“It Was Fate!” Slag Might Just Be Your New Favourite Band
No two bands have the same origin story, particularly today, when routes into the music industry are more varied than ever before. However, these origins do still often fall into familiar categories. One classic narrative is the ‘university formation’ story, as told by the likes of Radiohead, Blur, Pink Floyd and many, many others. Uni years are the perfect time to start a band; a period of life when many of the music-career essentials are there for you; time, enthusiasm, a lack of commitments and being surrounded by like-minded creative people.
However, this doesn’t mean that just any student band can and will succeed. Our hypothetical eager beaver student musicians also need determination, bravura, imagination and, obviously, talent. We can now move beyond such hypothetical discussions, because we have Brighton’s Slag; a uni-formed band that boast all of the above attributes and much more. The five-piece are still super young (at the time of writing, the oldest member is 21, while the rest are 20), but their adventurous-yet-accessible math/pop/prog sound has set them on a rapid ascent, capturing audiences across the UK and Europe (they’ve played festivals in Paris and Rotterdam) and leading to their sign with the UK’s great math/emo/experimental rock label Big Scary Monsters.
The band have used their relatively short life-span (‘Losing’, which was released last Friday, is their debut EP) to build a unique and endearing creative aesthetic. Their music is fun, buoyant and giddy, but simultaneously rich with emotion and intriguing lyrical ambiguities. To compound these casual complexities, Slag utilise a unique visual aesthetic on their EP cover art and in collective own fashion choices, one that utilises shiny, gaudy and glam silvers and pinks colours. It’s a tonal clash, but adds up to a fun, hyper-sincere, very-gen-Z palette that will be familiar to fans of similarly young bands like Man/Woman/Chainsaw, whom Slag feel like something of a (more-whimsical) kindred spirit.
As Slag’s founder/vocalist/guitarist Amelie and keyboardist/vocalist Seb explained to CLASH, their origins go back further than their Brighton formation. It sort-of feels like Slag have always existed, it just took these extremely-talented (and very sweet) young musicians to come together for this delightful project be rapidly released upon the world.
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Regarding your formation, I read that Slag “joined hands on the Brighton sea front and brought your music to the people two months later”. What did those two months entail?
Amelie: We actually met during freshers week in uni. I was on a bit of a mission to start Slag and we all ended up meeting in the smoking area of Concorde 2 by Brighton Beach. We spent a few weeks furiously writing and rehearsing and getting to know each other, before our first gig less than two months later.
Seb: I was lucky enough to be Ameile’s neighbour and I just asked “do you need any keys?” And she was like “I guess, why not.” Our guitarist actually won a rock paper scissors competition to be in the band.
Amelie, what was your original vision for Slag when you were on your freshers mission?
Amelie: Well, I already had the name [laughs]. But it was pretty organic, I met the right people and it all came together musically and visually. It was fate I guess.
You had the name first?
Amelie: I’ve had it since college. I just thought it was hilarious and was surprised that there wasn’t a band called it already. There was some small pushback against it at first.
Seb: Yeah we were concerned, initially, that it might be too rude. But it seems to have gone down well.
Have you had to explain to any overseas people what it means?
Amelie: Yeah I didn’t realise it was a British term until we started playing abroad.
Seb: My mum has a Canadian friend and her daughter loves music. She bought her a t-shirt and we shipped it to Canada, so there’s a 12-year old girl in Canada wearing a shirt that says ‘slag on it’ [laughs].
Tell me a bit about Brighton and the scene there.
Amelie: Brighton’s just the best. There’s so much going on, everyone knows each other and it’s so nurturing. I decided to come to Brighton because I heard it was like that, but it still blew me away when I got here.
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The press releases for your singles only use ‘prog-rock’ to describe your sound, which I found interesting. How would you describe it?
Amelie: I honestly don’t know [laughs]. Whenever we get asked, I feel like I should have a more solid answer. I think ‘prog rock’ got picked because we’re not quite standard rock, but we’re not quite pop. We have math-y elements but not so much so that we’re inaccessible. It’s a tricky question, because we all have such different musical upbringings and backgrounds.
Do you mind people invoking math-rock or math-pop? I know that loads of bands have never been particularly happy with the label.
Amelie: I don’t mind it. But if we were just termed a math band I think it would be limiting us.
Moving on to your visual aesthetic, I love the shiny, gaudy, pinks and silvers palette of your artwork and tour posters. It feels quite unique. Who works on that and what are some of your visual inspirations?
Amelie: Firstly, thank you. I co-ordinate a lot of that stuff. I also painted the single artworks, the ones prior to this EP. But yeah I just wanted it to be fun. I love dressing up, looking glam and pink and shiny things. It’s not really linked to the music, but I think that’s important. We’re just having a good time dressing up.
And I guess that’s something that makes you different from math rock. It can be aesthetically colourful, but it’s rarely glam.
Amelie: I agree. I’d find it boring to wear jeans and a t-shirt when I could be wearing a sparkly dress.
Seb: I’d agree that there’s an element of disconnection between the music and visuals and it’s quite deliberate. We do take our music somewhat seriously, but there’s an element of whimsy to the visuals that I think is quite important.
There’s also a similar touch of ambiguity to your lyrics. I love this quote from Amelie about the lyrics to ‘Losing’; “I lost my watch in the sea and it broke my heart, that’s not what the song’s about, but it’s what it feels like”. Is suggestion and/or ambiguity something you prioritise highly in your lyrics?
Amelie: Absolutely. I wouldn’t want to give away what my songs are about, in case it damaged a listener’s connection to the song. I’ve sometimes connected with lyrics but read in an interview what the song’s about and felt disappointed [laughs]. To me, it’s less important that people understand what I’m talking about and instead develop their own understanding. It’s like when you show the monster too early in a horror movie; it becomes less scary.
Regarding this EP, to what degree does the finished creation resemble or not resemble the thing you imagined when you were writing and recording it?
Amelie: The songs weren’t written to be as part of a massive project. It’s the best of our efforts, rather than us sitting down to write an EP.
Seb: It’s sort-of a compilation EP that’s the best of what we’ve had to offer across the last few years. I think the visuals are what really tie it all together.
Amelie: Yeah the visuals are very deliberate. Some of the songs are new, but some are old. One of them I wrote for my GCSE’s. It was the second song I ever wrote and I love that we still play it.
It has a great flow to it. The last song really feels like the last song. I also wanted to quickly ask you about touring. You’ve played a bunch of festivals, including a few overseas. Did you enjoy Left Of The Dial? I love that festival.
Amelie: Oh my god it’s so nice.
Seb: Everyone there is so kind and respectful to the artists. Because there’s that weight lifted off your shoulders in terms of how well run it is, you can just enjoy it. The shows were great. We played on a boat.
Amelie: We had sailors hats! It was such an adventure.
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‘Losing’ EP is out now on Big Scary Monsters.
Words: Tom Morgan
Photo Credit: Elwood Rainey
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