Slightest Clue is a Vancouver-based four-piece that probably shouldn’t work. Each member brings distinct influences and experiences: a stage actor whose playlists go from Talking Heads to Sonic Youth to Björk, a hook-obsessed recovering choir girl, an electrical engineer whose personal idol is John Bonham, and a guitarist who played for (and left) ten other bands before deciding this was the one for him. It’s like the secret after-school project of four kids who would have passed each other without a glance in the hallway at school - but once they’re plugged in and ready to play their distinct blend of post-punk, alternative rock, and dark pop, all bets are off. It wasn’t supposed to work, but it does, and they don’t have the slightest clue how or why. Slightest Clue is Malcolm McLaren, Hannah Kruse, Sean Ries, and Nick Sciarretta.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
The interview was conducted with Malcolm McLaren, the lead singer of Slightest Clue.
Kamil) Hey Malcolm, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Listening to lots of different genres throughout highschool became my de-stresser during a tough time, and I eventually got into beat making as my jumping off point for creating music. I started writing and playing guitar more seriously in my early 20’s as it felt more catered to my creative inner voice, and beat making never felt like the right way of expressing myself. I couldn’t sing and play properly at the same time until I was 21, but if I wanted to play shows and be in a band, I knew I had to practice that a lot more.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
Balance is insanely tough these days as we all basically work full-time or are full-time students. We do our best to work around one another’s schedules and we always show up for gigs. As we currently work on recording our latest project, we usually only have one person in the recording session at a time because everyone is on different schedules. It can be kinda sad we don’t all get to hang and just be creative, but that’s the sacrifice we have to make to see things through.
Your latest song is 'Look At The Way She Goes'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
LATWSG was one of the first serious songs I wrote on guitar about 4 years ago, and came from the early days of Slightest Clue being a bedroom project where I would record all the instruments myself and program drums underneath, thanks to my “beat making” background, haha.
This new version - unlike the original version I made solo - has everyone in the band contributing new ideas and rearranging the track so it’s much more filled out and heavy, especially on the production end of things.
The song might never have gotten done if it weren’t for Nick, our drummer, suggesting we record this version we have today. Our drummer is so good that he basically plays all the songs from memory to a click in an empty project with no support from us playing behind him. The drums you hear in this song are basically him feeling it out from how we practiced in the room and then we added all the layers on top.
How do you find yourself in the music business? When you started out in music, did you know it would be like this?
The business side is a tough learning curve that we are learning to handle as we move forward. It basically becomes a second job, and requires a ton of focus and planning if you want your releases to reach as far as possible. Preparation of all our assets is everything, and as we’ve progressed as a band, the workload only increases. With no label or management helping take on some of the marketing tasks, it falls on us to prepare and reach out to everyone. Hopefully one day we won’t have to be doing all of this ourselves, but it only helps us understand our value and how we best wanna approach things in our career as we progress.
What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?
I would probably go back to school and seek a degree in counselling and talk therapy, since it’s another area of life that I feel most useful to other people.
How do you know when a work is finished?
I generally don’t like to linger too long on decisions, and rely on my immediate gut reactions and how songs feel as we build them up. If something isn’t right in a certain section, we all try to discuss why and problem solve together. But if it feels good and we come up with something we like, then it’s best to not overthink too much because there are still so many songs to write! You can tinker and change things to your heart’s content, but it’s important to ask, is it better? Or is it just different?
Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music?
One of my other huge obsessions is competitive Super Smash Brothers melee tournaments. I watch them all and keep up with the scene throughout the year like a sports fan would with their regular team, but I happen to love watching this very specific niche fighting game. I play as well but not to the level of these pros, I could maybe just serve anyone at a house party.
What is it about music that makes you feel passionate?
It’s work that doesn’t feel like work if that makes sense? I can work on demos in my room for hours without eating or bathroom breaks and it isn’t a punishment, it’s just a fast track to being in the flow state. Creating when you’re making decisions and are in the flow can feel like the ultimate presence, or meditation, which is something I crave cause it gets me out of my own head. It’s also the only kind of work that I’ve discovered I can do that might feel useful to others if they need an outlet to process their emotions. I just hope our work can be someone’s escape like what I felt when I listened to my favourite artists growing up.
Who is your favourite musician?
I like a lot of different creatives for different reasons but a few names that really inspire my own creativity are Archy Marshall, James Murphy, Josh Homme, Bjork, and Kurt Cobain. They all occupy their own musical landscapes and really have unique artistic voices that you can’t get elsewhere, which is what I hope to achieve one day.
What are your plans for the future?
The immediate future has us planning our first show out of town at NXNE in Toronto, as well as a few music videos and a 5-track EP release. I hope we can one day make music a full-time gig and quit our day jobs just to know what the touring experience is like. Who knows if it’s what I’ll do forever, but as of now it’s all I can see myself doing for the rest of my life, we just have tons more work to do until we get there haha.