Slackrr went through hell for their new album | Music | Entertainment

Slackrr are one of the most exciting new bands to hit the UK. Seemingly sprouting out of nowhere, their nostalgia-drenched music somehow both blends and reinvents pop-punk tropes from the past 20 years with fresh new spins. They’ve been around for a while, though.

Their real, concerted effort to make it in the British music scene began in 2018, when they hit the road and released their first album, “Time, It Waits For No One”, shortly thereafter in 2019.

Their third album, Set The Night On Fire, just hit store shelves and streaming services – but it wasn’t business as usual for the band when they finally got into the studio.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk over Zoom, frontman Scotty Perry and bass player Caitlyn Bowyer explained that Slackrr began writing their third record while they were on the road.

“This is more in your face,” Scotty explained of how the band began penning their tracks. “That comes with the experiences of touring and all the craziness from the world. The energy of our live shows and the energy our fans have given us.”

“We thought,” Scotty continued. “Let’s give them something that will really knock their socks off.”

But once they stopped touring and sat down with a producer, their lives had already changed.

After enduring the pandemic, recording music behind closed doors, and eventually touring through a crumbling music industry as an emerging band, Slackrr were met with tragedy. Deaths in the family and of a close friend tainted the joy of writing and recording their third album. As a result, Slackrr had to look at how they used to record songs, and how they wanted to change up their style going forward.

Scotty looked back: “A lot of our message has always been about hope and getting through tough times, and it’s just about trying to find happiness at the end of it all. So Set The Night On Fire is about getting to that point.

“We’ve had friends with mental health problems, and family members dying… and all these things life throws at you. The last record was very much about us observing that … And [during this record] I was going through a lot of things I was trying to support people [through] with our music. So, it was, kind of, looking at it from a different perspective.”

With a defiant smile, Scotty confirmed: “We came out the other side of it with this record. And it’s almost like a big celebration of surviving it – almost.”

The duo agreed that, once they finally got into the studio, they felt a distinct level of “determination”.

“We got hit with that first setback,” Scotty said. “And then these few things happened… [as a result] we wanted it to be more everything. More melodic, more aggressive more energy – just more of what we were feeling at the time.”

The result of their concentrated pain is Slackrr’s third record: Set The Night On Fire, a raw, visceral, almost overtly aggressive pop-punk album that somehow unifies the feel of classic bands such as Green Day and Good Charlotte with the sensibilities and vulnerabilities of 2023 artists.

Looking forward, Slackrr are excited to get Set The Night On Fire on the road and deliver it how it was written: with pure passion.

“Now, we’re going to play this thing live,” Scotty went on. “Tell our story, and tell other people’s stories, and just try and make sure that our shows are like a big celebration, that there’s hope and a much better outlook. We’re going to set the night on fire.”

Slackrr – Set The Night On Fire is out now.

Slackrr are currently on tour, scroll down for a full list of tour dates.