The solo project of Modern Baseball's Jake Ewald, Slaughter Beach, Dog grew from a handful of extracurricular releases into the songwriter's primary creative outlet. Exploring a softer and ultimately more diverse sound than his primary band, Ewald had already released the project's debut when Modern Baseball went on hiatus. After handling most of the instruments and production on 2017's Birdie, Ewald morphed Slaughter Beach, Dog into a full-time and full-band endeavor for 2019's Safe and Also No Fear.

The project first came about with the inclusion of the track "Toronto Mug" on Making New Enemies' Group Picture, Vol. 4 compilation in 2014. A second track arrived in 2015 on a follow-up compilation for the label before the release of Ewald's debut 7" EP, Dawg, on his own Family Dinner imprint. While writing the more autobiographical material that formed half of Modern Baseball's Holy Ghost album, Ewald decided to move his songwriting into the fictional town of Slaughter Beach for the project. Creating a cast of characters to base the songs around allowed him to explore lyrical territory that was different from his work with his full-time band. Signing to Lame-O in 2016, Ewald released Slaughter Beach's debut album, Welcome, at the end of the year, while embarking on solo tour dates.

With Modern Baseball put on hiatus in early 2017 -- after co-frontman Brendan Lukens took time out to focus on his health -- Ewald put his time into Slaughter Beach, Dog, playing more shows and recording more material with bandmate Ian Farmer (Modern Baseball's bassist). The first result of the sessions, the EP Motorcycle.jpg, was released in mid-2017, with his sophomore album, Birdie, following a few months later. By 2019, Slaughter Beach had expanded into a full band, which appeared on the more collaborative and darker-toned Safe and Also No Fear in August of that year. ~ Rich Wilson, Rovi