London, UK punk-pop three-piece Slowcoaches, a new signing to Sonic Unyon Records, have forged a flint-hard reputation in the time-honoured crucible of rock clubs. Found Down is the title track from the raw, raucous new two-track release from the take-no-prisoners trio and it speaks directly to that difficult path.
Of the song, bassist-vocalist Heather Perkins says: ‘It’s about how the ‘struggle’ of the artist is glamourised by mainstream labels via the media in order to sell records. And it’s about how mundane and frustrating the day-to-day reality of that struggle can actually be, whether that’s mental, financial or something else.’
‘When I wrote ‘Found Down’,’ Perkins recently told Dice, ‘a few of my friends had decided to stop playing in bands and stop doing anything creative because they felt pressured by their family/work/partners to ‘grow up’ and start being serious about making money and sorting their lives out.
‘At that time, I was really struggling to manage my mental health/social life/job/music/money and I could see how taking the creative stuff out of the equation could make my life easier in a lot of ways,’ she added. ‘But I couldn’t face the thought of giving up this thing that gives me a sense of purpose. So when I was writing I was really trying to work out what that driving force is that makes some people want to create art and why there seems to be such a pull between making art and being this ‘domestic’ adult, and the factors that make it difficult whether that’s money, time or mental health. And how to achieve a balance so that these things can exist and thrive together.’
The track embodies a driving force all its own. Found Down is a full-bore ear worm of buzzing intensity that finds the band — Perkins at the fore, backed by the formidable talents of guitarist Oliver Shortland and drummer Sean Hughes — focused and relentless, its furious cathartic energy barely contained within the confines of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it running time.
Slowcoaches’ Found Down EP will be available in a limited seven-inch edition. An expanded pressing of the band’s crushing debut LP, Nothing Gives, will follow; pressed on limited edition transparent-and-green-splatter vinyl, the album will be released on June 30 via Sonic Unyon Records.