Premiere | Slow Fiction Share Their Latest Single 'In The Distance, Where it Doesn't Matter'

Premiering on Born Loser Magazine today is Slow Fiction's latest single "The Distance, Where It Doesn't Matter" off their forthcoming debut EP!

We recently had the opportunity to talk to the band about Ed Sheeran vibes, the best places to cry in NYC, and most importantly their latest single. Check it out below! (You better not just scroll down and listen to the new single without reading this interview)

Rapid-fire Questions

1. What have you been listening to lately?

Julia: The London Suede, Low, Ugly (UK), Fiona Apple, Sparklehorse.

Paul: The Fall, Jeff Buckley

Joe: feeble little horse

Ryan: Men I Trust, DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ, and a lot of Built to Spill

2. Favorite place to cry in NYC? (planning of visiting the city soon)

Julia: Any subway line... the thing about the city is that no one really cares about you, which is

gratifying when you need to cry in public.

3. First album that made you fall in love with music?

Julia: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It’s the perfect music for children and adults alike.

“A Day In The Life” is a masterpiece for generations.

Paul: Weezer’s Blue Album

Joe: the white album (beatles not weezer)

4. What does it mean if someone tells me that I give off Ed Sheeran vibes?

Ryan:: My hair used to be much longer, and much curlier, so I’ve actually heard that one a lot.

Best to hope it’s a compliment.

Julia: I had a sort of sleep paralysis nightmare about Ed Sheeran once, but I’m sure that’s not

the case for everyone.

Ryan: It is.

5. Want to start a band with me called Fast Reality?

Julia: No, but I support your endeavors.

Joe: you'll be the first person I call when SF implodes

Ryan: Our first single can be called “Up close, where it does matter”

6. What early 2000’s trend do you think is due for a comeback?

Julia: Maybe having classic iPods/mp3s will come back and everyone will ditch smartphones.

Could be sick.

Ryan: NYC needs more Moon Shoes and Hover Discs too.

7. Any of yall ever perform “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri in your 8th grade talent show?

Julia: I uploaded that video of myself to YouTube when I was 13 years old, with the hope

that someone would find it in a Nardwuar-esque fashion. My piano skills were probably

more refined back then, my emotions, not so much.

Ryan: I sang “Mad World” by Tears for Fears at my middle school talent show after the Weird Al song I wanted to sing was rejected by the school. Maybe a similar amount of angst there.

8. You think Julian Casablancas would be nice to me if I ever got to interview him?

Slow Fiction: Not if you ask him great questions like these. You are a very good interviewer.

9.If you could have any fictional character listen to your music, who would you choose?

Julia: Let’s have Virgil and Dante listen to the music as one of the circles of Hell in The Inferno.

10. Any local NYC bands that you think we should check out?

Slow Fiction: Lovechild, Been Stellar, Superblush, OMAT, Sipper, lazylazy, Trophy Wife

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Isaac Gutierrez (for BL Mag): Hey! How are you doing? Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview!

Slow Fiction: Hey, thanks for chatting with us!

Can you introduce yourself for those who may not be familiar with you? And then ROAST them for not being familiar with you. (You don’t have to roast them.)

Slow Fiction: We’re Slow Fiction, a band from New York. We don’t have to roast you, I’m sure plenty of people have done that already in the past week. No need to add gas to the fire.

What first sparked your interest in pursuing music?

Julia: Being too anxious to communicate my feelings without singing them melodically, from a

young age. Also, my parents.

Were you involved in any other music projects before forming Slow Fiction?

Julia: I did cover bands in high school, sang in choirs most of my life, cried while playing guitar

in my bedroom alone. Triple threat.

Paul: I was in a cover band in college. We also had another short lived project that inspired us to

start this band.

Ryan: In high school I played guitar in a band called “Fancy Ketchup”, obviously named while

we were eating lunch in the cafeteria. We made it about 3 practices before we called it quits.

I read that the band kind of came together via craigslist ads? What's the full story on how the band formed?

Paul: Joe and I had known each other growing up in New Jersey and started playing music

together when we both moved to New York. After a few months, we both decided we wanted to

take it more seriously and start a band. Julia and I were friends from high school and I had seen

her a few months prior, when she told me she had been writing songs and wanting to play. The

three of us met up to discuss the idea of starting a band, and the next day we put up flyers

around the city looking for other members. We also put up a Craigslist ad, which is how we met

Ryan.

