The next two Fridays have big things going on for Belgian shoegaze quartet Slow Crush… Well, the second is primarily for those of us in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection… Next Friday, August 29th, the band will drop third full-length (and first for Pure Noise Records) Thirst, the album that they consider to best reflect the emotional catharsis of their live show. And the following Friday, September 5th, they will be bringing that very live show to The Foundry at The Fillmore for the second date of their North American headlining tour. I recently got a chance to chat via Zoom with Slow Crush vocalist/bassist Isa Holliday, who tells me about previewing Thirst’s material throughout festival season in Europe, making a shoegaze album with a [largely] metalcore producer for a [largely] metalcore record label, and some of Slow Crush’s favorite bands that they’ll be bringing on the road.
*Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Izzy Cihak: You’ve been playing a number of festival shows throughout the spring and summer. How have they been going?
Isa Holliday: I feel like we’ve played a ton [laughs]… We just came from a festival last night, actually! We played a festival in Belgium, so it was a pretty late night for us. But the festivals have been going great! We got to play Resurrection Fest in Spain for the first time a couple months ago. That was an experience, really cool, by a beach, so we got to hang out by the beach a bit and check out some cool bands there, and the atmosphere was great, Spanish weather, Spanish food, it was great!
Izzy: How do you like playing festivals, compared to your normal headlining shows? It seems like there can be nice things about each, but every artist seems to have a different take on it.
Isa: Yeah, absolutely! That really all depends on how strict the timings are, because that’s always a challenge; you don’t always have ample time to set up and get into the swing of things, have a good soundcheck, a line check. We have a shitload of gear [laughs] that we have to get on and off stage, so we take up a lot of our time just getting that ready. But right now we’ve got an awesome crew that work with us, and we’ve all got our little tasks, so we’re a pretty well-oiled machine. But we do like a decent soundcheck, just because of all of the effects that we’re working with, we wanna make sure that the sound is on point, so that is sometimes a challenge with festivals, but we make it work! Apart from the hecticness of getting stuff onstage and getting yourself ready, you’ve generally got a good amount of time to spend chilling at the festival, and it’s a different kind of atmosphere. But playing headline shows or venue shows is also cool. You’ve got different chill zones, I suppose [laughs]. It’s all good!
Izzy: I know you’ve been playing a handful of songs off of your upcoming third LP, Thirst. How have the reactions to the new material been so far?
Isa: They’ve been really, really good! We’ve seen people getting into them straight away. Last night we played three songs or more that haven’t been released yet, the majority of the set was from the new record, so none of the people had heard them before, but people were dancing and getting into it, and people came up to us after the show saying they’re really digging the new sound, so all good so far!
Izzy: How do you feel like the album compares to previous releases? It’s definitely been noted that it’s the longest you’ve gone between releases.
Isa: That was mainly because we were touring a lot before [laughs], so trying to find the time to sit down and go over our work and make sure that everything is on point for going into the studio was limited in-between tours. When we write, we tend to be very spontaneous, so if an idea comes into our heads, we just track a demo as quickly as we can and then layer things up from there. But then, when it comes to making the final cuts of songs that we want to go onto the record and want to record, we take our time to learn them and make sure that everything is down to muscle memory before we hit the studio, so we’ve got a really decent plan of what we’re doing. We don’t wanna waste anyone’s time [laughs]. And we want to have enough time to give the producer room to make edits and amplify things. We want to be prepared [laughs].
In terms of what’s different on this record, it shows the full diversity of Slow Crush. We’ve got a lot of different musical themes going through the album; there’s a definite progression you can feel. I like to think of it as Slow Crush’s version of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, with a Side A, Side B…
Izzy: Which is another great third album!
Isa: Yeah! I spotted your T-shirt [I’m wearing a “The Smashing Pumpkins: 1988-2000” shirt.] We’ve got a mood switch between Side A and Side B, which I think is a very sort of poignant way of showing our diversity, as well, with a little wink to Smashing Pumpkins [laughs]. With every Slow Crush release, there’s an evolution that’s present, and I think that can definitely be heard with this record.
Izzy: I know you recorded in the UK with Lewis Johns, who seems really cool and I love the new stuff he just did with Employed To Serve. How was working with him in that environment? What do you feel like he brought to the sound and sessions? I understand you had actually known him for a while before you formally worked with him.
Isa: Yeah, we’ve worked with The Ranch for a long time. We recorded Aurora there, so we’ve known Lew ever since then and we’ve always sort of talked about working together before, but the stars never aligned until now, but we’re happy that they did. I think it’s also a kind of big jump for Slow Crush because, as you mentioned, Employed To Serve and the stuff that Lew generally does is much heavier than a Slow Crush record, although we can be considered heavy shoegaze.
From our own musical backgrounds, we’ve always played in heavier bands, too, so there’s definitely that underlying heaviness in the style that we play, but we were curious what Lew would bring to the table and if it would be a perfect match or not, but we’re definitely happy with what he did. We had full trust in him and we were excited with the ideas that he came up with. Sometimes it was a little bit self-confrontational, because working so hard on these songs and bringing them to where we got before the studio, it’s like ingrained in your head how you want it to sound, and when someone comes in with a different idea, it’s like a changing-my-baby sort of thing [laughs]. But we’re extremely happy with where Lew took it and I definitely think he’s given the album even more power than we had envisioned, so his sonic touches have been a blessing for sure.
