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If you want a polarising band, look no further than DEAFHEAVEN. 2013’s Sunbather brought a modern sheen and major chords to blackgaze, a genre better known for its morose introspection. Then they divided their own fans with 2021’s Infinite Granite, as they jettisoned much of the abrasive black metal elements bar a couple, instead creating a lush, textured shoegaze record. Their latest album, Lonely People With Power, is less a reset, and more a reintroduction of those heavy elements but carrying forwards the lessons learned from their foray into softer pastures.
Across all of their albums, there’s been a common thread uniting them of a band pushing themselves creatively more than they seek to please any particular crowd, or even their own fans. Now with Lonely People With Power, they’re set to make their most definitive statement yet, one that keeps an eye firmly on the future while being a reinvigoration of their earlier, heavier roots after touring Sunbather for its tenth anniversary. Ahead of its release, we caught up with guitarist Shiv Mehra to talk about their approach to its creation and the themes it follows, ones that have seemingly only gotten more pressing in modern times.
Given that Lonely People With Power immediately follows Infinite Granite, you’d be fair to assume it’s a reaction to the latter’s much airier, textured shoegaze. But that’s not quite the case, Shiv explains. “In a way, it is reactive. But mostly we’re more reactive to what we feel like writing in the moment. During Infinite, it was COVID times and I personally listened to a lot more psych rock. I grew up listening to metal, but I’ve played in psych and krautrock bands my whole life, so there’s always that underlying influence. With this album, we wanted to bring back some of our heavier sound because we were missing it and that heft.”
That’s not to say DEAFHEAVEN simply moved back to where they were before Infinite Granite; instead, they’re bringing many of the things they learned into the new album. “Infinite Granite was, for our songwriting and communication in it, the turning point. We had Justin Johnson, our producer, helping us forming our ideas a little more introspectively and more connected to our thoughts of what we want to do. With the new album, the tools were definitely there again. We learned a lot from Infinite Granite that we’ve brought into the new album.”
It’s also informed, in some ways, by their recent anniversary tour for landmark album Sunbather. “Going backwards in time to play music that was written a while back, it feels more rudimentary,” he begins, “it’s not as strong in our songwriting as we are now, but there’s always moments like ‘oh that was cool, we should try that again’.” With Sunbather being predominantly written by Kerry McCoy (guitars) in his room then sent to drummer Dan Tracy, Lonely People With Power was much more collaborative, and took a longer time than they previously have, but there’s still an underlying feeling they’ve brought forward from that warmth and major chord expressiveness of Sunbather.
Though the writing is often done in the moment, there’s always a significant amount of planning that goes into a DEAFHEAVEN album. The three Incidental interludes that divide the record into thirds are just one example. “When Kerry, Dan and I were writing in Oakland, we wrote with the idea that there would be interludes attached to some songs beforehand,” he explains of the trio, the latter two featuring contributions from Jae Matthews (BOY HARSHER) and Paul Banks (INTERPOL), adding vastly different shades to the band’s repertoire. Incidental II, in particular, leads to one of the most ferocious DEAFHEAVEN songs to date, Revelator.
“That song is absolutely brutal,” Shiv grins of its furious assault. “That was the punch in the face song that we were looking to do.” While it isn’t specifically aimed at those detractors that tried to write them off after Infinite Granite, its caustic blast beats and George Clark’s vitriolic shriek sure do put paid to any notion that DEAFHEAVEN might have gone soft for good. Of course, if that was an accusation levelled, it was from people who hadn’t heard the thundering conclusion to Mombasa that all but pointed directly to Lonely People With Power.
Another of the key aspects of their new album, as its title suggests, is about modern life; not just those with political power, but as Shiv points out, loneliness is inherently bound up with power in the day-to-day, too. “Thematically, the title is up to your own perspective and connection to it in a way. But, given the times we’re in, it has a lot of connection to what’s going on in the world and the way our presidency and people in power have a strong hold over other countries and people, like the plight of the Palestinians, as well as the ties to everything in our individual lives. We’re in a state where the billionaire class is funnelling money upwards, they don’t pay taxes towards anything that exists in society and benefit purely off our work. There’s so many facets to it, so it was very pointed to this time and this period.”
That said, it’s hardly like these themes are going away any time soon, or are particularly new. “It’ll always be applicable,” Shiv agrees. “It might get more intense as we get older, but it’ll always be applicable in our existence. It’s something we can’t ever hide from.” If this all sounds a far cry from the lush, textured and often positive light that Infinite Granite sought to shine, that’s because it is. During its writing, the band were very keen to spread positivity given the uncertain and unprecedented times we lived in during those early pandemic years.
“This one, it’s not that it’s not positive, it’s more a punch in the face, a wake up call to reality,” Shiv explains of the more bracing tone and themes of LPWP. “If anything, it’s a call to action, and it has a much stronger weight to it than the positivity of ‘everything’s going to be okay’.” And yet, for all its fury, indignation and seething black metal, DEAFHEAVEN have once again done something remarkable. They’ve created a stark beauty out of the maelstrom, the likes of Heathen channelling those textured melodies of Infinite Granite before erupting, Clark’s clean vocal washing over the listener.
It’s an incredibly exciting album, one that reaffirms DEAFHEAVEN’s place in the pantheon of blackgaze greats as it seamlessly blends old and new with a strong eye to the future – one that Shiv shares, to a degree, as they not only look to take to the stage once more to share their latest creation, but the next steps in their journey. “We never know what’s going to excite us for the next one,” he begins, “but I’m always excited to write music, it’s the only thing we know how to do. Our passion in this world is to write music together. We freeflow ideas until they click into something bigger, and that feeling is the most exciting part, when you know you’re onto something cool. We’re always chasing that. It’s like a drug.”
Lonely People With Power is out now via Roadrunner Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS120 here:
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The post Deafheaven: Revelatory Creativity appeared first on Distorted Sound Magazine.
