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Honesty Is The Best Policy With BEN STEWART From SLOWLY SLOWLY · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Ben from Slowly Slowly, a band from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: We've been a band for, gosh, 10 years now. And
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: we're still kicking.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Still kicking, brother. Thanks for joining us today.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: My pleasure, mate.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: So slowly, slowly, today announced your sixth studio album, Everybody
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Tells the Truth, which will be released on February the 5th, 2027, mate.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: So how does it feel to finally be able to
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: tell the world about the release, mate?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Like I can imagine you would have been sitting on
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: it for a bit.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, cat's out of the bag. I'm so excited. I'm
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: not very good at keeping secrets and you can see
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it on my face when I'm lying. And so, yeah,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: having shows over the past few months and, you know,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: you probably spoke to me at a merch desk somewhere
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: if you're out there watching this interview and I'm thankful
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to you for keeping the secret because I've been telling
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: people in person for like months. I can't keep it secret.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: You even got to be honest about lying, mate. That's awesome.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Well, the album's called Everybody Tells the Truth, so.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Well, there you go. You can't really lie, can you?
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Can you tell us a bit about the album then
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: from a musical point of view, Rob, and what you
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: were going for this time around?
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So for this record, I was not really looking
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: at any external influences at all. I locked myself away
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: in the studio and I was very much almost drawing
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: inspiration from our own past releases, because it's covered a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: bit of ground sonically over the years and trying to
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: be really true to that. And whilst also being true to,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you know, those eternal songs from my youth that the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: ones that just never go away, the ones that when
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: you get home drunk, you blast through the stereo. Like
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I had five or six of those songs and they
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: were my North stars. And then amongst those songs mirrored
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: against our own discography that was kind of my yeah
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that was my cauldron of uh that was my yeah
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: that was my witch's brew for the record yeah right.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: What were a couple of the songs that you were
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: holding up there which ones were your north star.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Oh okay well things like born to run uh songs
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: like cute without the e cut from the team um
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: songs like yeah make damn sure by taking back sunday
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: songs like um, Semi-Charm Life by Third Eye Blind and Graduate, um,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: by Third Eye Blind, um, uh, and, yeah, like, just, just,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you know, like, Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eat World and, like, uh,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you know, of course, a good dash of, like, Blink, um,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that, but just, yeah, Weezer, um, Yeah,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: just those like pillars of me growing up. And then like,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: of course, like, you know, more 80s stuff. I mean,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I love that style of music. So yeah, Whitney Houston,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Go West, you know, Phil Collins. Yeah, Genesis, Far Out.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: There's like, yeah.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: There's so many.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a good, it is kind of broad and
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I could talk forever about it. But yeah, those songs
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: for me are just like, they sat on the mantle
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: and they're just like, this has to inform this record.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, cool.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: And how does something like that work, mate, for the
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: people out there that.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Aren't fortunate enough to have a talent for writing music, mate?
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: When you say you're drawing them for influences, does that
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: mean you'll sit in a room and listen to those
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: songs while you're writing or will you have a couple
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: of days binge on them before you go into the studio?
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: How does that shape it?
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: No, actually, it's quite the opposite. I made a point
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: of not listening to them at all. Okay.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Because....
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: The last thing you want to do when you're in
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the studio and you're in this like quite a susceptible
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: space to being influenced. So like and the last thing
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: you want to do is kind of like dilute, I think. Well,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: for me anyway, like your creative process with someone else's
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: vision and then be it kind of especially like, you know,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: you're in the studio, you're writing something. It's in its infancy.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: It's extremely unimpressive. And then you're playing a finished track
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: that's been through the ringer of six months of studio
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: work and all this. And then nothing makes you feel
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: like a tiny ant more than doing that. And so
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I made a point of not doing that. And it
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: was more just like, I remember that song, how it
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: made me feel. I know how that song makes me feel.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: And I was like, that's the feeling I need to chase.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: And so... more like that more very more conceptual I
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: think yeah.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Okay cool and you've also released the lead single Parallel
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: today as well mate so tell us about that song
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: and why it was chosen as a lead single.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: That song we we road tested it on a regional
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Australian tour probably like 12 months ago and sometimes we
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: just like like to on a especially on a regional
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: tour where there's lots of dates like you pull out
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: you know, a few rabbits out of the hat. And
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: that was one that we just thought, fuck it, why not?
