Rylan Gleave’s second album released June 2025 via The Larvarium

Transmission 231: Interview with All Men Unto Me

All Men Unto Me is the project of Glasgow-based composer and vocalist Rylan Gleave. Launched in 2023 with In Chemical Transit, the project shifts away from Gleave’s background in contemporary classical composition and vocal performance into a darker, more personal terrain.

Title: Requiem
Artist: All Men Unto Me
Release Date: 2025-06-27
Genres: Darkwave, Doom Metal, Experimental Music, Post-punk
Label: The Larvarium
Description: Interview with All Men Unto Me on Requiem, released June 2025 by The Larvarium. Pipe organ, religious trauma, trans identity, and sonic violence.

In June 2025, The Larvarium released Requiem, a second album structured around the Missa pro Defunctis and recorded partly at St Bride’s Church in Glasgow. The record folds in themes of transmasculinity, religious trauma, and survival, using pipe organ, choral arrangements, and heavy electronics. Gleave is also known for his work with Ashenspire and Paraorchestra.

What led you to start All Men Unto Me as a separate project from your previous work?

Yeah, I started it while I was still studying classical contemporary music. I realised the work I wanted to make needed to be expressed outside that genre. So I wanted a different platform for my composer work that could be more expansive in terms of genre.

What were the first musical experiences—records, live performances, people—that left a mark on you growing up?

Wow, that’s quite a long time ago now. I think the first band that really moved me was a band called AFI, A Fire Inside—almost like gothy punk stuff. I was really into them as a teenager. I think they were important in understanding the more non-classical world. But I sang a lot more classical music as a young person—quite a lot of Schubert, Mozart, and Fauré, a lot of the German and French European art songs. I think AFI was the first band. I was also really into Lady Gaga and Shakira—and a bit of Britney Spears. A mix of lots of different music from different places.

How did the atmosphere of the Scottish underground scene influence the early stages of your music-making?

I joined Ashenspire as the live vocalist in 2017. I started playing more shows, but also going to lots of different shows and learning about the different bands in the underground scene, and eventually working with people. It’s been a really good reference point. There are some fantastic bands coming up through Scotland at the moment.

When you began working on Requiem, did you envision it more as a personal reckoning or as something broader, politically or culturally?

I think there’s no denying the current socio-political climate we live in, particularly in the UK, around LGBT rights—especially trans rights at the moment. That wasn’t the case when I started writing it, but I think this record might mean something different now than when I began. I think it’s one that may evolve a little with the times.

What was the most difficult track on Requiem to complete?

That depends on who you ask—me or my producer. For me, Sanctus was maybe the trickiest because I’d already scored out quite a lot of it before the studio session. I brought what I’d written in, and Scott said a lot of it was good, but suggested we take just one part and expand it, rather than using the whole thing I’d written. That was the one we had the most back and forth on.

I think for him it was PIE JESU —I’d written that on piano with voice first, and he couldn’t quite find the feeling of the piano parts on guitar. So it became more like a translation exercise for him. So, yeah, it depends on who you ask.

Did the acoustics and setting of St Bride’s Church change the way you approached vocal or organ performances?

Yeah, actually, St Bride’s Church was an incredibly dead space. We thought there would be a lot more reverb, so we set up lots of different microphones—some on very tall stands, over six feet—at various points in the room, some near the pipe organ, some at the back of the hall. We were expecting a big reverb sound, but it was almost completely flat. That was unexpected, and we had to lean into it and start adapting in a different way.

I also didn’t realise that hitting some of the organ pedals with the feet would cause the whole organ to reverberate, to vibrate. So there are some sounds in Agnus Dei where the organ is rattling because of the pitches we’re making, which was also pretty unexpected.

In Lux Æterna, you speak about the weight of forgiveness. How did that theme develop into a song structure?

Lux Æterna was written toward the end of the album process. Because I’d spent a lot of time in the broader Requiem headspace, it was easier to write the lyrics and music—I’d been living in that world for so long. I started writing it thinking about one experience, one person, and the more I wrote, the more I realised that thinking applied to many different people, dynamics, and contexts.

In terms of gear, what were some key instruments or setups you used for Requiem that unlocked something new sonically?

A lot of the sound design for the guitars and bass—Scott was really instrumental in making that happen, using a variety of pedals and amps. A lot of it also came down to the microphone techniques he used to capture both the sound of the room and the instruments and amps.

The church organ is another key element. We had to find an electro-pneumatic church organ, which means it uses electromagnets rather than an electronic system—it’s old-fashioned. If you pull out the stop on the organ halfway, you get microtones. We needed that to colour the sonic palette of the album. There are quite a few different effects on it that make it stand out sonically.

Were there any records that acted as anchors or reference points while working on Requiem?

Yeah, quite a lot. The lyrics are inspired by the traditional Requiem Mass—specifically the Missa Pro Defunctis. But I was also listening to a lot of modern records.

Caligula by Lingua Ignota was a really big one for me. I listened to Celestial Blues by King Woman, Vital by Big Brave. The Drift by Scott Walker is a constant reference for me.

So there are parallels with some more modern music as well as the older material.

What comes next after Requiem—are you already working on new material, or are you letting this album breathe?

I’m definitely having a break. I’ve been working on it since April 2021. A little palette cleanse—maybe I’ll do some other types of music and work in different scenes. Then I’ll come back to All Men Unto Me and decide what the next chapter is. But that’s still a little way off.

Will you tour this summer?

I would love to. We’re playing a show at the Southbank Centre in London, which should be really good—that’s on the 4th of July. After that, we’ll just have to wait and see. It would be amazing to tour. I’d really like to.

Photos courtesy of All Men Unto Me

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others