The fourth album from San Diego-bred five-piece Delta Spirit, Into the Wide was born in a flood-ruined, cave-like, rat-colonized room in the band’s new hometown of Brooklyn. After spending more than a year writing together in the windowless studio they rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy wreaked its havoc, the group resurfaced with a batch of demos and headed to Georgia to team up with Ben Allen (a producer/engineer known for his work with artists like Animal Collective and Deerhunter). Recorded near an old shipping yard in Atlanta, Into the Wide intimately captures the claustrophobia of Delta Spirit’s creative space, turning that tension into a moody meditation on the restlessness of city life, growing older, and longing for escape. With its lyrics largely inspired by the murder ballads of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, Into the Wide proves more darkly charged than anything the band’s ever offered up before but—thanks to their command of both indelible melody and sprawling, atmospheric arrangements—ultimately emerges as Delta Spirit’s most gloriously heavy album so far.
For Delta Spirit (vocalist/guitarist Matt Vasquez, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Kelly Winrich, guitarist Will McLaren, bassist Jon Jameson, and drummer Brandon Young), the raw, nervy energy running throughout Into the Wide stems partly from the band’s return to the more free-and-easy approach they embraced in making their debut album, 2008’s Ode to Sunshine. “On that first record we had no idea what kind of music we were going to make—we just went up to a cabin and pressed record and went for it without any fear,” says Young, who sparked the founding of Delta Spirit back in 2005, when he spotted Vasquez busking in the streets of downtown San Diego. So while Into the Wide continues to push forward in exploring new sonic territory (as on 2010’s History From Below and the band’s self-titled 2012 release), Delta Spirit have also restored a sense of kinetic flow to their communal songwriting process. “When we were writing there were these songs that we really labored over and tried to polish,” says McLaren. “But in the end, those songs didn’t belong to us. The tracks that make up the album were the ones that happened quickly and naturally and just instantly felt good to us.”

The fourth album from San Diego-bred five-piece Delta Spirit, Into the Wide was born in a flood-ruined, cave-like, rat-colonized room in the band’s new hometown of Brooklyn. After spending more than a year writing together in the windowless studio they rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy wreaked its havoc, the group resurfaced with a batch of demos and headed to Georgia to team up with Ben Allen (a producer/engineer known for his work with artists like Animal Collective and Deerhunter). Recorded near an old shipping yard in Atlanta, Into the Wide intimately captures the claustrophobia of Delta Spirit’s creative space, turning that tension into a moody meditation on the restlessness of city life, growing older, and longing for escape. With its lyrics largely inspired by the murder ballads of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, Into the Wide proves more darkly charged than anything the band’s ever offered up before but—thanks to their command of both indelible melody and sprawling, atmospheric arrangements—ultimately emerges as Delta Spirit’s most gloriously heavy album so far.
For Delta Spirit (vocalist/guitarist Matt Vasquez, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Kelly Winrich, guitarist Will McLaren, bassist Jon Jameson, and drummer Brandon Young), the raw, nervy energy running throughout Into the Wide stems partly from the band’s return to the more free-and-easy approach they embraced in making their debut album, 2008’s Ode to Sunshine. “On that first record we had no idea what kind of music we were going to make—we just went up to a cabin and pressed record and went for it without any fear,” says Young, who sparked the founding of Delta Spirit back in 2005, when he spotted Vasquez busking in the streets of downtown San Diego. So while Into the Wide continues to push forward in exploring new sonic territory (as on 2010’s History From Below and the band’s self-titled 2012 release), Delta Spirit have also restored a sense of kinetic flow to their communal songwriting process. “When we were writing there were these songs that we really labored over and tried to polish,” says McLaren. “But in the end, those songs didn’t belong to us. The tracks that make up the album were the ones that happened quickly and naturally and just instantly felt good to us.”

Members

• Jonathan Jameson
• Matthew Vasquez
• Kelly Winrich
• Brandon Young
• William McLaren