Produced by Matt Ross-Spang, and featuring eleven new, original songs, The Alien Coast is the first SPATBB album tracked in the band’s hometown of Birmingham, AL. The arrangement allowed the octet to spend more time and tap a broader creative community than ever before, resulting in their most ambitious work to date.
Led by singer and lyricist Paul Janeway - a former bank teller and preacher-in-training who learned to sing in his church choir - the octet explore thrilling new territory on The Alien Coast, a fever dream convergence of soul and psychedelia, stoner metal and funk, animated by the very “fire and brimstone” which Janeway invokes in the album’s opening line. Unlimited studio-time allowed individual members of the band to experiment with synths and samples on The Alien Coast, and even collaborate with Birmingham beatmaker and hip-hop artist Randall Turner.
Janeway cites a similarly disparate range of influences that wove their way into the writing for The Alien Coast, from Greek mythology and dystopian sci-fi, to works of art like Bartolomé Bermejo’s Saint Michael Triumphs over the Devil and 17th century Italian sculpture, to colonial-period history books. “The title actually came from reading about the history of the Gulf of Mexico, which is home for us,” he recalls. “When the settlers—or invaders, really—first came to the Gulf Coast they couldn’t figure out what it was, and started referring to it as the Alien Coast. That term really stuck with me, partly because it feels almost apocalyptic.”
Led by singer and lyricist Paul Janeway - a former bank teller and preacher-in-training who learned to sing in his church choir - the octet explore thrilling new territory on The Alien Coast, a fever dream convergence of soul and psychedelia, stoner metal and funk, animated by the very “fire and brimstone” which Janeway invokes in the album’s opening line. Unlimited studio-time allowed individual members of the band to experiment with synths and samples on The Alien Coast, and even collaborate with Birmingham beatmaker and hip-hop artist Randall Turner.
Janeway cites a similarly disparate range of influences that wove their way into the writing for The Alien Coast, from Greek mythology and dystopian sci-fi, to works of art like Bartolomé Bermejo’s Saint Michael Triumphs over the Devil and 17th century Italian sculpture, to colonial-period history books. “The title actually came from reading about the history of the Gulf of Mexico, which is home for us,” he recalls. “When the settlers—or invaders, really—first came to the Gulf Coast they couldn’t figure out what it was, and started referring to it as the Alien Coast. That term really stuck with me, partly because it feels almost apocalyptic.”
TRACK LISTING
3000AD Mass
Bermejo And The Devil
Minotaur
Atlas
The Last Dance
Ghost In Smoke
Alien Coast
Hunter And His Hounds
Tin Man Love
Popcorn Ceiling
Love Letter From A Red Roof Inn