Episode 218: David Bazan on 20 Years of 'Headphones'

Though a rather one-off side-project, David Bazan says his Headphones LP may be his most stressful artistic expression. Though the band Pedro the Lion was his breadwinning endeavor at the time, he admits to losing interest in guitar, album by album. Suddenly, dabbling in synthesizers led to not just a new avenue for songwriting, but a borderline obsession, bringing his gear everywhere from lakeside family vacations to vacant movie theatre parking lots in order to perfect these unconventional sounds, alone. Putting the album to tape was a whole other hill to climb, leading to David staying up several days straight, attempting to finish incomplete songs literal minutes before the rest of his band would hear them for the first time, and then record them. But fast-forward to now, and the lone Headphones album is regarded as a crucial corner of David's discography, one that he's now revisiting with a new deluxe 20th anniversary vinyl edition, available in multiple color variants, from both Suicide Squeeze and Undertow. On this episode, David gives us the how's, where's and why's on the entire Headphones experience, two decades removed. Catch Pedro the Lion opening for Grandaddy this fall, as well as live streams of their 30th anniversary performances. Details, tickets and more are at  pedrothelion.com.