Glasgow five-piece Slouch follow up last September's ‘Duplicity’, with new single ‘P.O.V’ - released last Friday - which was recorded with Jamie Holmes and Johnny Madden.
Who are you?
This is Daniel MacRae, guitarist/synths. The others in the band are Paul Burnett, vocals; Mark Hunter on guitars/synths; Ryan Smith, bass, and Div Anderson on drums.
Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today.
We are all best friends from the same area in the Southside of Glasgow, and all of the band went to the same two schools in the area. We have always loved music and became friends through listening to bands together and going to gigs, so decided to start one ourselves. Originally we all played the same instruments so most of the band had to learn new instruments from scratch just so we could start a band and take our time learning how to play together, and eventually we were confident enough to start developing our own sound to make the music we wanted to make.
Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.
We all have varied musical tastes but have a core of common influences we try and bring to the band like The Strokes, New Order, The Cure, Foals and Tame Impala. We try and use synths and guitars together in our music the same way a lot of New Wave bands of the 80s did as well as modern alternative bands. We also tend to merge this with an upbeat electronic indie influences in the rhythm section. Another influence we all share is strong melodic choruses from anything from Britpop to pop and we always try to incorporate that into our singles.
Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.
The songs usually start by someone bringing a musical idea into rehearsals. This can sometimes just be a riff and some chords, or sometimes a more fully formed bedroom demo. We'll then work on this in the rehearsal studio and flesh it out and try different ideas until we have a structure we're happy with whilst Burnett adds melodies and lyrics.
In the case of our new single, we took a fully formed song in to the studio but then from there we worked with producers Jamie Holmes and Johnny Madden to try a few different ideas. It was a really collaborative process and the single was all the better for it.
Tell us a little about your new single.
We recorded the single in 7 West Studios in Glasgow for the first time with Jamie and Johnny. We loved the experience working with them and had a lot of fun recording the single, as well as trying some really exciting ideas that made it into the final song.
‘P.O.V’ started with the main synth hook in the chorus and grew from there. Musically we spent a lot of time on the dancey-er rhythm section between the bass line and different drum beats, as well as the different layers of synths and guitars lines. The title 'P.O.V' is lifted from the 'point of view' lyric in the chorus, but also relates to the song as it's essentially a conversation with someone from the point of view of the singer.
Can we catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows?
We have a couple of gigs lined up next month that we're really excited about. Our first gig is in Glasgow at The Garage Attic supporting The Peach Fuzz at a This Feeling gig on 7th March. They're a great band from Liverpool and This Feeling gigs are always class. We'll then be supporting Neon Waltz at Bakers in Kilmarnock on 28th March. This will be our first gig in Kilmarnock and Neon Waltz are one of the best bands in Scotland so we can't wait for that either.
How's the first year of the new decade looking, plans-wise?
We're really excited about the upcoming gigs we have booked and have some more plans later in the year to go back into the studio at 7 West. We're currently working hard on new music and can't wait to see what the year brings.
Where can we hear more of your music?
'P.O.V' is now on Spotify with our first two singles, 'In Your Mind' and 'Duplicity'. We also have a live session of a couple of our tracks on YouTube which was recorded at the end of last year.
What social media platforms can we find you on?
Facebook // Twitter // Instagram
No comments:
Post a Comment