1. Thanks for your time. New single out this week, a great way to end a difficult year. How has it been for you?
It’s been a difficult time for us, like it has been for so many.
We all live in different cities/ countries so it’s felt very isolated at times, we’ve missed making music together.
Travel bans and lockdowns have meant almost 2years without seeing each other so to be finally rehearsing again, releasing music and preparing for a tour feels absolutely wonderful.
2. And you start 2022 with your fourth album. What can you tell us about the album and what we can expect from it?
Our goal has always been to create moments of feeling. To move people. With this record we were interested in creating feelings of euphoria and resolve. Rhythmically the record has a different feel form our previous albums. There’s a mix of synthetic and acoustic percussion that we hope give the record an interesting pulse and shape.
3. The songs are described as a mix of personal and topical. Are they inspired by the events of the last eighteen months?
The Album is called STILL LIFE. It was written and recorded remotely, during the pandemic. We didn’t want to dwell on the situation but it inevitably influenced this record. Life stood still and we wrote a record.
4. You’ve referenced John Boyega’s speech at Black Lives Matter. As a race, what do you hope we’ve learned over the last two years – not just from the pandemic?
Music has always been our way of making sense of the world.
We’ve always written about people, human behaviour through stories. Although the last couple of years have been very difficult and there have been moments of awfulness there have also been beautiful moments of resilience and togetherness. I hope our record reflects this.
5. Another thing you referenced is how lockdown made look at life differently. What have been the biggest changes to your life to come from the last two years?
In terms of our band, Life has changed enormously.
We haven’t of course been able to Tour and travel restrictions have meant that we haven’t been able to write or rehearse together. That’s been difficult and we‘ve missed the human aspect of collaborating as a band.
Our personal lives have also changed of course.
6. What have been the challenges you’ve faced as a band given that Rob spends a lot of time in Germany and the rest of the band are in the UK?
We‘ve always worked remotely, even when we all lived in Manchester. But these periods of remoteness were always connected by intense and very productive time together in Manchester. I don’t think we realised just how important those times were until the Corona virus arrived. Living in different parts of the world works well for us but the enforced two years apart has made us realise how important our time together is.
7. How did being forced to take a break and have time to work on the sound, change the shape and direction of “Still Life”?
I think Still Life reflects the two years we spent making it very well.
8. You have a tour coming up in February/March, what have you missed most and least about touring?
Playing live has always been the most meaningful part of our music. The people that support our band and attend the shows inspire and influence the music we make enormously.
We’ve missed the interaction, the stories, the collaboration, seeing faces reacting to our music.
9. Just for fun now: if you got the option to live on Mars would you go and what would you be most excited about discovering?
There’s enough to keep me busy on Earth. I’d probably start by visiting the west coast of Ireland.
10. Thanks for your time, and good luck. If we spoke again in twelve months time, how do you hope 2022 would have panned out The Slow Show.
Some concerts would be wonderful.
The fourth track to be released from the upcoming album, ‘Breathe’, is out today! Offering another taster to the new direction STILL LIFE will take. You can PRE-ORDER the album NOW HERE.
