For almost a decade, the LA duo slenderbodies have specialized in a stylish brand of cozy, hushed indie-pop, comfort music for introverts and wallflowers of all stripes. While the band’s latest album the sugar machine isn’t a total departure from their signature sound, the record simmers with a newfound exuberance and intensity. For the first time, you can imagine hearing some of these songs on the dancefloor instead of the bedroom. On the eve of the album’s release, we sat down with Max and Benji to get the lowdown on their new sound and upcoming tour.

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You’ve got a new record coming out, what were you excited about on this record to try out that you hadn’t before?

Benji: We did a lot of live tracking on (previous album) komerebi but it was almost like we turned an unfamiliar space into a recording studio, we rented this cabin in Mendocino. This one was turning a familiar space into a recording studio, which was Max’s house. We moved his kitchen table, put a drum set in his dining room, we had amps in the living room, all of it wired to a snake that winded back into the studio. We were super conscious about tone in a way I think that we hadn’t been before. A lot of what we’d done was kind of tone-shaping retroactively, and this was very much from the ground up. We wanted to build tones that were cohesive throughout the record and so that was super exciting for us.

As a band that is obsessed with guitars and falsetto, how have you continued to build around that sound on the new record?

Max: That’s a really great question. One of the biggest things was starting to incorporate more instruments. For this record, I purchased and restored a hundred-year old vintage piano that has been on the forefront of a bunch of the songs on the record. That allowed us to explore a bunch of new sonic space as well as work more outside of the box rather than doing a bunch of processing and production in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) of choice – Logic for us. We were able to set up amps and use pedals and all sorts of effects. We got our tones happening in the real world. When we first started, we were a very DAW-based project. Everything was in the box, we were just recording guitars straight in and doing all our processing there. This record has allowed us to explore a more live element, where we’re mic-ing everything. It gives a totally different feeling.

In a music climate where “indie” or “alternative” have often represented more abrasive sounds, what’s motivated you to really embrace this kind of radical softness and sweetness in your sound?

Benji: I think we’ve gotten the chance to try things in different projects we’ve been a part of and produced for other people. I think that’s always really wonderful in expanding our palette. When we go back and listen to a record like are we?, we got to try a more centered pop style with the A&R’s we worked with at the time. That was really valuable, but it feels good to double down on what the project is at its core. Obviously we set these parameters very early on and it was like “let’s the rules so we can break them,” but I think at the end of the day this project has an identity and throughline. That’s something we don’t want to betray. So it’s nice to have it set up to be “this is the core, this is the root system,” and have the sound grow out of that. It just feels right, I guess. Especially for this record, which is so much about nostalgia and the fondness of youth, I think doubling down on the softness while adding these moments of really intense dynamics adds something more to that element, rather than changing the center entirely.

What other things do you do to keep things interesting and take risks within that sound palette?

Max: (to Benji) Should we talk about the physical Sugar Machine? 

Benji: Yeah, we should.

Max: We started this album off the name. We were trying to figure out what the “Sugar Machine” meant to us, and it ended up being a lot of different things. We did have a set up in the studio that we called the Sugar Machine, which was essentially an OP-1 sampler that we were using to sample all sorts of random stuff, from our voices to instruments to things on the computer and nature. That was running into two separate pedal boards, so it was running into two separate amps that were mic-ed up in the room. It created this really lush, open, textural atmosphere. It was one of those things that defined the sound of the record. All of the weird ambient textural stuff that you’re hearing on the record – the intro to “Youth”, the interludes – all of those textures are built off the physical Sugar Machine. It adds that sweetness and “sugar” to the album. The machine was very specifically designed to create these warbly, interesting and unique moments on the record. 

Benji: I think the biggest thing with it was that music should feel like play, it should feel like playing with toys. I think that’s where we ended up. We didn’t know what knobs were going to do when we twisted them, we didn’t know how this system we’d developed was going to work reliably. It felt like discovering music and expression for the first time again, which was a really cool thing to replicate.

