool on a couple of tracks, with influences as far-out as jungle and IDM rearing their heads over the course of the LP. Yet rest assured the project remains firmly rooted in the unique A&P universe, both in terms of the often-jarring and consistently unexpected electronic sounds rattling the listener’s earbuds, as well as the leftist lyrical content espousing the evils of the world keeping us from our collective dream of decamping to rural, post-capitalist environs.
With the past couple years, unfortunately, providing plenty of lyrical fodder for a new A&P record, the follow-up to 2018’s Beastland finally arrives today. Below, Shone breaks down his influences on each track, which, in a form true to the project, sees less of a focus on how pre-existing sounds shaped Krüller and more on how our less-than-ideal world brought it into being.
1. “Drone Carrying Dread”
“Drone Carrying Dread” is heavily inspired by the summer of survivalist maniacs who thought the world was going to end and were very excited about it. It was also influenced by reading Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and relating to the main character. It made me think about survival in a different way—of caring for people rather than killing people.
2. “Incinerator”
“Incinerator” is the heaviest song on the album, in my opinion. It’s a chaotic track with different stages. Much like “Drone Carrying Dread,” there’s a sort of escape and survival element, but there’s also the chaos of protest, police, armored vehicles, kids in cages at the border—it’s a bit of a schizophrenic mess of what I was feeling.
3. “Centurion”
“Centurion” is a track that was heavily influenced by right-wing militias storming the capital, and capitals across the country, and sort of comparing them to Roman centurions in a comical way. Just to think of these guys as warriors for a cause to me was hilarious, but also sad. This was one of the more fun tracks of the album, since after the Tool tour, [Tool bassist] Justin Chancellor and I discussed collaborating on a track. I sent him the basic beat and bassline and he was into it, so we worked on this track together. It was the first time I ever had a bass player, and it was fun.
4. “Maiden Star”
“Maiden Star” is probably the only sort of love song I’ve ever written, but much like “Drone Carrying Dread,” it looks at escape and survival from a different angle: of two people trying to maintain a relationship while also trying to survive. There are also themes of robotic and tech overlords and drones, inspired by some of the literature I was reading during the summer.
5. “Misery”
During the summer of 2020, the Trump border wall was being built southeast of San Diego, in an area that included some of the Kumeyaay land. They were protesting because they were building through a burial site, with bones showing up on both sides of the border. So myself and some others answered the call and stood in protest on the border line. As a result, I learned a lot about the Kumeyaay of San Diego and it’s not a pleasant history, nor is the history of colonization in the U.S.
On a technical note, I intentionally left my normal drum playing out of this track, and it’s mostly an electronic beat that I programmed. It was really interesting to see how [Tool drummer] Danny Carey filled in the gaps acoustically—I think it’s the first time I’ve had a palm fill in an A&P track.
6. “Glorybox” [Portishead cover]
“Glorybox” is a cover I’ve been doing since 2007. If you search on YouTube, you can find me playing it with a bass player at Zombie Lounge in San Diego. I love this song—it has a great blues bassline and it’s very heavy. I also like the gender ambiguity in the metal scene, and I love when people ask me if I want to be a woman.
7. “Blacksmith”
“Blacksmith” is a track that I co-wrote with Jason Begin of Vytear. This one is a bit of an adventure where we go from my slow-bending drones and morph into Jason's jungle and breaks with the same halftime bassline and vocals tying it together. Lyrically, this is an ode to Black women–led movements who have been fearlessly leading the way against oppression in this country for a long time.
8. “Krüller”
“Krüller” is probably the most ridiculous song on the album, lyrically. I just had a lot of fun with it—they were the last lyrics that I wrote, and I sometimes I just enjoy the word association of writing lyrics. We also put some [audio samples] of a girl taking acid into the middle and at the end, which I also found in another metal track segue. I’m not going to say who it is though, you have to figure that one out.
