C60 in Conversation: Sloe Noon
As part of the C60 Club, we here at austerity will be catching up with some of our favourite artists of the underground music scene. This month, we spoke to Anna Olive – vocalist, guitarist & one half of the first international inductees to our cassette series, Sloe Noon…
Greetings Sloe Noon, & welcome to the C60 Club!
A: Greetings austerity records & thank you for having us!
Having only formed in the early months of 2020, Sloe Noon is still a relatively new project. Take us through the origins of the band & how it came to be…
Well, I started Sloe Noon as a solo project in January 2020 after being fed up with procrastinating over making music for almost 10 years. I started writing songs at 13, but got a really bad case of artist block growing up. I always wanted to play in a band & that was also the reason I moved to England at 19. I always deluded myself by saying I needed to be in the “right” place with the “right” people to start, which I now know is bullshit. Not creating anything is absolutely worse than creating something mediocre or even bad. I had to really hit the bottom before I finally got over myself & wrote songs again. When Dennis [guitar] & I decided we wanted to record a “lockdown EP” - which became “Embassy Court” - I realized I could no longer take credit for all the work done on my music, so we decided to make it a band during that process.
As a two-piece, yourself & Dennis are now fully based in your hometown of Kiel, Germany after living in Brighton up until the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. How did the transition of moving home go, & what is the scene like over Western Europe?
To be honest, it’s been quite weird. As for most people, Covid really messed up all of our plans. Dennis was going to move to England & we were both going to be students, but then everything went crazy with the virus & I had to decide, pack, rent out my room & flee the country within two weeks so I could spend lockdown with my family. I had no time to process anything, but I guess it all turned out well in the end. I’ve had a lot of time to heal & reflect over the last year & I don’t think “Embassy Court” would exist now if I hadn’t left. It also turned out we weren’t eligible for tuition fee loans, so we couldn’t have studied anyways, which is why we just recently moved to Dortmund!
The scene here is quite different from the UK. There was a reason why I wanted to live in Brighton. Mid-sized towns like Kiel & Dortmund don’t have a lot of young indie music to show & Germany is lacking opportunities for small bands such as BBC Introducing etc. It’s all very much a bubble – it’s about knowing the right people & being radio friendly. I’d say the scene is quite small, but supportive & I have hope for growth… but honestly we haven’t even started playing proper shows yet, so I guess we are bound to find out more next year when we finally have a live band.
Speaking of Brighton, the “Embassy Court” EP is an ode to the area of the city that you called home during the first lockdown & subsequently the recording of this record. How much of an impact did your surroundings & the strange scenarios of a pandemic have on your song-writing?
All of the songs on “Embassy Court” were actually written pre-pandemic, so I can’t say that it really influenced the writing that much. They were the first songs I had written in years, with ‘Planestation’ being the breakthrough from my artists’ block. I remember we were in Dennis’ rehearsal room in Kiel, as we were in a long-distance relationship then, & I was determined to finally write a song again & not leave without one. I only had three chords to begin with, but it worked. I finished it back home in Brighton & we made a demo the next time I was in Kiel. I knew I was finally out of whatever was stopping me, & it all came pouring out. When I left, recording it really became an attempt to find closure with that chapter & I think it worked… whatever closure means.
While mainly emitting upbeat & feel-good vibes, the EP contains some very emotional & deeply personal lyrics (in particular, the “I’m so good at making myself sad” lines from “https://home”). How important is it to you to speak from the heart like that?
I don’t know if it’s particularly important to me, but it’s just what came out. My lyrics so far are always a caricature of a certain emotion or phase. I’m hyper-sensitive, so I’ve got a lot of those. The songs I’ve written so far for this EP & the next were definitely more self-therapy than anything else, but I can see myself writing more abstract or fictional storytelling lyrics in the future as well. I feel a lot calmer & more collected than I did & can focus more on the craft, which will be fun to explore, but we will see. I guess as our personalities change & develop, so does our art & that’s why “finding your voice” is such a harmful thing to try & do. Your voice is whatever comes out at one moment in time, is completely random & influenced by a million factors out of your control.
As well as joining the AUS C60 Club with “Embassy Court”, you recently teamed up with Manchester vinyl label Box Bedroom Rebels to release a special 7" of the EP. What has been the response to your music finally being available on physical formats?
Really great! When we started recording, our plan was to do a Bandcamp release only, but I’m so glad we put all the effort into spreading it & got these amazing opportunities like the C60 Club. Uploading your songs to the internet can feel a bit like screaming at a wall & making it physical lets it feel a bit more like leaving something real behind. & as we all know, plastic takes a long time to break down, haha!
You have been back in the studio recently working on a follow-up to the EP, & some of the clips we’ve seen of the new material sounds absolutely stunning. When can we expect new music & what’s next for Sloe Noon?
We’re working very hard, but it’s taking a long time to do it all ourselves. We’ve just moved towns and are starting University, so it will probably be a little while longer. At the moment our focus absolutely lies on finding a drummer & bassist, making a banging live show & playing all of the venues that we can reach. Next year will be the real birth year of Sloe Noon.
Sloe Noon’s “Embassy Court” EP (AUS-C07) is now SOLD OUT. Click HERE to listen on SPOTIFY.
Now that the dust has settled & the sore heads have [hopefully] eased, we at austerity records would like to show our sincerest gratitude for the wonderful response to our first-ever all-dayer at The Pipe on Saturday. Thank you to the venue, the staff, the bands, the visual artists & all of you that braved the rain & came out to show your support. This would be nothing without you all coming along for the ride with us. Til next time!
HOTWAX
DEMONSTRATIONS
SEADOG
MONAKIS
WINTER GARDENS
WORLD NEWS
DAISY COBURN
SNAYX
Today is the day, people. The first-ever austerity records All-Dayer live at The Piper, St. Leonard’s. Please find projected set times below, with doors opening at 13:00. Tickets come down from dice.fm at 12:30, but there will be a limited amount of tickets on the door.
WHAT A SHOW.
(Pic: Sara-Louise Bowrey)
We are finally there! The new date for our all dayer at The Piper is the 2nd October, we have a couple of exciting new additions too! Tickets purchased for the previous date are still valid, see you there ROCKERS.
Purchase tickets HERE
So, this just dropped through the letterbox! The austerity records exclusive C60Club has been profiled in Issue #2 of the Cassette Gazette. Thank you for the love, Mat Woodall & the team at Cassette Pirate! To read about what inspired our cassette-only series, why we do it & Garry’s ideal band members, pick up a copy of the ‘zine via the official Cassette Pirate eBay page!
Surprise! IYEARA, one of the UK’s best underground electronica trios & long-time friends of Daisy, have just dropped an indelible remix of “My Paradise”..! Available to stream now on Apple Music, Spotify & the usual platforms, this unique take on Daisy’s latest single is a dark & trippy voyage through a plethora of hypnotic soundscapes. It’s a proper mind-bender! Enjoy this primal warp of “My Paradise” - SPOTIFY
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HAPPY CASSETTE DAY Sloe Noon! It’s been an honour to give the debut EP “Embassy Court” it’s first physical release as part of the C60Club. All orders have been shipped to arrive today (please allow extra time for international orders). There’s a handful of the “Brighton Sparkle” cassettes left in the webstore, but we suggest moving quickly as they won’t hang around! Order HERE
We are elated to finally introduce the world to the dreamy new single from the one & only Daisy Coburn! Available to stream via Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal & more now, “My Paradise” is a shimmering ode to humanity & pragmatism living simultaneously, & the battles fought within. Stream the track & add it to your playlists now, this is the real deal.
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We are very excited to present the latest single from austerity's freshest signing 'Seadog', a humble slice of folky dreampop that will bring a joyous lift to your day. Stream the single on Spotify HERE and watch the video exclusively HERE. (Created by Jack Wolter/Penelope Isles)
Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins/Bella Union) expressed his praise towards 'Old Joe'
"With a cool motorik rhythm and atmospheric lead vocals floating above fuzzy-folk guitars and vintage sounding synths, the lyric video for 'Old Joe' is a delight. It begins with an antique tap dripping slowly in time with the beats, and then by using an imaginative array of found-footage that highlights the song’s narrative, it takes us on a journey akin to scanning old magazines and dusty super 8 films. It’s like being on a train ride through time as the song looks back wistfully at a life gone by, contemplating all that went before, the happy and the sad. It’s a poignant accompaniment to a particularly touching song from what already feels like Seadog’s most accomplished work to date."
As part of the C60 Club, we here at austerity will be catching up with some of our favourite artists of the underground music scene. This month, we’ve caught up with Olly Trowler-Wareham – drummer & one half of the rhythm section behind the latest C60 inductees, the vibrant Hadda Be…
A: Hello Olly, & welcome to the C60 Club!
O: Thank you very much. It’s a fantastic club to be a part of.
You initially burst onto the independent music scene in the South under the name Foundlings back in 2018. After a global pandemic, newfound parenthood, a change in line-up & a trademark dispute that resulted in a name change to the Ginsberg-inspired Hadda Be, how has the band grown/differed since its initial run?
I think we’ve always taken the band very seriously & we’ve grown naturally as a result of that. We got involved with the label Last Night From Glasgow quite early on & the plan, after doing our “Foundlings” EP, was always to do a full-length album, so we had plenty of time to think about what we wanted the album to be & how we wanted it to sound.
Other than that, I think we’ve become a lot more selective about the things that we do & the shows that we do & don’t play - unfortunately, there’s a lot of people out there who want to take you for a ride. Without massive financial backing, it’s more often than not a slog to build up your audience & widen your reach but I reckon we’re doing a pretty good job at it. It’s all about being resilient, patient & focusing on the things that really matter in the music world.
As our album shows, we’ve also developed as a group of musicians & songwriters - able to express ourselves truthfully & write about things that we feel passionately about. If you listen to our output from the first releases to “Another Life”, I think you can clearly see how we’ve grown as people as well as musicians.
