Slow Crush: Thirst for more
In January of 2025, SLOW CRUSH posted a long message on Facebook that began: “We finished our new album! Many times we came close to losing our minds, ready to give up on this wild dream of a band.” What had happened?
The way Isa Holliday, the band’s singer and bassist, describes it, it was a bit of everything. Working with a new producer in Lewis Johns pushed them out of their comfort zone. They were exhausted from being part of so many tours. Playing songs live, she says, can give you energy, but the road can take it right back out of you.
Getting to the finish line was transformative. “Emotionally, we needed to get it all out, and we felt it came out in this record,” she says. “It was therapeutic to be able to listen back and say ‘okay, this is where we came from, we’ve been through this, and it’s only made us stronger’.”
She and the rest of the band certainly sound stronger on Thirst, their third album and follow-up to 2021’s Hush. Heavier too. Johns is known for his work with the likes of ROLO TOMASSI, SVALBARD, and PUPIL SLICER, bands on the much more intense side of the spectrum. “We felt that with Thirst, the songs required a different kind of power, which we thought he would be perfect for,” Isa says.
The way she speaks about Johns makes him out to be a key player in the band’s development. Where previously they were control freaks – Isa’s words – Johns forced them to think differently. There would be no saxophone on Covet without him. He confronted them to let go and let in ideas when previously they were so protective over their compositions (affectionately called their babies). Ultimately, after wanting to work with him for so long, they were beyond satisfied with how the collaboration enabled them to imagine something new.
As a result, there is more than ever to unpack in SLOW CRUSH’s walls of sound; one song here ended up with over 200 guitar tracks. Isa’s lyrics, not always the easiest to make out as she delivers them dreamily among the noise, focus on the physical senses. In the title track, she sings of ‘sweet taste’ and ‘sour eyes’, and Bloodmoon mentions time ripping the skin off bones and being grasped by cold hands. For a band often complimented by fans for making them feel like they are floating among the ether, something very tangible is at work on Thirst. “There were some songs that were extremely hard for me to get out, to sing,” she shares. “The depth of the music hit me, so the sensory elements of music are definitely present in this album.”
Expanding, she says “the world as it is never allows us the time to stop and think ‘okay, but how do I feel?’ We are expected to be available at the drop of a hat, to respond to a message, to do a task. We are bombarded by atrocities over which we have no control. But in that lack of control there is also hope.” The concept of balance, light and dark, permeates Thirst in her words and the music. Even the track sequencing is intentionally ordered so to have an A-side and a B-side, the vibe of each half complementing the other.
SLOW CRUSH’s vibe is intentionally amorphous and hard to pin down. Although admitting that playing alongside DROPKICK MURPHYS might be pushing it, Isa credits their version of shoegaze with opening them up to all sorts of bills. Sure enough, the last time they toured the UK was in support of post-metal titans CULT OF LUNA, who although they sound a world away from SLOW CRUSH, are known for casting similarly hypnotic spells on listeners. “If you go to a show and it’s the same genre all night, it can get tiring.”
A few years ago, Isa described herself in an interview as “the little girl that likes to hide behind her instrument, after previously hanging out by the amplifiers”. Since, she’s learned to make it on stage by flipping a switch: she chooses to let the music take over. “The moment I start thinking about hitting a note in a song, because last time it wasn’t quite right, that’s when things go berserk and go wrong,” she explains. The only way to have a great performance is to be completely in the moment and, in her own words, “switch her noggin off”.
With the band now in their Thirst era, she’s excited for what’s ahead. A new producer has opened up their boundaries. A new label, Pure Noise, is bringing new listeners (Isa is quick to note her gratitude for Church Road Records who she loved working with too). The rest of the year brings new rooms on a tour crossing the UK, USA, and Europe. “We’re just really happy to be able to get out there again and play some shows.”
After feeling like the band were going to lose their minds, after recording the songs that were so hard for her to get out, Isa stepped back and allowed herself a ‘wow – we did this’. “It is rewarding that you’ve put so much work and effort into something and then you finally get it done. You tick the boxes and release the dopamine. It’s a great feeling.” Those who give themselves over to Thirst will feel the exact same way.
Thirst is out now via Pure Noise Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS124 here:
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