Far Out Meets: Haley Shea discusses Sløtface 2.0 and the new EP ‘AWAKE/ASLEEP’
It’s a transitory time for Haley Shea, frontwoman of Norweigian standard-bearers Sløtface, but being fazed has barely crossed her mind. In June 2022, an announcement on social media told fans that founding members Tor-Arne Vikingstad and Lasse Lokøy, the band’s guitarist and bassist, were departing to try “something different with their lives”. Duly, a sea change occurred.
During the same statement, it was confirmed that this was not the end for Sløtface. Moving forward, they were to be led by Haley alone. This format has seen the group assume a new guise, with a fresh crop of musicians assisting her in flying the flag of Sløtface. They are now something of a collective, an intriguing choice of format that has boosted Haley whilst managing to help her stay true to herself artistically.
Naturally, losing her bandmates of ten years was difficult to process at first. Further compounding this feeling was the burden of shouldering the demands that being in a successful band entails. It took her time to adapt. Speaking to Shea in the frozen depths of January, where she was wrapped in an oversized sweater and cradling a mug of something warm, she confirmed that she is at peace with this new state of play and the fresh creative opportunities it has offered. She is moving into the future with her mind fully open to whatever it might bring, and this attitude can only be a good thing.
Signifying this, Haley has assembled Sløtface’s first offering since Tor-Arne and Lasse departed, the eight-track EP AWAKE/ASLEEP. Released on February 24th, both lyrically and musically, the new body of work sees her explore various realms, with it painting a colourful sonic portrait that has fully reinvigorated the band.
From heady electropop to anthemic indie reminiscent of the group’s 2017 debut Try Not to Freak Out, a lot is going on that conveys this triumph and the extent of Haley’s individual musical accomplishment. The personal and the fictional are analysed at different points, with flecks of the feminism that made the group’s arrival so exciting still present, just repackaged. Interestingly, she is keen to define the EP as a “mixtape” of seven atomised songs. Approaching it this way has allowed her to experiment with different genres and lyrical styles without being a definitive indicator of what the future holds for the group. Despite the different ways of approaching AWAKE/ASLEEP as a fan, it symbolises a remarkably robust offering in the face of great adversity.
It is self-evident that AWAKE/ASLEEP is a record that means a lot to Sløtface. “This is our first testing of the waters of what that can sound like,” she explains. “When we landed on what Sløtface was going to be, after a bunch of big changes with the original numbers last year, we, well, I, wanted to stay really open as far as what Sløtface could sound like, who we can collaborate with, what we can do, and try to keep that world as open as possible. I think of it almost more as a mixtape of seven very different songs. I feel like there’s a lot of possibilities to keep developing that and experimenting with what it can sound like without locking ourselves in to ‘This is what Sløtface 2.0 sounds like; we have to do that forever now.'”
She elucidated that her approach changed after Tor-Arne and Lasse left, although she quickly clarified that their departures were in no way acrimonious. Haley used Tor-Arne’s circumstances as an example, explaining that he was offered his dream job as a journalist, something he would have been a fool to have spurned. Despite being delighted for her friends and their new ventures, a “little bit of a grieving period” was required whilst she conceived “what the future would look like” for Sløtface.
Outlining that the trio used to share band duties evenly, the necessity to now shoulder all responsibility was “daunting at first” for Haley in what can only be considered a natural reaction. However, this dread soon dissipated as she realised the promise of the new chapter. Interestingly, Haley pointed out that whilst she and the new group did some writing for the new EP in Sløtface’s traditional setting – the rehearsal room – being the creative director allowed her to work with other producers and songwriters in a one-on-one situation in the studio. Highlighting the limits of writing in a cramped rehearsal room, including conceiving parts with the sole intention of cutting through the other noises, she admitted: “It was nice to get to switch that up a little bit”. Haley also asserted that the two versions of the band aren’t comparable: “I don’t think anything about the new iteration is necessarily better. It’s all just different.”
Discussing that she worked with Norwegian musician Mikhael Paskalev and producer Odd Martin Skålnes, the latter of whom worked on the last Sløtface album, Sorry for the Late Reply, Haley expressed that the pair’s influence helped her modify her creative approach. Regarding the work of the former – a teenage hero of hers – it certainly shows in the vibrant textures of AWAKE/ASLEEP. “What drew me to working with him is the way he’s always mixed folkier or American-influenced sounds with a very cool pop sensibility,” she enthused. “He’s always been really good at that.” And once more, he demonstrates that on her own EP.
