intrinsic trust in one another has matured into an immutable bond, carried over from their early days in Wisconsin to the gleaming horizon of their highly-anticipated third album, ‘Melodie’, out now.

The beloved Chicago based-band, composed of Emily Massey (vocals/guitar), Henry Stoehr (guitar), Alex Leeds (bass), and Teddy Mathews (drums), returned to their old ways of working together for their latest record, bouncing ideas off one another and entering a songwriting synthesis marked with an eagerness dating back to ‘Moveys’.

On ‘Melodie’, Slow Pulp present hearty power pop anthems undercut with poignancy and introspection, dealing with the unspoken and profoundly private elements of friendship, love and longing, from ‘Yellow and Green’s evocative retrospection to Emily’s personal favourite ‘Better Man’.

Emily chats to CLASH on the band’s behalf to discuss the road to the seismic record that is ‘Melodie’, including how they’ve grown, the old habits that nestled their way back, and what they’re most excited about.

You formed as a band in the mid-2010s – how far do you feel you’ve come, both as individuals and as a group, since then?

We’ve spent an ungodly amount of time together over the last 10 years touring. There’s just so many phases that we’ve gone through as a group, and there’s no other kind of relationships or experiences that I have like that with anyone else in my life.

From how we communicate with each other, how we work through things, and how we create together, each year and each album making process only informs our bond more. We still have no idea what to expect. 

What’s funny with this record is that we did return to some aspects of a working process that existed when I first met the boys and met my bandmate Henry, who I co-wrote this album with. It’s just a wonderful thing to do with my best friends for a decade. 

And how do you feel you’ve evolved as a band since your last record, ‘Yard’?

‘Yard’ had parts of the process which were very isolated. I spent time on my own writing and Henry spent time on his own producing. We had a lot of parts where we were writing together and co-producing with my other two bandmates, Alex and Teddy, but there were a lot of pieces that were individually insular.

With ‘Melodie’, I felt I had more of a back and forth with Henry. We entered this process where we would write songs and send them to each other every other day for a few months, which was stressful in the beginning, because you’re letting someone in on such a vulnerable part of the process, where things are so raw and unfinished. We had this innate sense of trust in each other that we rediscovered, that allowed us to be able to be vulnerable in that way. 

Another huge difference with ‘Melodie’ is we brought in an outside producer. Henry had been producing our records up until this point. We brought in Elliott Kozel and it was a really fun experience to be outside of ourselves more than we have ever in both the process and bringing other people on to help us. 

You famously went off to a cabin in northern Wisconsin to write ‘Yard’. Did you take any extreme methods during the writing process this time round?

For ‘Yard’, the writing I did was very internal, an internal reckoning with myself to a certain extent, which was a result of being alone and isolated. ‘Melodie’ is much more reflective, particularly about the relationships in my life. The writing process released some sense of pressure. It made it more exploratory and kind of fun.

With the last few albums, there was an anxiety underlying the creation of it. ‘Melodie’ felt open in a way we haven’t felt in a really long time. I started writing music seriously for the first time 10 years ago, and that was with Henry. It was funny – we realised exactly 10 years later that we were in this process accidentally again, doing this back and forth and sending each other songs and helping each other finish each other’s songs. It felt very lighthearted and easy, which for me hadn’t felt that way in a very, very long time.

Your first two albums were written in the shadow of the pandemic. Has anything in the current moment – personally or in the wider world – bled into ‘Melodie’?

During the making of this record, we entered our 30s. Maybe as a result of the last six years, I have this acceptance of change and chaos: you can’t predict what’s going to happen.

I felt more settled in that feeling of riding the wave, of life being ever-changing. For a long time, especially the last six years, I’ve really held tightly to a resistance to things changing. Maybe this is more of a universal thing for others, in the aftermath of the pandemic, an acceptance of things being hard and just having to move through it.

Which track was the trickiest to see through from start to finish?

There’s a song called ‘Red Car’ that started with a drum beat and distorted guitars, but it needed some sort of darker energy that we couldn’t quite find for a while. I think it was Elliot who cracked the idea of adding some more atonal guitars and some extra fuzz to make the song harder and grungier. 

The thing that really cracked it open was this violin sound that’s buried underneath the track. It creates this melancholy energy the song was needing because it’s otherwise forward-facing as this power-pop song. I wanted the lyrics fairly dismal and I wanted that energy somewhere in the song. That took a while to figure out, but once we did, I was elated by how it came together. 

The song is also particularly poignant, especially lyrically. What’s the story behind it?

‘Yellow And Green’ is about being excited by a connection and friendship. I feel really grateful that I have so many long term friendships in my life. When you’ve known someone for a really long time, you have this innate feeling that this person’s going to be in your life forever. You never know what will happen in life.

I have these pillars of people in my life, and I have this innate trust we’ll be able to just keep moving through life no matter what happens, learning and growing alongside each other. 

What were the main music influences you kept coming back to while making ‘Melodie’?

Bruce Hornsby is one of Henry’s favourite artists, while I was in a totally different realm, listening to The Cars a bunch – and Bruce Springsteen. 

We also love 60s and 70s folk, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne. There’s another realm of late 90s shoegaze, but also early 2000s radio rock that we grew up with. ‘Melodie’ is a culmination of all of those worlds. 

Do you have a favourite track on the album?

‘Better Man’ is my favourite song right now. When Henry sent me that song, I knew it was going to make it on the album. It was the first song that we felt like we should lead with and put out. 

Which song are you most excited to finally play live?

I’m excited to play the song ‘Melodie’. I feel like that one just goes really hard and is sounding great. I think ‘Yellow and Green’ will be a fun one too – we’re still trying to crack that one open and figure out the best way to arrange it live.

What are you most looking forward to about heading out on tour?

I’m really excited to get back on the road. It’s been a minute since we’ve done a headlining tour. I’m ready to hang out with my friends. It feels like summer camp.

We’re doing our first tour with the bus, which I’m really excited about, which hopefully means that we get to spend less time driving and more time seeing the places we’re actually going to be in, which I haven’t got to do in the last 10 years. That feels like a big, celebratory win for us. 

How are you feeling now that the album’s actually about to be out in the world?

It’s an emotional rollercoaster. Once an album comes out, for me, there’s a detachment where I almost forget I was part of making it. Then, I can enjoy it in a new way.

‘Melodie’ is out now.