Compulsive Convulsions with Slender Pins
As you’ll all know by now, plagues are a thing that happen throughout history. Some are infectious, contagious even, and some, like a certain plague that swept across Europe during the Medieval period, make you want to dance. Slender Pins have sought to describe this very phenomenon in their song ‘Dancing Mania (I want to want to dance)’.
Slender Pins. From left to right - Rob Sword, Ash Burt, Alex Sword and Ed Skerry. Image Credit: Ewan Paton.
West-London four-piece Slender Pins formed in 2018 and feature Ash Burt on vocals, Alex Sword on guitar, bassist Rob Sword and Ed Skerry on drums. They’ve released three demos entitled ‘Where’s The Money’ in February 2019, ‘Not Long Now’ later in May and ‘Rough’ the following February. During the pandemic, Slender Pins released their singles ‘Apprentice To Life’ in August 2020, and ‘Visions’ that November.
Prior to the pandemic, Slender Pins could be seen in London independent venues such as The Old Blue Last and The Windmill in Brixton. Now the band is back and have started playing gigs again, most notably at AMP Studios on June 25th, which coincided with the release of ‘Dancing Mania (I want to want to dance)’.
Recorded by Jonny Coddington at Bottle Rocket Recordings, this track begins with a noisy chord from Alex Sword, with Ed Skerry kicking in on snare and low tom to begin enforcing the Dancing Mania. Ascending chords take us to a lone guitar riff dirtied up with distortion, Rob Sword’s bass playing is thick and heavy, the perfect sonic bridge between Alex and Ed.
The mixing on this track by Coddington makes it seem like Ash Burt is battling to be heard over the rest of the band, like it’s an aural representation of how the Dancing Mania has overcome him. Indeed, the main words heard are the chorus of ‘And through it all, I want to want to dance!’ Even merely in audio form, Ash’s frenzied vocal strikes up a cross between Ian Curtis frantically dancing to Joy Division’s ‘Transmission’ – ‘Dance to the radio’ and Paul McCartney’s insistence of ‘I would like you dance’ in The Beatles’ ‘Birthday’.
In a breakdown that sees Ed Skerry keeping the beat on bass drum and ride, Alex and Rob’s riff becomes intermittent. Ash is more discernible in a spoken word break that further explains the mythology of the track:
‘Dancing Mania was a phenomenon that struck the continent of Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Crowds of hundreds, sometimes thousands would break into spontaneous dance, often not stopping until they collapsed of exhaustion.’
It’s not always easy to capture the sound of a live band in the studio, but Slender Pins and Jonny Coddington have done just that, aided by great mastering from Neil Pickles at Reveal Sound. In ‘Dancing Mania’, this team have kept the energetic full throttle of the band’s live sound while embodying the intensity of the song’s vitality. How could you not want to dance to this?
Continue reading for our Q&A with Ash Burt and Alex Sword. We ask how the subject of a Medieval plague can become a song, what it’s like to work with Jonny Coddington and what the pair would dance to if they were to experience this plague. All this and more below.
Slender Pins. From left to right - Ed Skerry, Alex Sword, Ash Burt and Rob Sword. Image Credit: Ewan Paton.
1. Your new single, 'Dancing Mania (I want to want to dance)' is inspired by the medieval plague. How did you first come across that and how did it then turn into a song?
Ash Burt: The song began as an improvised attempt by Alex and I to produce something of the mesmeric effect of a Scotti Brains gig (which we had seen a few days before). In this we utterly failed, but we produced something else quite good instead. As to the subject matter, I have a long list of potential song titles and this one was on there. The idea of a person watching this mania of thrusting and swaying and wanting to join in but somehow not being able to (I want to want to dance) was very amusing to me.
How did I know about the disease of dancing mania? I had it when I was seven.
Alex Sword: The more chilling question is when had we *not* heard of Dancing Mania. From the extinction of the dinosaurs to the court of Caligula – Orpheus with his lute and the Pied Piper of Hamlyn – all succumb in time to the Dancing Mania. It has haunted the dreams of man, beast and plant for aeons.
