Interview: Joshua Hobbins
Brisbane’s SLOWCUT return with flesh, a harrowing and deeply reflective two-track EP that blurs the line between the personal and the political. We caught up with guitarist/engineer/ producer Ben Gibson and vocalist Jeremy Wittkopp on release day to unpack the emotional weight behind flesh, the realities of creating art in an age of global violence, and how the visceral intimacy of their live show shapes every aspect of their sound. From recording at Gasworks to navigating lyrical themes of grief, connection, and protest, this conversation reveals the heart, and fury, threaded through their most suffocating release yet.
Josh: flesh feels like a deeply personal and political release. How did the concept for these two tracks come together?
Jeremy: The concept came out of the word flesh. The idea for ‘threaded’ is the physical warmth of flesh coming together. whether it be family, friends, beloved pets, partners, hook ups etc. some kind of navigation around the beauty of shared body warmth and the importance it holds. Which can also be felt as dependency and the inevitable truth that we are nothing without someone. personal but also not at all because i think it’s feelings we all share on some level. ‘martyred’ came from constantly seeing children’s torn-apart flesh on social media feeds. something that is so far beyond political at this point and so heinously evil i think the worst thing people of privilege can do is ignore it.
Josh: The lyrics in martyred are especially confronting and unapologetic. What responsibility, if any, do you feel as artists in addressing global violence?
Jeremy: I feel it should be more of an artist standard than a responsibility, especially amongst metal and punk adjacent sub cultures. coming from the more extreme end of artistry it’s hard to fathom the fact there is nothing anyone can fictitiously write or even think about that is nearly as catastrophic as what is being video recorded by everyday people. Global violence has always existed but the physical evidence hasn’t been personally handed to us like this before. for that not to be addressed on some level is ignorant.
Josh: What role does imagery, both lyrical and visual, play in how you construct your releases?
Jeremy: I think it all comes together towards the end of the writing and recording process. I share some lyrics and subject ideas along the way to help build the overall concept. Lyrically I’m not locked in until recording is done, which the boys don’t necessarily love aha. Visually we come back to a lot of Max Marquis photography as his work kind of carries a similar vibe to the soundscapes we’re trying to create.
Josh: How did the production process at Gasworks shape the final feel of flesh?
Ben: We record the main elements of the track together in a room, playing it live without a click. The aim of the recordings is to capture how it feels when we play live, but still as tight as possible. We spent a good amount of time in preproduction, fine tuning parts, tempos and section changes to make sure when we got into the studio we were super comfortable with the tracks. Getting things right at the source – the songwriting, feel and tones – made the recording and mixing process super smooth.
Josh: Compared to your debut, flesh feels more suffocating, more intimate. Was that a deliberate shift in your sound?
Ben: I think the shift was more of a natural progression than a deliberate one. The first album was mostly written before we had played a show, while we were still finding a sound and learning to play together. Now that we’ve been playing those songs live for a few years, we know what things are going to work in a set and how to get certain reactions out of the crowd. Unconsciously we were able to distil this down into these two tracks, pushing the heaviness but still keeping hold of the atmosphere and dynamics that we love.
Josh: Which artists, movements, or events informed this latest release sonically and emotionally?
Jeremy: Musical artists that are forever in the front of my mind in relation to slowcut is Amenra and Drowning Horse. I’ve gained even more love and respect for Sunny at hate5six and what he’s done with his platform. But overall it’s the sheer contrast between the births of my niece and two nephews against the cowardly genocide Israel is carrying out against the people of Palestine. It’s hard to see one without thinking about the other.
Josh: The lyrics in both tracks read like poetry or liturgy. Do the words come first or later in the writing process?
Jeremy: Damn, thank you mate I appreciate that. Lyrics come from all over the place, for the most part I think I attach singular lines I’ve written to new song ideas and work from there. i.e. martyred came from “her head like a dragon fruit of flesh” and threaded came from “threaded flesh pressed against my head”. As mentioned I gatekeep lyrics during the writing process as I don’t want to get stuck with ideas or phrases i’m not one hundred percent on. Also maybe interesting to mention, a lot of my lyrics come from the phonetics of the words and what they feel like to vocalise. Words are weird and crowded so for slowcut i’m forever trying to trim the fat whilst being mindful about how they feel for me physically and the impact they can potentially carry.
Josh: Your live shows have built a strong following, and rightly so. How does playing these songs live differ from the studio experience?
Ben: We are a live band first and foremost. We don’t write in the studio and we road test all our songs many times before we record them. I even think we had only jammed on “threaded’ two or three times before we played it live for the first time. This means the recorded versions are pretty faithful to the way we play them live. There are obviously subtle differences like tempo and guitar tone; I think the biggest difference might be the length of the ending of ‘threaded’, sometimes we just keep it going, getting slower and slower, keeping the audience guessing about when the track is going to be over. Volume is also a big difference, something that is hard to replicate in a recording. When we play live we want to create a wall of sound that envelopes the crowd, we want it to be an almost meditative experience.
Josh: You’ve shared the stage with some major acts both local and international, but how has the Brisbane scene shaped SLOWCUT’s trajectory?
Ben: The Brisbane (Sunshine and Gold Coast included) underground music scene is a beautiful thing, so many people doing cool stuff just for the love of it. People like Adam from Team Glasses Records, Borg from Bad Habit Records, Simon from Blackened Records, Nick and James from Season Three, Jamie from The Bearded Lady (RIP), Cam from Kingdom Merch and Via Studios, Pip from Blackblood Audio, our favourite soundie Mark Perry, all these people have been instrumental in getting us to where we are today and have supported us from the get go. The community we are a part of is one of the best things about playing in this band.
Josh: With flesh out now, what’s next for SLOWCUT – more touring, another record, or something unexpected?
Ben: We have our release show coming up at Crowbar on August 10th which is the first chance to grab a vinyl pressing of the EP. There are a few other SEQ shows lined up in the next few months and we would love to try and get down to Melbourne and Sydney before the end of the year, but nothing locked in yet. We are writing more tracks, trying to get enough together for a second album but that will be a long while away. 10 minute songs take a long time to get right!
Josh: Any plans to release a visual component (music video, film, zine) that ties into the world of flesh?
Jeremy: For how painstakingly DIY this release is, it’s hard to think about those formats just yet. We’re so lucky to be surrounded by close friends that endlessly help us with imagery, editing and formatting. We just haven’t gotten to video formats properly yet. In saying that, our mate Boots is responsible for putting together the visuals we project at our live shows, so it would be rad to translate parts of that into a music video. I really like the ‘world of flesh’ idea so who knows what could eventuate after the vinyl is out at the release gig!
https://slowcutband.bandcamp.com/album/flesh
