Turning the page: California-based Death Valley High brings new music to El Rey Theater

Reyka Osburn days are currently filled with completing tasks to get him ready for tour.

“I’ve been super busy,” he says. “One of the guys had to break with another band. Another guy works in audio and video. We’re all trying to find the time to get together and plan for this short tour.”

Osburn is a member of the California-based doom pop outfit Death Valley High. The band recently released the single, “KCUFF+D & RUFF+D.”

Turning the page: California-based Death Valley High brings new music to El Rey Theater

Osburn and crew will be heading to New Mexico to perform as part of the Merciless Savages 2024 tour, which makes a stop at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at the Historic El Rey Theater in Downtown Albuquerque.

Death Valley High began making music in 2006 and has forged a pathway with its doom pop and death disco.

Osburn’s been a fixture in the northern California music scene for the better part of 20 years. He co-wrote “Lucky You” for Deftones, featured on the legendary band’s gold-selling 2003 self-titled release and “The Matrix: Reloaded The Album.”

Although he keeps his hands in different projects, Death Valley High is always on his mind.

“This is a band that continues to redefine what it does,” he says.

The band was initially formed by Osburn and released its debut “The Similarities of the Loveless and the Undead” in 2007.

“Doom, In Full Bloom” was the sophomore release and set the path for the band.

“When Adam (Bannister) and I started writing for the album, we had a much more concise direction,” he says. “The sound was more dancey. It was more hypnotic. It was more tribal, yet there was an underlying melody mixed with our hardcore sensibility. We infused those inspirations as well as our own twists and tricks.”

Osburn says with the new single out, it’s been great to get feedback ahead of the tour.

“The new material is more about emerging from our brutal history and challenging the new way and facing the future,” he says. “It’s perfect timing.”

Osburn says the band tours as a trio.

“As we minimize the people performing, it’s allowing each of us to expand our characters on stage.”

Osburn says the tour will be the band’s first outing with new music in a few years.

It’s also a new chapter for Death Valley High.

“It’s almost like the new music is an introduction to the new phase of our music writing,” he says. “We’ve been pushing ourselves within our writing process. We are growing from the writing sessions and it’s rewarding.”