One of Belong‘s hallmarks — perhaps the band’s only one — is their elusivity. Michael Jones and Turk Dietrich shared the project’s first album, October Language, in 2006, unleashing waves of distorted, galactic synths that bridged the beatific world of ambient with noise’s cathartic menace. Common Era arrived five years later, and the duo’s sophomore album became a cult sensation for its playful treatment of gothic sounds — here, post-punk was double and triple-exposed into a weightless new form. Then, like the dreams their music often felt custom made to soundtrack, Belong disappeared. For over a decade, it seemed as though they’d said everything they’d needed to.

In fact, Belong never stopped; the pair working diligently in the shadows. Realistic IX, announced this year, arrives today via the band’s longtime label kranky. The new project is Belong at their most indefatigable: on songs like “Souvenir” and “Difficult Boy,” early My Bloody Valentine is channeled in the singed guitar riffs while motorik drum patterns — the most intense on any Belong project — pump the blood in ways previous albums did not. But it’s the nods to Belong’s foundation, noisy instrumentals such as “AM PM” and “Crucial Years,” that help put Realistic IX in Belong’s firm tradition of excellence.

“It isn’t important to sound different, and changing album to album isn’t a conscious decision,” Michael tells me over email. Turk agrees: “We do have an inclination to not repeat ourselves but I think it happens naturally over time as our interests evolve and grow.” In a rare interview, Belong discuss the 13 years between their last two albums, trying new things, and resisting the shoegaze label.

The FADER: First, the obvious one: why has it been 13 years since the last Belong album?

Turk: We actually never left the Belong project. We’ve been working on music for Belong since the release of Common Era. The music that is on Realistic IX is material that we worked on over the last few years. The music that we worked on prior to R IX was material that we decided wasn’t good enough to release.

Michael: We’ve been working together for the past 13 years. It’s just that an album’s worth of songs we wanted to release didn’t come together. So there is a lot of material that has been scrapped — finished songs, unfinished songs, rough demos, abandoned sessions.

How did the writing process for the new album develop over time?

Michael: The new album started with a batch of songs with vocals written around 2019/20. Next, some instrumentals. Then rewriting on the vocal songs. It was good to come back to that first set of songs. After a break, it was clear what was working and what needed to be fixed.

Compared with Common Era, Realistic IX is a much heavier work with a less foggy mix. Did you both set out to explore these more intense textures with this project?

Turk: The goal was to have this album be more direct and up front. These sonic and musical progressions for us are much more natural than you might think because there is all the music we made in between Common Era and Realistic IX that got us to this point… It happened in small steps over that time period.

The label “shoegaze” has always felt lacking when it comes to describing Belong. How do you feel about it, especially now that the genre has found a new young audience?

Turk: Shoegaze is not a genre that I’ve ever been super into. There are some songs and the occasional album that I like, but mostly it has never clicked with me for a variety of reasons. My Bloody Valentine is the exception, but MBV does not sound like any of the other shoegaze bands; they are very much their own thing when compared to the rest of the genre.

Michael: Thanks for saying that because we definitely don’t think of ourselves as a shoegaze band and, aside from a few albums and songs here and there, I don’t really listen to much new or old shoegaze either. I was unaware that the genre was having a revival. I am pretty out of touch, but as far as getting labeled shoegaze… Just the other day, I was talking to Bryan Funck and I mentioned something about metal, and he said, “I don’t see Thou as a metal band,” and I was thinking, “C’mon Bryan,” but I totally understand where he is coming from. When someone tags us with shoegaze, even though I think it doesn’t exactly fit, I get why.

How do you approach lyrics for a project like this, where voices have a wispy quality that can’t be deciphered?

Michael: Lyrics are hard, song titles are hard, a lot of time is spent on each. When I’m listening to music, the lyrics are the last thing I connect with, if I do at all. I don’t really care what they are as long as they aren’t distracting. I don’t want some line or word to come along and take me out of a song. So even though the vocals are intentionally obscured, the words are labored over.

What’s the future of Belong? Do you have plans to keep making music together, or could it be another decade-plus between albums?

Turk: We are always working on music. The next release will happen when we fall on a group of songs that we really like. No idea what that timeline will be.

Michael: I would say it will not take that long. New songs are being worked on now. But we thought we were already half way done with a new album before Common Era was released.