Slowly Slowly: On A Forgiving Spree
Baring yourself for the world to see and hear is a daunting prospect, yet one that can be rewarding and heartwarming, particularly when others can resonate strongly with the same scenarios and emotions you went through. A reminder of that, when you’re a part of any community, you’re never alone and you’re amongst others that understand and maybe even share in your struggles. That’s the aim with SLOWLY SLOWLY and their latest record Forgiving Spree.
The album itself, whilst exploring different personal topics relating to love, loss, healing and all bits in between, is mostly focused on the concept of forgiveness and how it can benefit you, not just the person on the receiving end of it. We sat down and spoke with frontman, Ben Stewart, ahead of their UK and Europe tour this month to talk about the process behind the creation of the record and the ideas behind it.
Ben expands further on its concept. “So, it’s just kind of like musing on the idea of forgiveness being a tool to like move forward and as a way of like being kind to yourself and, maybe in some ways like selfish, because we often see like forgiveness as this thing that we give to other people when it’s like, you know, you’re sort of handing it over unwillingly. Like, ‘I did this for you, I’ve forgiven you,’ but often when you carry around all that those grudges and that weight and that baggage, it often does you more harm than it does the other person. That concept is not embedded in every song on the album, but it was something that really like summed up like a chapter of my life.”
The album itself brings together the nostalgic, yet modern, sounds of pop-rock meets alternative with songs that can be as anthemic as they can be heartbreaking when one looks deeper into the lyrics. Stewart has previously gone on record to say that the album can be ‘more brawn than brains’ at times when it comes to sound, yet he was determined to make sure that lyrics were anything but ‘frivolous’. As he explains to us, a lot of time and effort was put into the record to make sure it striked the perfect balance between being serious and fun. “I spent a lot of time writing the demos for it, so I wrote lots and lots and lots of songs and just tried to make sure that the songs that made it were ones that I resonated with, and I felt really strongly about. So that was how I got the heart in there. And then in terms of the brawn, we were just, that was more just a recording thing, I think that’s just capturing like the energy that we, in part, live into the studio.”
“That’s a tricky thing; that’s always a bit of a jigsaw puzzle trying to make the studio sound like you do live or trying to be the best version of yourself but also retain how you sound live.”
Part of the recording and writing itself took place in LA where SLOWLY SLOWLY worked with legendary names like Courtney Ballard [GOOD CHARLOTTE, STAND ATLANTIC] and Suzy Shinn [PANIC! AT THE DISCO, FALL OUT BOY]. When asked how they came to work with Shinn and Ballard, Ben reflects on this time. “So, I was over in LA doing some writing and I did, like, a million songwriting sessions with all different types of people, but we just connected really strongly and they kind of got me and where I was at. You can’t really put your finger on it, but there’s just some chemistry, I think, when you sit down in a room with someone creatively and it’s just like playing in a band. You just start like bouncing off each other, and maybe it’s on like a really low level of telepathy or something, you’re on the same wavelength and it’s been really easy with them. They’re just, I feel like, an extension of the band.”
Returning the discussion of lyrics, Forgiving Spree features songs that, on the one hand, cover heavy topics like loss and death in tracks like Hurricane and Born Free, yet at the same can cover sweeter topics relating to love in songs like Love Letters. Yet altogether it all boils down to songs that delve into deeply personal topics, yet writing lyrics of this nature is something comes naturally to Ben. “I think that’s just how I am, like, I don’t share much in real life, so songs are my only vessels for a bit of honesty. It’s something I’ve been cultivating for a long time trying to, I don’t know, be vulnerable in songwriting. I didn’t want this album to just be catchy, I wanted some meat on the bones. I think to get there you have to cut off a bit of yourself.”
“It’s maybe like challenging afterwards thinking, ‘oh, my God, have I bared too much of myself in this song?’ but at the time it’s cathartic and it feels good. You’re doing it for the right reasons, and, usually, if when you’re not paying attention, your subconscious will poke things through that you need to be thinking and talking about, so it’s almost therapeutic. If you’ve been repressing things or trying not to think about things, it’ll just pop out in your songwriting.”
Forgiving Spree is out now via Nettwerk Music Group. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS119 here:
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