POD released Circles on November 16, 2018, through Mascot Records. Their tenth studio album was their first for the label and followed 2015’s The Awakening. It also came from a deliberate change in the studio: the San Diego band had opened their writing process to Los Angeles production duo the Heavy.
The opening track, “Rockin’ With The Best,” put rapping at the front of the record. Its official music video, directed by J.T. Ibanez, arrived in September 2018, giving listeners an early introduction to the album.
For vocalist Sonny Sandoval, the significant shift happened before those songs reached the public. Speaking with Audio Ink Radio in June 2018, he described a band willing to let outside collaborators challenge its ideas. POD still wrote their own music, but the sessions left more room for someone else’s instincts. As he put it, “we were more open to change, or at least them adding their feel to it.” He also pointed out that reggae, punk, hardcore and pop had all figured in their music long before these sessions. The ingredients were familiar; the willingness to share decisions was the change.
That approach had practical results. In comments published by JubileeCast ahead of the release, Sandoval explained that the Heavy built atmospheric layers around guitar riffs and helped rework some heavy passages into more immediate hooks. Vocals received similar attention, with three- and four-part harmonies appearing in verses and choruses. Those were specific choices about how a song could work: a guitar idea could invite another texture, and a lead melody could become the basis for several voices.
Sandoval wanted songs that new listeners could connect with while retaining the band’s identity. He said the group hadn’t set out to satisfy any particular metal, hardcore or punk audience. That gave the musicians room to draw on different parts of their background across the album.
“Always Southern California” drew on reggae, while “Soundboy Killa” paired rapping with heavy guitars. The title track gave piano and electronics a prominent place around Sandoval’s verses before its heavier bridge. Its lyrical subject was serious: when Loudwire premiered “Circles” in September 2018, the outlet identified prescription drug abuse as its focus. The song addressed the struggle to escape an unhealthy cycle, making that recurring pattern more than an abstract album title.
Sandoval’s writing followed the music as it developed. In the same comments carried by JubileeCast, he described letting the songs prompt lyrics instead of arriving with a notebook of themes to fit around them. That process led to different kinds of vulnerability across the record. “Fly Away” dealt with needing support from other people, and “Home” grew out of the sudden death of a close friend whom Sandoval regarded as a brother. Placed last on the 11-song album, “Home” gave the record a personal endpoint after the outward confidence of its opener.
The working relationship continued beyond Circles. POD returned to the Heavy while writing Veritas, building songs a few at a time in Los Angeles over several years. Mascot released that album in 2024, extending the collaboration into the band’s next studio record.
