Crown the Empire have just dropped their new album ‘Sudden Sky’, out now via Rise Records. Billed as “a digital representation of who we are at this moment in time,” here’s everything you need to know about their revealing new full-length, as told by guitarist Brandon Hoover.
The album was written and recorded over a year and a half in between tours around the world. We wrote in the desert out in Joshua Tree, on the bus while touring the United States, AirBnB’s, hotels, apartments, and multiple studios in Hollywood.
For the album artwork, we 3D-scanned our bodies and put them into a digital environment to create our own version of an art piece. All of our individual facial expressions, body positions and clothing, represent the emotions we felt during the album process.
The song ‘BLURRY (outofplace)’ went through four different versions of vocals before we gave up on it. During our last month in the studio, we decided to give it one more shot and brought in Micah Premnath who co-wrote ‘Back To You’ by Selena Gomez. Once it was finished, it turned out being our favourite song off the new album.
The chorus for the song ‘MZRY’ was originally in 4/4 but was changed to 3/4 at the last second to give it the vibe of the Johnny Trilogy from our old records. Once we did that the song morphed into a hybrid of the old and new CROWN sound. If it wasn’t for that decision, I don’t know if the song would have made the album, or been finished for that matter.
The last song we finished on the album was actually the intro ‘(X)’, which means unknown. We wanted Andy’s monologue to have the vibe of Mr. Robot and Fight Club. Musically we took inspiration from Run the Jewels.
WZRDBLD, who produced the new record, came up with the album title ‘Sudden Sky’ before any of the music was even created. It means that you could be here one moment and gone the next. That title helped set the tone for the entire recording process.
Taken from the August issue of Upset. Crown The Empire’s album ‘Sudden Sky’ is out now.
