Ciara Belfiore, of WLUW, spoke with Slow Pulp’s lead singer, Emily Massey, ahead of their final shows in Wisconsin and Chicago. Slow Pulp is now Chicago-based but grew up in Madison, WI. In the past few years they’ve been on rise, quickly becoming a favorite in the indie scene. In October they released their second album, “Yard”, a blend of hazy guitar riffs and emotional lyrics.
How has tour been so far? I know you guys started off in October, how’s it been?
Yeah it’s been great. It’s been long.
I’m sure.
It’s kind of funny coming to the end of it. You know? It feels a little bit surreal. But it’s been really lovely. Tour’s been so special. We put out our record just a few days before we started this tour. We didn’t know what it was going to be like to tour so soon after the music was out. People have been really engaging and singing along to a lot of the new songs at the shows. It’s just been really quite special. We feel very grateful.
I’m sure that’s a really fulfilling feeling to have so much positive feedback from the new album.
Yeah absolutely.
Back when Moveys came out, you said in an interview that you hoped that the second album would have more realizations and more learning about ways you guys could work together. Do you think that held true?
Yeah, absolutely and I think it will for the next one too. I think when we made Moveys, the first record, we went into it really having no clue what we were doing. It felt a lot less daunting starting the second record because we had some framework about how to make an album together. We learned so much doing this one, so I think when we make the next one it’ll have its own process. It’ll have things that we have left behind that weren’t serving us and things that worked that we want to continue. We’ll just continue to become better writers, bandmates and friends really first and foremost.
Totally. You’ve talked about keeping a notebook for song ideas, was that particularly helpful with the new album? What was your writing process like?
I was a lot more loose with it on this record. I think the major change of the writing process was spending a lot of time in isolation. I went up to some family friend’s cabins or cottages in northern Wisconsin and just spent some really intentional time alone. I wrote a lot of the songs up there just letting my stream of consciousness take over and kind of decide what the songs are gonna be about. I feel like I didn’t have to decide about what they were gonna be, it just kind of revealed itself. If that makes sense.
There’s a lot of slower songs, very emotional songs on this album that are very personal to you. Do you think that solitude lent its way towards those feelings?
Oh yeah, 100%. I think that being alone I was able to be really emotionally vulnerable with myself. Which I think I had a hard time fully delving into before and when I was alone it was like there was no one I could hide from. I couldn’t hide from myself and I didn’t necessarily expect that to happen, to be so viscerally emotional in the ways that I was when I was alone. I think that really came out in the songwriting. I thought I was going to have this kind of internal reckoning with the relationship I have with myself. Instead, I found myself reflecting on relationships I had with other people. Something about being away from everyone made me, you know, miss them or want to think about them, want to think about my communities. The album really is for them, I feel like it’s about my relationships with some of the closest people in my life.
The fact that you’re playing the Wisconsin show tonight and Chicago tomorrow, do you think performing those songs in those spaces with people that are very close to you is going to feel very full circle?
Oh yeah, absolutely. It’s probably going to be kind of hard. The people that those songs are about will be in the audience. It’ll feel very special, but very emotional. Some of the songs are innately about some kind of hard things. It’s kind of hard to sing them when those people aren’t in the audience, it’ll be even harder but also really lovely. Cause they know, and it’s nice to have that kind of connection, which I really haven’t gotten to have too much on this tour. That’ll be nice.
I’m sure they’ll be very special shows.
Yeah, absolutely.
You guys have talked a lot about your artistic influences. Be it movie wise, with School of rock being really impactful to you, and different songs and albums that were very helpful in making this record. I feel like your music videos are very thought out in what is included. The ideas are very fully fleshed out.
Oh thank you.
As well as including Henry’s painting as your album cover, Do you think that the melding of visual art with your music is something that’s very important to you all? Is it conscious or is it something that feels like it comes naturally?
