This is This Is Slug
Earlier this year I wrote an article about an artist called maphe and her single 'fire'. I mentioned there about one of her projects being a band called This Is Slug and their live debut in Camden's Dublin Castle. Well since then this band has released two singles - 'Get Home Safe Ben' and the aptly titled 'A Nice Single'. Let's talk about that.
Inspired by indie and math rock, This Is Slug is a five-piece band featuring Billy Holt and Luke Brown on guitars, Greg Wolfman on bass, Duncan Temple on drums and of course Martha Stone (maphe) on vocals. Though lockdown has largely prevented this band moving forward, especially on the live front, luckily they were able to record some music before this change took place.
Released in the middle of July, 'Get Home Safe Ben' is This Is Slug's debut single, which received this marvellous music video at the end of that month. As well as the band separately performing their parts, this video also features friends and family dancing to the track. Whoever edited this video has made the perfect accompaniment to Get Home Safe Ben. The whole piece exudes joy, which I think you would agree that we all need a bit of right now.
Image Credit: Chris Patmore
The lyrical idea is simple - the band just wants Ben to get home safe. 'Dear Ben you know you've got to run, it's silly, how your mother worries when you're late, get home safe, put on your helmet, turn on your bike lights, dear Ben you've got to run, you've got to beat the sun.' In terms of the music, everyone shines. The guitars have great tone, making the distinction between rhythm and lead parts, if only that sliver of a guitar solo could've been more! In the verses, the rhythm section of Greg Wolfman and Duncan Temple make the perfect pair. An excellent production decision was to include the percussion here, further exemplified by the band's video dance partners demonstrating in the air. There's a good balance between lead and backing vocals throughout, any audience worth their salt would sing the backing vocals back to the band in a live environment.
By contrast, the band's second release, 'A Nice Single' starts off with a groove. I love that descending guitar line, both played by Luke and Billy , Greg's bass cutting through, following the beat. The time signatures are played with, showing off This Is Slug's technical prowess. It's heavy in places too. This one is about a relationship coming to an end, unfortunately the song suffers from the vocals being slightly too low in the mix to get the entire picture. The occasional doubling of a backing vocal helps the chorus, 'Just look me in the eye, I'll try to make this hurt less, just look me in the eye, I'm ripping off the band-aid.' The vocals shine towards the end when they have more room to breathe, Martha knocking it out of the park.
A Nice Single is backed by a remix of Get Home Safe Ben, created by Tungsten Chants. It's amazing how a different imagination can bring such a radical interpretation to the same music. Tungsten Chants essentially omits the band's instrumental backing, while playing heavily with Martha's vocal, pitch shifting and triggering her voice to utilise as a rhythm in itself.
Image Credit: Chris Patmore
But how did this team of musicians come to call themselves This Is Slug? Where did the idea for A Nice Single come from? What was the last gig before lockdown like? And who is Ben and why must he get home safe? This and more in the Q&A featuring the band answering like Kings (and Queen).
1. This Is Slug is an eye-catching name, where did that come from? Were there other names you almost went with?
Greg: Honestly, who knows? I've never been in a band where choosing a name is not an extremely painful process that ends when everyone says “I don’t hate it”. I am into fermenting as a hobby, so I was pushing for something like Sauerkraut or Miso (potentially with a Z), both roundly rejected. Eventually we needed to make our social media accounts, and someone suggested something about a slug. We then thought it'd be funny to add "this is" at the beginning, so that we could be announced on stage with "this is This Is Slug!". We did have a question mark on the end for a bit, for some reason, which sort of disappeared.
Billy: Other options included Doctor Yoghurt, Uncles on the Dance Floor and Albert Ross. Any other bands out there looking for a name that will stand the test of time, you’re welcome!
2. Martha, how did you come into the orbit of the Slug?
Martha: Most of the guys had been working together for a while as their old band, Swan Dives, and as some left and others including Greg joined, I drifted in. I knew both Luke and Greg from back home in Somerset where I grew up, and after sitting in on a rehearsal I knew I wanted to be involved. What the band is doing is so different from the other musical projects I’m involved in right now, and I’m really enjoying that.
