Deafheaven have so far surprised fans with the rollout of their upcoming album, Infinite Granite, as singer George Clarke is putting more emphasis on clean, non-screamed vocals these days. This gives the band’s new music a lighter (but still intense) post-rock sound, which is on full display on their latest song, “In Blur,” which also has a strong dream-pop influence. The song is set to be the band’s last pre-album single.
The band’s George Clarke told Apple Music 1’s Hanuman Welch of the song:
“I think it was like the third track that we had really gotten ahold of and really laid the ideas down for. For me, it was the first time that we are really stepping into this new identity, and that came with the vocal experiments. The chorus started out with this bellowing Peter Murphy thing, and that got refined over time. And then we experimented with all these auxiliary vocals, the strange pitch-shifted ooh-ahhs was at the beginning, and, “who are you nows,” towards the end of the track, which was like a big mouth strikes again. We wanted just to bring in strange voices and fill out that idea across the board, have different characters, and I think for the first time really utilizing the vocals in a very creative way. To me it just feels very fresh for us, and I remember feeling that same way when we were making it.”
He also spoke about anticipating the reaction to their changing sound, saying, “We have a rule about not feeling confined at all during the writing process, not saying no to things, trying things out, not letting of anyone other than ourselves dictate what’s happening creatively. Of course, inevitably after we finish records, everyone gets out of the fog and then starts to think, ‘Oh, I wonder how people will respond to this.’ And what [Deafheaven’s Kerry McCoy] always says is, ‘It’s not really our business at the end of the day.’ I think that for us, the only thing that’s really paramount is that we can continue to be inspired and continue to write music that’s inspired, and hopefully our fans see that and come with us. I feel like for a lot of people who are familiar with our music, this will feel like a cool and more natural direction, I think, than maybe what you’d expect.”
Watch the “In Blur” video above.
Infinite Granite is out 8/20 via Sargent House. Pre-order it here.
