Deafheaven has released two singles off their coming album Infinite Granite, and it's damn near impossible not to note the complete lack of harsh vocals. In an interview with Pitchfork, vocalist George Clarke discussed why the band made the drastic switch from zero clean vocals to all clean vocals. Essentially, Clarke said it was just the natural progression of the band.
"So much trying and failing. It was all an attempt to be as maximum as possible so people didn’t feel that they were lacking in a listening experience just because the vocals had changed so dramatically. My singing on earlier records was really haphazard. This felt a lot more calculated. I don’t view myself as a natural singer at all. It has taken a lot of work. It’s funny, even though I’m not using my voice in nearly as extreme a way as I usually do, I would often be exhausted at the end of the day. It was like learning a different instrument. It made the whole thing a lot more fun, to be honest with you.
"Maybe around New Bermuda, I felt like everyone was expanding on their instrument and getting better at what they were doing. And in certain ways I was as well, but there’s a part of me that’s always felt like the weak musical link. I wanted to bring more to the table—and also to service the lyrics differently. It’s interesting for the song that we put out ["Great Mass of Color"], so many people have been commenting to me about the lyrics, which is very kind. It’s something I didn’t get a lot of before even though I’ve taken the same amount of time on those lyrics. It’s just that the delivery is so much friendlier. There are all these little things that are personally satisfying about the switch, and that personal satisfaction was the reason we did it in the first place, you know?"
Read the full interview here. Deafheaven will release Infinite Granite on August 20. The album was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (M83, Paramore), mixed by Darrell Thorp (Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Beck), and given artwork by Nick Steinhardt (Katy Perry, Jimmy Eat World, The Dixie Chicks). Pre-orders are available here.
