Your Power is 100 percent analog

Crime Desire has returned from a tour with fellow cave-dwelling hardcore outfit Head Wound City, which features members of the Locust, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the Blood Brothers.

Crime Desire had been on quasi-hiatus since 2012 (the band’s ten-year anniversary), directing their focus inward, playing only local shows, and releasing a few EPs. They spent the time making sure the right musicians were in place and devoting extra time and energy to their new album, Your Power.

“We were laying low working on the new record and getting the bands lineup right. This most recent lineup is by far the most solid…seems like a new era of the band. We are all excited and are happy to play out as much as possible. The new [album] has received a lot of positive support and has inspired us to get out there more,” writes Crime Desire drummer Matt Ottley in an email.

For their latest album, the first since 2008, Crime Desire’s members, which also includes Colin Tappe on vocals, Daiki Kusuhara on guitar, and Nicholas Friesen on bass, took what they learned from recording with Matt Anderson, founder of Gravity Records (Earthless, Three Mile Pilot, Unwound).

“[Anderson’s] studio was basically a 16-track tape machine and some cheap mics,” writes Ottley, who recorded and mixed Your Power. “The whole experience [recording with Anderson] was so great. There was no pressure at all, and the end result was fantastic. That’s what got my gears rolling on building a similar setup. We bought a Fostex16 tape machine and an old Ramsa mixer and set it up in our practice space. It wasn’t the most ideal setup, but we could spend weeks dialing in drum sounds, trying different mics, and staying 100 percent analog. And for the price of three days at a legit studio, we now own a decent setup that gets better results.”

On July 30, Crime Desire and hardcore band Bleach Everything will play a show at the Ché Café before heading off to Mesa, Arizona to play the King of the Monsters 20th anniversary music fest. Also playing at the fest are hardcore bands Crudos, Chokehold, and Culture.

“[King of the Monsters] was a label from the ’90s that put out a lot of great music. Colin [Tappe] and I became friends in high school trading mix tapes of [King of the Monsters] bands, Unruh, Man is the Bastard, and the Locust. They are a really just a cool label that showcased the Arizona and SoCal scenes. We were all planning on going to the fest so when we were asked [to play] it was a total honor.”

Ottley adds that after the Monsters festival, Crime Desire plans to release a six-song EP. “The band is running on all cylinders and don’t plan on slowing down.”