Slaughter Beach, Dog

With album three and tour complete Slaughter Beach, Dog are onto the start of a new chapter. I was able to talk to them before their show in Hamden, CT and here’s what they said.

So what inspired the name of the current album [Safe and Also No Fear] that’s why you guys are on tour right now. So what brought it about?

Jake Ewald: I kinda just heard it and wrote it down and it stuck with me and it just felt like a good vibe. It made me feel good so I wrote it down. And then that’s pretty much it.

Nick Harris: I feel like it was one of the first name suggestions too, and then for like another three or four months we had so many other name suggestions. But every time someone suggested one we knew, we’re like we know that Jake is definitely gonna call the album this [Safe And Also No Fear].

Pretty simple, I like it

Everyone: Yeah

And then, what was this album process like? Was it different than the last two? Was it similar?

Ewald: So for the last two albums [Birdie and Welcome] I had played all the instruments and done all that junk, but this time around we actually wrote all the songs as a band and recorded them as a band and we all mixed it together so it was way more collaborative and everyone had their hands in the pot, which was cool.

Ian Farmer : Also was a bit of we prepared for a very long time

Ewald: Yeah, we did a lot of preproduction. We wrote a lot for a while at our studio and then we went away to write some more, and then we had demoed everything before we went in. So there was a lot of prep.

Was there less prep with the last two [albums?]

Ewald: Yeah, the last one, Birdie, I had just done some really fast demos a couple weeks before we recorded it and then with the first one, Welcome, I don’t know if there were any demos at all, maybe like a couple.

You guys had custom test presses come out it was through Lame-O Records. I didn’t win one- I’m kinda sad about it but, who had that idea, like how did it come about? Cause it was pretty sick to see them.

Ewald: Thanks, I think it was Eric’s idea actually

Farmer: I think it was actually Emily from Lame-O records…the brains of the operation

Harris: I don’t think I’ve even seen any of them

Ewald: I think they’ve mailed, but yeah I draw a lot of our shirts and stuff and so they [Lame-O Records] were just like ‘do you wanna do this?’ And I was like ‘yeah that’s cool.’ Cause there’s so many like, I don’t know, corny things you can put with preorders for records but I thought it was a neat and it’s like kinda personal. It feels good.

Yeah, it was really cool

Now, focusing on the album itself. I had my vinyl copy, I was playing it, doing stuff around my room and [the song] Anything came on. And somehow, I was listening in and out but I heard the line “You see your friends after your at the restaurant/ you see your friends down at the bar/ but when you see them in the super market aisle they don’t know who the hell you are” that line hit me like a ton of bricks

Jake Ewald: Cool

Is there a story behind that? A meaning? Is it personal- if you’re comfortable sharing it?

Ewald: It’s not from a particular instance, but it’s kind of like, it’s meant to convey an emotion that I’ve felt and I’m sure a lot of people have felt like a thousand times before in any sort of different scenario and I thought it kinda summed up a lot of different things. But I’m glad it hit you.

[Do] You guys (Harris, Farmer, Robbins) have anything to say about it?

Farmer (referring to Ewald): This is the word boy here.

Harris: I do like that line though, that’s good stuff.

And then my last [structured] question I know the focus is on the new album [Safe And No Fear] as it should be, it’s a great album. But I remember to listening to Gold & Green [from Birdie] a lot this summer and that song was able to take me to a different world and as all of your albums do, so I just wanna say that you guys are doing something really cool and if people aren’t paying attention they definitely should start to.

Ewald: Sweet

Do you agree that your music is more than just songs on an album?

Ewald: I don’t know. I hope so

Farmer: We definitely care a lot and put a ton of effort into it.

Ewald: We really give a shit.

Ewald: So I guess that is what we’re trying to achieve by the end of the day by putting so much of our time and energy into it and so it’s really cool to hear it worked for you that’s awesome

Harris: And I do feel like this is, especially right now where we are this is like the first band I’ve been in where it feels like the 100% focus is simply on music. This is like the second to last show of a five-week tour and literally up until sound check yesterday like Ian [Farmer] and Zack [Robbins] were still being like ‘what if we did the drum base hits like here and stuff like that’

Farmer: We still haven’t settled

Harris: You know I feel like it’s an ongoing and evolving thing that’s solely based on music, as opposed to like , I don’t know, all of the other stuff that you can get caught up in that comes along.

And is there anything else you want the people to know that I haven’t mentioned?

Ewald: Thanks for the interview

Thank you guys! I mean this is my first interview with people who are actually famous.

*They all laugh*

Ewald: Thank you so much.

Safe And Also No Fear is out now.

Audio: https://youtu.be/hpWB1wWZxXc