Deafheaven began writing new material for a follow-up to its April 2011 debut album
Roads to Judah by September 2011.
[5][6] At the time, the new material was originally described as being "faster, darker, a lot heavier and far more experimental"
[5] than Roads to Judah, but as the new songs developed over time, vocalist George Clarke clarified that some of the material was darker and more aggressive, while other parts were far brighter, more melodic and pop-influenced.
[7] Clarke said the goal of Sunbather was to expand Deafheaven's sound and express a "full spectrum of emotion."
[7] There were a few changes to the band that allowed Sunbather to develop and progress from Roads to Judah. There was a longer gap between releases than before, which allowed more time for the members to grow as musicians.
[7] Deafheaven also went through a major lineup change. The lineup that was established before Roads to Judah dissolved due to Deafheaven's rigorous touring schedule, little payout and the founding members' (Clarke and guitarist
Kerry McCoy) strong work ethic.
[8][9] As a result, Sunbather was composed primarily by Clarke and McCoy, similar to how
Deafheaven's untitled demo was written. Daniel Tracy joined the band on drums toward the end of the writing process, about which Clarke commented: "his drum contributions are huge—he also helped shape the record for sure."
[7] The band entered Jack Shirley's Atomic Garden studio in
East Palo Alto, California in January 2013 and recorded Sunbather in five days.
[1][2] Deafheaven had worked with Shirley on all previous releases to date (Deafheaven's demo, Roads to Judah and
Deafheaven / Bosse-de-Nage). Clarke appreciates different styles of production was originally open to hiring a different producer, but ultimately the group chose to work with Shirley again because they were already comfortable with him. On Shirley's performance as producer, Clarke said, "for this record, he definitely took on the role of producer much more than our previous efforts, which was awesome. It honestly felt like we accomplished this together and it felt great."
[6] When the band recorded Roads to Judah, the members didn't make production part of their main focus. As a result, Clarke and McCoy wanted Sunbather to sound "bigger and slicker" than previous releases.
[7] Deafheaven employed a number of studio techniques to achieve the desired sound for the album. McCoy tracked four guitar layers for most songs, two for both lead and rhythm guitars; the guitar parts incorporated a lot of
whammy bar use to create a "dizzying effect" inspired by
My Bloody Valentine's "glide guitar" technique; the vocal tracks were given
echo chamber reverberation treatment during the mixing process; uptempo drum parts were recorded with closer microphones while "spacier sections" were recorded with
ribbon microphones; and Sunbather was recorded on two-inch
analog tape.
[6]
1 Deafheaven - Dream House
2 Deafheaven - Irresistible
3 Deafheaven - Sunbather
4 Deafheaven - Please Remember
5 Deafheaven - Vertigo
6 Deafheaven - Windows
7 Deafheaven - The Pecan Tree
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