3. Of course I have to know, who is Ben and why must he get home safe?
Billy: Ben is all of us, working our way through the strange journey that is life.
Duncan: Ben Goodwin owns and runs Lomond Rooms in Camberwell where we rehearse and record our tunes. He's a top bloke and close friend of the band. One day we were all running really late for a rehearsal and Ben was left waiting a lot longer than he thought, to let us into the studio (thanks again Ben). When we finally got there he said he didn't have any lights on his bike, and that he needed to get home before it got dark. He rushed off and we wished him well on his journey. That session we wrote the song that became ‘Get Home Safe Ben’. As Mark Twain said "Write what you know" - in that session we all knew we wanted Ben to get home safe.
4. What's the division of labour like with the writing? Does someone bring a near-complete idea, or is it more a case of jamming it out?
Billy: We’re definitely more of a ‘jam-it-out’ band. Generally, Luke or I tend to throw out a thing we’ve been noodling around with first. Luke is more of a ‘plug in, smash out a riff’ kinda guy and I’ll have something I’ve been working on from home. The guys will go “what’s that?!”, and then the seeds of a song germinate from there. After that, Martha and Luke work as a great lyrical combo. Martha will be writing while observing the madness unfolding – she and Luke then go away and lock down the melodies. That’s not to say we won’t try other ways of writing in the future! In the past, one of us has brought in near complete songs, but then there’s always a chance they’ll get flipped and evolve into something totally unexpected in the great Slug melting pot! ‘A Nice Single’, for example, began as a riff I’d had for years and envisioned as more of a heavy dancey number. Then Duncan swung it, Luke threw out some jazz chords - you get the idea!
5. Tell us about the recording of the singles, how long were you in the studio for and what are the Lomond Rooms like?
Greg: Lomond Rooms is great, as is the eponymous Ben who recorded and mixed for us. It was a long, sweaty, and fun weekend, just a week before lockdown happened (though I'd like to point out my two takes of each song took about 20 minutes, freeing me up to watch the football on the Saturday afternoon).
Duncan: Drums and bass for both tunes were tracked on the Friday night, with guitars and vocals laid down on the Saturday. As Lomond Rooms is where we normally practice, we felt really at ease recording there. I had the whole band playing along live in my ears whilst I recorded the drum parts to make sure we got the ‘feel’ just right. As a band we put a lot of focus on jamming together when we write, and I really wanted to capture some of that spontaneity on record.
6. A question for all the lads - tell me about the equipment you used when you recorded these songs?
Billy: We’re all basic indie boys so Fender is the go to brand of choice. Luke and I tend to favour Telecasters but I brought along my trusty beaten up Strat I’ve had for an age which is brilliant for lead stuff. I’m a bit of a gearhead. One of my favourite things to come out of the session was the solo for ‘A Nice Single’. I’d bought a Zvex Fuzz Probe from Denmark Street that the shop owner couldn’t wait to part with. He heavily discounted it, just to be rid of it, after I made a bit of a racket trying to work it out. It’s this nasty oscillating fuzz that you (can’t) control with your foot and it made the perfect tool for the vicious, out-of-control solo you hear on that one.
Duncan: I used the Yamaha Stage Custom drum kit at Lomond Rooms, with my own selection of Zildjian A and Z Custom cymbals. Overall I think it strikes a nice balance between the bright sound needed for the poppier parts of our tunes, whilst being able to bring the thunder for the really raucous sections. For the ‘donk’ sound in ‘Get Home Safe Ben’ I used my trusty Latin Percussion Jam Block - a really fun addition to the kit.
Greg: I used my Fender Jazz which I've had since my 16th birthday and which has never broken. It's such an extremely reliable instrument and is very difficult to make it sound bad. I particularly like it for any sort of plodding walking bass part, like in ‘A Nice Single’. No pedals or effects or much else (I’m relatively purist)!
