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\n\tIf the term \u201cpost-rock\u201d wasn\u2019t already taken, it would be a perfect descriptor for the fractured, future-warped music of Polyphia<\/a>, a largely instrumental foursome who take virtuosic guitar music into places that would melt older shredders\u2019 minds. Even as fleet-fingered guitarists Tim Henson<\/a> and Scott LePage<\/a> keep pushing guitar technique forward, they\u2019ve evinced minimal interest in carrying on any rock lineage, and are instead obsessed with bringing influences from pop, EDM, hip-hop, and video-game soundtracks into a ferocious live-band context. Older-school shredder Steve Vai<\/a> paid his respects with a guest appearance on their last album, 2022\u2019s Remember That You Will Die<\/em>, and longtime Kanye West<\/a> producer Mike Dean<\/a> is one of their heroes and a fan in his own right \u2014 he had Henson and LePage open for him at a rare live show in 2024.<\/p>\n \n\tThe band\u2019s just-released new album, Be Not Afraid<\/em>, is as quirky as ever, but it has some of their heaviest songs yet, with more overt nods to metal than usual.\u00a0Henson and LePage hopped on a Zoom with Rolling Stone<\/em> to dig into their latest influences, the making of the album, and how they get their rhythm section (bassist Clay Gober and drummer Clay Aeschliman \u2014 yes, they\u2019re both named Clay) to sound inhuman. \u00a0They also weigh in on the rise of fellow instrumental oddballs Angine de la Poitrine.<\/p>\n \n\tTim was way ahead of a huge trend in guitar playing \u2014 ditching physical, tube amps for digital modeling. Scott, are you post-amp as well?<\/strong>
<\/strong>Scott LePage:<\/strong> Yeah. When we were kids, digital amp modeling was kind of coming up, and we were like, \u201cHuh, we can buy this one thing and not have a bunch of other things that are massive and heavy and expensive.\u201d It almost wasn\u2019t even an option to have a bunch of amps as a 16-year-old kid. So having the fake version of all the things is kind of sick. My dad got me this DigiTech thing. It was an effects thingy that had some amp modeling in it, but the main thing was [the 2009 software plug-in] POD Farm. Some of those models still hold up now. We still use it from time to time \u2014 that Angel P-Ball one that they have, Big Bottom, that\u2019s a classic and everyone knows that one.<\/p>\n