saturated guitars and powerful bass, the legendary group of the 1990s reignites the sound

Both cult and relatively unknown to the general public, the independent rock group Slowdive is in concert in Paris, in the wake of its fifth album “Everything is Alive”. Meeting with their bassist, Nick Chaplin.

Veterans at their best. This could be described as the five members of Slowdive, Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell, Nick Chaplin, Christian Savill and Simon Scott. Certainly, there are a few wrinkles… But they have been the same since the creation of the group in the 1990s near Reading, England.

In a few EPs and two albums, Slowdive had become one of the heralds of the “shoegaze” movement, in the wake of My Bloody Valentine and Ride. Atmospheric music, saturated guitars, ethereal choirs, powerful bass: Slowdive has gradually gained a cult following from a solid community of followers.

A return after a break of… 20 years

Then came the third album in 1995, Pygmalion. Very experimental, it will be fatal for them: the record company abandons them. The group splits up. There followed a long absence of twenty years, during which Slowdive’s music continued to be listened to, influencing new groups and reaching an increasingly wider audience. Until the resurrection of 2017, with the album baptized Slowdive. A synthesis of historical sound and current influences, the album marks a surprising and successful comeback. A new generation of fans discovered the group’s music and Slowdive returned to the road and into the studio.

The fifth album, Everything is Alive, was released in September 2023. Before the Parisian date at La Cigale, we met Nick Chaplin, bassist of the group. A lively, direct and smiling fifty-something, happy to talk about music.

Franceinfo Culture: Six years since your last album… have you taken your time?
Nick Chaplin : Yes, it’s a bit of our trademark! We planned to return to the studio at the beginning of 2020. Then Covid arrived. It shifted everything. Luckily we didn’t have a tour planned. Some groups took the opportunity to write even more during periods of confinement. Not us. We probably didn’t use this time as we should have (laughs). Ultimately, each of us has been marked in different ways. But we found ourselves with a renewed mindset.

Your latest album sounds much more electronic.
Yes ! Neil [Halstead, guitare et chant] has always been interested in electronic music. But over the past five years, it has become more and more pronounced. He wanted to include more electronic experimentation in the band and we were all pretty open about that. He brought songs and we all worked on them together. And since we’re not doing it again, it gradually sounded more like Slowdive, with more bass, guitar and drums. If we want to summarize, Neil was leaning towards electro, me in the opposite direction. But we all like the result. Above all, we can play it on stage, by adding keyboards. This is important, because we are not an electronic music group. We are very “organic” in the way we play: our sound depends a lot on our mood and the concerts are not the same. It’s part of our charm (laughs)!

Has your audience changed?
Quite. This was really noticed in the United States. The public arrived very early at the concerts. We saw teenagers waiting for hours. Sometimes they came with their parents. It’s new and it’s cool. A group that does not reach new audiences withers away. There, we feel the excitement. For the first time, when we play When the Sun Hits, which is a bit like our hit on TikTok, we can hear the audience singing and shouting. It’s crazy for a band like ours.

The concert at La Cigale is your only official date in France. Tickets were sold out within hours. Did this surprise you?
That’s great, but to tell you the truth, we’re frustrated. There were a lot of problems organizing this European tour, finding suitable dates and venues. We have to skip Brussels or the south of Europe… I think we could have played several dates in Paris. We are sorry and I apologize to our audience. We will have to come back!