Photo Credit: Leah Solomons
At 2000trees, we had a chat to Sløtface vocalist Haley Shea ahead of the release of new album Film Buff. We spoke about the forthcoming new album, changes within the band and dream collaborations.
Hi Haley, we’re at 2000trees and we loved catching your set earlier.
Aw thank you! The crowd were really nice today, we had a great time. It was awesome, we had such a good time. We’ve been out and this was our fourth show this week in the UK but yeah it felt like we ended on a high with a really lovely crowd and I’m so thankful people got up early. I don’t know if I would be able to be in the field at noon.
Can you sum up your sound in five words for people who might not have heard of you before?
I like to start of by just saying we’re a rock band, we’re guitars and bass and drums and vocals usually. Simple enough. We have a lot of pop influences if you like a band like Paramore you might like us.
Give you a chance and they might find out!
It’s like rock with pop influences.
Your third album Film Buff is out in September, can you tell us a bit more about it?
During the pandemic, Sløtface kind of transitioned into being organised in a new way as a couple of our original members left to do different things so this album is written very much as our first full length written with that in mind. We’ve written with a producer in Oslo, Preben Sælid Andersen he’s in a rock band called Death By Unga Bunga and we’ve co-written most of the songs with him as well. It’s different for us to do that from scratch and then we’ve also had a couple of other songwriters from Sweden and the UK involved as well as like the live band. It’s been a big, fun group of people working on it and everybody’s been able to dive into their special skills on the record.
How do the crowds in the UK compare to the crowds back home in Norway, how do the crowds compare to over here?
At home in Norway it’s kind of a little harder to get people to show energy, to move around and singalong and stuff. We’re quite an introverted set of people in Scandanavia sometimes. But our shows are pretty similar to here, we always joke in Norway that we were social distancing before it became a thing!
Do you have any skip to tracks on your new album or any which you think sum up the release?
It’s a very, varied record with a lot of different influences but there’s a track called I Used To Be A Real Piece Of Shit, that’s the opener which is a two and a half minute version of a lot of what you’ll get on the record. There’s a song which is the heaviest Sløtface song so far, called Quiet On Set which sums up a lot of the themes of the record so check that one out. We definitely tried to make an all banger, no skips, short and sweet.
You’re a music collective, how do you feel it’s changed the dynamic of your music?
I think the biggest difference now is we’re kind of a rotating cast when it comes to the recordings and live stuff. So, people really get to do the things they’re best as which I live. We can bring someone in to do one thing. Live since we play with a couple of different live bands at this point, it’s fun to feel how it changes and when people put their own spin on it. Today we had our guitarist who’s also a really good backing vocalist and we have someone who plays bass and he runs around a lot so it’s really fun to watch them add new things to it.
It’s really fun to see all your own personalities coming out on the stage and the energies coming together as the crowd bounces off of it.
It was a really fun show and I think any collection you come to see Sløtface as, it doesn’t matter who’s in it but it’s always a bit different every time which keeps it exciting. We all get along really well and like hanging out together so that’s fun too!
Do you have any dream collaborations?
Oh, I mean like one of our biggest dreams for a while has been to work with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. He’s produced some things for other artists that we think are really good. We were very sad when Steve Albini died this year because it’s been like a dream in the back of your head that maybe some day you’ll get to record something with him and that chance is sadly lost now. But yeah, we’re very much into collaborating with other artists in our scene as well. A song we released last year we did a feature with a band called The Boys and their debut record is out today actually so people should check that out. Other musicians that we love it’s just really fun now that Slotface is open and we can do other things.
We love asking people this question, do you have a standout or favourite lyric from any of your releases?
I’m really pleased with the lyrics for our song Tired Old Dog which we released earlier this year. It just sums up a lot of things for me but it’s about like having this is your job or any job and getting sick of it the longer you do it. Even if it might have been the best job in the world when you first got it, and also about getting older and having your place in the music industry. But it’s told through the lense of this washed up detective slash heist movie so I’m really pleased with the lyrics for that. I really like there’s a lyric in the first verse ‘Only so many babies in house fires lives you can save’ meaning even that gets boring if you do it every day.
That’s such a good lyric, we really love that! If you be good or successful or the best at anything, what would it be?
I am very into food, so if I wasn’t a musician then I would love to be like a chef. I’m obsessed with The Bear and Anthony Bourdain and would love to be a chef at a really high level. Maybe in my next life that’s what I would do!
Does this mean you eat well when you’re out on tour?
We try to but you have to do what you have to do, it’s an important part of our day and like planning what we’re going to eat and where we’re going to go.
And finally, what is the rest of 2024 like for you?
After week of shows in the UK, we go back to play some more summer shows in Norway first. Then we will be into tour prep for the album release tour that we’re doing this fall and then our album Film Buff comes out in September then we will be in the UK and Ireland for two weeks right as it comes out. We’ll be starting in Dublin and then all over the UK, so we hope people come out and see us for that. That’ll be the start of the Film Buff live part!
Thank you so much, have a great rest of your day!
Film Buff is set for release on 27th September via Propeller Recordings.
See Sløtface live at the following headline tour dates:
September
Mon 23rd – DUBLIN – The Workmans Cellar
Tue 24th – BELFAST – Ulster Sports Club
Thu 26th – GLASGOW – SWG3
Fri 27th – NEWCASTLE – Zerox
Sat 28th – MANCHESTER – 33 Oldham Street
Sun 29th – LEEDS – Hyde Park Book Club
Mon 30th – SHEFFIELD – Hallamshire Hotel
October
Tue 1st – BIRMINGHAM – The Victoria
Wed 2nd – BRISTOL – Exchange
Thu 3rd – LONDON – Underworld
Tickets are available HERE.
