Interview ~ The Slants: March 23, 2008

LESTATS - San Diego, CA

We met up with The Slants to check on how things were going for these chinatown dance rockers since our first interview with them at PMX last November.



How do you feel the show tonight went?

Simon: It was all right. It’s unfortunate that Aron lost his voice, but we still had fun with it. What did you think of it?


I liked this live. It had an intimate feel and I had room to move around in rather than feeling constricted.

Gaijin: (Laughs) I missed the first part of the lyrics a couple of times.


Did you notice us in the audience were singing the lyrics?

Gaijin: Yeah! I was thinking, well, what the fuck am I doing up here? You guys should be the ones singing! (laughs)


How did you think the live at PMX went?

Simon: I wasn’t sure if people liked us!


They liked you! There was some good word-of-mouth afterwards.

Simon: Really? Maybe we played so well that they were just stunned. (laughs)


How was playing at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go? I remember you guys mentioning that.

Simon: It was okay. It was fun. But the Whiskey-a-Go-Go isn’t what it used to be.

Gaijin: It’s a shadow of what it used to be.

Simon: It’s just like a legendary club. But unfortunately they make most music artists pay to play there. They have to sell a certain amount of tickets. We got in on a night where we didn’t have to do that. For me, it was so amazing because so many influential artists played on that stage like Guns n Roses, James Brown, the Rolling Stones. To be able to just play on that stage was cool. We talked about it afterwards and while it would be cool to play in these historical venues like the Viper Room, The Roxy, The Whiskey… A lot of those places don’t treat bands very well. And so we’d rather play a small live house where our fans can see us and where we actually get treated decently.


So what’s going on in the world of The Slants besides playing shows?

Simon: Well we’re working on our next album. We have a tentative working title. We’re thinking of calling it Something Slanted This Way Comes. It was a song idea that Gaijin and I were working on for awhile, which actually became Stranglehold. But we kept the name Stranglehold. Aron’s original lyrics were “something slanted this way comes.” It was the first line of the song. But we decided to change that because it doesn’t fit for it. Then he used that line again in a different song, and I said “This isn’t working.” So we might not have any songs with that name, but the phrase is cool.


When is the rest of the world going to be introduced to the Slants?

Simon: Well, we’re still hoping for that Asia tour. We’re aiming for four different places.

Gaijin: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan.

Simon: Taiwan has Spring Scream which is a huge music fest out there that is six or seven days long. It would be fun and I have family out there that I would love to see. Right now a lot of our plans are up in the air. We’re kind of in a weird transition phase. We have a lot of momemtum behind us but we’re not at the point where we can fully devote our time to it. But at the same time we’re getting busy to a point where huge opportunities are becoming possible.


interview by Sarah

Thank you to The Slants for taking the time to answer our questions!