The Slits interview

The Slits began their musical adventures at the pinnacle time of punk,supporting Buzzcocks and The Clash in 1977. Their debut Cut was released in 1979 with reggae rhythms and a sense of independent mishief that evolved in an experiemental sound. The band broke up in 1982 and made their comeback with a new lineup in 2005. On 6th November 2009, The Slits released their first full length album in 25 years.



Kristi- Can you just introduce yourself? Hi, I’m Ari and I sing sometimes when I can
Hi I’m Anna and I play the drums, or I attempt to
Hello I’m Holly and I sing and pretend to play the keyboard
My name is Michelle and I play guitar, I actually play it.
My name is Tessa and I play the bass as well as I can

Kristi- How has the touring been going so far then?
Anna-Good
Holly-Good
Ari-Wicked
Tessa-Really good
Anna- Thanks to the snazzy tour bus that we are in right now

Kristi- Now I know you’ve been together as the current Slits line up for a few years now, but why did you want to get The Slits back on to the road?

Tessa- because we had unfinished business and we just wanna keep going til we drop dead basically

Kristi- where did you all meet?
Holly- I dunno I have no idea
Ari- its complicated
Tessa- its a long story
Anna- It was cosmic, innit
Tessa- it was meant to be
Holly- it was in the sky

Kristi- What shows have you got planned for the next few months?
Tessa- we might be supporting The Cribs in the next couple of months
Holly- Maybe. It’s not hugely official, I dunno.

Kristi- So it’s the first album release in 25 years, it’s been a long time, so what can we expect from this album?
Ari- same thing you expected for the last album, same thing.
Tessa- it’s got a lot of variety on it, there’s no particular style. I call it schizophrenic.
Ari- I wouldn’t say it was schizophrenic at all.
Tessa- well you don’t understand my description of it, because what I’m saying is it has a lot of different characters. Each song is completely different, it’s not like one style of music you couldn’t classify the album as any one style of music. It’s diverse.
Anna- It’s eclectic

Kristi- off the top of your head what music do you all listen to?
Anna- right now I’m listening to Neil Young
Tessa- I’m listening to Ari’s dancehall CDs from Jamaica cuz they’re new and exciting

Kristi- Do you think people still class you as punk band?
Ari- I don’t think we’ve ever been classed as a punk band. Only in ’77, but by the time we had the Cut album people didn’t relate to us as punk at all. Do we have to have a label? Because people insist on a label I keep saying punk, reggae, punk reggae, punky-reggae but really it’s Slits isn’t it. That’s what Tessa is trying to say, it’s a totally Slits sound I think.
Tessa- but it obviously has it’s punk elements as that’s our roots of where we came from, well one of our roots.

Kristi- what do you miss the most about the 70s when you were in a band at that time?
Ari- it’s a bit like asking what do you miss about ex boyfriend. I try not to miss anything cuz if you live for missing then you won’t move on and you won’t be excited about anything in life anymore but having said that you miss age.
Tessa- having more energy, that’s what I miss but I’m working on my energy.

Kristi- So Ari, as you go to Jamaica a lot do you get a lot of music inspiration from there?
Ari- I’m more bombarded than influenced. That’s why I try to not listen to any music at all because I’m constantly bombarded.

Kristi- you probably get asked this quite a lot, but is your Mum still married to John Lydon?
Ari- I dunno why people ask these things because it’s none of my business

Kristi- Didn’t Joe Strummer teach you to play guitar?
Ari- I can’t play, it’s just that he showed me some chords, my first chords. Joe Strummer was one of the people that was in my peers, my colleagues, but like a brother right. It’s just that he was hanging around a lot and the time and then had his guitar on him all the time so he didn’t talk much he was really quiet, so he just always played and showed me some chords.

Kristi- can you talk about some of the people that used to come in and out of your home?
Ari- Well Nora my mother she was really the manager for The Slits at the beginning. She helped a lot with Palmolive’s drums and equipment and helped getting gigs and helping a lot like that cuz she was already in promotion and I grew up in music and with musicians and so just every musician was there, every musician you could think of was hanging around us.
Nora came in at that time because we were already in the music.

