Bleached break down five songs from their new album, Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?

Last Friday, Bleached – aka sisters Jennifer and Jessie Clavin – released their third album, Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?.

The record is a triumph for Bleached from both a creative and personal standpoint. From audaciously catchy single Hard To Kill, to The Cure homage Somebody Dial 911, to acoustic-driven closer Shitty Ballet, it boasts top-notch songwriting that pays loving tribute to the sisters’ various inspirations without falling into pastiche. And as the first record the duo wrote after getting sober, Enough is also a personal milestone for the Clavins.

Jennifer and Jessie broke down five songs for Guitar.com, shedding light on their gear, inspirations and experiments in the studio.

Heartbeat Away

Jessie: The transition in this song became more prominent when we were recording. The song and that bridge were already written in the demo, but when it came time to record we recorded each note separately in the bridge. One by one we pieced the notes together and Shane [Stoneback], our producer, edited it to create the picking sound of the chords. This gave us more control over all the tones and volume bringing out more melodic harmonies within the chord. We also added some 12-string on top!

Hard To Kill

Jessie: We used a Korg Delta for synth in this song. As for guitar, we used a Fender Mustang, playing through a Music Man. We wanted to keep it pretty tasteful throughout the song and not overpower [it], so you could hear all the cool percussion. It was one of those songs where I kept telling myself to just wait for the percussion, and then it would sound full and complete! That disco punk sound was a goal of ours, being influenced by bands like The Talking Heads, Delta 5 and ESG.

Somebody Dial 911

Jessie: This song was very much inspired by The Cure! This was a very exciting moment in the recording studio for us that day: We wheeled in a Leslie 122A rotary speaker cabinet and played the dreamy guitar parts. I love old equipment like that. There’s history, good vibes, and it just looks so freakin’ cool when it’s spinning! It was a tight space and not the easiest piece of equipment to move around, but there’s no other sound like it.

Valley To LA

Jennifer: For this song, we were actually messing around at first, impersonating a country-style song like Dolly Parton’s 9 To 5. We ended up liking it so much that we kept rolling with it. Since we were roughly going for that country style, we were inspired to take it down that storytelling path. I like how we’re talking about being young and into punk, but it’s one of the least punk songs on the album. Live, we’ve been playing it faster, and it’s super fun.

Shitty Ballet

Jessie: We used two acoustics for this song… a very shitty one, and a very nice one. The nice one was a Martin I was actually borrowing from a friend, but both are mixed in there together. The quiet-loud dynamic was an idea someone had, and we just went for it and it worked out so great! Ideas in the recording studio should always be ventured, you will never know unless you try it. It may take more hours and time, but you really don’t want to walk away wishing you had tried something.

Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? is out now via Dead Oceans. Bleached will be embarking on a North American tour in the fall. Find tour dates here.