After three years with tireless shoegaze champions Sonic Cathedral, London trio deary have announced they are leaving the label. In an Instagram post, they thanked Slabel head Nathaniel Cramp for everything he’d done for them and enumerated all their releases under the marque, including two proper EPs – 2023’s deary and 2024’s Aurelia – and a slew of singles, all of which took them from unknowns to being the new face of British dreampop.

For their next step – specifically the release of their debut full-length album – they’ll turn to indie powerhouse Bella Union, who will usher Birding into the world on April 3. It’s a fitting home, considering the outsized influence that label boss Simon Raymonde’s former band has had on deary.

Regarding the overt avian themes on the new record, singer Dottie Cockram explains:

I got really into reading about birds and all these historical stories and poetry about them. You find these beautiful images of birds that represent hope, but they’re also animals. Some of them, like vultures and crows, are a sign of death to some people. They represent all these different elements, which I think sum up a lot of the album.

Dottie Cockram, deary

Guitarist Ben Easton adds:

The album is all about human consequences. Consequences on each other, our own minds, on mental health, on nature. One idea that was quite tangible to us is the idea that humans have the biggest consequences on innocent, vulnerable, sentient beings, like birds, for example. It goes with the vulnerability of our inner selves, or the child in us, which pairs with the album art—a kid trying to fly. It’s very ethereal, but it also has a lot of sad undertones to it as well.

Ben Easton, deary

Maybe they should tour with Shearwater, they can stay up talking birds all night with Jonathan Meiburg.

And finally, about the growth in the band from their early EPs to now, Dottie adds:

I think with any artist, your first EPs are the first steps into what your sound is going to eventually become. With the album, we’ve grown up so much. Harry (Catchpole, drums) joined last year, and we’re a little bit of a family now, and we really understand each other. I remember us being in the studio, we were looking through some demos for this record, and I turned to Ben, and said, ‘I think we actually need to decide what we want deary to sound like and not follow these roadmaps. We need to think a bit more decisively about these songs and be really sure that we know where we want them to go.’

Dottie Cockram, deary

The first preview track from the album is “Seabird”, which comes with a video that – despite all the light effects – was not directed by JJ Abrams.