Saosin’s Beau Burchell on Revival, Reflection and Album Number Four
Currently preparing the release of their much-anticipated fourth studio album, Saosin are touring Australia in April to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut. Guitarist Beau Burchell talks with The Note about the making of their new record, how their sound has evolved and his love for Parkway Drive.
Words Will Oakeshott // Image supplied
Orange County’s prog post hardcore virtuosos Saosin have undergone triumphs and turmoil throughout their 23-year career. Their first EP, Translating The Name, is widely regarded as one of the most influential and popular self-released debuts in post-hardcore history. The quintet’s first album achieved worldwide commercial success, with currently more than 70 million streams on Spotify, and with it a global touring journey that would deflate a retired and esteemed airplane pilot.
However, member changes and other distressing factors led to Saosin undergoing multiple degrees of hiatuses. The last few years, though, the globe has (thankfully) witnessed the five-piece completely revitalised, with vocalist Cove Reber making a remarkable return. The band are heading down under to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their self-titled LP, and The Note caught up with guitarist/producer Beau Burchell to discuss the outfit’s history, as well as their exciting future.
“When time is poetry.” – ‘Seven’, Sunny Day Real Estate, Jeremy Enigk, 1994.
Although the four words of lyrical prose above are, in fact, from a different band, who were a part of an earlier and separate era of alternative rock than California’s Saosin, strikingly, there are numerous elements of connection between the two outstanding outfits that are profoundly poetic.
Referring to more recent times, the adored emo anthem ‘Seven’ by Seattle’s Sunny Day Real Estate has become a celebrated cover in Saosin’s live performances. These renditions are illustriously executed by the quintet’s original singer, Anthony Green, who left the band after the release of their debut EP Translating The Name to form prog-rock group Circa Survive in 2004. He then rejoined Saosin in 2014, uplifting them from their hiatus after vocalist Cove Reber’s departure some years earlier.
Sunny Day Real Estate themselves have undergone three separate reunions, and a further interesting detail is that their returning bassist on multiple occasions is Foo Fighters’ very own Nate Mendel.
Intriguingly, Saosin’s story becomes even more complex from here…
The quintet recorded only one full-length album with Anthony Green, entitled Along The Shadow, issued in 2016. After years of sporadic touring and showcases (including an Australian visit), a special series of 20th birthday shows in their home state were announced, and Cove Reber was invited to perform as a special guest.
Fast forward to March 2024, a new band photo was broadcast worldwide featuring Reber and longtime touring guitarist Phil Sgrosso with a caption that simply read “4.0”. This represented the band’s fourth major line-up change, as well as the announcement that album number four was in the works for Saosin.
“When time is poetry.”
As The Note touches base with guitarist/producer Beau Burchell from his Californian home, he is understandably glowing with merriment. The band are currently finishing up the final touches on their brand new single, as well as a significant portion of their fourth full-length – a prospect that Beau is electrified about.
“We're wrapping up the final touches on what's going to be the first single, and then we're going to finish wrapping up the remaining, I guess, five of the six songs,” he states with a beaming smile. “Then we've got about, maybe, like, 25 more demos; we've just been writing! So, we're going to, kind of, sift through those, potentially even write more. And then we're going to try to have the whole record done in the next two months or so.”
For any Saosin devotee or even post-hardcore enthusiast, this information would irrefutably be monumental news. The last time the five-piece recorded compositions for an album with Cove Reber, their second frontman, was for their LP In Search Of Solid Ground, released in 2009. The record was met with mixed reviews, but charted rather well in the US, Japan and Australia. So the concept that new music is on the horizon is truly enthralling.
After a quick calculation of basic mathematics, this writer realised that Mr. Burchell had disclosed that up to 30 songs were in the mix for the new full-length, possibly more. It became quite apparent to ask the necessary question: How will Saosin decipher which tracks make the final cut?
“You have to figure out, like, for instance, let's just say, a song like ‘Sleepers’ or something. I probably wrote two or three songs that sounded like ‘Sleepers’ for the (self-titled) album, and then by the time the record is done, you are kind of like: ‘Well, of those songs, that's kind of like this, this is the best one that should go on the record’. So, we're kind of in that stage as well.”
How has the Saosin sound progressed since In Search Of Solid Ground?
“We've got some songs that are kind of really heavy, riffy songs, you know? A couple of soft ones, mid tempos, and then we put them into, kind of like, different categories.” Burchell explains with an educational undertone – “Once it starts coming to life and taking shape, it's like: ‘Oh, I thought this one was going to be soft, but it actually ended up’…”
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Burchell pauses for a moment, gathering his thoughts, then he encounters a gleeful recollection which overtakes the conversation - “There's actually one song in particular where I wrote it, and I was like, ‘I'm just going to try to do something totally weird for us.’ Imagine if Dashboard Confessional did a collab with Little Peep and it was supposed to be on the self-titled record, what would that sound like? So I started writing [a] kind of weird SoundCloud emo rap type of song. Then me and Phil (Sgrosso, guitarist) started working with it, and now all of a sudden, it's got this crazy Killswitch Engage pre-chorus and a massive chorus. So it just totally changed into, well, I guess this song's like, kind of heavy now (laughs)? So, they kind of take on their own life, you know what I mean? At the end of the day, we try to track more songs that would fit on a record and then we try to pick the best ones to make the record awesome!”
The debut LP was released 20 years ago and undisputably, Planet Earth was a very different place. Strictly speaking, back then, drummer Alex Rodriguez, new guitarist Phil Sgrosso, bassist Chris Sorenson, singer Cove Reber and even Beau himself were distinctive musicians and people as well. For this scribe, it seemed necessary to ask Burchell how the life experiences and forward motion of time have impacted Saosin’s musical landscape and, in particular, Cove’s poetry.
“The lyrics are really good! I'm trying to remember what the song (new single) is about right now…” Beau drifts off, seemingly singing the track in his own mind and interpreting its meaning, then continues, “Yeah, I would say it's very… I mean, honestly, the thing we keep hearing from the people we showed the material to so far, [their reaction is], ‘Man, this is crazy. It's almost like, if the self-titled record would have just come out, or if we would have just like, eliminated 2008 all the way up till now, it's like, BAM! This is where Saosin should have picked up from.’”
He elaborates further: “So, if the self-titled record would have had like a companion that's coming out in a modernised 2026, this is what it would be. So to me, especially the first single, it's very much like… I mean, if you're a Saosin fan, more so if you're a self-titled Saosin fan, I think it's going to be pretty hard not to like it. I don't know, that sounds a little arrogant, but I hear it and I'm like (in a metal growl with a surfer attitude), THIS IS SICK!”
Before the new LP is unleashed upon the universe, the Californians are venturing down under again to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut full-length album this April. Incredibly, it was this many years ago that the band performed at the infamous Taste Of Chaos festival in Australia, and matter-of-factly, Burchell was one of the first interviews this writer ever had the honour of undertaking.
Touching on Burchell’s “metal growl with a surfer attitude”, a remarkable connection becomes apparent with a very celebrated Byron Bay metalcore band for the musician when he ruminates on that tremendous time.
“What a sick tour! Dude, yo, so I've talked about this before. Me and Phil are now, well, it’s been a long time, but since this time, Phil and I are huge Parkway fans! The first Taste Of Chaos thing - so, when we were doing Taste Of Chaos in the US, right? Well, you're in your early 20s, right? And you're just kind of like, ‘Oh man! Like, we're playing these shows, even though we're like, pretty low on the bill, it's like, we're so huge’, right? We're playing with bands like The Used and My Chemical Romance, and they’re in arenas - that's crazy, right? And then we go to Australia - that tour package came over there, right? Then it was like, ‘Wait, everyone else gets bumped down a slot because there's this hardcore band full of surfers named Parkway Drive that's going to be headlining the night or something like that, you know?’”
He recalls all this with a perplexed positivity and is filled with happiness, then details more. “Some of the people we were asking around to, we were like, ‘Dude, who are these guys?’ Their response was, ‘Yeah, they can sell out this venue on their own.’ I mean, what??!! But when they went up there and played, they just destroyed the place. So yeah, we’ve been fans of them ever since.”
“When time is poetry.” – ‘Deep Down’ it’s extraordinary, isn’t it?
Catch Saosin performing at Hindley Street Music Hall on Sunday 26 April. Tickets on sale now at moshtix.com.au.
