Silk Screens is a behind the scenes look at the making of a track.

In this edition, the Portland-based duo Pure Bathing Culture discuss the making of their latest single “Pendulum,” from their forthcoming debut LP, Moon Tides.

Dan: “Pendulum” came about during the summer of 2011 right as we were just finishing up recording our EP. I wrote the music to the song while on tour in England with Vetiver. We were playing at XOYO in London and I had some time to kill after sound check and ended up writing the riff in the green room. I quickly recorded it on the built in mic on the computer with garage band and titled it “London Song.”

Sarah: I had been thinking about pendulums and had written a bit about them while we were on that tour. After we returned to Portland, I wrote the lyrics to the verses, Dan came up with “and now you’re going to swing like a pendulum” and we finished the rest of the lyrics together. It was weird because after that we started seeing so many things about pendulums.

Dan: Thematically and lyrically it’s probably the darkest one on the record. The song is really a warning about falling into negative cycles that you can’t break free from.

So far as it’s place in the record, it was the first one we wrote and also the first one we recorded for the full length album. We didn’t originally conceptualize to do so, but we pretty much ended up recording the songs in the order they were written. So, some how the song “Pendulum” must have played a role in helping us to proceed intuitively through the recording process in that way.

All of the tracks including vocals were recorded over the course of one day. All guitars, keyboards, and drum machines are recorded direct. Microphones are used only on Sarah’s voice and cymbals. This became the template for every song on the record.

So strangely, by not heeding our own advice in regards to patterns and cycles perhaps we found our selves comfortably existing in one.

Moon Tides is out on August 19th via Memphis Industries (UK) & August 20th via Partisan Records (US).