Shoegaze and grunge are the major touchstones that usually come up when discussing L.A.'s DIIV, but on their forthcoming third album, Deceiver, the band dives deep into some of their heavier influences, including Neurosis and Deafheaven. Those influences come particularly to the fore on the song "Blankenship," which makes its debut here, along with its gorgeous yet ominous desert-set music video, directed by Revolver contributor Sean Stout (Deafheaven, Trash Talk, Death Grips).
"Working on Deceiver was a new process for us in a lot of ways," the band says of the new album. "We wrote and arranged the songs as a band from beginning to end, incorporated a new world of musical reference points, and brought in our friend Sonny Diperri as a producer to help us realize a lot of these new sounds and textures we had envisioned as being a part of the record. We wanted to lean more into being a 'rock band' and embrace the full sonic palette that rock music has unique access to. We had been called a shoegaze band for years and, in my opinion, wrongly, but on this record we hoped to realize more fully some of the textures of our favorite bands such as Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. We also took inspiration from heavier bands like Deafheaven, True Widow, Slint and Neurosis, especially in their use of the full dynamic spectrum. But at the core of each song was an element of the singer-songwriter approach used by artists such as Elliott Smith, Alex G and Big Thief. We used references in a more specific way than trying to explicitly recreate music we loved — most of which is not able to be recreated in the first place — and instead focused on the feelings, textures, and dynamics to help the song live up to the emotional quality we wanted to achieve from the outset."
Stout adds of the video, "For a problem as global and looming as climate change, we wanted to make something very simple and claustrophobic. To me, the nightmare scenario of being trapped alone in a vast arid desert devoid of life is terrifying and hopefully captures that feeling well — as beautiful as that landscape may be."
Deceiver is due out October 4th via Captured Tracks; it's available for pre-order now. DIIV are set to kick off a North American tour in October and December including an appearance at Desert Daze Festival — see dates below, as well as the cover art and track listing for the new album. Tickets are on-sale here.
Deceiver track list:
1. Horsehead
2. Like Before You Were Born
3. Skin Game
4. Between Tides
5. Taker
6. For the Guilty
7. The Spark
8. Lorelei
9. Blankenship
10. Acheron
DIIV tour dates:
10/11 - Perris, CA - Desert Daze Festival ^
10/12 - Phoenix, AZ - The Rebel Lounge ^
10/14 - Austin, TX - Mohawk ^
10/15 - Houston, TX - Satellite ^
10/16 - Dallas, TX - Canton Hall ^
10/18 - Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium ^
10/19 - Detroit, MI - Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit ^
10/20 - Cleveland, OH - Phantasy ^
10/22 - Boston, MA - Paradise ^
10/23 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts ^
10/24 - Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw ^
10/27 - Washington, DC - Black Cat ^
12/05 - San Diego, CA - Belly Up Tavern +
12/06 - San Luis Obispo, CA - SLO Guild Hall +
12/07 - Santa Cruz, CA – Catalyst +
12/08 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore +
12/10 - Seattle, WA – Crocodile +
12/11 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall +
12/13 - Sonoma, CA - Sonoma Redwood Barn +
^ w/ Chastity
+ w/ Froth
