Slowly Slowly have revealed their next single and video Smile Lines. The next single lifted from St. Leonards will be accompanied by a national headline tour of the same name, kicking off on November 9 in Brisbane and will wind up where it all started in Melbourne on December 14.
One of the grungier offerings from St. Leonards, the dark, haunting refrain of Smile Lines is captured perfectly through the lens of Garrod, whose sunny disposition masks a vulnerable and complex soul.
On “Smile Lines” frontman Ben Stewart says: ‘We wrote the heavier sections as a band and had a lot of fun jumping around injecting it with energy. I sat with the quiet elements at home, trying to impart a conflicted narrative, which I felt would be an important backdrop to the more aggressive moments we had in the rehearsal room. The juxtaposition felt right and that’s where Michael Roberts and I dreamed up the character of Garrod, the Jekyll and Hyde supermarket employee, harshly torn between his watered-down self and a complex rawness only present behind closed doors. Take what you want from the storyline, but for me the song centres around becoming entangled in your own web – the more you thrash around the worse it gets. Thomas Watson (Garrod) was incredible to work with and took us back and forth from stunned silence to roaring laughter over and over again in a very cold house one night in Brunswick.’
Riding high from the release of their new album St. Leonards in May – and backed up by an almost completely sold out Australian headline tour months in advance – Slowly Slowly are proving exactly why they were earmarked to be one of 2018’s breakout bands. Praised for its eloquent storytelling and capturing a portrait of the glory years of life in vivid colour, triple j Music Director Nick Findlay said, ‘Slowly Slowly from Melbourne are harking back to almost like that Kisschasy era of emo pop punk at a time where it’s just perfect”. Rock Sound Magazine echoed the sentiment, stating, “St. Leonards sees Slowly Slowly pushing themselves to new heights to ensure no one underestimates them” while Kerrang! Magazine say “Ben Stewart’s raw emotion steals the show.” But Stack Magazine truly summed it up best with “Slowly Slowly are making gold on their sophomore effort’.
Before Slowly Slowly set off on the Smile Lines tour, the band will head up to Brisbane for a bunch of showcases at Bigsound 2018, set to prove exactly why they’ve been labelled “one of Australia’s biggest buzz acts” by the Music.
SLOWLY SLOWLY
Smile Lines Tour
Friday 9th November – The Zoo, Brisbane
Saturday 17th November – Jack Rabbit Slims, Perth
Friday 30th November – The Lansdowne, Sydney
Saturday 1st December – Rad Bar, Wollongong
Friday 7th December – Pelly Bar, Frankston
Friday 14th December – 170 Russell, Melbourne