Deep Sage, Gouge Away’s third studio album, started coming together in 2019 during sound checks and in small pockets of downtime between tours. In early 2020, they demoed with Brok Mende in an unassuming storage unit in Orlando. They pulled influence not only from the nostalgia of the bands they grew up listening to but also developed the sense of urgency, noise, and introspective lyrics they felt most represented them. Those demos helped shape the songs into the finished record that Deep Sage would become. Then everything came to a halt in 2020 when a full year of plans were canceled in an instant. With the rug pulled out from under them, their backs against the wall, and no way to change the situation they were in, the members of Gouge Away had no choice but to go on a hiatus. They moved to different parts of the country and focused on their personal lives, accepting that those songs were never going to see the light of day. But the songs lived as files waiting to be rediscovered and every once in a while, they’d get the urge to listen to them again. On New Year's Eve just before 2022, they decided to reconnect and finish writing the album with Portland, OR becoming their new writing location. While everyone was in town for a writing session, Militarie Gun had a show down the street at Mano Oculta and invited Gouge Away to play a couple of songs during their set as a surprise. It was the first show the band had played in three years and the live debut of “Maybe Blue”. Energized by the reaction, the band finished writing. They had an overabundance of material, slashing songs from the final tracklist left and right. They not only elaborated on the urgent and abrasive qualities they were known for but broadened their melodic traits too. Deep Sage was recorded with Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden East in March 2023 completely analog and almost entirely live. The band recorded together in a live room while Christina was in an isolation booth. Her vocals projected from a monitor so the band could hear her. The goal of recording live was to sound like five friends playing in a room together, just like where they started in Florida. Unpolished and far from being overproduced, this is what the heart of Gouge Away has always been.
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