Electro/pop artist SLOANE has been running along the Los Angeles circuit for quite some time now. You just didn’t realize it. He is rubbing shoulders with his friends with Phantogram’s Josh Carter, rapper Mykki Blanco, and choreographer and actor Derek Hough.
The artist, who wears a mysterious pixelated mask, wants his listeners to delve deep in his music, as her poured out his emotions into his upcoming EP, Too Young To Be Lonely, due out this October.
Modern Frequency sat down with SLOANE to talk about his music history, his electro-pop sounding EP, and how it is okay to be a man that struggles with emotions.
Were you born in Los Angeles? How did you start off in music?
Yes, I was born and raised in LA. The first music that I ever got into was punk music. I was very deep into the Los Angeles punk/crust scene and joined a band when I was 14, this was my first time really getting into playing an instrument and performing (even though we were terrible hahaha). Then my life changed when I was 15/16 because I discovered the la jazz scene and joined the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, getting deep into the south central jazz scene in la and learning how to play upright bass, I grew up playing and hanging with Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Brandon Coleman and a lot of the other la jazz musicians from that scene (if want to see some fun footage of all of us when we are all super young google a film called ‘the gathering’)
You started out with jazz infused sound. Now your sound is leaning more in the electro-pop stratosphere. Why did you switch it up?
What has always drawn me to music was the idea of expressing myself (communicating clearly) and community. When I grew up, jazz gave me so much freedom and I was lucky to tour and record with some true legends from the ages 16 to 23. My first time being signed to Porter records in 2010 I had just got done performing and writing a ton with this band Build an Ark (worth looking up if don’t know) so I was super deep into orchestral/soul/jazz music. I was also really just discovering how to compose/play/sing at that time so didn’t really even know to program, play synths etc yet. Between 2010-2019 I got really deep into the LA pop/urban music scenes and started doing pretty well as a music director for tons of brands and artists and clubs so my programming and abilities and knowledge of music kind of sky-rocketed. I started writing all the SLOANE material to see if I could write and produce for myself and say the things that I wanted to say about the struggles I was going through. The songs just started coming out very emo synth pop and I was digging them because they were so honest and to me sounded fun. I love investigating new sounds and with my first albums in 2010 it was great to record a real orchestra and learn how to do that while discovering my voice as a player/composer, and now I am loving diving deep into sound design, drum programming , and finding my voice as a singer/producer /writer. I feel like the spirit in all my albums is the same I am just communicating differently, and hopefully to a wider audience by being more accessible.
You played and produced with many people in the Los Angeles scene. Who is your favorite to work with and why? Phantogram is giving you props. What does it mean to get recognition from your peers at this point?
Josh Carter from Phantogram is one of my closest friends and I truly love working with them. Josh and Sarah give me tons of freedom when playing / working on tracks. I love sessions where I can just try out tons of ideas and experiment, and let the music tell me what to do; this one song I played a bunch of stuff on called ‘ceremony’ on their new album has an insane outro on it and it was so fun to get to play super aggressive fuzz bass and make some crazy chordal movement. I used to work with Dallas Austin a ton and that was so fun and taught me a lot about production and harnessing energy in songs. Some of my other favorites that I have more recently worked are Mykki Blanco, FRENSHIP, and Derek Hough. Derek and I do a lot together (released a cover of hands down the end of last year) and it has been really cool to learn about coordinating dance with music in live and studio settings. Getting praise from peers is the best. Music is contributive and not competitive. It always feels amazing to be pushed and supported and loved by the music community that I am actively working to help build.
You created your new EP Too Young To Be Lonely based on emotions, feelings, and relationships. It even delves into depression a bit. Can you tell me more about the EP and your feelings going into creating it?
I struggle a lot with depression, lack of confidence, and due to these have struggled with maintaining healthy relationships. I wanted to write songs that were 100 percent honest about what I was dealing with and had no desire to put down any lyrics unless they reflected that. The first song that I ever released under SLOANE ‘old hands new face’ I wrote right after the girl that I thought was the one cheated on me and my friend died of an overdose in the same weekend. I basically felt like I broke as a being. I wrote the chorus ‘I can’t see you/I can’t feel you/ cause I’m changing’. It felt therapeutic to write and sing that song and people seemed to connect with it, so I wanted to dive even deeper into my feelings. I think a lot of men (and women) struggle with body issues, dating, depression, etc but it’s hard to talk about and they either get medicated or go to therapy but don’t have many outlets. As someone that has tried to hurt myself before and been non-functioning as a human due to mental depression, I wanted to make songs that were honest and easily accessible for anyone to connect with and understand that they aren’t alone. For this EP I was really struggling with feeling like I am cursed with dating and was on a rollercoaster of emotions due to always spiraling out over some girl. I was also trying to discover why I cared so much about these things and what was at the core of my spirals? Those feelings and investigations were the main ingredients for this EP, all the songs were written in a 6-month period in 2019 and just flowed out of me once I was ready to be open about everything without being embarrassed or caring what others thought. I think even if my songs are about my breakups or questioning of my own life, if they are honest, while being anthemic and accessible to any type of listener, they will be able to connect with people.
“Too Young To Be Lonely” is a great song. It sounds very accessible for radio. What are your goals for this song?
Wow thank you! I hope it does well on the usual platforms (streams, radio, etc) and would love to see some fun videos of people having fun or dancing to it, that would be cool af!! When the world opens up again it would be so sick to travel around and perform for people while they smile and dance to it. Now I really wanna tour again hahaha.
Lauv and LANY are creating similar sounds right now in the industry. Do you follow the trends and do you think there is a niche market for this electro-pop sound still?
Love both of them for sure! I follow trends in the sense that I listen to a ton of music and make my living working with many current artists. I think my sound is influenced by a lot of pop/synth music that’s out right now and there’s for sure a growing market for that , there’s also a growing market for music that’s real and I think the fact that my music is fun and honest will give it a nice foot hold. I also don’t fully care, I wasn’t trying to make a top ten billboard album or win a Grammy, I just wanted to make music that I wanted to hear with songs that I want to sing with sounds that I love.
What is next for you?
I’ll be releasing SLOANE songs each month until my EP comes out in October. I will perform some live stuff when possible and for sure some DJ gigs peppered in. I have an ambient album that I made with Josh Jacobson coming out in June. I also have a few collaborations coming out throughout the year. Josh Carter and I have started working on a ton of music and are playing with the idea of starting an entity to release that. As music director, I have a lot of stuff with Mykki Blanco, Derek Hough, and Sofia Carson over the next 6 months to prepare for.
And last but not least—you wear a pixelated mask. Is it for the purpose of art or for other reasons? Do you wear it out in public only?
I chose to wear my own face pixelated to represent that when I am (or we all are) going through various traumas, breakups, financial hardships etc it can be difficult to always see myself clearly. Judgements, viewpoints and narratives about ourselves can change depending on what we are going through and for myself I felt like it would be interesting to wear a physical representation of that while performing since all my songs stemmed from various issues I was dealing with about women or my own demons. The mask was never meant to be a disguise but I do like the idea that it takes the focus away from who I am and puts it onto what I am creating and the experience that we can all have with the music and the art/ imagery. It’s hot af in LA right now so for sure not wearing it all the time hahahaha, but I do love it.
CONNECT WITH SLOANE:
Instagram//Twitter
Words/Robert Frezza
