Slow Crush are ready to change everything

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Slow Crush are preparing for big things. “It’s very much a new era for Slow Crush; everything has changed since the last release,” bassist and vocalist Isa Holliday opens decidedly. The Belgian group’s third album, ‘Thirst’, is a bolder, more determined, and crushing version of the band that first appeared in 2017.

Isa, along with guitarists Jelle Ronsmans and Nic Placklé, and drummer Frederik Meeuwis, have been building up an enviable arsenal of tracks and albums. Beginning with 2018’s independently released debut ‘Aurora’ and its follow-up, 2021’s ‘Hush’, Slow Crush’s shoegazing tsunami has been in perpetual motion since signing to Church Road Records following the dissolution of their first label, Holy Roar Records.

With brighter pastures ahead and a signing to Pure Noise Records in 2024, the four-piece’s moves to this point have mostly taken place on the road. In fact, the four years since their second album have been an endless stream of tours. But it was during this time that they began writing ‘Thirst’ and plotting out this new era.

“It’s definitely been a journey of growth,” Isa says. “It had been quite a while since ‘Hush’ was released, but it doesn’t mean that we were just chilling and doing nothing in between.” It was last year that they decided to take their foot off the gas and begin work in earnest on their third album. Taking their demos into the studio last September, it was the addition of producer Lewis Johns (Loathe, Employed To Serve, Svalbard) that helped flesh the ideas into the substantive collection of heavy-baiting tunes that make up ‘Thirst’.

“This is the first time that we’ve really tested our comfort zones,” she says. “The way that we like to write is putting things down very quickly so that it’s as spontaneous as it can be. But then once that spontaneity has been demoed, we tend to be quite rigid.

“Writing-wise, we just follow our guts,” she continues. “In that respect, we are quite authentic in the music that we write. We could take the easy route and write the 1,000th version of [breakout single] ‘Glow’ and stick to the same thing. But I think there is a definite style shift that can be heard.”

“The saxophone on ‘Covet’… like, how on earth is that Slow Crush?”

Changing the formula they’d worked so hard to finesse over the years always held some trepidation. As Isa explains, “I was a bit curious as to whether it would be a hit or a miss, but we were very confident that he could pull it off. He totally blew us away with some of his ideas,” she recalls. “Some of them were a little bit odd to begin with. Like, the saxophone on ‘Covet’… like, how on earth is that Slow Crush? But then he played it, and that made total sense. Everyone loved it, but that’s the reason why you get a producer, right?” A part of concocting this album was the confrontation that they found emerging as the album progressed, as they stepped further out of their comfort zone.

“We spent about a month and a half there with Lew, driving him crazy and vice versa,” Isa laughs at the memory. “But we’d worked so hard to get it to that point, and we wanted to make it the most perfect album that we could.” For all this driven nature, this time did take its toll. “It’s rewarding, but draining… when you’re stuck in a room for a long period of time with the same people, tensions can get high,” Isa admits.

Are Slow Crush the type of band who thrive in a combative environment? It turns out, no. “If you’d say being on the verge of a mental breakdown is thriving,” Isa cackles. “I think, creativity-wise, that for us, that’s a different perspective. We’re not creatively great when under pressure because we are perfectionists.”

“We’re often the ugly duckling, but everyone seems to find something they love in a Slow Crush song”

This new version of Slow Crush keeps them on a solid heading. With Pure Noise behind them, Isa and co are finding new freedom in where their music can fit. “We actually played two metal festivals last weekend, and we were accepted very well. Lots of people came up to us after the show saying that they cried to our set,” Isa smiles. “We’re often the ugly duckling, but because we all come from heavier backgrounds, there’s a lot of different vibes that can be felt through our music, so everyone seems to be able to find something that they love in a Slow Crush song,” she says.

This emotional framework is a key part of the Slow Crush experience. Their sound embodies a rich sense of feeling, thanks in part to the tidal wave soundscapes, but also due to Isa’s vocals. On ‘Thirst’, she was trying something new. Mentioning the track ‘Haven’, “I used a different timbre in my voice, just because that is the way I felt at the time of writing and singing that song, and it was the power needed for that expression. It was a very emotional journey, but we’re very, very happy that we could release ourselves into the album, and we hope that the listener can also release themselves when they’re listening.”

The palpable nature of this shines through. Their sonics hit like a summer downpour – sharp, overwhelming, but ultimately cleansing. Every layer is honed for maximum impact. While this is all born around their spontaneous side, there’s still a decidedly focused aspect that streams through their ethereal laments. For Isa, pouring herself into the music is all about facing inward: “Focusing on yourself in the here and now, and sort of forget about everything else that is going on around you. That’s always been something that has been central in Slow Crush,” she says.

In a world that’s hungrily chasing the next high, taking that moment to stop, breathe and check in with yourself is at the centre of Slow Crush. “That is something that we want to bring in our music to be able to give you that time. So in that emotional sense, that’s always been sort of a common theme throughout our music,” says Isa.

‘It’s more vulnerable, but also rougher at the same time”

Through ‘Thirst”s development, Isa also noticed an “evolutionary journey” over their career. It was time on the road that allowed them to develop it in a tangible sense – via their hardware and instruments (“Being a very soft vocalist, that’s always a challenge,” Isa chuckles) – but with ‘Thirst’, it’s something a bit more figurative. “What makes it stand out more in comparison to the previous ones is that it’s more vulnerable, but also rougher at the same time,” she explains. Referring to the tracklisting, the sides A and B of ‘Thirst’ complement each other. She says it’s “Slow Crush’s tribute to ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’,” Smashing Pumpkins’ seminal double album, which reaches across an ambitious but vulnerable emotional state. “In the sense that you’ve got a totally different sort of feel from Side A and Side B, yet they mesh together very well,” she continues. “So there is a common thread – you’ve got the more heavy and uplifting Side A, and then the deeper Side B.”

While ‘Thirst’ is a grand gambit for Slow Crush, the real goal for them is that communal feeling: being able to offer people what the music offers them. Taking that mystical, magical aspect of music that transcends everything, and giving it a tangible form in the shape of a live show, is the same thing that’s kept them busy for the last four years.

“Music is one of the very limited forms of creating that community,” says Isa. “You can have people from conflicting backgrounds love the same music.” And with that comes the most ambitious goal of them all, and the biggest step Slow Crush are striving for: “Music is something that brings everyone together,” she says. “Essentially, you don’t have to look a certain way or be a certain way – you can just be yourself.”

Slow Crush’s album ‘Thirst’ is out now.