Beartooth released The Surface on October 13, 2023, through Red Bull Records. Their fifth studio album followed a substantial change in Caleb Shomo’s life: he had stopped drinking and begun writing about the possibility of feeling better. The songs traced that process through its early excitement, difficult adjustments and decisions about what he wanted next.
“Riptide” was the starting point. Shomo quit alcohol in December 2021 and wrote the song a week later, making it the first piece of the new album. He told Apple Music that it established the direction he wanted Beartooth to take. Released as a single in July 2022, it introduced that change well before the rest of The Surface arrived.
Writing without alcohol changed the rhythm of his work. In a 2023 interview with The Spill Magazine, Shomo described stretches of intense concentration followed by periods when he struggled to focus and needed to deal with other parts of his life. At its most productive, the process felt like “lightning in a bottle,” with ideas continuing for weeks. The album took roughly a year and a half to make, with that uneven pace becoming part of the experience.
As the songs developed, he gave his pop influences more room. Shomo told Rock Sound that Ariana Grande had been a major musical influence on “Might Love Myself,” including the freedom he felt during its vocal takes. He connected that confidence to experiencing self-love and wanting to capture it while it was happening. Other songs dealt with practical changes. “Sunshine!” addressed how badly seasonal depression was affecting him in Columbus, Ohio. He later told Apple Music that he moved to Los Angeles seven or eight months after writing it.
Shomo continued to handle the project’s multiple musical and recording roles, sometimes setting up a mobile studio backstage while touring. Bassist Oshie Bichar provided additional production and an outside perspective when Shomo had spent too long hearing a song as its writer, instrumentalist and engineer. Drew Fulk, also known as WZRD BLD, co-wrote “What Are You Waiting For” and “I Was Alive.” Their involvement gave Shomo people to work through ideas with while he remained at the center of the recording process.
“The Better Me” opened another door. HARDY became the first featured guest on a Beartooth album, a step Shomo had avoided across the previous four records because the music felt so personal. He explained to The Spill Magazine that both the song and the collaborator had to justify that decision. After getting to know HARDY, he found a track he wanted to share with him. Its subject was recognizing a change that needed to happen and pursuing it.
The closing song gave the album its clearest destination. “I Was Alive,” written with Fulk, drew on Shomo’s final conversation with his grandfather, who spoke about having lived a full life. In a 2023 Kerrang! interview, Shomo recalled his grandfather’s work as a surgeon, his travels and his interest in other people’s lives. Those memories shaped a song about how Shomo wanted to spend his own remaining time. It was a late addition to the record, but he came to regard it as the “most important part.” Placed last, it ended The Surface with his commitment to living a life he could look back on with pride.