Izzy: You also released a really cool music video for the title track. What were the influences and inspirations behind the music video?
Isa: We had the album cover in mind for a long time, following the themes that we’ve previously worked from with our album covers of kind of a hidden person, somebody that’s not fully in view, and then the crucifix. We worked with our old friend Bobby Pook, who’s done other videos for us. We found a very beautiful church here in Ghent in Belgium that we all headed off to, and they were very gracious to lend us this church for our music video [laughs]. He came up with the storyline together with us, and we were like, “Okay! Let’s brush up our acting skills!” It was really cool. We spent a lovely day in Ghent with Bobby and Jodie Guest, who both worked on the visuals, and it was really fun!
Izzy: This is your first release for Pure Noise. How has it been working with them and being a part of that roster?
Isa: We’re really excited to see what the US tour will bring now that we’re on Pure Noise. I think maybe we’re the odd duck on their roster, at the moment…
Izzy: It’s funny, because I was kind of thinking that, but then they are kind of mixed between really heavy stuff and then pop-punk/Midwest emo stuff, so it’s a little less streamlined than I initially thought…
Isa: Right! And they’re a huge label! I mean, just look at Knocked Loose and where they are right now! So, we’re really excited to see how that can bring us to another level, which we’re already kind of seeing. For us, with the music that we play, we don’t fit in anywhere, but we fit in everywhere at the same time. I think that also has to do with the fact that we’ve all played in hardcore punk bands before, we’ve played in metal bands, doom bands, so I think everyone can find something that they like in a Slow Crush song. I mean, people have come up to me after a show and said that we reminded them of the Melvins, which is something completely different…
Izzy: But they’re the same thing! They can kind of go in different directions and attract different people…
Isa: Exactly! So, we’re excited to see regular Pure Noise listeners picking us up, and they seem to be really digging it, so we’re getting a lot of new listeners, and I’m excited to see who shows up at our shows from hearing us on Pure Noise.
Izzy: Next month you kick off a monthlong North American tour. What can be expected of the live show when you headline The Foundry on just the second night?
Isa: We’ll be playing a lot of new songs from Thirst. We’re testing them out here in Europe before we bring them to you, but there are gonna be some exclusive tracks that we haven’t played before. And we’ll be bringing our light show with us, as well, and our friends Faetooth and some other opening bands, depending on where you are. Pure Hex, NVM, and Flooding are joining us, so we’re really excited to join up with all of those guys and girls and bring rock n’ roll to a city near you [laughs].
Izzy: Yeah, Flooding’s here! And, on that note, because Faetooth and Flooding seem so cool, and I was really bummed that I missed Faetooth headlining here earlier this year, what are your thoughts on your tourmates? Are you excited to get to not only see them play every night, but hang out with them on the road?
Isa: Yeah, for sure! We’ve played with Faetooth before; they joined us on our LA show last time. We’ve played with Pure Hex before, as well. This is the first time we’ll be playing with Flooding and NVM, but we’re excited to get to know them. The lineup was curated by us [laughs]. It was hard to choose who to go along with, just because of compatibility with scheduling, but we found something that worked, so we’re looking forward to it!
Izzy: Your currently announced tour dates actually take you across the US, UK, and Europe through the very end of November. Are there any dates or cities you’re especially excited about, whether getting to play there again or just get to revisit?
Isa: California’s always a great one! We’ve always had a great time there, and Philly as well. We’ve enjoyed it every time we’ve played it. And we’re looking forward to seeing some old friends all around the globe. It’s gonna be a long one, as you mentioned! A full month in the US and, with travel and everything around it, we’re out there for longer than a month. Then we get to come home and sleep in our own beds for a couple of days before we head to the UK, and then just continue on. I think we get back home December 1st or something, so it’s gonna be a long, long road trip, but we’re looking forward to it, we’re looking forward to smelling each other’s breath in the van every single morning [laughs]. But it’ll be good!
Izzy: On that note, because you have done quite a bit of touring in recent years, do you have any things you particularly enjoy about being on the road together and trekking across the world, in addition to just playing the actual shows?
Isa: Whenever we have a day off, we try to do something fun. In the US, whenever we get the opportunity to drive through a national park, we do that, because US landscapes are beautiful. We try to get into nature as much as possible, which is sometimes hard when you’re just trekking from city to city, especially because the distances in the States are huge, so there’s not often a lot of time that you get to free up when you’re on the road, but sometimes we logistically plan our routes to pass by something cool. That’s always fun! We just try to find moments to relax in-between all of the jetting and soundchecks and stage times, but that brings us energy as well!
Izzy: Finally, and this is a personal question, but I host a monthly radio show called Philthy Radio, which is like an extension of this that I do on Y-Not Radio, and I’m actually kicking off the August episode with “Beached,” off of the first record, to promote your upcoming show and also because it’s sort of summer-themed, so I’m curious if you have any thoughts on that track now, or memories of how it came about?
Isa: It’s funny, because somebody asked us the other day if we were gonna play that in our set [laughs]. Like you mentioned, it is a very summery song, and it is something that’s uplifting and nostalgic of the summer. Good on you for playing it!
*Get your tickets here.
**Listen to “Beached” kick off the latest edition of Philthy Radio, now streaming.
