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7 is our 7th full-length record. At its release, we will have been a band for over 13 years. We have now written and released a total of 77 songs together. 

Last year, we released an album of b-sides and rarities. It felt like a good step for us. It helped us clean the creative closet, put the past to bed, and start anew. 

Throughout the process of recording 7, our goal was rebirth and rejuvenation. We wanted to rethink old methods and shed some self-imposed limitations. In the past, we often limited our writing to parts that we could perform live. On 7, we decided to follow whatever came naturally. As a result, there are some songs with no guitar, and some without keyboard. There are songs with layers and production that we could never recreate live, and that is exciting to us. Basically, we let our creative moods, instead of instrumentation, dictate the album’s feel.

In the past, the economics of recording have dictated that we write for a year, go to the studio, and record the entire record as quickly as possible. We have always hated this because by the time the recording happens, a certain excitement about older songs has often been lost. This time, we built a "home" studio, and began all of the songs there.  Whenever we had a group of 3-4 songs that we were excited about, we would go to a “proper” recording studio and finish recording them there. This way, the amount of time between the original idea and the finished song was pretty short (of the album’s 11 songs, 8were finished at Carriage House in Stamford, CT and 2 at Palmetto Studio in LosAngeles).

7 didn’t have a producer in the traditional sense. We muchpreferred this, as it felt like the ideas drove the creativity, not any oneperson’s process. James Barone, who became our live drummer in 2016, played onthe entire record. His tastes and the trust we have in him really helped uskeep rhythm at the center of a lot of these songs. We also worked with SonicBoom (Peter Kember). Peter became a great force on this record, in the sheddingof conventions and in helping to keep the songs alive, fresh and protected fromthe destructive forces of recording studio over-production/over-perfection.

The societal insanity of 2016-17 was also deeply influential, asit must be for most artists these days. Looking back, there is quite a bit ofchaos happening in these songs, and a pervasive dark field that we hadlittle control over. The discussions surrounding women’s issues were a constantsource of inspiration and questioning. The energy, lyrics and moods of much ofthis record grew from ruminations on the roles, pressures and conditions thatour society places on women, past and present. The twisted double edge ofglamour, with its perils and perfect moments, was an endless source (see“L’Inconnue,” “Drunk in LA,” “Woo,” “Girl Of The Year,” “Last Ride”).

In a more general sense, we are interested by the human mind's(and nature’s) tendency to create forces equal and opposite to those present.Thematically, this record often deals with the beauty that arises in dealingwith darkness; the empathy and love that grows from collective trauma; theplace one reaches when they accept rather than deny (see “Dark Spring,” “Pay NoMind,” “Lemon Glow,” “Dive,” “Black Car,” “Lose Your Smile”).

The title, 7, itself is simply a number thatrepresents our seventh record. We hoped its simplicity would encourage peopleto look inside. No title using words that we could find felt like anappropriate summation of the album.

The number 7 does represent some interesting connectionsin numerology. 1 and 7 have always shared a common look, so 7 feelslike the perfect step in the sequence to act as a restart or“semi-first.”  Most early religions also had a fascination with 7 asbeing the highest level of spirituality, as in "Seventh Heaven.”  Atour best creative moments, we felt we were channeling some kind of heavy truth,and we sincerely hope the listeners will feel that. 

Much Love,

Beach House