Photo by Miles Wilson
Today, New York’s own Slow Fiction are debuting their first release with UK tastemaker label, So Young Records. In reference to the god, “Apollo” examines the idolization of who you believe someone to be verses the reality of who they actually are.
The band shared this on the single: “Apollo is the god of sunlight and poetry. Perhaps realizing that a person is not a god, without them you can still exist, create, and have a voice. Darkness is the absence of light, but it still has a word and meaning.”
Slow Fiction have been meticulously refining their sound and live set over the past few years. On their self-titled EP, the band showed us a snapshot of the ever expanding story of who Slow Fiction is, and “Apollo” serves as the prelude to their next chapter. “We feel like it [Apollo] is very representative of where we are at in our journey as a band,” the band shared. “It came together really naturally for us & it set the tone for writing more music from there.”
The five-piece is compromised of Julia Vassallo (vocals), Paul Knepple and Joe Skimmons (guitar), Ryan Duffin (bass), and Akiva Henig (drums). Brought together by hometown friendships and New York relocation, the five were drawn together out of a desire and need to create after a period of isolation. Through their overlapping influences and natural camaraderie, the band and the sound continued to develop. An energetic and magnetic presence on stage, Vassallo commands the audiences attention with her careful balance of coy and confidence. The emotional rise and fall of their music is a hallmark and winning feature of their sound. “I scribble thoughts down all the time, some of them make their way into songs, some don’t,” Vassallo shared on the songwriting process. “When a piece of music starts to take form, there is always an emotion I can match it to. From there, I try to build out a life, for the piece of music. A while ago I had written in my notebook ‘I always thought I knew how to sing, but you wrote the notes so I don’t know anything.’ That became a central point for figuring out the character in Apollo.”
The band worked with previous collaborator, Jonathan Schenke, for the production of the record. “We love working with Jonny. He’d actually mixed and mastered our first EP, which is why we had him in mind for working on this project with us. He creates a really productive energy in the studio which allows us all to get different ideas down quickly. We had an idea of how we wanted these songs to sound before recording and Jonny really helped us bring it all to life, part of the reason it’s such a great relationship.”
While watching the band live and listening to their catalog, there are musical references and inspirations one might call to mind, perhaps more interesting and insightful are non-musical references the band were inspired by for their new music: Richard Siken, Wikipedia holes, unresolved arguments, Surfing videos, The New York Mets.
With new videos and music coming soon from the band, there’s a lot to look forward to for Slow Fiction.