Prior to the first wave of coronavirus, the band signed to Scottish indie label Last Night From Glasgow. In fact, you were the first non-Scottish act to join their roster. Take us through how this came to be & the impact the label has had on the Hadda Be journey?
It was through chance really! Ian, who founded the label, discovered us on a blog called the Devil Has The Best Tuna & reached out to us shortly after that. Our vocalist Amber happened to be working for a month in the Shetland Islands at the time & I went up there to visit her. On our way back down in the car, we took a detour to Glasgow to meet with Ian & Gary from the label & decided then & there to do an EP & album together.
LNFG has a refreshingly progressive & ethical model to their label, one that focuses on freedom for artists, which we found very impressive. Also, Ian made us some fantastic Lorne sausage baps for brunch which, I must admit, did very much help to seal the deal.
In terms of the impact LNFG have had on the band, I’d say it’s massive. Although we’re motivated & driven people ourselves, it’s been immeasurably helpful having a driven record label behind us who have helped us plot our journey so far. They’ve put a lot of faith in us & have taken the kind of risks on us that a lot of bands would dream of with their label. We’re very grateful for it all.
“Another Life”, your debut album on LNFG, was born out of lockdowns, restrictions & an upheaval of everyday life. Do you feel that the uncertainty & frustrations of the COVID era has had any bearings of the sound & attitude of the record? It’s a much more abrasive & forward collection of songs than your previous material.
Yes, definitely. Although most of the songs were written pre-COVID, the themes on the album have come into sharp focus over the last year & a half: the deep frustrations with those in power, the need for escape, our divided & divisive society. I think the song that exemplifies this most keenly is “Nurse’s Song”, which Amber wrote about her experiences working within the NHS as a Nurse. Unfortunately, the things that song deals with have been felt to an even greater extent through the pandemic. The speech by [former Labour MP] Nye Bevan at the end is more affecting & prescient now than ever; the complete disconnect of the founding principles of the NHS to what it has become due to successive Tory cuts & lack of respect for its workers.
Musically speaking, audiences often commented that we sound much rowdier live than we do on record. When we were planning “Another Life”, we made the decision early on to create a much more “live” sound to that of previous releases, something which reflects what we sound like in a busy, sweaty room. I think that may be one of the reasons why the record has been resonating with people. In a time where those kind of gigs are off, listening to a record that makes you feel like you're in that environment must have some kind of power.
Upon the initial release of the LP back in April, you pressed the record on a variety of beautifully coloured vinyl. This suggests a love of physical media of your part &, as you know, the AUS C60 Club was created out of a similar sentiment. What does it mean to Hadda Be to have their music available to their fans on an actual physical format?
We all try & buy physical as much as possible. It’s the best way of supporting artists, labels &, of course, record shops if you buy independent & direct. Coming from a generation of CD buyers, it’s much more special to have your own copy of an album in a physical format, something you can hold on to & spend time getting to know - it’s a much more profound experience to streaming. To think that people are having that experience with our album is very special for us. We’re very lucky! Not many bands get to have their album pressed onto vinyl, especially not in four colours.
We’ve always enjoyed tape too. It’s been an affordable way to own a physical copy of a record for a long time now. Now that we’re part of the C60 Club, our record is available on vinyl, CD & cassette. There’s simply no excuse not to buy it!
Live music is on the road to recovery, & you are scheduled to play the first-ever AUS All-Dayer in St. Leonard’s on July 24th. Are you looking forward to getting back onstage, & what does it mean to you to finally be back in front of live crowds?
We absolutely cannot wait. We haven’t played most of the songs on the record live yet, so the prospect of doing so is very exciting indeed. There’s a brilliant line-up for the all-dayer too. As well as being our first gig back, it’s also the first gig that we’ll be going to as fans of the artists on the bill. So, it’s a bit of a double whammy on that front. We’ll just have to make sure to not get too carried away before we go on...
Unfortunately, the last 18 months have seen many in the underground/independent scene fall by the wayside. However, your band seems to have come out the other side more determined & focused than ever. In light of this, what’s next for Hadda Be?
Thank you! Well, we’ve got a good few gigs coming up for the second half of 2021, including a headline show in London on the 10th of September at The Victoria in Dalston - we’re treating that as our delayed album launch show. People can head to our Facebook page for details of the other shows (including Rivfest in Warrington, Brighton dates & others to be announced soon). We also have some material that we recorded during the album sessions that we’re planning to release later in the year. All going well, there should be many exciting times ahead.
Hadda Be’s “Another Life” (AUS-C06) is available on milky-white cassette in the austerity webstore now. ORDER HERE
It’s that time again, folks! We are SO pumped to introduce the latest inductees into our C60Club - Brighton x Kiel’s greatest band, Sloe Noon! The dream-gaze duo will be releasing a strictly-limited cassette of their incredible “Embassy Court” EP in August. Check back next week for more info, including pre-order details, haven't been able to stop streaming this one.