However, his input was merely part of a collective new pull, with everyone included contributing something vital and organic. “[Paskalev’s] attention to lyrics and the way that he writes I really identify with, so I was really excited to try to see what we could come up with if we mixed our two ways of working together,” Haley told me. “Especially since I’m very lyric-focused upfront, and everything else comes after, that was my main motivator. I wanted to stay in Oslo, and not everybody you work with that doesn’t have English as a first language is as hyper-focused on lyrics, but he is very focused on lyrics.”
Given that AWAKE/ASLEEP is a sonic new dawn for Sløtface, it was only right that we turn our attention to influences underpinning it, as even from the first few minutes, it’s evident that there are many on show. Even before we’d moved on to the subject, Haley had mentioned the influence of Mitski’s recent work in passing, which made a lot of sense. There are flecks of the spirited indie pop of her 2022 album Laurel Hell, coursing throughout in both the uplifting and bluer moments. Elsewhere, the likes of Taylor Swift, Caroline Polachek and Phoebe Bridgers were namechecked, with Haley revealing with a gleaming smile that she had Polachek’s sun-drenched hit ‘Bunny is a Rider’ on repeat throughout the recording process of the EP. An electropop masterwork, Polachek’s pristine production and dynamic textures undoubtedly made their way into AWAKE/ASLEEP. Just listen to the bombastic swells of ‘Nose’ – it’s a spiritual successor.
As for Phoebe Bridgers, Haley consciously disclosed how her style might have bled into the new opus: “I’m always super influenced by Phoebe Bridgers and the way that she tells stories and how they’re super believable, but also really specific.” The story of ‘Friday Nights’ – an adroit blurring of the line between lived experience and a dream – is an indicator of this. A beguiling piece, Haley’s critiques of McDonald’s and shop-bought cakes whilst using them as analogies for the feelings inherent to relationships give Bridgers’ finest lyrical flourishes a run for their money.
Most interestingly of the inspirations mentioned was Haley’s revelation that Haim’s 2020 album, Women in Music Pt. III, was used as the blueprint for the new Sløtface EP. Boasting cuts such as ‘Summer Girl’ and ‘Gasoline’ (which features Taylor Swift on the extended edition), the album exemplifies how to marry an authentic rock sensibility with the energy of popular music – something that AWAKE/ASLEEP also does very well. “[Women in Music Pt. III] was kind of like the blueprint for everything we wanted this EP to be because you can hear all the influences from different things really clearly,” she explained. “You can hear that they draw from wildly different places”. Whilst the natural haze of Los Angeles and the influence of Fleetwood Mac aren’t as prominent on the new Sløtface offering, as Oslo is a long way away, the Haim sisters are buried deep within.
This might sound like a radical transition, but certain tenets still survive. It’s only natural that we discussed the feminism inherent to Sløtface’s early work, epitomised in their choice of name. Somewhat controversially, it was initially spelt as ‘Slutface’ to juxtapose their feminist message and grab attention, which it did. As our conversation moved on, Haley enlightened me on what the future holds for the band on this front and whether their politics will take a different shape in this new epoch. Indicative of the broader trend with Sløtface 2.0, Haley acknowledged that the feminist message is still there; it’s just metamorphosed. This comes by way of a societal and personal shift. She maintained that it will always be there, but she and the world are different from what they were in 2017 when the band’s debut was released. “I think it’s just so much a part of who I am and the lens that I see the world through – that sounded very pretentious, but I can’t turn that off at this point. So it’s always going to be in there,” she said. “Like on ‘Come Hell or Whatever’, that’s supposed to be a very clear celebration of female friendship, which is maybe a new form of feminism from what we’ve maybe done before, but it’s definitely still in there.”
Referring to the likes of Taylor Swift, Haim and Phoebe Bridgers, whilst maintaining that “feminism is 100% still necessary”, Haley explained that there are “so many more good female role models at this point” than in 2017. “It feels a little bit different now because there are so many people that are really good at talking about those things. I feel like there’s a little bit more space in what I want to do to also do other things.”
To clarify that she has not turned her back on the cause, Haley reflected on the years she spent working for a nonprofit organisation striving for gender equality in the music business. In a way, the issues she talked about in the early iteration of Sløtface and for the company became her “whole life”.
Then the pandemic came. A giant reset for society, this gave Haley time to think. Regarding the music, it was time for a change of tact; she was exhausted. It was time to make her feminism and the broader operation less severe: “On this EP, one of the main things was that I just really wanted things to be fun and not as serious because I was just like, tired. So, I think that’s also a reason that it took a little bit of a different form. Feminism can be fun, but that’s why I did it.” This was a fascinating admission, as the EP is the most profound body of work the band has released to date.
Fun, broader in scope and more affecting than ever before, on AWAKE/ASLEEP, Haley Shea has taken Sløtface to another dimension. It might just prove to be the making of her as an artist. The arena show is calling the band’s name.
Listen to AWAKE/ASLEEP below.
