Over the past fifteen years, multi-platinum Southern California outfit Young The Giant have flourished through distinct sonic eras, progressively solidifying themselves as one of the most consistent and influential rock bands of the 21st century.
On their sixth full-length album and Fearless Records debut, Victory Garden (out now), Young the Giant reconnects with the core experience of 100% band collaboration, writing and recording together as a unit in one room. Written largely during writing retreats in Idyllwild and Joshua Tree and produced by Brendan O’Brien (Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden) at Henson Studios in Hollywood, Victory Garden is a cohesive album experience that both inspires and enthralls.
With Victory Garden being unleashed just last week, HEAVY tracked down Sameer Gadhia (lead vocals) and Eric Cannata (guitar) to take is behind the scenes of the making of the album.
Sameer Gadhia: “For us as a band, we’re adults, we have our own lives, and even though we live close, we do hang out, but we don’t get to catch up together as much, or hang out with the people that we’ve known our whole lives as brothers. We’ve known each other since we were 18 years old and in these retreats we did for this album in Idyllwild and Joshua Tree, the main goal really was to just reconnect as a band. And I think a lot of that was through psychedelics.
We definitely went in with the intention we’d have the place and we’d trip together the first day and just talk about all these themes and the ideas and then just go in really, really hard in the studio for the next four or five days. Sometimes we were delirious in all of this, and I think it was an intention too, just to be a little tired. I think that’s when some of this stuff is easier, when you’re not thinking so hard about things.”
Eric Cannata: “I will add to that as a side note of that particular story is us sitting in the jacuzzi in Joshua Tree at the Airbnb and looking up to the sky and seeing a cloud shaped exactly like a phoenix in the sky. And if you look on our vinyl, if you buy our vinyl, Australia, you will find a phoenix painted on the back of the record, or on the inside of the record, and a poem that felt fitting with that phoenix. It disappeared after 30 seconds of looking up into the sky. It was there. I think four out of five of us saw the phoenix, I think maybe one person missed it. But we saw it.”
Sameer: “We definitely did. Henson Studio was a great place to do the record too. We hadn’t had those big studio vibes in a second. And I think what we were also craving is when you go on stage, you’re performing, there’s a level of performance that you do when you’re performing for people. It can’t be matched when you’re just in a room or you’re not trying to impress anyone. I think with us, Brendan [O’Brien, producer] was someone that we looked up to so much. I think Tom Petty was talking about the same thing for…who was it?”
Eric: “The first Rick Rubin record he did.”
Sameer: “Wildflowers! We were trying to impress Brendan, and I think that took out a level of play and adeptness at being in the studio that took us to another level. It was one of those places where I came in one day to do dubs and the guys were like, “Paul McCartney‘s in the room next door”. Those are the kind of things that make you up your game.”
Eric: “Also, one of the first songs we wrote for the record was out in Idyllwild, it’s called Bitter Fruit. We were writing the lyrics to the chorus, and a lot of inspiration for this record, especially in the early writing stage, was from the guy’s kids. Our friend John O’Brien has two twin daughters and right when we were trying to wrap up the chorus and bouncing off each other, his two daughters walked in the room and just sparked finishing that chorus. Then cut to when we’re in Henson, when we’re doing the recording, I remember I re-recorded the solo in the bridge, the fuzz guitar solo for the bridge, around five different times. I’m like, “it’s not right yet. It’s not right yet. It’s not right yet”. And then one day we’re in there and it was the day that some of the guys brought their kids in, and Jacob [Tilley] brought his son Sage and his wife Emma in. It was the only time they came into the studio. They’re in the room, I’m sitting there with the Telecaster and playing the solo…and Jake’s five-month-old baby son is right in the room watching me. And we got the take as his son was watching. I just felt it was fitting for a song like Bitter Fruit to be so ingrained with this energy of kids being a part of it. That song’s about seeing the world through a child’s eyes, and I thought that was a cool moment.”
Order Victory Garden HERE.
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