Coming in piping hot out of France, the swirling miasma of psychedelic space rock known as Slift has been taking the world by storm. Having recently undertaken their first-ever US tour, I caught up with them on-site shortly before their set at Desert Daze in California. We talked about their incredible artwork, how it felt to finally play the US, their combined musical upbringing, and more.
Author’s note: this interview was conducted with the aid of a translator, and has been edited for clarity
Andrew Howie: So tell me a little about this tour – this is your first time in the US, how have things been going?
Jean Fossat: It’s really really cool. We just played in LA two days ago, and it was a sold out show. The people were really great. It’s amazing. For us, we come from a little city in the south of France called Toulouse, so it’s kind of a dream for us to be here at Desert Daze, this is a big festival that we’ve known about for years through the internet so it’s wild to play here.
AH: You’ve put out a few records now – how would you say you’ve evolved as musicians in the time since your first album?
JF: That’s a big question! I will try to answer. There are many things that have changed since our first EP. I think we take more time to write the songs, to think through the concepts of the album, from the artwork to the music and everything. It’s more of a long process and we take our time in the studio. We spend much more time in the studio. We have more time to experiment with different instruments and things like that and really find the right sound. That’s the main change really, between our first album and our most recent one.
AH: Jean, you and Rémi are brothers obviously, and you’ve both known Canek for quite some time as well. How does that bond affect your music?
JF: It’s crazy because we’ve just always played music together. We met Canek in high school, and we started playing in a punk band together, so it’s really natural, I guess, to play music. There is no problem with the songwriting, everything is really natural for us.
AH: Your album artwork is a trip. Do you intentionally create the art to demonstrate the vibe of the music?
Jean: Usually, we have the music ready to go, but before we record we have to figure out the cover, because it will put the cherry on top. It is going to influence the lyrics, the order of the song, it is very integral and important to us. We also try, for our live visuals, to have them work hand in hand with the music to make it the best experience for the audience.
AH: Your record Ummon was released just as COVID was hitting. That must have been frustrating.
JF: Yeah, we just didn’t play. We had the good luck though that when we released the album, it quite instantly got a new life on the internet through Bandcamp and YouTube and things like that. It was just great luck for us, because the songs spread very far and when we were able to tour again, people were really ready for it.