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Let's play it. And so, uh, and then it was,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: it was received really well and people, people writing to
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: us a lot about it. And yeah, so it kind of,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: you know, that it, it gets pushed into the spotlight, um,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: sort of in a natural way because of that, because
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: of touring it. But then, uh, but then it, through
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the recording process, it just, um, it did this little
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: tight rope for me, which I, which I love in
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: pop music, which is where you have like a song
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that is like so fun and yet is like conceptually
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: quite dense. And so for me, the song is like
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: about parallel universes and like these kind of wormholes in
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: my youth where I was like experiencing, you know, disassociation
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: and things where I, pictured them as like, almost like
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: these wormholes that tied to other times in my life
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: that created these loops. And it was like, you know,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: it felt like, you know, it felt like, um, yeah,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: it felt like a sci-fi movie. And yet we kind
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: of dressed it up in this like extremely fun way
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: where you, you know, you could like jump around in
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the pit to it. And so that, for me, that
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: duality is something I'm always chasing. Um, that is really hard. Anyway,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: for me to do, some other bands might find it easy,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: but something that's like got quite a lot of weight
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: to the narrative, but then is like extremely lighthearted in
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: the same way. So like, yeah.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, cool.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: And I know it's hard to tell with just one song, mate,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: but is that a good sonic representation of what we
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: expect from the whole album or is it just scratching
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: the surface?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the album's quite varied. So there is a few
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: songs that... yeah, that, that kind of feeling was what
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I was challenging, um, myself with, but, uh, yeah, the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: album's a little all over the shop in terms of, uh,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: sonically different directions and, um, you know, songs that I
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: felt like needed to be really long. They were really
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: long and no one could tell me otherwise. So things, things, uh,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: it's a, it's a bit of a dice roll across
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the record. Yeah, nice.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Now, this is your sixth album, mate. So do you
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: reckon it's becoming easier or harder to come up with
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: new material the more you write?
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, harder for sure. Like, at the start, you know,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: what's the saying? It's like it takes you 20 years
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: to write your first record and 12 months to write
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: your second. Like, it's... And that just gets harder and
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: harder and, you know, as you move through a discography.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: But I think for me, I take this stuff very seriously.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And so... I think narrative-wise, I don't like just coming
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: up with things for the sake of it. And I
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: think progress for the sake of progress can really be
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: detrimental to your work as a band. And so I
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: didn't want to just put the next footstep down for
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the sake of it or to kick the can along
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: and spur another touring cycle. And it's become.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Harder and harder to find, you know, every album for me,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: it represents like an epiphany in my life. And so
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the more you figure out about yourself and, you know,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: the less epiphanies you have. Yeah, that's a good point.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: And so, but this one definitely felt like such, such like,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: you know, you were going into, you know, you lived
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: in this house your whole life and then you discover
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: there's a new, there's a room that's always been there. That's,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: you know, the hallway and you're like, oh, and that
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: for me, you know, the, you know, the first few
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: songs that fell into place for the record, that's what
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: it felt like for me. And I was like, I
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: know that feeling. And, um, I was waiting for it
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and everything that came before it, all the songs I
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: wrote just got shelved immediately. And it was like, nah,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: this is what I've been waiting for. Like this feeling,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: this is an album. Like, you know, you can get
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: up every day and treat writing like a job nine
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: to five. And you can come up with a song.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I can come up with a song every day.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: But it's not quality.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but coming up with something that is meaningful to
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: me and that can stand alongside the other albums and stuff,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: it's that that's that becomes so tricky like yeah yeah i.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Imagine I can imagine, man.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: Now, the other good news is, as we all know,
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: you guys have officially been locked in for Good Things
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: Festival 2026, mate, and the festival organisers shared a fun
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: fact that you're only the second band ever to become
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: three-time Good Things alumni, mate, stating that you're essentially part
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: of the DNA of the festival.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Like, that's got to be a pretty good feeling, mate,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: to have them say that.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: It's crazy, yeah. I'm just, like, ever thankful to that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: festival for, to, to good things for giving us the
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: opportunities that they have over the years. And like, it's
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: formed like absolute core memories across like the different, um,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: chapters of our career. Like, you know, having, being able
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to round out the year, good things happens at the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: start of December, you know, nearly the same weekend every year, four, five, six.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: And it's like, that is like, what a way to
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: like cap off your year. Like it's, yeah. It's the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: ultimate celebration, three days in a row, one of the last,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: you know, touring festivals in Australia that brings together, like,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: these incredible international acts, both of heritage status and, like,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: new buzzy acts and, like, you've got local bands there and, yeah,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: there's just no celebration quite like it and so the
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: fact that we get to come back for a third time,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's just, like, pinch yourself stuff.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Hell yeah, man.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: And looking through the line-up too, bro, there's a strong
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Australian contingent. You've got Prince Boone, yourselves, Speed, Future Palace,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Choir Boys heading the list. But as an Australian band, mate,
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: how important is it for festivals like Good Things to
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: include so many home ground bands? It seems to be
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: getting less and less these days. Internationals are bringing in
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: international support with them and the Australian bands seem to
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: be getting left by the wayside a bit.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's just an awful... symptom of like
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the way that streaming culture has like diluted everything. I
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: think like celebrating Australian music and, um, up and coming
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Australian bands is like just, Oh, it's just like such
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: an insurance policy for like the future of this country's creativity.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And so, um, you know, big festivals like good things
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and the way that they celebrate both yet our heritage
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: bands and, and up and coming bands. um, and put
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: them on big stages and, and, you know, you were
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: able to, you know, bump shoulders with these like heavyweight
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: artists and, and bands that are like touring professionals. It's
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: in a, in a million different ways, it pushes Australia
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: more into the spotlight, um, as like such a beacon
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: of rock and alternative music. So, um, yeah, I'm like
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: all about it. Anything that like Anything that as a
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: 15-year-old is going to like potentially inspire your entire life's purpose,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I'm all about. So, and I think festivals at this scale,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: when you see them like that as a young person,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: you know, they're like, that's like your, that's your, that's
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: like as an artist, you know, like to be able
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: to do this. It's inspiring stuff.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: So, yeah. Cool. And just so you've got kids that
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: aren't anyone got along to good things and they don't
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: really know much about Slowly Slowly, what three songs of
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: yours should they listen to so they know what to
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: expect when they see you hit the stage?
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: What three songs can they expect to hear from us?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, no, what should they listen to? Just so they
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: get an idea of what to expect.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I get you. Three songs that they should
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: listen to. Well, this would be giving away our set
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: list maybe.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, you actually dropped yourself in there.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We haven't written it yet, so, you know, there's
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: that caveat. But I think songs like Blueprint, they're always, like,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: within our set list because it's just a great kind
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: of festival song that just doesn't let up. You know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: it's just pedal to the metal, the whole song. So
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: songs like that that have, like, a real driving energy. Gosh,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: songs like Race Car Blues, I love playing on big
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: stages because they're just these sort of, like, sing-alongs that
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: have it you know it's it's a great song with
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: that has a very uh repetitive refrain so whether you're
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: seeing it for the first time or the last time
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: you kind of you can grab onto it you know
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: when you yeah yeah that has something repeated a lot
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: yeah and it's a big halftime groove which always fits
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: really nicely on a big stage because there's all this
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: space for the beat as opposed to like something that's
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: kind of you know sporadic and then uh third song
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: i want to say i mean like we always we're
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: tied to it like the you know what is it
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the the elephant that gets tied with a chain but
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: then they swap the chain.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: What circus are you going to i've never seen an
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: elephant tied with a chain.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: There's a saying there's a saying it's like um you
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: know when you if an elephant is tied with a
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: chain and then they swap the chain out for a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: little rope and then the elephant still thinks it's chained
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: you know and so this like flimsy bit of rope
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: keeps And the song that we are chained to by
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: a shoelace is Jellyfish.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: I'm going to look that up after this because I've
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: never heard of that before. Finally, before we let you go,
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: do you remember the very first song of yours you
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: ever heard on the radio?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: And what song was it and where were you?
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Gosh, I think it was.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: You know, we had a great relationship with Joshua Redbeard
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: from Short, Fast and Loud on Triple J early on.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: He was an amazing early adopter of our music and supporter.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: And I'll never forget that. I still remember I was
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: working at a bar in Melbourne called The Workers Club.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: And I would often work the door to the band
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: room or be pouring beers in the band room. And
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: we got a message one night. I think it was
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: our song... it would have been one of the first
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: songs we released. So either a song called Go Easy
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: or Empty Lungs. And we got a message saying, you know, boys,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: we're going to play this song tonight. And I still
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: remember running out to my car, ask the bar manager
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: if I could have 10 minutes off and sat in
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: my car and listened to it played and like friends
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: and family just lighting up my phone and like, yeah.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: So presenters like that, that really took a chance on
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: us early on and fed us into their playlisting. Like,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Just my thanks are never-ending.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Good on you, brother. Well, thanks for your time, Ben.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Always a pleasure chatting with you, mate.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: The album, Everybody Tells the Truth, is out February the 5th, slowly,
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: slowly at all three Good Things festivals, mate.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: So I shall see you at Brisbane for a beer.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: You beauty, I'll see you there.