Kristi- Have you found success difficult being females?
Tessa- what success? (laughs) We’ve never had any success, that’s why we’re back.

Kristi- well don’t you think women are finding it easier to get recognition now, than they did in the 70s?

Tessa- Our support group is very good, Wet Dog there’s a lot of potential in them.
Ari- there’s a lot of girl groups that are live, in America specifically there’s a lot of great girl groups, but they don’t get any recognition.
Anna- The novelty of a girl band overshadows it and that sucks
Tessa- And people are more ready to criticise your playing when you’re a girl, even if you can play perfectly well.

Kristi- In the early days you said you liked to shock people, can the same be said or has this changed?
Ari- We shock people, we never try to. We just do. It’s just the reality, it’s not even fun really.

Kristi- What’s a typical Slits gig like then?
Anna- there’s always a chance element that I think makes it quite special, I don’t think we just play a set list. We really feed off the crowd, like I said there’s always a bit of a random element that will always be different but there’s certainly a lot of interesting interaction.
Tessa- There’s always a lot of humour, sauciness, seriousness, unpredictability. Its’ not like a slick over produced show each gig is different, totally different.

Kristi- What means the most to you in this band? Good record sales, people coming to your gig or people just hearing you. What makes the most to you?
Tessa- as many people hearing our music all over the world.
Holly- it is always nice when people are at our gigs too.
Tessa- sometimes they’re not very well promoted.
Anna- but I think one of the greatest things about playing a show is just people who are really in awe, you know just really excited, that makes it worthwhile. I wouldn’t care if a huge building was sold out and everyone was just not really into it. It’s better when you find a few people who are really really happy.
Tessa- Like in Cardiff this couple were just so excited and the guy just couldn’t stop talking and saying he felt so uplifted. That’s what music should be, feeling so happy like it will last for days. That’s the best reaction, that’s what you want, you want to make people feel happy and feel good.
Ari- I don’t like it when there’s people who really want to come to a show and can’t because they can’t afford it. There was one show with a group of young girls outside who really wanted to come to the gig so I let them in for free, because I knew they really wanted to come and couldn’t.

Kristi- so when you’ve come off stage how do you know it’s been a good gig?
Tessa- people coming up and talking to us, or you just get the feeling when you’re on stage
Anna- nobody has a concussion.

Kristi- Do you get many people coming up to you saying you have inspired them at all?
Ari- It’s really nice when girls come up to you and say: “We started a group because of you guys.” People are happy to use us as an influence to create their own creativity, that’s the most fulfilling thing when you hear something like that.

Kristi- Which bands have been the best to tour with?
Tessa- Wetdog, demonstrations...

Kristi- where is your biggest fan base at the minute?
Tessa- America at the moment
Anna- but Australia was a hige response and japan huge
Tessa- can’t really say one
Anna- maybe not Europe
Tessa- we haven’t really played Europe that’s why.

Kristi- Are you planning to release another album after this?
Tessa- I think we should start thinking about the next one pretty soon.
Anna- Well we have a 10 album deal
Everyone laughs
Tessa- I think we should just keep constantly writing and be ready for the next one.

Kristi- what do you think to people downloading your music?
Tessa- it’s good and bad.
Anna- I am personally kinda fed up with people saying the music industry is doing bad because we can get everything for free because I think it is the most amazing promotion tool. The music applications, how you can put music on your phone and Ipod, I really think it’s totally good for the industry.
Ari- then we should have used it for this tour more. I heard there was nothing around. The dates are only on our myspace but they should be all over the place with more blogging.

Kristi- what are your favourite songs on the album?
Tessa- its constantly changing.
Anna- Well I loved Trapped Animal.
Holly- yeah me too
Anna- and it happens to be the title of the album.
Ari- I like songs that can get to the modern people. Holly and Anna think more open minded but I’m talking regular modern people, like in Jamaica Pay rent is being played more cuz it has a club feel.

Kristi- Do you want younger people to be listening to this album then?
Ari- yeah!
Tessa- our audience is a mixture of ages when we play live, it’s a total mixture which is great.