all under heaven makes magic on ‘What Lies Ahead Of Me’

Photo Credit: Luke Ivanovich

There’s something to be said about a band that names their debut album What Lies Ahead Of Me. Listening to all under heaven’s new record, you get the the sense that the band needed to look to the future. The 4-piece shoegaze band from New Jersey is Nick DeFabritus (guitar/vocals), Michael Cucci (bass), Aaron Brenner (drums) and Jake Rubin (guitar). Their musical history, a selection of demos, singles and EPs scattered over the last seven years, is a collection of emotive shoegaze, with DeFabritus’ voice at the forefront, mixed in a way that it’s never obscured. The lyrics are recollections of loneliness, growth and reflections on those we hold close. Their new album is no different–in that sense, anyway.

“We started putting them all together a few months after Collider came out,” DeFabritus says of the songs on the album. “We started thinking what should we do?” The album is a compilation of old and new songs. “Aaron, our drummer, he wrote two songs, ‘Rolling’ and ‘Demon Time.’ He released them himself under a name called Triple End, probably a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago, and I just liked them a lot,” DeFabritus explains. 

The album opens with “Alone As Ever,” where we’re greeted with slow strummed guitar chords over electronic percussion. “It begins where it ends...in nothingness,” Agent Scully from X-Files says. “Originally it was just an instrumental,” Cucci offers on the opening track. “I thought it would be cool to have a sample over it. The X-Files is my favorite show of all time and for so long now I've been waiting for an opportunity to take a sample from the show and have it in one of our songs.” The song bleeds perfectly into “Receiving Certain Answers.” We get glimpses of optimism in DeFabritus’ voice, as he sings “Do this for the ones I’ll always love.” Still, like all under heaven’s previous material, there’s a feeling of hesitation in the lyrics–-or at least being cautious, yet intentional, about the next move.

Across the album, all under heaven brings in new instrumentation, predominantly synths and electronic drums. The band credits their longtime collaborator Wyatt Oberholzer for some of those ideas. “It's just kind of going with the flow of things, letting things happen naturally,” DeFabritus says of experimenting in the studio, “just trying and see if things work. I wanted it to sound different too.” DeFabritus also notes that the recording sessions for What Lies Ahead Of Me were more collaborative. “Usually I play like all the instruments on all the records,” he says, “but this time–I don't know–I just wanted to be a band.” 

That shift created a spark. Before finishing the album, Oberholzer convinced the band to add an eighth track. “‘Believing’ we made in the studio and I've never done that. I've never just made a song on the fly,” DeFabritus explains. “I don't listen to music that much. I teach music, so after eight hours of work, I don't want to listen to it,” he says. “At the time, I was listening to ‘Just Like Heaven,’ and teaching that song. The intro [of “Believing”] is, kind of, modeled after that song.” he explains. 

“It has a great energy to it. That's the only song on the record that didn't exist at all,” Cucci adds. “We made each part, one at a time, in Pro Tools. It was like how you make a rap song almost. It was just piecing parts together,” DeFabritus chimes in. The band members note that it all started with Nick playing a guitar riff and snowballed from there. DeFabritus says, “No one was questioning anything. When that shit can happen it's like magical, you know.”

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What Lies Ahead of Me is out now on Sunday Drive Records. The album can be purchased on vinyl Bandcamp. Follow all under heaven on Instagram. Go see the band on tour:

6/20: Philadelphia, PA @ Philamoca
6/21: East Haven, CT @ The Beeracks
6/22: New York, NY @ Trans Pecos
6/23: Baltimore, MD @ The Ottobar
6/24: Richmond, VA @ The Camel
6/25: Carrboro, NC @ The Cat’s Cradle
6/27: Jacksonville, FL @ The Walrus
6/28: Atlanta, GA @ 529
7/24: Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
7/25: Columbus, OH @ Donato’s
7/26: Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s Tavern
7/27: St. Louis, MO @ The Sinkhole
7/28: Kansas City, MO @ Encore
7/30: Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head
7/31: Dallas, TX @ Ruins
8/1: Austin, TX @ Mohawk In
8/2: Houston, TX @ Wonky Power
8/3: San Antonio, TX @ B-Side
8/15: Tucson, AZ @ Groundworks
8/16: San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
8/17: Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers
8/18: Costa Mesa, CA @ The Wayfarer
8/20: Sacramento, CA @ The Starlet Room
8/21: San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt
8/24: Portland, OR @ Fixin To
8/25: Seattle, WA @ Substation

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