Slash Need @ M For Mothland
On November 22nd, I got to see Slash Need live at the M for Mothland concert. Four performers went on before Slash Need, and each one filled the crowd with such energy that I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried I had hyped up Slash Need too much to my friends, and they’d be disappointed in comparison. However, as soon as Dusty Lee took the stage, pushing up against a screen held up by background dancers wearing stocking masks and latex, the expression most fitting was ‘save the best for last’. As Slash Need’s unique dark techno/hardcore sounds filled the venue, I had to grip the edge of the stage as people pushed forward to behold, not just the music but the visual experience that is Slash Need. As Alex Low produced their electric beats from the tips of his figures, Dusty Lee had all eyes on her as she belted out poetic lyrics. Soon the performance was brought into the crowd as Dusty and her dancers came down from the stage, shining flashlights in audience members’ faces and taking up the physical space their music seems to naturally demand. The performance flowed between the two stages in the venue as they worked through the crowd, going wherever they pleased. Slash Need does not just create great music; they create a whole experience that those lucky enough to see them live are unlikely to forget.
Later that week, I was able to do a quick interview with Slash Need. Here’s what they had to say:
From my understanding, Slash Need is a duo with Dusty Lee doing vocals, Alex Low producing the beats, and both of you writing lyrics, of course supported by your panty-hose clad dancers. How did you guys meet and start creating music together?
Yes, Slash Need is a duo in such that all our songs are written together just me and Lex. We usually mix up the process by which we make a song but I write all the lyrics, Lex primarily works on the production and we refine the entire process together. Sometimes I’ll be stuck on a line and ask for help to fill it and Lex will come up with some brilliant one liner. He’s good with that. While we’re making the songs I’m playing instruments too, I just don’t do it live much so I can focus on performing. We’re very much a stubborn but persistent collaboration musically. I will say though we include the dancers as members of our band and Stella especially has started coming in more to add a few special sprinkles to our world. Alex and I met years ago at a DIY venue in Toronto called Double Double Land. We were both living and working there and helping run the venue side. We kind of just started playing music together as a fluke. Back when I was booking shows I had a band drop out last minute and we decided to become a band and fill the spot on the lineup.
In the song “Worm” you sing out “Miss Mary Mack”, a rhyme famously sung by Bikini Kill in “DemiRap”, and you’ve made your own cover of “The Money will Roll Right In”, which has been covered by several punk bands such as Nirvana and Fang. Do you see your music as a continuation of this older kind of punk, or do you see it as a completely new genre being created?
That Bikini Kill thing was unintentional! But it’s cool haha I realized a few weeks after we finished the song. The idea must have been buried somewhere deep in my mind and I pulled it out not realizing it wasn’t my own. But yeah, I like it. No music or art or anything alive can exist without roots.
I’m curious about your background(s), in your song “Bordertown” the listener is transported to a small border town filled with dust, rocks, and bad men, seemingly devoid of hope, as you hear in lines like “I see no criticism, comment, research, scholarship, or teaching”. Is this song inspired by your own experience and upbringing or did you get the inspiration elsewhere?
I grew up in London, Ontario and had family living in smaller rural Ontario towns. That song was inspired by the stifling drone of monotony and violent condemnation that comes from disregarding or aggravating the norm when you live in a smaller town or in a more conservative setting. It was written with the thought of seemingly endless summer days as a teenager in empty lots behind huge strip malls and parking lots, the judgmental gaze of all high school bullies, losers and jocks whoever stayed and never left and never changed and never wanted to anyways.
Music aside, your performances are rich with visual art as well, from the extravagant makeup and outfits you wear, to your dancers stocking masks, background visuals, and your interaction with the crowd as you belt out music. Altogether a beautiful yet bone chilling effect is created that goes so well with the music you make. Do you put as much thought into the visual aspects of your performance as you do with the music itself, or does that aspect come naturally along with the music?
Thank you for such kind words! Absolutely yes, a lot of time and intention goes into the performance and visual side of this project. We are part performance art, part band. We have always been
And final question: what are each of your top three songs you’re listening to at the moment?
Dust
- deBasement – front left speaker
- leaether strip – strap me down
- axel f – crazy frog
Lex
- Playboi Carti – ALL RED
- DJ TALALA – Bruxaria Fode Psicológico das Planetárias
- DJ Screw, Point Blank – My Mind Went Blank
Stella
- Sade – Hang onto your love
- Prodigy – firestarter
- Chemical Brothers – Elektrobank
By Cecelia C. Photo credit: Laura D
