Band Of The Week #299 - Slung
This week's Band of the Week is Brighton quartet Slung - who have just released their debut album 'In Ways' via Fat Dracula.
With shades of metal, grunge and an all-round plethora of alternative influences, ‘In Ways’ has been breathed into life by Slung through the supreme ability of its members and their vision. The band’s line-up is completed by the accomplished Ali Johnson on guitar and powerhouse rhythm-master Ravi Martin on drums). Katie’s storytelling and the compelling way she brings together personal, lived experience with more abstract, conceptual ideas and characters, comes to the fore via a collaborative combustion of its members’ experiences, circumstances and accomplished musicianship.
Slung’s sonic universe is a veritable musical supernova, with the band’s members referencing influences as far-reaching as Deftones and Baroness, Wednesday and MJ Lenderman, Queens of the Stone Age and even Chappell Roan and Fleetwood Mac.
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Slung, how are you? So your album is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?.
Vlad - 11/10
Ali - Unreal. I’m super proud of what we’ve recorded! Can’t wait for people to hear it and really get a sense of what we’re about. Team Slung have been working endlessly on this release for a long time, and we’re stoked that it’s finally time to put this record out into the world.
Katie - Honestly surreal. It’s crazy to listen to it now and hear what a moment in time that represented for us. To me, it feels like I was still learning to sing when we recorded it and it sounds so timid and polite! Now you can’t stop me from belting, but there’s something so honest and special about it’s shyness. I’m so so proud of it.
It is called ‘In Ways’ – what is the meaning behind that?
Ali - Only one man can answer that. He will give you an in depth detailed narrative that will explain the true nature of why our album is called In Ways. Won't you Vlad?
Vlad - in ways?
Ali - In essence that was it. For any questions we asked Vlad regarding anything Slung, when he wasn't quite committed to an answer, his answer would be - “In Ways”.
The phrase came to mean a lot to us and became a daily staple in Slung chat. When it came to naming the album, the answer had been there all along, in ways…
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
Vlad - It was recorded at Shaken Oak, a wonderful studio on a farm in Oxfordshire.
Ali - I remember it was cold outside. There were some big puzzles and heaps of snacks. We found a gong, some fuzz pedals and a bloody great big Bengal tiger. Actually it was kinda small and possibly stuffed like a teddy bear.
For real though, we had a great time hanging out on a farm in Oxfordshire. Our host Arthur was gracious and welcoming and the farm cat Clauss became Ravi's new best friend.
The tracks went down smoothly and I took great pleasure watching my band mates knock out their takes in no time. Although this may have been as I wanted their help with the puzzle.
Katie - So many jigsaw puzzles went into the making of this album - My favourite was an Agatha Christie Murder Mystery one. Top tier honestly. A fun fact about the recording process is that on the very last day, which was the 21st December winter solstice, there was a big storm that knocked down a bunch of trees and took out the power lines around the farm. We were plunged into a blackout and it felt like Mother Nature was trying to stop us from finishing this record (of course it wasn’t really that dramatic and we were back up and running in a couple of hours). That farmhouse is the one represented on the album cover.
What are the key influences behind the album?
Ali - Breaking expectations I'm going to avoid answering with musical influences as I hope my fellows may cover those so I'm going to offer some alternatives such as where we live. Brighton is so important to us and really is the place we came together. I met Vlad some years back in a campsite in Australia but it was Brighton we have called our home for the last decade. We were lucky enough to meet Katie and Ravi in Brighton and nothing has really been the same since!
Also The Simpsons.
Vlad - This album draws from absolutely everything, from outlaw country to Mastodon, to Scissor Sisters, to cold beers and medium rare steaks, through to having poor cardio. I think we gave it all we had on every front of inspiration of creativity, musical and otherwise.
Katie - A lot of therapy.
If the album could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
Ali - This took some thinking, but hear me out. Jaws. Okay, so you got all the heavy stuff for shark related scenes (Laughter etc.) and the not so heavy stuff for the nice Brody family stuff. Limassol for the tense “what do we do about the shark” scenes. Matador for the climax and sunset ending to Falling Down.
What do you think? Shall I call Spielberg? I think I'm onto something.
Vlad - There is nothing one can add to that, your imagination is a wild place Ali :)
Katie - The record opens with Laughter - the fury and pain of feeling rejected by those who are supposed to love you unconditionally. And it closes with Falling Down - succumbing to the softness and vulnerability of returning to your childhood home, your family and the place you grew up, after a whole lifetime trying to escape it. Idk, I think it could be the soundtrack to a really beautiful coming of age film, or maybe about the end of the world. Or maybe Jaws.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
Ali - Nothing Left, at the start “I don't like this, it makes me nervous”
I feel that one.
Vlad - From Heavy Duty ‘You’re dragging me down, I’m paying for it’. For me that hits deep and different
Katie - ‘Take that power Father gave to son, to devour you.’ From Class A Cherry
Just adding in here, what’s Ali’s favourite chord?)
Ali - Oh yeah nice one, erm that would probably be the minor 9 chord in Collider. Not the first time it's played but the third. That's the one and thanks for asking!
Now the album is out there – what next for you?
Ali - Another cuppa tea and just hanging out with my dog Lulu. As for Slung - world domination, album 2, rock shows and hopefully more pedals and puzzles.
Vlad - Play this album live and record the massive amount of riffs, ideas, and songs that are stockpiling and start creating more music.
Katie - I feel this record was an exodus, the final closing of a chapter of holding your hurt close and central, and having vulnerability be the core of your identity. What comes next is everything that can happen once you finally drop the cloak of victimhood, and start reclaiming the narrative. In ways (lol) it’s a final farewell to childhood by finally becoming the adult, and offering an outstretched hand to carry your inner child onward into the rest of your life.
