Benjamin Stewart – Slowly Slowly ‘The Day It Stops Feeling Right, We’ll Call It’
It’s been a long time coming for Aussie fans, but Slowly Slowly will be back on our stages soon on a headline tour of their new album Forgiving Spree, released on January 24.
Ahead of the album release and national tour, Wall of Sound spoke with frontman Ben Stewart about a fresh take on music that delivered Forgiving Spree, what Aussie fans can expect from the tour, and his deep love of the ‘dog’s job’ that is being a musician.
It’s been 10 years since Slowly Slowly formed. Made up of frontman and guitarist Benjamin Stewart, drummer Patrick Murphy, guitarist Albert Doan, and bass guitarist Alex Quale, the band released their debut album Chamomile in 2016 and have been on a slow and steady journey to commercial success ever since.
It was the 2019 song ‘Jellyfish’ that caught the attention of more casual listeners, with the band placing at number 57 on Triple J’s Hottest 100 for the catchy tune. Ben jokes that it’s the one song he’d happily never play live again, with the band quietly retiring it during their last two UK tours in 2024.
“We had UK and European support slots, and people hadn’t seen it before, and we were like ‘let’s just have our own little holiday from ‘Jellyfish’,” Ben admits.
“I love that song as well, I don’t have anything against it. I think it’s a rite of passage, you have to resent the song that pushed you into the spotlight a little bit. And ours is on a small scale, we’re still a tiny, tiny band, but you have to hate one of your songs,” he laughs. “It just ends up being that one because it’s the low-hanging fruit. With that song we were thrust into a few scenarios where it was the first taste of something getting away from you, and us not being in control anymore.”
Despite this, it’s safe to say Slowly Slowly is back in control and better than ever, ready to release their follow-up to 2022’s critically acclaimed LP Daisy Chain, which saw the hard-working band land at #5 on the ARIA charts.
Their fifth studio album, Forgiving Spree, is a nine-track album that promises all killer and no filler. It’s an album designed for the stage, but fans can expect the same introspective lyricism and singalong anthems that the band is known for, with a few twists and turns along the way.
The writing process for Forgiving Spree differed vastly to Daisy Chain which was written during COVID lockdown, with Ben spending time in LA to write for the album. “Daisy Chain was PTSD of all these decisions in a vacuum, I was like a mad scientist in a lab for that record,” Ben says. ”I felt like I was going a bit insane, trying to push things out of its box while the world was closing down essentially.
“For Forgiving Spree, I welcomed collaboration from different people. But for a lot of the songs that survived, they [still] ended up being me in a vacuum,” he says. “Forgiving Spree was the last song written, the concept was like the last jigsaw piece I needed. I just wanted to get out of the box and throw ideas at other people. I wanted to get out of the slow pace – in Australia I’m stuck in my bedroom, trying to push things out. It was really nice being overseas in a hyper creative, fast-paced environment like LA. It was almost like a competitiveness or something in the room where everyone is just pushing the other.“
“It emboldened my process at home, but ultimately it was me at the end as the goalkeeper who was like, old and ugly and staunch about all the ideas that made it. I’m not this 20-year-old that’s popped over to LA and starry-eyed, you know what I mean?” Ben continues. “I’m not soft-handed in any of this, if something is not it or not me, or if I didn’t like the lyric, I’m very staunch. It’s like, I knew what I wanted, I just needed some fresh takes.”
For Slowly Slowly and Ben, it was important for Forgiving Spree to be an album that continues to not pigeon-hole the band into just one sound, with the band effectively dodging getting stuck in any genre stereotypes with each album release. While the title track Forgiving Spree sounds very classic Slowly, the band has continued experimenting with other elements of pop and rock, with ‘Love Letters’ a boppy, romantic track, while ‘That’s That’ is almost an ‘80s inspired sound that jokingly pokes fun at ego and includes a sexy sax solo to shake things up. The album closes on the moving and poignant ‘Born Free’, a song with a nearly completely opposite sound to the energetic opener.
Ben explains it was a mindful choice to experience different sounds and genres within the nine tracks of Forgiving Spree, but perhaps not as deliberate as the process of Daisy Chain.
“Daisy Chain was more of that for me, like I was really, like, pushing myself to be like anything other than a rock band, and then with Forgiving Spree, it was more like, that’s the sort of band that we are now,” he muses. “We’re just a band that spans a few different soundscapes. It’s felt a bit more natural this time around, it felt like less of a stretch, kind of like the boundary had already been stretched out.”
Pushing the envelope and becoming comfortable in different soundscapes has led to a more confident band, Ben says.
“It feels like now we can just be confident and just follow our nose about what we like. This time around it was more like, we were able to just make stuff that we liked and not worry about it, because we’d already spent all this hard work with Daisy Chain trying to become more than a rock band, you know.”
But if there’s anything we know about Slowly Slowly, it’s that they’ll continue to throw the formula out the window, and fans can rely on expecting the unexpected as their musical careers progress.
“This was more of a celebration record, for us and our fans. I can feel that talk with them throughout the record. But, I don’t know, we might zig-zag afterwards, I’m kind of feeling like making something ridiculously impenetrable lately, something with no commercial viability,” Ben laughs.
It’s now been a while since Aussie fans have been able to see them take the stage, but Ben promises the wait will be worth it for their tour in April, as the band embarks on some of the biggest headlining shows of their career so far.
“I do really love it when we’re up there,” Ben says. “Sometimes I convince myself I don’t need it, and then I do a show and it’s like, I’m normal. Ultimately, I’ve just thrown my hands up now, and it does feel right and it’s my calling and I just need to lean in. The day I stop loving it, and the day it stops feeling right, we’ll call it.“
“It’s a lot of work, it’s no money, being a musician is a dog’s job. But there is something so beautiful about connecting with a crowd and bringing people together. It doesn’t happen very often, you get weddings, funerals and gigs, and there’s something about standing in a room full of strangers and knowing that maybe two people over, that another person is feeling exactly what you’re feeling.”
For Slowly, maintaining a personal connection with their fans as they celebrate Forgiving Spree is imperative, so when it comes to their return to some big stages, don’t necessarily expect a firework to go off in your face or confetti to rain down on you constantly. While they’ve grown exponentially in popularity over the years, they’re keeping things humble and focused on what’s brought us all together in the first place – the music.
“We’re pulling out all the stops, especially for the Australian shows, production-wise,” Ben says. “But at the same time, the shows are in bigger rooms than we’ve ever played in, [but] we’re really trying to keep things feeling personal and intimate, and still very human.”
“That’s the new challenge with the Australian shows because of the size of the venues – just to not get lost in the concept of having to be grandiose and [having] technology getting in the way of removing you from seeing the band because you’re getting fucking confetti cannons in your face and there’s fire and there’s screens,” Ben laughs.
“I don’t want people to feel like they’re in the pokies, you know? I get it, it’s a flex, but it’s not something I’ve ever really enjoyed if I’m at a show and I’m getting stuff sprayed at me. I’m like, I just want to watch the bands play the songs! We’re trying to keep a lid on that and maybe move through it gracefully, but we’ll see.”
Interview by Tahlia Pritchard @tahliaapritchard
Forgiving Spree is out Jan 24th. Pre-order here
Slowly Slowly – Forgiving Spree tracklisting
1. Forgiving Spree
2. Gimme The Wrench
3. How Are You Mine?
4. Hurricane
5. All Time
6. Love Letters
7. That’s That
8. Meltdown Masquerade
9. Born Free
