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You Say I Romanticize<\/i> was assembled over eighteen months, with Mondal and Schnug remaining committed to the DIY approach that has long defined Sweeping Promises. They refused to hand the record over to outside producers or studios, in favour of their at-home set-up that shaped every stage of the process, embracing the spontaneity and control that comes with making music on their own terms. This ethos also extended into their single \u201cCocoon<\/a>\u201d, with the band soldering hundreds of their own instrument cables. \u201cHand over the wires \/ Hand me those pliers \/ Hand me that string,\u201d Mondal sings on the track, with their handmade cables strewn erratically around her in the music video like a spider in its web.<\/p>\n \u201cWe love the idea of the amateur,\u201d Schnug says. \u201cThe number one most important quality of music that I look for is that the listener can imagine themselves being able to do it. It has to be close enough to the ground that you can see how human limbs did that.\u201d Despite their reputations as a fiercely immediate live band, neither musician would describe the record as raw. \u201cOur music is really constructed,\u201d Schnug says.<\/p>\n Rather than chasing technical perfection, Sweeping Promises are interested in preserving the experience of people working together in a room. Over the past several records, Schnug has developed an increasingly idiosyncratic recording philosophy that rejects many of the conventions of modern rock production altogether, and is known for having recorded past albums with a single mic, right off the floor. \u201cI\u2019m not a big believer in computer beautification,\u201d he says, \u201cscooting notes or overly smoothing things. We just kind of let it rip.\u201d<\/p>\n While the band still keeps the recording process minimal,\u00a0You Say I Romanticize\u00a0<\/i>is one of their most thoughtfully meticulous records yet. Layers of guitars and ghostly vocal doubles create an atmosphere that feels dynamic. It\u2019s for those tired of pristine fidelity and who would rather feel like they are in the studio with the band, hearing the recording unfold in the environment that surrounds them.<\/p>\n \u201cI despise stereo and its concept in rock music. I\u2019m interested in a magical room that is just one position and mono. I\u2019m interested in recording resonances rather than direct sound. I think that\u2019s political,\u201d Schnug laughs. \u201cRecording in a space with a two-to-three-second reverb time, also where no one has any interiority. Even headphones can cause someone to be too in their own head and can self-implode.\u201d It\u2019s a technique that works, as their house in the suburbs of Lawrence has become something of a hidden waypoint for touring musicians, with Schnug producing dozens of records for artists including\u00a0Spread Joy<\/a>,\u00a0Optic Sink<\/a>, and whoever else passes through town.<\/p>\n While many studios isolate musicians from one another during the recording process, Sweeping Promises lean into what engineers typically try to eliminate: bleed. Instruments spill into the vocal mics and the room\u2019s echoes and vibrations become an integral part of the album. \u201cResonance in hidden chambers would be the tagline for this album,\u201d Modal says. \u201cWe\u2019re not sound purists, but I don\u2019t want immaculate overdubbing; it speaks to my fractured sense of self, and I don\u2019t need to replicate my voice in the exact same way on every take. I can\u2019t even have both headphones on while I\u2019m singing. I want to be in this room, react to it, and translate it into the mic.\u201d<\/p>\n I begin to study the room the band is calling in from. Books line the wall behind Mondal and Schnug, an appropriate backdrop for a record shaped heavily by literature. While Mary Shelley\u2019s\u00a0Frankenstein\u00a0<\/i>inevitably looms over discussions of the album, it was another of her novels that directly inspired it. \u201cI gravitated more towards\u00a0The Last Man<\/i><\/a>,\u201d Mondal says. \u201cIt was equally prophetic.\u201d Published in 1826 after the deaths of Shelley\u2019s husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and several close friends,\u00a0The Last Man\u00a0<\/i>imagines a world devastated by plague.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n