That’s a good question. I think we all care so much about the visual aspect of how the music’s being presented in tandem with something visual. We have a lot of really long discussions about it, when we’re figuring out how things are going to play out. We don’t always agree. I feel like that’s a topic where we kind of have to convince everyone else of an idea. That’s kind of the fun part of it too, you know? We talk a lot about art. Henry went to college as a painter and I think that’s something we all connect on. We really love his work in particular and it feels so connected to our music. Just having it be him and him having such a big part in making the music. I remember for this album, specifically figuring out the album artwork, we knew we were going to call the album “Yard”. He had this painting from college that he had brought up. As soon as I saw it I was like, “This is it, this feels like the right image to go with this album” and it really fits, in kind of an inexplicable way.
I feel like it’s very distinctive. I feel like it really fits the way that the album feels as you listen to it
Yeah, absolutely.
What’s been your favorite song to play on tour so far?
My favorite and maybe the hardest song to play is “Yard”. It seems like people are really connecting to that one. There’s this kind of fun line in the middle of it where I say, “Missed the volleyball game, I’m a bitch, I’ve been a bitch.” People tend to like to scream that line, which is so much fun. And such a cool experience to have, so I’d say that one but there’s so many. We have really been having so much fun playing these songs live.
To round the interview off, I have some shorter, more rapid fire questions for you. You can answer them quickly if you want or if you want to spend a little bit more time on any of them you can.
Are there any artists that you’d love to collaborate with?
That’s a great question. For this record I really got into Lucinda Williams and her songwriting is just so impeccable, so emotive and raw. I think it would be absolutely surreal to write a song with her.
Now that you guys have been in Chicago for a few years. Do you have a favorite Chicago food?
I’m a huge fan of a Chicago dog and this is going to be a really controversial opinion but I think one of the best Chicago dogs is the stands that are at Home Depot. They’re so so good, also Red Hot Ranch is a classic staple.
I almost agree with the Home Depot thing. I feel like they’re so iconic and distinctive.
Do you have a dream venue that you’d like to play? I know you guys have been to quite a few that you’ve been on tour.
Thalia Hall, where we’re about to play in Chicago, has definitely been one that we never even dreamt that we’d be able to headline there. We get to do that tomorrow which is so cool. My last name is Massey and there is a really beautiful venue in Canada called Massey Hall, I think that would be pretty cool to be able to play there. So maybe someday there. Another one, we did get the honor to play King’s Theater with Alvvays when we toured with them last fall. That was like maybe the most beautiful venue I’ve ever seen. It was just so ornate and to be able to play there would be beyond our wildest dreams truly.
I almost don’t want to ask this because I feel like I know what the answer’s going to be, but Bears vs. Packers?
Oh easy! Packers, sorry.
I knew it.
We ride for the Packers, although you know, they’re a complicated team to love sometimes.
The Bears as well.
Kind of maybe any major sporting team.
Do you know what the first album you ever bought was?
I actually do, I bought Led Zeppelin IV on CD at a neighbors garage sale. I was playing that one pretty constantly.
That’s such a good one, that’s great.
My older brother and I both love your music, ever since Moveys, and he texted me I think a couple days after the album came out and he said “The new Slow Pulp album rocks.” and “Slow Pulp for President 2024” so if Slow Pulp was running for president what would your campaign slogan be?
Oh god, probably to tax the rich and fund the money into public programming, 2024.
I feel like you’d have a good campaign to run on.
If only that could happen!
Awesome, okay. Thank you so much for talking to me today.
The next day, after opener Babehoven finished their set, Slow Pulp took the stage at Thalia Hall. Either Emily Massey is a psychic or just knows her audience very well. There was a collective reverence, it was clear the show was something special. During the encore, they played “Yard” which was, as predicted, a crowd favorite. They followed it up with “High”, Massey stated that was the loudest a crowd had sung along on tour. As they left the stage, it was clear. Psychic or not, Slow Pulp is one of the best acts performing today.
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