Morgan Winston
Lead singer Emily Massey : “It’s nice to put faces to a sound.”
Growing up in Madison, members of the local dream-pop band Slow Pulp all have memories of the carousel at Ella’s Deli. “It’s been an important place for us, and maybe for all Madisonians,” says bass player Alex Leeds. “It’s a childhood staple.”
That carousel provides a distinctive and appropriately nostalgic backdrop for the band’s video for the song “Preoccupied,” which debuted online last month. Directed by Milwaukee filmmaker Damien Blue, a Madison native and friend of the band, the video is a surrealist, color-drenched embodiment of the emotions that inspired the song.
“I think the song is at least partially about apathy,” says guitarist Henry Stoehr. “It’s about that feeling of being a little bit disconnected.”
That disconnect is underscored by the fact that the video has no explicit narrative. Instead, it’s shot as a series of images at various locations around Madison — an indoor pool, an outdoor concert, the spinning carousel. There’s a textural approach to the storytelling, and the joyful imagery provides a powerful contrast to the song’s unapologetic jadedness.
Lead singer and instrumentalist Emily Massey, who also performed in Modern Mod and Melkweed, floats effortlessly and melancholically through each scene. “I just want to be in love, but I don’t want to try,” she sings as her Blue Moon ice cream cone melts away. The video plays with perspective, juxtaposing images of band members on vintage television screens with shots from a dreamy live performance in a local park. “I grew up performing, so [being on camera] was a little bit like second nature,” Massey says. “It helped that everyone involved was all friends, so it was a really comfortable space.”
The members of Slow Pulp have been playing together for about five years, releasing a six-song EP in 2017. The group has developed a sound that brings to mind the psychedelic-influenced indie rock of bands like Tame Impala. But within that framework, the EP showcases impressive versatility in songwriting and influences, slipping easily from driving, distortion-heavy post-punk to lighter, more melodic indie pop.
“Three of us live in Madison and Alex lives in Minneapolis, so the writing process has been pretty specific and kind of particular because of that distance,” Stoehr says. “That’s influenced the way songs have come together.”
Leeds agrees that it’s been difficult at times for the band to find a “cohesive element” in their creative process. But it’s also pushed the band to experiment. “We’re not worrying too much about everything being completely cohesive,” he says. “We’re letting our sound develop from a wide range of sounds.”
The band is currently working on revisiting and refining older demo recordings, and the next goal is to release a single. Most of the band members are visual artists in addition to being musicians, and they hope to continue exploring video and other visual mediums to enhance and contextualize their creative work in new ways. And they hope other bands will follow suit.
“I get really excited when bands release some sort of visual aspect of their music,” Massey says. “It’s nice to put faces to a sound.”