2. For this track you worked with Jonny Coddington at Bottle Rocket Recordings, what was that experience like?
Alex: The recording was all done during the pandemic so was very sporadic, sometimes with months between the sessions. This was weirdly actually a good thing as it gave us months to relisten to rough mixes and then go back in with fresh ideas.
Jonny’s a great guy and fun to work with – I’m really happy with the sound we got (he wrote about it on his blog here). He was good at getting a particular sound from vague ramblings (“it should be more, you know, GRRRRR!!!”). He also got directly involved with percussion and some of the synths he had sitting around.
Crucially, he patiently tolerated our regular collapses into intra-band bloodletting over every minor divergence of opinion.
3. Sonically, this track is so strong! What equipment is everyone using on Dancing Mania?
Alex: The riffs to ‘Dancing Mania’ had to have that kind of dirty distortion sound. I mainly used a Fender Pugilist distortion pedal to get this – it’s gold-coloured and built like a T-34. My favourite pedal is the EHX Super Ego, an infinite sustain pedal, that you can hear at the start on that chord that rings out.
My favourite bit of the recording is the bit where everything cuts out and you can just hear Ed’s ride cymbal tapping away – every time I hear it I think of the moment we recorded it, which was in this dark little room with a sort of dim red light.
4. The physical release of Dancing Mania also has a couple of demos called 'Gossip' and 'There Must Be', where were those tracks cut? Are they likely to be properly recorded in the future?
Ash: 'The Rest Is Gossip' was recorded many lifetimes ago at Rob and Alex's childhood home; it was performed to an audience of dolls. The demo of 'There Must Be' was recorded in one desperate minute in Ed's kitchen because the cracked and aged version we were originally intending to put on the disc was so awful that it was liable to cause a stroke when listened to. Whether these songs will ever be re-recorded is unclear, but I will say: NOT LIKELY.
5. You played a gig at AMP Studios on your release day, what was the atmosphere like that night?
Ash: The atmosphere was alive with all manner of different chemicals, but together they became something called love. We met a number of wonderful new people and played with some extraordinary bands, and we are very, very pleased.
6. You've played the Windmill in Brixton on a few occasions. With the hardships the pandemic has dealt the music industry, what would it mean to you if places like the Windmill permanently closed their doors?
Ash: A number of places we have played have closed - perhaps because we have played them. Recently we took a trek to the Five Bells, which was always fun to visit or play, and it has turned into the foulest of gastropubs. We peered in through the windows like Victorian street children, and it was repulsive: neat carpet, all the chairs and tables clean. The Glaswegian poet with whom we were drinking summed it up best when he said: nothing.
The Windmill is a different question. If the Windmill were to close, Western civilization would follow soon after.
Alex: When Ash and I first went to the Windmill it was like a bolt of lightning. It seemed a completely revolutionary concept even by that point that there was actually a music venue where the bands were eccentric and great and the audience wasn’t just the mates of the band who were on. Without the Windmill loads of great bands would not have been able to get where they are today.
7. If either of you experienced the dancing mania plague, what would you be dancing to? (It can't be your own music!)
Ash: I have experienced the dancing plague, and I still do whenever I hear 'Disco 2000'.
Alex: “I See You Baby” by Groove Armada, especially the Fatboy Slim remix.
8. Finally, what can people expect from your upcoming EP later this year?
Ash: They can expect songs about algorithms, money, sex and love. Songs of tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, and poem unlimited. No stone will be left unturned.
Alex: With our first EP we will finally the answer the question that has been asked of us since 2009: are the Slender Pins one-hit wonders or are they in their greatest hits phase?
--------
Purchase the music of Slender Pins on their Bandcamp page here.
Follow Slender Pins on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @slenderpins.
--------
Follow and interact with Moths and Giraffes on Instagram and Facebook @mothsandgiraffes, and on Twitter @mothsgiraffes.
We now have a Spotify Playlist! Featuring almost every artist we've written about on Moths and Giraffes, find some new music here.
To apply to appear on Moths and Giraffes for yourself or on behalf of an artist, or if you’d just like to send us your thoughts, don’t hesitate to contact us via our social media accounts, our contact page, or via email at mothsandgiraffes@outlook.com. We receive a lot of emails though, so please bear with us!
