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| Photo Credit: Juergen Teller |
This evening - 24th November - Slaves (Laurie
Vincent and Isaac Holman) will deliver their raw, energetic punk rock to
devoted fans at London's Alexandra Palace. It's All Indie caught
the duo earlier this year at Reading Festival, just before their set at the BBC Radio 1 Stage. An explosive frenzy of a show projecting enough chaos, rebellion and
attitude to last them a lifetime. Their acclaimed third album has been out
since mid-August.
Titled Acts Of Fear And
Love this record is not what you have come to expect from the duo and
yet it also feels like an amalgamation of everywhere they have been to date.
They blast some of the songs out of their rented white Jeep, while cruising
along the desert highway. Sure, there are moments of punk – fast, shout-y,
containing all the energy of a shaken can of lager ready to erupt. But for once
their songs are not dictated by rhythmic guitar licks and drum thwacks,“We were thinking about the craft of songwriting for the
first time,” explains Laurie. The songs are dictated by melody.
Isaac For me
personally, it is the festival that I came to when I was a teenager and the
same counts for Laurie.
Laurie I
think what makes it different as well is that it is the one where all our
friends and family come to, I don’t know if it changes your performance but it
changes your run up to the gig, having all your mates around, it is nice. We
used to be stuck in the middle of nowhere in weird fields with not very many
friends around us, apart from each other of course.
Isaac apart from
each other of course. It looks like a nightie. I am serious now.
What can
fans expect from your set today?
Laurie old school
Slaves.
Isaac Lots of
sweat. It is going to be loud.
Laurie Some old
bangers, and new bangers. Energy, that is what we have got, loads of
energy.
How are
things at your label Fonthill Records? How far are you planning to take things
on that front?
Laurie We
have always wanted to do it and the timing in the band has never been right,
this was our third attempt at it with Lady Bird who played
earlier today. So at the moment we are just focusing everything on them, we
want to make sure that we nourish and nurture them. We are always talking about
what will be next, who will be next but it is going to happen
organically, there is no real plan, it is all about happiness and enjoyment.
Is there a
plan to invest more of your creativity, time and energy onto the label or will
Slaves still be doing as much as before?
Isaac We don’t
want to change bands or like put too much input into the creative process or
production.
Laurie We help produce that’s all. Our main thing
is to help bring back guitar music a bit, I think a lot of guitar bands are
getting missed out by labels and not invested in, we want to help guitar bands
primarily.
Why do you feel guitar music is being
missed out and not getting the attention it deserves?
Laurie Things happen in trends and I think a lot
of people are in a group of friends where a couple of them might be like into
real musos and then you have the other friends who just go along with what
their friends are into, so when dance music is so popular in mainstream I think
that just permeates everything.
Laurie When we were kids, guitar music was big
and indie bands were like that was mainstream, The Kooks were like headlining
festivals with the likes of The Wombats and The Arctic Monkeys. Some of them are
still there but it is not like Reading 2007 which would just have been all
those bands all day and since then. We have seen all the dance tents start up,
the scene has shifted a bit.
Slaves are very inspired by punk, why do
you think punk still matters today?
Isaac There is just an air of unrest in
everyone’s lives now again, it is not like it ever really stopped. Now
politically it is just like everyone is kind of angry again.
Laurie It is just that outlet as well,
people are always going to want to listen to aggressive music, there are some
great bands out there at the moment, like Shame who are playing today as well,
but yes punk is less of a sound and more of an attitude. It is the attitude of
doing whatever you want and the idea of DIY.
What other bands do you admire?
Laurie We always loved The Cribs,
their work ethic, how they are placed in the world of music, they stay true to
themselves. we like loads of stuff like The Streets and Eminem.
Everything, loads of good bands at the moment Shame, Life, Ladybird and Idles are
amazing.
Your videos are special, what sort of
approach do you take to making them?
Isaac We just talk about stuff and it gets
turned into like an idea.
Laurie We are really open to like just split
three or four ideas. Sometimes they just come really quickly, like for this
song this is what we should do. We really enjoy making the videos. In the past
it has been a bit stressful but since we have like got a bit more confident, we
have a director who just totally gets us and he helps us with our vision so we
just trust him and we work well together.
Looking into the future, do intend to
remain a two piece?
Laurie Yes (laughs) yes even just get our
strides. We both feel really confident about our third album and we are very
happy with it so we have definitely got a few more albums in us.
What other countries do you want to reach and play to?
Laurie Australia and New Zealand because we hear
we have got quite a few fans over there, we just have not been able to make it
work yet. I hope we make it work in the future.