You mentioned nostalgia, but lyrically this album seems to be preoccupied with various types of ephemerality and our struggle to cherish and hold onto fleeting experiences. What made you want to address these subjects on the record?

Max: That’s great that you started catching onto that. Conceptually, the “Sugar Machine” is this idea that when people are children, there’s this inherent innocence to youth. You don’t know much about the world or the bad stuff that happens there, which allows you to feel very ignorant and blissful. When you become an adult and you learn more about the world, you lose that sense of innocence. It’s something that you can never quite get back to. So, the idea of the sugar sachine was, how do adults engineer a process to be able to get back to that space that we call “the sugar”? The machine is like the engineering side of it, the adult mindset that will allow you to chase “the sugar”. The quote we came up with was “we chase the sugar by creating the machine.” That was kind of the ethos of the project, and the lyrics are an ode to that in a lot of different ways. Some of the songs are about getting older, some of the songs are about throwing temper tantrums. Certain things are just about enjoying your youth and trying to find a way to enjoy those youthful sensations about an adult.

Benji: Some of it is about the wistfulness in missing some of those parts of yourself or those moments. I think it was a timely thing because we’re both about to turn 30. We both got married recently to our partners and so there’s talks of starting families and staying in touch with people as they move around the country. In a lot of ways, our 20s have been an extended period of youth. We’re traveling a lot, we’re exploring this music and doing a lot of fun stuff. As you age, you do get farther and farther away from that.

I feel like everyone has a different “Sugar Machine”. Some people are into board games or legos. We try to consider that everyone has something like that, and for us it’s making music with our friends.

I was going to say that “chasing the sugar by building the machine” is a pretty good metaphor for the creation of pop music in general. Isn’t that what any pop song is, a way to access those more pure, sublime feelings that you lose as you get older?

Benji: Yeah, and I think that’s the beautiful thing about music. You said the word “ephemeral” earlier and I think that’s a great thing to throw in the mix, because I think about music as the only art form that isn’t tangible. It’s not painting, it’s not sculpture, it’s not poetry, but it still makes us feel super deeply. Consuming music is a way to access your “sugar” as well, exactly like you’re saying.

 You’re currently about to head out on tour. Are you excited? Are you nervous?

Benji: Both.

Max: Excited, nervous and overwhelmed. We’re in tour prep right now and my studio’s an absolute mess. Literally right before this call, I just grabbed a bunch of gear from FedEx that I’m setting up for the tour, so I’m in that process. It’s a lot of work, but we’re really excited to get out there. They’re going to be our biggest shows yet, both in terms of venue size and what we’re going to be doing on stage. There’s a lot more instruments, a lot more gear, a lot more production. We’re nervous obviously, because it’s the most we’ve ever done and we’re hoping everything goes smoothly, but also excited because I think they’re going to be some of the best shows we’ve ever done.

That’s a good lead-in to my follow-up question. You guys are clearly studio wonks and invested in studio perfection, even more on this record than any of the other ones. What are some of the challenges of bringing this kind of studio-considered sound to a live audience?

Benji: We used to rely on backing tracks a lot. On this tour, we’re bringing the amps and the pedal boards we used on the record, so we’re really excited about that. A lot of the tones are the same. We’re also bringing the OP-1 on tour, and we’re going to have a little secret moment where we use that which we’re super excited about. We’ll be playing bass on different songs, trying to actually bring that to life – acoustic guitar, nylon string guitar. We of course have our amazing drummer Blake (Dahlinger). We’re trying to showcase as many of the parts of the songs as we can, playing them ourselves for the first time, so it’s a really exciting time to hit the road.

slenderbodies are going on tour. See them perform in a city near you:

Canada

https://admitone.com/events/slenderbodies-vancouver-9543760

Biltmore Cabaret — Vancouver, BC.

https://admitone.com/events/slenderbodies-toronto-9544312

Adelaide Hall — Toronto, ON.

http://slenderbodi.es/

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