Long Journeys: Deafheaven Unpack The Transcendent 'Lonely People With Power'
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Written by Tom Morgan
Photo: Nedda Afsari
It feels apt that the gentle thrum of city life proves the background for Stereoboard’s conversation with Deafheaven guitarist Shiv Mehra — this sense of urbanity has always been key to the band and their famous idiosyncrasies.
While black and post-metal — two styles that the San Francisco/Bay Area-based five-piece have channelled over the past decade and change — associates itself with the natural, supposedly ‘old’ world, Deafheaven’s music has long been more concerned with modern structures and the individuals who reside within them.
One look at the hot pink cover and imagistic title of their breakout 2013 opus ‘Sunbather’ is enough to tell you its creators are not interested in conventional metal aesthetics. The band’s sixth full-length ‘Lonely People With Power’ continues this exploration of intensely personal and ultra-contemporary human concerns.
Vocalist George Clarke’s stark and sometimes autobiographical lyrics unpack cycles of trauma and how people wield power in their personal lives, with a title that intriguingly makes a link to the wider political and economic forces that seem to increasingly dictate aspects of our lives. The rest of his band come up with some of their most fittingly potent music, swerving away from the softer shoegaze of their previous album ‘Infinite Granite’ and returning to the heavy, transcendent intensity they do best.
Across a conversation with the thoughtful, softly-spoken Shiv shortly before the record’s arrival — and with shows in Bristol and Brighton accompanying their set at Manchester’s Outbreak festival in June — we discussed the album’s knotty themes, finding balance, lo-fi writing and the knock on effects of a krautrock obsession.
Looking back at your last album, which was a departure from your signature sound, how do you now feel about it, four years later?
“We still feel good about ‘Infinite Granite’. It was maybe a departure from the screaming and blast beats, but at its core it’s still us. We wanted to explore other sides of our songwriting. It pushed us further into a new phase of our writing, which I think we brought to this album as well.”
I feel like every album in your discography adds or subtracts from the previous releases. Are Deafheaven chasing a final form or is this constant evolution already your final form?
“I don’t think we’re chasing anything. It’s just about how we evolve as people as well as our changing tastes in music. You start to lean towards one thing and get over it so you go on to something else. We have a toolbox of things that we like to do, which we’re always adding to. I think it’ll always be about evolution with us.”
You talked about evolving as people, to what degree has that influenced your music?
“Back before [2018 full-length] ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love’ a few of us — George, Kerry [McCoy, guitar] and I — stopped drinking. It changed us a lot. We began to focus more on the music instead of just going out. Since then, we’ve become more and more interested in new things. We changed as people and we’ll probably keep on changing.”
Did you or the band have any sonic reference points that you were looking to when constructing ‘Lovely People With Power’?
“We had some ideas. We initially wanted to include more krautrock stuff. But I’m not sure that really amounted to anything. We also wanted to lean into our more metal sides. Everyone has their own tastes, so it wasn’t an objective per se. We all love straight-up metal, but also other stuff like Stereolab and Autolux that we try to bring in. It’s open-ended, but those were some of the general ideas. We just wrote whatever came through at the time.”
I’m enjoying imagining what a krautrock-influenced Deafheaven album would sound like.
“Yeah, I’m a huge fan of all that stuff. We had an idea to add some of it in, but because we write such chord-oriented music and krautrock is so often stuck in a jam, it didn’t incorporate like we thought it would. I guess that texturally some of it might have stayed in.”
Let’s talk gear. What guitars did you use on this album and what, if any, new guitars, pedals etc. did you use that you hadn't before?
“For us, writing is very stripped down. We did it in my space in Oakland and we weren’t even using half stacks, just our new Helix board from Line 6, which we use live. We had Twin Reverb amps and a shitty indie-rock drum kit. It was super lo-fi.
“During recording, we used this really nice Yamaha guitar that our producer Justin had. There was a really nice Telecaster and my dream guitar: an Ovation, the kind that Jeff Lynne used. I love Jeff Lynne. Pedal-wise, my new favourite is this thing called a Generation Loss pedal, which I used to warp a few leads.”
What musical ideas do you feel this album includes that your previous albums hadn’t?
“It’s harder and faster than any of the other albums. [2019 standalone single] Black Brick was like that, but it wasn’t on an album. We pushed that element. I think George has also found his voice in terms of having a good balance of singing and screaming. Our use of synths is a new thing, they’re dialled back but there are the interludes. Those are the new branches.”
My favourite track is The Garden Route. Even before reading the lyrics it felt the most emotionally resonant and a highlight of the album. Do you feel the same?
“That’s cool. Yeah, that one was interesting because in my brain it’s our Autolux-y song, but it doesn’t come out that way, it’s a lot darker. I love that track, it’s one of my favourites. We went through a lot of phases of writing and that one was just different from the others. It reminded me of how we wrote Gifts Of The Earth [from ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love’], but it’s darker, it felt new.”
I know George writes the lyrics and they’re very personal but, as much as you’re comfortable saying, what does this album’s title mean to you?
“It’s subjective. It’s a strong statement that can have different meanings to everyone. But given what’s going on in the world right now, from the Trump presidency to Palestine, this world is full of lonely people in power. The title isn’t a political statement but it can be interpreted as that. Power can also refer to people in your life or in any circumstance and, in our perception, it’s often associated with loneliness.”
In the promo material for this album there’s a great quote that reads “the desire for escape is central to Deafheaven.” Can you unpack that idea?
“I can understand that. We have so many fans come up to us and tell us about these momentous occasions in their lives that have been connected to us. It’s inspiring to hear music that’s just you trying to fit chords together can move people, as well as connect so deeply with them wanting to escape their realities. It’s amazing.”
It feels like your music is reaching towards something. Do you get that?
“We’re always reaching towards something. In terms of songwriting, it’s just trying to see what sounds the coolest. But the desire for escape and this meditativeness exists in our music and I think it’s because we’re into stuff like mediation and transcendence. I try to meditate and Kerry’s been really into it. We’ve always been into long journeys.”
Deafheaven’s ‘Lonely People With Power’ is out March 28 on Roadrunner Records.
Deafheaven Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon June 16 2025 - BRISTOL Trinity Centre
Tue June 17 2025 - BRIGHTON Chalk
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