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Under the Radar

Deep in the Iris is the third studio album by Canadian experimental pop/art rock band Braids. It was released by Arbutus Records worldwide, excluding Canada where it was released by Flemish Eye, on 28 April 2015. It has been described as the band's "sunniest and most immediate record".

Braids began writing Deep in the Iris in tandem with their second album Flourish // Perish, performing unreleased new songs live in 2012 and 2013, with "Blondie" being the earliest-surviving song to be included on the album. Writing and recording officially began in March 2014 for seven weeks in a cabin in woods near Prescott, Arizona, marking the first time the band had worked on an album outside Canada. After recording Flourish // Perish in their windowless garage in Montreal, Arizona was chosen because the band "wanted to leave winter, to leave what we were familiar with, to go to a place where we felt sunlight on our face". Taylor Smith revealed that the band focused on the process of songwriting, rather than the expectation which comes with recording an album, explaining, "the expectation was to have a beautiful experience together and if a record comes out of that beautiful experience, great!". In the first few weeks in Arizona, the band "just went on walks, had talks, roasted marshmallows and chopped firewood and went grocery shopping and cooked meals" in an effort to reconnect after touring Flourish // Perish. The band interrupted the writing process to tour across the United States with Wye Oak for three weeks in May 2014, debuting new songs "Taste" and "Letting Go".

The band cut back on the electronic elements which featured on Flourish // Perish and instead refocused on using live instruments, as on their debut album Native Speaker. "Really cool, interesting-sounding pianos" were utilised. Further sessions followed in Delhi, New York and Putney, Vermont in June and July 2014. The "space and beauty" of the retreat in New York, coupled with the energy provided by the presence of the band's friends from Montreal and New York City, helped evolve "Happy When" and "Miniskirt", the latter being the final song written for the album. The album was tracked in Vermont in a turn-of-the-century house, specifically chosen because it contained a Steinway piano. Three additional songs were recorded, but were left off the album. "Sweet World" (played live regularly in 2013 and 2014) was considered for the album, but "just didn’t fit with the whole vision of it".

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