Slow Pulp, the beloved Chicago via Madison band of Emily Massey (vocals/guitar), Henry Stoehr (guitar), Alex Leeds (bass), and Teddy Mathews (drums), release their highly-anticipated third album, Melodie, out September 18th via ANTI-.
Alongside the release of new album Melodie comes album focus track ‘Red Car’
Slow Pulp ‘Red Car’
Slow Pulp met in Madison, WI in the mid 2010s, kicking off a decade-strong musical bond. Raised on ’90s alt-rock radio and coming of age during the 2000s indie wave, they took a pan-American approach to rock music—transcending the genre’s inner boundaries in service of a sound critics across the board have applauded but struggled to describe—that made them stand out in the small city’s scrappy scene.
Slow Pulp – Better Man (Official Video)
Following the notable reception of two EPs and a move to Chicago, they released their groundbreaking debut LP Moveys, an album created under unpredictable circumstances. Massey returned to Madison to take care of her parents, who were healing from a severe car accident, and ended up recording vocals with her dad. A 2022 COVID scare forced Massey to write many of the lyrics for that album’s follow-up, 2023’s Yard, in a cabin in northern Wisconsin, but the band took it in stride again, sending stems back and forth across state lines. If Moveys put Slow Pulp on the global stage—on tour with the Pixies and Death Cab for Cutie and Alvvays, bands they’d bonded over in those early Madison years—then Yard proved they belonged there.
When Slow Pulp started the songs that comprise Melodie, they found themselves being reflective of their relationships and lives in the last few years. In most of Slow Pulp’s time living in Chicago, lyrics have mostly been helmed by Massey’s (hence the solo trips north). But for Melodie, Stoehr honed in on songwriting, writing five songs on the record. “Emily and I were reconnecting with how we wrote together when we first met,” Stoehr says. Part of the brilliance of this album is that, without looking at the credits, one can’t be sure whether Stoehr or Massey wrote any given track. This is especially true of the songs into which both writers injected pieces of themselves.
Working with producer Elliot Kozel (Rosalía, Yves Tumor, Björk, SZA, Eartheater) was a new experience for the whole band, but especially for Stoehr, who’d produced every Slow Pulp album on his own up to that point. Bringing Kozel into the fold felt, on the one hand, like entering uncharted waters. On the other hand, Kozel is something of a Wisconsin legend, and Stoehr, Mathews, and Leeds had all grown up as fans of his old band, Sleeping in the Aviary. Melodie also marked the first Massey was in the booth. As an admitted control freak, Stoehr says ceding some of that power was hard at first, but he quickly found that splitting production duties with a trusted bandmate and a seasoned pro was enriching. The production collaboration of Kozel, Stoeher, and Massey led to a record that balances power-pop euphoria, acoustic heartbreak, and the ocean of sound between them.
For Slow Pulp, the writing (other than the lyrics) and recording process has always been a collaborative effort. Everyone in the band plays multiple instruments, and, according to Leeds, “It’s always by any means necessary—whatever sounds best and whoever has done it or can do it.” Leeds, too, feels like Melodie is about returning to the past. “There’s the sense of a full circle, tapping back into things and transforming through them,” he says. A song is like that too, he believes: “not just a document of what you feel but also a vehicle for understanding how you feel.”
Slow Pulp
Melodie
Tracklist:
- Yellow and Green
- These Days
- Better Man
- Melodie
- Red Car
- Not for Nothing
- Entertainer
- Like Me
- Spill
- Up to You
- Slip Away
Slow Pulp Online:
