\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen Jay Buchanan<\/a>, the full-throated frontman of rock band Rival Sons<\/a>, set out to make his first solo album, Weapons of Beauty<\/a><\/em>, he knew he needed privacy to write. Buchanan took that idea to the extreme, however, and went into full isolation for three months in California\u2019s Mojave Desert.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI spend so much time away from home that I find myself incapable of ignoring my family in order to create. I\u2019m not one of those people that can disassociate to write when the kids are on the other side of the door,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s Nashville Now<\/em> podcast. \u201cIn order to tune in, I have to be able to tune out, completely.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs it happened, Buchanan\u2019s childhood friend, an exotic reptile breeder who spends his days in the desert mating reticulated pythons and the like, had the perfect place: an underground bunker. Buchanan was filming his role in the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere<\/a><\/em> at the time (he plays the singer <\/a>of the Stone Pony house band, alongside members of Greta Van Fleet), and when production wrapped, he flew home to California, loaded his van with provisions, and left for the Mojave.<\/p>\n \n\tThe bunker, accessible only by walking down a long tunnel, didn\u2019t have cell service, running water, or electricity. Or even a lock on its door. During Covid, someone broke in and the door jamb was never repaired. Buchanan took precautions.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI spent those three months down in this hole in the desert unable to lock the door at night,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, I\u2019d put water bottles in front of it, and my pistol under my pillow. It was trippy.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe result of the experiment yielded intense songs like \u201cTrue Black\u201d and \u201cDeep Swimming,\u201d which he went on to record later with producer Dave Cobb in Savannah, Georgia. Says Buchanan, \u201cI didn\u2019t set out for it to sound that crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n