In a world that’s often even darker than the art being made, sometimes we need that darkness to be filtered through a silly—if still brutal—lens. That’s the perfect description of Deathgrave’s latest album, It’s Only Midnight, out now via Tankcrimes.
“This record was interesting due to COVID, because we actually started working on it at the end of 2018,” says guitarist Greg Wilkinson. “We had switched drummers and went through a lot of changes. Then around 2020, we had finally finished touring, and we figured it was time to make a new album, and then COVID hit. That kind of slowed things down a lot, but we continued writing, and we were able to kind of weed some stuff out and change things, refine them, which was kind of nice.
“Then, in 2021, we started recording. Since we weren’t allowed to have shows in San Francisco during lockdown, my friend who was manager at Great American Music Hall said, ‘Why don’t you set up your recording studio here so you can socially distance and use the room?’ The owners actually enjoyed it. Everyone there enjoyed the fact that the room was being used, which I thought was very unique for a venue. A lot of venues seem like they just need to make money because it’ so expensive to run one and they’re under the gun, but these owners seemed very nice.
“But it was a whole process, and then we took everything back to Hammer Mount, which is my studio, and finished everything off in the succeeding months. For the next one, we’ve already started recording some material for a split and another record.”
The recording process may have been epic, but that’s nothing compared to the hilarious and terrifying story the record is built on. The record takes place in a neighborhood that has experienced a tear in the fabric of time.
“There’s this hellish dimension kind of cutting through this normal neighborhood,” Wilkinson explains. “So all of the lyrics pertain to little situations in that neighborhood, whether it be a bar being invaded by aliens or a deli that serves people in their sandwiches.”
And despite the world built up around this record, one that listeners are still very much enjoying, the band are already gearing up for their next record.
“We don’t want to rush the next album, which is definitely a challenge, since we tend to get excited and want to rush to the next thing,” he admits. “And at the same time, we have some shows coming up, so the plan is to spread the record around in the meantime, and then get really back into the space when we have some dead time and just be disciplined and write another record. When we’re back in the room and not practicing for a show, that’s what we’ll be doing.
You can order the new Deathgrave album It’s Only Midnight from Tankcrimes. Follow Deathgrave on Instagram for future updates.
Photo courtesy of Myron Fung.
