“The Animal Spirits”, SLOUGH FEG’s eight full lenght album, is now available for pre-orders via Cruz del Sur Music.
To pre-order, log into our store or click on the record cover in the right sidebar.
We have asked a few questions to singer-guitarist Mike Scalzi regarding this new release which is already receiving some outstanding critical acclaim…
What can the fans expect from the new SLOUGH FEG album? Recently, your records have always been quite different from each other, so to speak…
This album is pretty different from Ape uprising. There’s more ‘song content’, meaning the songs are more melody based, more vocal and lyric based. Much more singing on this one, and the guitar parts are much more in sync with the melodies. Still a very raw and primitive sounding record, but in a more sing-songy way.
Is SLOUGH FEG going back to a more 70s oriented, classic rock sound, and if yes, why?
Well, sort of, but we’ve been doing that for about three or four albums now. Our sound has gotten rawer and rawer since the Traveller album. I think that’s they true identity of the band. Raw guitar sounds, no slick production, but pretty much a live sound in the studio. I’d like to think we are a pretty honest bands, not a lot of production tricks, just good songs that stand by themselves without a lot of tricks and effects.
The artwork for “The Animal Spirits” is very minimal compared to the other SLOUGH FEG releases, is there a particular reason behind this choice?
I did the artwork myself, and think that’s why it’s so minimal! Like I said about the production, I wanted to be very raw, very simple and direct. Primitive. And that’s how it looks. I also wanted a very different look for this album than the last couple—–I’d never want all of our albums to look, or sound the same, so I think the artwork on this one reflects the music; simple, primitive and rather archaic.
You will present the album in Europe next year participating to some prestigious festivals. It is not your first time over there… how’s Europe treating SLOUGH FEG so far?
Well, we haven’t really been to Europe much in the last five years. We went to Norway for one festival this past January, but other than that, no European shows since late 2005. We’re excited to come back. We have so many friends, and I guess quite a few fans now in Europe, so it will be nice to come back. We wanted to wait until we had some festival shows to come back. We did a lot of club shows in the late nineties, early two-thousands in Germany, England, Greece, etc., and it was great some of the time, but club shows, especially in the summer are not always great. We wanted to wait until we had something special to come back to, so this next year should be good. We’ll probably play some club shows as well, but we’re really coming for the festivals—-and of course to see all the friends we’ve missed for five years!!
Mike has started writing a column, the Bullpen Bulletins, for the webzine Invisible Oranges. You can read the first episode, lamenting the lack of substance in today’s heavy metal and trends, following this link.