How I Made "Don’t Dude Me": Floyd Rose, Dystopia, and a Pizza-Pan Snare

People always ask me what’s behind a song. How I captured the instruments. Why I arranged it that way. For "Don’t Dude Me," the answer starts in my home studio here on the “Island of Magic,” Florianópolis, Brazil. I recorded the whole track from Nerthus at home. It opens with a gritty blues acoustic. I used open tuning and a slide. But underneath that guitar, I buried a whole hidden world, like strings I thought sounded cinematic at 3 a.m. I wanted the listener to feel like they were stepping into something dark before I even sang a word. Here’s the dumb part: I had never played a Floyd Rose guitar before this song. Hard to believe, I know. Somehow I fumbled through it fast because the song demanded it. The solo doesn’t play notes. It kinda screams. Or squeals. Whatever a Floyd does when you don’t know what you’re doing. Every detail was intentional. Ish.