Slacker lands on Lobster Theremin for the release of his brilliant debut long player.
Arriving on Lobster Theremin in late July, “What Would I Do With Saturn” demonstrates Slacker’s killer ear for capturing the cross-sections that exist within UK sound; floating between the artist’s drum & bass upbringing and introspective, world-building electronica. Designed to have inward-gazing and aggressive tracks side by side – to represent the day to day mood swings that only extensive isolation can bring – the record is a tripped-out voyage through rich, flora-drenched ecosystems and Halo ring worlds.
What got you into electronic music?
I’ve always been really into music in general, mainly into playing classical and jazz piano and through jazz I discovered Hip Hop. But I got really into electronic music through going to barn parties as a teenager & listening to the music that was coming around at that time: Golden era Hessle/Swamp81/Hemlock sort of stuff, as well as Jungle too. Then naturally wanted to turn my energy to trying to recreate these sorts of tracks.
What was the inspiration for your debut album?
The inspiration developed throughout the first UK lockdown it was this sort of idea of what would an outside observer think when looking down on the world right now; what is Saturn thinking when looking down on Earth. It was an expression of, as well as an escape from, the isolation felt within this time.
How did you approach making the album? Was it different to the way you would approach making an EP?
I mean a few of the tracks are a few years older but really fit the bill of what I was trying to achieve. But I think because I was able to make so much music uninterrupted (I was unemployed throughout much of 2020 due to the pandemic) it sort of just flowed really nicely. I was never really thinking of putting the tracks together as an album until Jimmy hit me up for some music and I decided to send him through literally everything I had lying around at that point and he really connected the dots in a great and cohesive way.
What do you hope to see change about the dance music scene now that we come out of lockdown?
Firstly, more diversity on line ups in general. I think that this is already happening slowly but there are still tons of festivals/club line ups that I’ve seen out there that are not doing their part and still participating in the unequal representation of women & POC. People don’t just wanna see 15 white dudes DJing!! Secondly, I hope that there is also a focus on booking local smaller artists, I think this goes hand in hand with the first point too. The amount of talent there is in London alone is amazing and it is great to see that represented on line ups.
What does the future hold for Slacker?
Still plugging away on my label Pseudonym Records which has great plans for the future as well as continuing on making more and more music. As you can hear through the album I want to represent multiple styles so continue to make what I wanna hear.