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\n\tIan Shelton doesn\u2019t remember why he was at the airport that day. Maybe to visit his girlfriend, or perhaps a tour stop with his band, Militarie Gun<\/a>. Regardless, he was feeling decidedly even-keeled when he recorded the tragic voice memo that kicks off the band\u2019s latest record, God Save the Gun,<\/em> out Oct. 17 via Loma Vista Recordings.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen she asked me how things have been, I didn\u2019t want to be dramatic,\u201d Shelton, 33, intones over elegiac strings on opener \u201cPt. II.\u201d \u201cI have to say, things have not been great. Honestly, I\u2019ve been\u2026\u201d The faux voicemail cuts off then, artfully leading into the chant-along, degenerate anthem of a single, \u201cB A D\u00a0 I D E A.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI was probably in a perfectly fine position at the time of recording that voicemail,\u201d Shelton says, Zooming from in his L.A. bedroom, fresh off a tour of Australia with post-hardcore band Touch\u00e9 Amor\u00e9. \u201cBut that\u2019s the way that it always feels. That was about embracing my own dramaticism, just laying out the stakes of the world that the record lives in. I\u2019m always living in this pressure vortex that I\u2019ve created for myself. I tell myself I\u2019m having a hard time, even if I\u2019m not. I\u2019m kind of undermining and sabotaging my own happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFrom the outside, that might seem a funny outlook for the leader of a band that\u2019s been on the ascent since dropping their 2023 debut LP, Life Under the Gun<\/em><\/a>, to the acclaim of, well, just about everyone<\/em>. Along with rave reviews, the record earned them some prominent fans, like Post Malone, Shooter Jennings, and Modest Mouse. Since, Shelton and the rest of the crew \u2014 guitarists William Acu\u00f1a and Kevin Kiley, bassist Waylon Trim, and drummer David Stalsworth \u2014 have toured relentlessly, honing their sound from what was once a delightfully DIY deluge to something more akin to the Beatles in a rage room.\u00a0<\/p>\n