Were there a lot of people that replied to those ads?

Joe: Yes a lot. But Ryan was the first person we asked to come play and as soon as he plugged

in it was kind of an “Ah-ha!” moment, so we closed auditions right after that. Plus we figured out he was a human jukebox when we covered “Heart of Glass” once at practice.

Ryan: “Human jukebox” might be a stretch, but I do tend to practice bass by putting on Spotify

playlists and trying to play along with songs I’ve never heard by ear. That made it a lot easier for

me to pick up the songs at that first practice, including both the originals and Heart of Glass.

Which I’d STILL love to play out sometime.

Slow Fiction is such a cool name! What were some other band names you were thinking of

before you landed on Slow Fiction?

Slow Fiction: Thank you!!

Joe: We actually went by the Bends for a night. We went up to a show right after practice so we

all had our instruments with us. The door person asked us what our band name was and I said The Bends before anyone could really stop me. They replied “Oh nice I love radiohead” so that

name was kind of out the window since it sounded like a radiohead cover band name (no shade

we love them)

Congratulations on your new release, “In the distance, where it doesn’t matter”! It’s an absolute honor to be able to premiere the single. How does it feel to finally be able to share that song with the world?

Julia: We’re really proud of the music we’ve created. This track is so special to all of us, it

cemented our closeness as musicians and friends, so we’re very excited that other people will

get to listen to it.

Ryan: This is the song that I was especially excited to release once we listened to the final

mixes. It just works, and it’s an exciting single to release and is going to be a great opening

track on our EP.

What were the inspirations behind the song, and what was the writing/recording process like for

that track?

Paul: I remember Joe had come back to the city after being in New Jersey for a few days. He

told me had been listening to a lot of new wave and had written a few guitar parts. We started

jamming on one of them at our next practice and wrote ‘In the Distance’ during the next 2 or 3

sessions. The initial version is pretty much the same as the released version. It was our newest

track at the time of recording and probably took the least amount of time to record.

Is there anything that you hope your listeners take away from the track?

Julia: Listening is a personal experience, take what you want, leave what you want. Don’t be

controlled!!

Joe: Some kind of nostalgia hopefully

You’re also releasing your debut EP in February! Is there a song off the EP that you’re most

excited for everyone to hear?

Julia: I am really excited for people to hear the closing track on the EP called Brain Protection

Agency. We’ve gone through several iterations of the song, and it has a really special place in

my heart.

Joe: Jericho came out cool and twitchy. That’s another song that took us most of 2022 to really

figure out.

What is your main focus when it comes to creating a song?

Julia: Retaining emotional authenticity while still having a good time. It’s a real balancing act.

Sometimes, it’s more emotion and less having a good time.

Joe: Finding a way to use all my effect pedals

What normally goes through your mind ahead of a big release? Are you excited? Nervous?

Julia: Excited and relieved. I love these songs, and now we can work on getting more recorded.

Paul: Definitely both. We’ve been playing most of these songs for a while now so it’s cool to

finally get them out there.

Any plans to tour for the upcoming EP?

Julia: We would love to tour after the release of the EP, so we’ll just have to wait and see...

Can we expect to see Slow Fiction in Texas anytime soon?

Julia: We could be anywhere, at any time. Don’t put us in a box.

Joe: Hopefully. SXSW just rejected us so maybe not before the summer

Ryan: It’s been a few years since I’ve been to a Whataburger, so hopefully it can be sooner

rather than later!

What are you currently working on?

Julia: Writing more music

Paul: Demoing out a lot of new material. Looking forward to recording again.

Ryan: We have a lot of demos that we’ve been recording at our practices. We’ll probably be

back in the studio in the next few months - 2023 will be a year with a lot of new SF material.

Is there something that you want our readers to know? (it doesn’t have to be about music)

Julia: The ocean is six miles deep

Ryan: Ooh, on that note - the “20,000 Leagues” in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” refers to the

distance traveled in the book, not the depth. If they were that far under the surface they’d be

past the other side of the planet, in space.

To wrap things up, do you have any questions for me?

Julia: What’s the last song that made you cry?

I don't know if this counts, but I was rewatching LaLa Land and the final scene got me. But I guess that was more of a mixture of cinematography and music.

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us a bit. Congratulations on this release, and

we’re looking forward to your EP release in February!

Slow Fiction: Thank you too!