Juan Vargas, the Texas-based multi-instrumentalist behind the ethereal shoegaze project Last Days of Heaven, is venturing into new sonic realms with his latest EP, Out of Body. Released on Valentine’s Day via New Morality Zine, this introspective work reflects Vargas’s ongoing evolution as an artist, combining raw, bedroom-recorded intimacy with expansive, emotionally rich soundscapes. The project deftly explores themes of aging, guilt, and the struggle to release the past, capturing a haunting exploration of vulnerability and resilience. With influences ranging from Slint to My Bloody Valentine, the EP offers a melancholic, kaleidoscopic journey through love, loss, and self-discovery. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Juan Vargas just days before the EP was released to discuss the creative process behind Out of Body, the next chapter of Last Days of Heaven, and so much more.
Jeromme Graham: Your new EP Out of Body explores a range of raw, introspective themes like aging, guilt, and letting go of the past. What personal experiences or emotions inspired this project?
Juan Vargas: That’s interesting because I don’t think that I pieced it together like that before. Whenever I write music or record a track, it’s like my therapy. And I’m sure it’s the case for many people when they write or commit to a song, they realize that they are unraveling or unpacking this stuff that’s been compartmentalized, like traumas or deep-rooted issues. They just come out in the songwriting process.
I started going to therapy more seriously recently. So that being said, the songs indeed are me reliving past memories or trying to let the past go, like abandonment issues or my anxious attachment style. I feel like those things that are really true and close to me, come out in the songwriting process.
Jeromme Graham: Did it feel cathartic to get that out and express it in the music?
Juan Vargas: I think it just happens naturally. Sometimes these songs could take months where it’s like, I have an idea and then I just kinda let it be because I don’t know where it’s going to go or what direction it’s gonna head in. I could be driving in the car and I could be like, oh, this is the bridge or these are the lyrics. They just suddenly come to me.
It’s just a natural progression the way I get through a song. And then, once the song is done, I start to decipher the meaning. So it’s not so much that it’s cathartic. It’s more like an exploration, and there’s a self-realization that comes from it. That’s probably the opposite of catharsis because I think it’s maybe the source that could have been cathartic, but doing this is a natural way of exploring things that are in my mind.
Once I let it out and figure out what the song is about, then I go and look at the lyrics. It’s a cool process of navigating through each song because it’s like I’m figuring out what the actual meaning is as I’m going along.
Jeromme Graham: I’ve never heard it put quite that way before but that does make a lot of sense. I’ve listened to “Nothing Left to Torture” and “Pain Machine” and I was curious, how do you balance achieving a sense of intimacy in the music and that raw bedroom sound while also still creating big expansive, atmospheric textures in the music?
Juan Vargas: I think that’s one of those things where you’re like a kid in a sandbox. You have all of these tools or toys in front of you. Let’s say you want a string section, that may not be feasible for an office setup or wherever you record your music. But now, I feel like you have access to so many things. I’ll play actual bass or actual guitar, but then, you know, I’ll grab a MIDI keyboard and see what kind of sounds I can come up with. With the bedroom aesthetic, it’s all DIY. But then as you explore the song, you realize, hold on. I could add like 10 instruments here.
And then you experiment. I think there’s a fine line where something makes the song better or takes away from the song. Sometimes I feel like the maximalist approach does work a lot, even if it’s bedroom pop. There’s a lot of musicians nowadays where you know the music is being made in a bedroom, but they put so many layers to it. Alex G still does it now and he used to do it over a decade ago where if you listen closely to each song, you’re like holy shit. The melody might be very simple, but the way that it’s layered and textured sometimes feels like it veers toward a maximalist sense of production. Sometimes that works well and I love that because a song can become bombastic.
It can be very climactic or it could be very dissonant. Sometimes when you allow yourself to add a lot of layers and add more complexity to something that could be simple, If we think about bedroom pop as being like AM radio or lo-fi, then when you add all these layers, you can make it like THX or, like, Dolby. All the layers can just make the song more grand, and I do like that sometimes.
Jeromme Graham: You’re right. There’s a bit of a fine line there, and you ultimately have to play around to find it. Because it’s very easy to go overboard with it, but you won’t know until you get in there and try.
The influence of artists like My Bloody Valentine and Deer Hunter is evident in your music. How did groups like that shape your approach to the EP? And do you feel like there are any other acts that kind of you drew influence from?
Juan Vargas: I feel like for anybody that does something even remotely dream pop or like shoegaze, go-to influences are immediately gonna be Cocteau Twins or My Bloody Valentine. But I think that goes to show how influential that genre of music was even though at the time, it was kind of like a blip in the scope of popular rock music. I’ve always gravitated to things that are very ethereal and beautiful and have this heavenly texture where things can float and feel hazy.
It’s like the push and pull of melody and dissonance. I always felt that was interesting because psychologically, I felt that having something so pristine and clean goes against nature. Because in nature and society, we put ourselves into these boxes. You know? We wear these masks. But deep down inside, you know, we’re just animals. We’re very primal. We’re very violent. And I feel like music can be an expression of all these things that are happening.
Shoegaze is definitely a sound that has always been a big one for me ever since I heard the first My Bloody Valentine album in around 2007 or 2008. I was kinda blown away because that one sounded more like The Jesus and Mary Chain and not just like a wall of sound like Loveless was. Slowdive has always been a big one for me. Another big one has always been Sparklehorse because Mark Linkous was always able to make that kind of delicate sound within the scope of analog noise and you could almost feel the texture in his music.
