Scene Point Blank's featured July stream is the new Slug by Crushing. Crushing is a solo-ish project by Jay Cavalier of Brighton, also known for drumming with Personal Best.
Give it a listen and keep reading, as Cavalier explains the method behind the madness.
In his own words, the inspiration to Slug, Cavalier explains, is:
I started toying with the idea of a concept EP in the summer of 2017. The idea of writing and developing a character through song appealed to me because I've always found it hard to write lyrics about anything and having that focus really helped. Once the EP was written I still had a lot of ideas and fleshed it out into a full album. By February 2018 the story had grown into an unwieldy 16-odd tracks, a mix of interpretive instrumentals, character speeches and pop songs (including a fake live karaoke Daniel Johnston cover). Over the following year I tweaked and boiled down the story and music incessantly until it became the 9 songs it is now. The hardest thing about self-producing is the lack of deadline. I had a seemingly infinite amount of time to tweak and write new ideas, and soon the project started to take its toll.
The story itself takes place after the breakup of a typically dull human romance. It follows the life of an immaculately conceived slug born of the negativity and sadness once belonging to a human person (kind of like the slime in Ghostbusters 2). The slug then goes out into the world only to find there is no real place in society for an ugly little slug who only knows how to be very glum and nothing else.
In the 6 months prior to the release of the album I had slowly and willingly clambered into a pit of self-doubt, lethargy, and procrastination. The one thing that kept me going creatively for so long had become an impossible task constantly looming over me, threatening my creative capacity. It had become the Slug. I would show it love and nurture it like a parent would a child, but I couldn’t stand being around it. Working on it gave me both a definite sense of purpose and stomach-curdling anxiety, like a strong cup of coffee in lieu of a substantial breakfast. Until one day I decided enough was enough. I woke up at 8:30am on a Sunday, made that substantial breakfast and began the finishing touches on Slug. I learned a hell of a lot about the writing process and when to stop. I release the album on a Friday. On the Saturday my close friend and PR professional called to sternly tell me I'd released it all wrong and I should have done more planning before releasing it - he's definitely right, but I needed it out of the house.
Order the record here.
