Slow Pulp - Live 2027

Slow Pulp are uniquely familiar with the process of regrowth. Singer and guitarist Emily Massey met her childhood friends Henry Stoehr (guitar), Alex Leeds (bass), and Teddy Mathews (drums) in Madison, WI, in the mid-2010s, marking the beginning of a decade-long musical bond. Raised on ’90s alt-rock radio and coming of age during the 2000s indie wave, they adopted a pan-American approach to rock music—transcending the genre’s internal boundaries to create a sound that critics across the board have praised but struggled to describe—which made them stand out in the small city’s scrappy scene. But in 2018, the lifelong Wisconsinites left their comfortable surroundings for the Midwest’s metropolis, transplanting from Madison’s rich soil to Chicago’s concrete grid.

Riding high on the notable reception of their second EP, they arrived in Chicago with the wind at their backs. They found their new scene more than welcoming, but other issues cropped up through cracks they didn’t know existed. Living and touring together, they realized that this constant proximity was “not the most conducive to figuring out how to be a band,” Massey says. “There were a lot of growing pains.” Work schedules conflicted. Massey contracted Lyme disease and mononucleosis, and her father—a veteran musician—was seriously injured in a car accident. She used her time caring for them in Wisconsin as an opportunity to record vocals with him. These vocals appear on the band’s groundbreaking 2020 debut LP, *Moveys*.

A COVID scare in 2022 forced Massey to write many of the lyrics for the album’s follow-up, *Yard*, in a cabin in northern Wisconsin, but the band took it in stride again, sending audio tracks back and forth across state lines. “I discovered that it felt good to be completely alone,” Massey says. “That level of isolation was huge for my creative process.” Beyond those parts, though, *Yard* was a full-band effort, and this synergy is evident from the very first chord.

Slow Pulp began working on the songs that make up their third album, *Melodie*—set for release on September 18 via ANTI—with nothing to prove to the public. But reflecting on past lives and past relationships forced them to reevaluate their approach and, once again, start anew. The result is an album that balances power-pop euphoria, acoustic heartbreak, and the ocean of sound between them.