“Nothing Left to Torture” probably sounds a little bit more like it’s influenced by My Bloody Valentine. And I think “Pain Machine” is probably more in the Sparklehorse vein to where it’s like, oh, I’m gonna add these harmonies on my vocals to try to make it sound really pretty. But then the lyrics are really depressing and about the end of a relationship and hence the ending of the song, where it just goes to straight noise, and the track kind of just breaks down.
My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Sparklehorse, I would say a little of a Slint too, but these are just bands that I listen to. The music that you make is always gonna be a mixture of a melting pot of what you listen to.
Jeromme Graham: It feels like in these past few years that shoegaze is really having a moment. Why do you think that is? Or do you not think so?
Juan Vargas: I think a part of me would say it’s gotta have some part to do with TikTok, which is true because I’ve noticed a number of artists where you can see the impact before TikTok and after TikTok. I went to see Slowdive. The last time I saw them was maybe in 2018. And it was in a venue that held a thousand capacity and there were maybe 750 people there.
But then, I heard that they were on TikTok, some of their newer songs were on there, or maybe even “Alison” from Souvlaki. When they came back here, they came to a venue with a capacity of about 3800 and it was sold out. People were selling tickets for $300 that were actually selling. I don’t think it was just that they put out a new album. The resurgence is because of social media and because the younger generation has gravitated towards this music that’s like a diamond in the rough.
Shoegaze has always been there for some of us, but the younger generation has just discovered it and they’re all about it now. I don’t know if you heard that Whirr put out a new album over the holidays and now they’re going to play shows. The last time I saw Whirr was like a decade ago and then it felt like they disappeared. Now they’re playing shows again and those shows are selling out. Again, I think it’s just like fashion, it comes and goes. People aren’t wearing skinny jeans as much anymore. They’re wearing baggy stuff, so it feels like it’s fashion-wise, it’s like the nineties. Thirty years ago, shoegaze was a little bit more popular. Now it’s back in style again, which is cool. You know? Because then you get to see those artists get another breath of life, which is awesome.
Jeromme Graham: Definitely. They can tour and play to new audiences. It also is the right time for projects like Out of Body to resonate with people that are new to shoegaze, but also people that have been listening to the genre for the past thirty years as well. Speaking of your EP, it marks a bit of a new chapter for you. What were some of the biggest risks you took making the transition from your moniker The Secret Truth of the Universe to Last Days of Heaven?
Juan Vargas: I think the biggest risk was that mostly what I did before could be considered a solo project. And by all intents, it still is. But I felt like I wanted to do a rebranding in terms of image and aesthetic to where it felt new for me since I had been doing the previous moniker for so many years. And I wanted a little bit of a push and motivation to be excited about something new, so I figured I’d just start a new project.
I wanted to have more collaboration because I understand that being a solo artist and having a limitation of resources, I wanted to push myself and be open to more people contributing actual instrumental parts. So I had somebody play bass on one of the tracks. I had one of my buddies, Jasper, play saxophone and he played synths and guitars on another track.
Then I had another artist, Almma, who did vocals on the last two tracks on the album, which for me is great. I think “Nothing Left to Torture,” for example, is more shoegaze and I put a lot of textures and layers as a means to mask my voice and to let the instrumental shine. But I think with the last two tracks, they are more dream-pop and noise-rock. I felt like collaborating with Almma was the best idea because her vocals shine. I don’t wanna say her vocals were quite like Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, but something to where the music sounds more like that instead of like Whirr. Collaboration is something that has greatly enhanced these new tracks. And I’m working on new material and some of the new material has a friend of mine playing drums, which is making the tracks sound better.
Jeromme Graham: Something to look forward to! I did see that Nick Bassett of Whirr mixed the EP. What was it like getting to work with and bounce ideas off Nick?
Juan Vargas: I think Nick is so talented, not just in the technical realm, but in that if you give him some creative freedom and just give him or you can just give him an image or a thought, and he’ll take that and run with it and create something amazing just because he’s so creative. By hiring him, I knew that the tracks were gonna be in good hands because I knew these tracks sounded solid, but they needed something more. They needed another brain to figure out how to bring out some of these instruments or how to create more atmospherics. He was great at creating atmosphere and adding dynamics to the track. Plus, he’s very easy to work with and he rarely says no or rarely has pushback. He usually is as facilitating as imaginable for any aspects of the mixing and mastering.
JG: Finally, with Out of Body releasing on February 14th, an emotional and symbolic day for many, do you see any connections between the themes of your EP and the idea of love or loss associated with Valentine’s Day?
Juan Vargas: I mean, what are the songs that resonate most with us? They’re the tracks that make you feel so much. I would say half of the time the songs that I love, they’re about mourning or loss. For some reason, we tend to gravitate towards songs about sadness because they really create this deep connection within us.
I don’t think there’s any irony behind songs about the loss of love or sadness being released on Valentine’s Day, even though that’s the polar opposite of what the day is about. That’s a circle of life thing, you know, where we get to have love and we get to lose love. I think the central theme of all of this is that we all have the capacity to love. And where I am in my life now, I’m very appreciative of all of those moments.
I think it’s just all about the love you have here, the love that you lost, that you appreciated, etc. So I think it’s kinda cool. You know? Actually, it was Nick who said we’re gonna do this on Valentine’s Day, and I was like, okay. Totally. That’s fine with me.
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