Keep It Snappy: Slowcoaches And The Art Of Pairing Pointed Words With Sharp Hooks
Friday, 20 January 2017
Written by Huw Baines
You don’t need a thousand words to make a point. Usually, a single phrase is enough. Often, a pop song can tell you all you need to know about a person or situation in three minutes.
Heather Perkins, bassist and vocalist with the London punk trio Slowcoaches, was once in a relationship with someone just like her. They both played in bands. They both desired the level and manner of success the other was enjoying. They both placed negative spins on things so often as to be destructive. When it enters the conversation on ‘Nothing Gives’, Slowcoaches’ debut LP, Perkins sings: “We’re the same. It’s a drag.”
In that one line she flips expectations on their head and pulls the rug out from beneath the listener. Finding someone just like you is the dream, right? Well, not always. And, there’s not really any room left to argue the point further here. In those six drawled words, we get flecks of hope, disappointment, confusion and a measure of our own curiosity.
“I’m not a big fan of labouring over lyrics for a long time,” Perkins says. “People can tell if you’ve done that or thought about something too much. It doesn’t feel as immediate. That record is very immediate because everything was written, from the lyrics to the music, in a very immediate sense.
“Often I will sing the melody and the words are not there...and then they’re there. I’m drawn to lyrics that fit with the melody. If I like the sound of something I’ll stick with it. Sometimes writing more is unnecessary. It’s not to press a point, it’s just writing in an economical way. Sometimes you don’t need anything else.”
‘Nothing Gives’ is a record that knows what it’s about. Perkins and guitarist Matty Dixon have refined their writing process to the point where its formula is reflected in the finished songs. Dixon handles the “gnarly” stuff - the album’s many buzzsaw riffs and thunderous guitar breaks - before Perkins takes his work and moulds it into structures recognisable as pop songs. They’re fast, loud and bratty. They’re stacked to the gills with hooks.
The beauty of the album, though, is the manner in which these qualities are melded with an introspective, often bleak lyric sheet. Perkins’ writing takes in anxiety, broken relationships, evaporating jobs and deteriorating mental health, but she sends her words crashing into the world on the back of furious, grin-inducing melodies. It’s a high-wire act that risks shallow, incomplete readings to reward those willing to scratch off the top coat of paint.
“It’s definitely a really accessible record,” she says. “That’s a good way to explore something that’s a bit more meaningful. There are definitely a couple of people, music writers or whatever you’d call them, who have listened to it on face value and interpreted it as a straightforward pop-punk record that doesn’t have much thought behind it and has been bashed out in a few hours.
“I can’t remember who it was who wrote this about it, but they quoted a lyric to make a point that they were really standard and straightforward. It was really funny to me because the line, in my head when I wrote it, had about six different ways that it could be interpreted. By making something catchy, you’re risking people interpreting things at face value. The people that have taken to the record are the people who have that deeper level of understanding. Something clicks and makes sense to you, or it doesn’t.”
As a general rule, Perkins is drawn to recording her thoughts. They don’t all make their way on to lyric sheets, but the process is there. As an extension of that, Slowcoaches, both as a recording act and a live band, are a vehicle through which she can take negative aspects of her life and hammer them into new shapes. There is a cathartic edge to both writing and performing the songs that is increasingly being mirrored by the responses they garner at shows.
“For whatever reason, the only time I get ideas is when there’s something shitty going on,” she says. “That’s just the way it is. It’s a way to get things out of your head and down on paper. But I don’t like to write in too much of an autobiographical way. Slowcoaches is and always has been my creation and my project, but I do feel I represent the views of whoever I’m playing with. I try not to be too explicit.
“But when I am playing things live it does recall the original stuff that the song’s about. I find myself getting quite caught up in that. I’m generally a relatively cheerful person but people will come up to me after shows and ask me why I’m so angry on stage. I can’t perform those songs properly without being conscious of what they’re about. I do think there’s something really rewarding about being able to turn something negative into something positive and have people singing along and dancing.”
Slowcoaches are a band that thrive in the disconnect between form and meaning; one that can put the listener on the back foot before reaching out a reassuring hand. ‘Nothing Gives’ is a first chapter that promises a page-turning second act.
'Nothing Gives' is out now through Leisure & District.
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