Meet Chicago four-piece California Wives, who formed back in 2009. Fast forward to 2013 and the band have released their debut album, “Art History”, which was produced by Claudius Mittendorfer (Interpol, Neon Indian, Wild Nothing). 

The album is now available through Create/Control and to help celebrate the release, you can hear the album in full below as you read a track by track breakdown written by the band themselves.

Red Youth
“This song is one of the first songs we assembled Blood together as a group, as opposed to someone just bringing in a demo. I think about that every time I hear this song. I think about practicing in a very tiny practice space trying to make all the parts fit together. That’s ‘Blood Red Youth’.” – JFK

Tokyo
“Tokyo started out as a demo that Jay brought in that, as I remember, was pretty complete front to back. I think the biggest change it got from there to the final recording was in the bridge. There’s a lot of dual guitar work going on that Jay and our original guitarist, Hans, worked out together. So, I think that’s probably the part I remember best because I obviously wasn’t there when Jay did it by himself at our practice space” – DAZ

Marianne
“There’s a lot to talk about in this song. I definitely remember being locked in the vocal booth while I had to do vocals on this, which was kind of scary. Definitely something I won’t forget for a long time. So, if the vocals sound a little angst-y or maybe just panicked, it was because I was locked in a room by myself.” – JFK

Fisher King
“‘Fisher King’ is a song that came from a demo that I probably wrote between 1AM and 4AM in the morning in an old warehouse in Chicago. It was a practice space where probably no one was around at that time. So I was probably in a weird state of mind and I feel like that kind of reflects a little in bit in the kind of odd and ambivalent sound of it.” – DAZ

Los Angeles
“The first time we worked on ‘Los Angeles,’ it was just me and Jay in a room in our practice space, which is a warehouse. Jay was playing bass and I was playing drums. Usually, we might work or start off on a song with a keyboard lead or something like that. So, starting with the rhythm section was a little bit of a different approach for us. It’s a little different than your average California Wives song but I think it sounds good. One of my favorites.” – JJO

Photolights
“We wanted to keep the album version of ‘Photolights’ a more instrumental thing, as opposed to a song led by a vocal or a set of lyrics. I think we wanted to break up the flow of the record a little bit. That’s why we put that really ‘ridiculous’ synth extravaganza, or whatever you want to call it, at the end of the song. We feel like it leads well into the next song, which is ‘Purple’.” – JFK

Purple
“The first version of this song that we recorded had a little bit of a different drum beat. We didn’t hit you straight away with the sixteenth-note rhythm. We must have been trying to lull you to sleep or something. One of the many amazing contributions of the producer of this record, Claudius Mittendorfer, was to say, ‘you know what, you don’t want to mess with people…you want to hit them straight away with the rock!’ And that is why it comes in like a gunshot.” – JJO

Better Home
“‘Better Home’ has one of those happy accidents you hear a lot about in recorded music. One of the synthesizers that we recorded ourselves at our home in Chicago had kind of a funky rhythm to it that was unintentional and we always intended to re-record it. But, of course, by the end of the recording we realized that we loved it and it had to be in there. And Claudius always accommodated us when we wanted something unusual or ridiculous.” – DAZ

Twenty Three
“For ‘Twenty Three,” I would like to just talk about the guitar tone in the beginning. We put as many chorus pedals as we could find, or at least it seemed like it at the time, to make that really washed out, chorus-y, 80s sound. Every time I hear it on the record, I’m really proud of that tone we got and the way Claudius recorded it. He’s a mastermind.” – JFK

The New Process
“‘New Process’ is a song that I’m very proud that Joe and I, as the rhythm section, can pull off because we have a lot of experience playing higher tempo music. Being able to lay back and make something work that’s a little bit more on the slow side and the more nuanced side was not necessarily our forte going back to high school, playing Guns ‘n Roses covers. So, I’m proud we can pull this off.” – DAZ

Light Year
“‘Light Year’ is kind of like magic for me. That sounds lame, but let me explain. When I walked away from the studio on one of the last days we were there, ‘Light Year’ had a completely different format which I liked a lot. But…it wasn’t working and we needed to go in a different direction. Jay went extremely early down to the studio, while I was still in bed or showering or doing something that lazy drummers do. By the time I showed up, the song was completely different and amazing. It was the best surprise ever.” – JJO