7. What inspired the lyrical idea of 'A Nice Single'?
Martha: ‘A Nice Single’ is the first song we fully wrote together as This Is Slug, and the first song I was in control of the lyrics for. I write a lot of pop music and am used to writing in a specific style - so the Slugs definitely pushed me in a different direction with their time signatures and cool guitar melodies. Due to this, I kept it comfortable and wrote about my favourite topic: relationships. The track is about being in a relationship and wanting to leave, but not wanting to hurt the person. A relationship where the feeling isn’t mutual. I like that the idea of trying to be gentle whilst doing a cruel thing is mirrored by alternating harsh and gentle instrumental sections. It’s definitely a very different vibe from ‘Get Home Safe Ben’, so it will be interesting to see how our next tracks develop.
8. The B-Side on 'A Nice Single' is a remix of 'Get Home Safe Ben', tell us more about that. How did that come about?
Billy: ‘Get Home Safe Ben’ already had a dancey beat to it so we had an idea to see how our sound could be mixed up as a fun experiment. I asked a friend of mine, Tungsten Chants, to have a go - no suggestions as to what we wanted - we just gave him the files. I’ve been in bands with him before - he’s got a quite eclectic taste and loves really diving into the complexities of synths and samples in a bunch of creative ways. Honestly, I thought it would come back as a fun, if somewhat weird, trip into an alternate reality Slug, but what we got back was something awesome. The rhythm of Martha’s vocals really lend themselves to be modified in this style and the subtle, building instrumental textures make for an enjoyable listen! It had to be released in some form so we’ve put it out in collaboration with Tungsten Chants as the B-side to ‘A Nice Single’. Check out his other work on Spotify and SoundCloud!
9. Your lockdown-inspired video for 'Get Home Safe Ben' starred the band and a few extra Slugs, how did this video come together?
Billy: We really could not be prouder of how the music video came together! Over lockdown, the idea just came to us to get our friends involved somehow. Luke and Duncan had done some wicked TikTok dance montages, so I thought, how about we get everyone we know to add their bit to a solid 4-minute marathon of good vibes? You’ve got belly dancing; the release of a dove; even a dazzling, shiny fish-human! We’re of course being goofy in it too – that will be the last outing of the spidey suit... It’s such a positive song and we felt like it really needed a video of similar ilk to carry it. In the end, I think it actually makes the song stronger and we can’t thank everyone enough for lending their sweet moves to us. In time it will be nice to look back on the madness of lockdown and know that we created something we can be proud of with the people we love.
10. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to come and see you play your first gig, what was it like?
Martha: So. Much. Fun.
Duncan: The Dublin Castle is a great venue! It's wicked to know that some major bands started out playing there. It felt like the perfect size for our first gig as the room was pretty packed out. I haven't played in a proper venue since around 2010 so I was definitely nervous whilst we were sound checking. We had lots of friends in the crowd, so the chants of "Slug! Slug! Slug!" made us feel more at ease. It was great to feel that energy coming from the crowd as we played.
Martha: It had been a really long time since I’d gigged with a full band, and it felt so good to be back on a stage and this time with the Slugs. I’m glad I didn’t know how long it would be until we could gig again, as it would have made me uncontrollably emotional. It’s a strange time for the music industry, but I’m hoping the Slugs are on the move again now, even if it is slowly. . .
11. Are there more songs to come from the Slug? Perhaps an EP?
Duncan: Despite the world conspiring against us we're still trying to write and rehearse together. We had some half-finished ideas and some funky new riffs written at the beginning of lockdown. It would be great to get those all finished off. It might take us a while, but hopefully we'll have something more to show you in 2021!
Greg: In the immortal words of Jürgen Klopp: "when this bullshit virus is gone".
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Download This Is Slug's music from their bandcamp page here.
Follow the Slugs on instagram and facebook @thisisslug.
