
Stephen O’Malley of Sunn O))) and Khanate reflects on a career that evolved from early influences in thrash metal and Scottish Highland bagpipes into a philosophical exploration of elemental forces, detailing a decades-long work with feedback, saturation, and temporality. He discusses how physical memory inhabits his process, and how the space between notes—sculpted into dangerous and suspenseful shapes using feedback and tube amplification—became the foundation of his contribution to the RUINS library.