Southern California native John Cudlip started off as a student of textured guitar music, Cudlip released his debut as Launder, the Pink Cloud EP, in 2018. Produced by Day Wave's Jackson Phillips, it included contributions from DIIV's Zachary Cole Smith on guitar. Only expanding upon his sound thereafter, Cudlip had accumulated dozens of demos by the time he signed with Ghostly International in 2019. Narrowing material down to 13 tracks and a full hour, Launder's first album was recorded in Van Nuys, California, at New Monkey Studio (once owned by Elliott Smith). Joining him in the studio was a backing band and Sonny DiPerri, whose engineering résumé already included such melodic distortion specialists as My Bloody Valentine, Trent Reznor, and DIIV. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi