Norway punks Sløtface kicked off 2020 with their long-awaited sophomore album, Sorry For The Late Reply, an exploration of new sounds an stories that serves as the perfect follow up to their debut, Try Not To Freak Out and a great introduction for new listeners. The new album not only finds the quartet moving in a new direction sonically, but also writing about subjects that hit close to home for them and delving into more personal and political topics. With Sorry For The Late Reply out now, Sløtface are currently gearing up to hit the road to play new songs for fans. Read more about the album and listen to it now below!
Can you tell us a little bit about Sløtface for anyone who might not be familiar?
We’re a rock-band from Norway, originally the south-west coast, but we all live in Oslo now. We’ve just released our second full-length record, it’s called Sorry for the late reply, and we’re most excited about touring it in March of this year
Last year, you released a handful of new singles and you kicked off 2020 with the release of “New Year, new me” and your latest song, “Tap The Pack”. What has been the highlight of the past year for you?
Getting to release new music again has been very fun. We hadn’t really released anything since the fall of 2017, so it was great to show people what we’ve been working on. We also did an incredibly fun European tour with the Canadian band PUP in November and had such fun getting to know their fans and the guys. Such a lovely bunch!
Both songs come from your upcoming album, Sorry for the Late Reply, out now! What are you most excited for fans to hear on the album?
Mostly the slightly new direction we’ve gone in on this, we’re excited to see if people who like the old stuff also like this, if people like the slower stuff is especially exciting. It’s also always fun to find out how people are interpreting the lyrics, and the way songs gain new meaning depending on who’s listening.
Sorry for the Late Reply marks your first full album since the release of Try Not to Freak Out in 2017. How do you feel you’ve grown as a band between then and now?
We’ve become a bit more confident as a band, and also we’re a bit older, so that makes sense that we’re kind of finding our stride more and more. Playing A LOT of shows for the last record really helped us figure out what our strengths are, and what we wanted to do differently on this record. It’s also a bit simpler, which we like, and a bit more personal as far as lyrics go, which has been scary.
Was there anything you wanted to accomplish with Sorry for the Late Reply that you haven’t been able to do before? What goals did you have in mind for the album?
We had a lot of the same goals in mind for this one as for the last one: we wanted to make the best possible record we could, based on our tastes, and I guess we succeeded there, since we can only make the best thing we can make where we are as a band. But we also wanted it to be more explicitly political than before, on songs like Passport and Sink Or Swim, as far as our feelings about the environment and thoughts on identity go. And of course we wanted to strip the songs down a bit more to make them easier to convert to the live set.
Lyrically, there’s a lot that you touch on with this release as well. Were there any specific subjects that you really wanted to tackle or stories you wanted to tell?
A lot of this record is about my (haley, lead singers) feelings towards being an American citizen and growing up in Norway. The main themes are all about family, identity and what it means to belong somewhere, so I really wanted to tell those stories. That seemed like the best way for us to make a political record that was also very personal.
You’re also getting ready to hit the road early next month and will be touring throughout March and April. What are you looking forward to at these upcoming shows? What can fans expect from the live shows?
We’re most looking forward to seeing old friends, and making new ones, seeing new places, drinking new coffee, eating new food. We’ve been working on the live show lately to make it even more dynamic so that it has an interesting build to it, with alot of energy.
Do you have any other big plans or goals for 2020?
Mostly to appreciate things as they happen, not get too stressed out about the details and logistics, and hopefully go some places we’ve never been. We also really, really want to go back to Australia to play, as we had such a blast the first time we did it.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Just that the record is already out at this point! So we hope people check it out and tell us what you think:)
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