We checked in with TesseracT guitar player Acle Kahney to talk beginning, inspirations, creative process and much more!

To start off, let’s rewind to the very beginning and talk about how you first discovered your interest in music.
As a kid, I was surrounded by music like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Doors. My stepbrothers had electric guitars hanging around the house, and at the age of eight, I picked one up and started to learn a Robert Plant song. It grew from there.

Was guitar always your one and only option? What got you hooked on the instrument, and who are some of the players you think shaped your style?
Growing up, I was only interested in guitar. David Gilmour was and still is a big influence for me—and obviously Meshuggah. As a teenager, I transitioned from Nirvana, Korn, and Mudvayne to Meshuggah.

What is your creative process like? Walk us through how a typical TesseracT song goes from its initial idea to a full-fledged, finished production.
It can vary. Sometimes I’ll have a riff and work from there. Sometimes it starts with a clean melody that I’ll build upon. More often than not, I’ll come up with outro-sounding sections. I can write outros really easily… it’s the rest of the song I struggle with! So quite often, I work backward from there. At least it gives me a goal to reach, so to speak. Usually, what I consider my “best” songs are the ones I’ve written in 30 minutes. They’re not forced and flow naturally. Unfortunately, those ones are quite rare and just spring out of nowhere. “Nocturne” is a prime example—I think I wrote that intro riff in ten minutes, and the rest just came naturally.

You’re an avid Superior Drummer 3 user. How does it help in your creative process and/or when mixing? What other Toontrack products and/or sounds do you regularly use?
I’ve been using Superior Drummer since the Drumkit From Hell days, back when you had to use it with NI Battery. It was really groundbreaking back then. I’ve used it ever since for writing TesseracT music. It’s also the foundation of the drum sound for our albums “Altered State,” “Polaris,” and “Sonder.” I used some of my own samples along with Superior Drummer on “Polaris” and “Sonder,” but the core is built using libraries including “The Progressive Foundry,” “New York Studios Vol.1 (Avatar),” “The Metal Foundry,” and “Music City SDX,” as well as the “Nashville EZX” for room reinforcement. Recently, I’ve been really liking the “Death & Darkness SDX” kits.

On that note, you’ve always been very much a do-it-yourself type of band—especially with you at the helm writing, engineering, mixing, and producing. Would you ever consider letting go of the reins and allowing an outside producer to take the wheel?
We are actually in discussions about this right now. We’re planning to work with an engineer to record drums for the next album, and we’re also open to the idea of some kind of co-producer role. I think tunnel vision can be a thing, both writing- and mix-wise, so I’m curious to hear how an external ear may help.

Do you ever find it hard being as heavily invested as you are in every aspect of a TesseracT production?
More so nowadays. I struggle with “demoitis.” We’ll have a finished demo, and when it comes time to record the final takes and do a fresh mix—the original demo just sounds better. This sometimes forces me to record good-sounding demo takes so I can use them if needed. But that can be a little stifling when you’re in writing mode, so I sometimes try not to overly mix and polish the demos.

When mixing, where do you usually start: the drums, guitars, vocals, or something else?
Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s guitars, drums, and bass for me. Once there’s some arrangement shaping up, I’ll send it to Dan for him to lay vocal ideas over.

Is there any instrument you generally struggle with more than any other in a mix?
Snare drums! Sometimes they just work… other times I feel the need to reset the whole mix to make them work. Other than that, it’s usually the guitar tone. I’m rarely satisfied with it—perhaps because it’s my instrument. If the bass tone is good, then I can rely on that to cover the guitar tone, haha.

Give us an example of a few albums you weren’t involved with yourself but that you think come together perfectly in terms of sound, feel, and vibe.
The first couple of Martin Grech albums sound amazing—as does his latest. His early work was also a big inspiration for me, and I love the general vibe and sound design of his work. Very different from that would be Karnivool’s “Sound Awake,” which still sounds gorgeous.

Give us a quick rundown of your guitar setup live and in the studio!
I have a few Mayones Setius and Regius guitars loaded with Bare Knuckle Black Hawks and Silos. We’ve been using Quad Cortexes live since about 2021, but we’re probably looking to move to Axe-FX III units soon. There are so many options when it comes to working in the box, so I like to keep my guitar tones simple when recording if I can.

You’ve been with the band since the very beginning in 2003. Seeing as you’re closing in on two decades, what would you say some of your personal highlights have been? Any standout moments or events that you’ll remember or cherish forever?
Playing a gig on an igloo in Lapland, playing in front of 50,000+ people at Hellfest, and our last sold-out headline show at the London Forum. Equally, though, I enjoy and somewhat miss the smaller club shows. But yeah, it’s crazy to think it’s gone from a bedroom project when I was 18 to playing shows that size.

TesseracT is often credited as one of the pioneering bands in the progressive metal scene. Which new bands do you think stand out in today’s scene?
I’ve been really impressed with King Yosef. They sound huge—not prog, just filth!

Out of everything that comes with being in a band and being a musician—writing, recording, jamming, touring, traveling (the list goes on)—what is your favorite part and why?
Touring has its occasional highlights, but generally it’s pretty tiring. While I enjoy playing shows, I enjoy the process of writing and recording way more! I just get a buzz when I’ve written something that ticks all the boxes.

What’s next on your personal agenda music-wise? And the band’s?
We’ve just completed a long two-year campaign for “War of Being,” so we’re taking a bit of time off from touring to focus on writing. It looks like we should have quite a busy summer in 2026 with festivals, which we’re really looking forward to!