There’scover songs, and then there’s themanywaysLeah Wellbaum and Will Gorinhaveflippedtheir favoritetracksover the past15years.Not just with their longtime band Slothrusteither. TheSarah Lawrence gradsfirst bonded over the blues,a way to apply the progressivelesson plans ofteachers like Mike Longo—a pianist who played with suchjazzpioneers asDizzy Gillespie and Lee Konitz—tofearlessriffs andrhythmsthatfeellike total rewrites.Gorinis quick tocreditLongo’s“Three I’s”lesson—imitation, incubation,and innovation—inparticular.Themain takeaway? Thatthe best music comes from building uponother people’sideas,ratherthansimply replicating or revisiting them.The clearest example of this would be the Slothrust recordShow Me How You Want It to Be, acover song compilationthatdroppedsand-blasted renditions of The Turtles (“HappyTogether”) and Marcy’s Playground (“Sex and Candy”) alongside spare takes on Al Green(“Let’s Stay Together”) and Sam Cooke (“Cupid”).Headingeven further out into left field is the new EPI Promise,a wildride thatincludesarawperformance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and not one but four differentrecordingsoftheslo-mosmash“Pony.”The lattertakes its cues fromGinuwine’s cassingle,whichsplit itssides betweenavibrantalbumversion, drawn-out director’s cut,Timbaland’siconic beat,andGinuwine’s carnala cappella.Slothrusttakes the trackdowntwodistinctpathsbuilt around the original’sthree powerhousechords andeffervescent low end. One swings like a lithe slice of sludgy rock ‘n’ roll, and theother dives straight off the deep end for 10 extra minutes, playing to thepair’sstrengths aswell-rounded mind readers.“It’s always fun to leave space in the music where improvisation is possible,” explainsWellbaum, “and that is part of what is so exciting to us about the extended version of‘Pony’;it’s entirelyimprovised,and we only did one performance of it in the studio.”“One of my all-time favorite quotes isfrom composer Claude Debussy,” adds Gorin. “I firstdiscovered itinMiles Davis’ biography, when he said‘music is the space between the notes.’Iapproachmy playing with thatkind ofenergy, with an emphasis onfillingnegative space withsymmetrical orasymmetrical patterns.”The same can be said for the two snappy, tightly wound tracks that also landed onI Promise,“Maybe Maybe” and “Magic Glow.”Written by Wellbaum while she was living in Floridalastyearandendinga “really long and beautifully dramatic relationship,”the songs are both poetic               and poppy, working in hummable nods to liminal spaces, ceremonial magic,and eco-sexualityalongside a slick rhythm section (featuring Gorin on drumsandbass for the first time) andWelbaum’s manic guitar melodies.“The two originalson this EP are good examples of songs that wrote themselves,” saysWellbaum.“I decided that I wanted todoguitar-driven, dynamic rock songs and I wrote thesetwo as a pair, which happens tome a lot.”Another recent example of songs that seemed to finish each other’s sentences—sonically andlyrically—would be “Courtesy” and “Waiting” from Slothrust’s last record, 2021’sParallelTimelineLP. All of this synchronicity makes perfect sense,of course. After all, Slothrust’sbreakthrough album (Of Course You Do) is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary, and theband’s core duo have connected on a kismet level ever since those early days.“Will and I have been playing different genres of music in different configurations together foralmost15years now and that is a big part of our lock,” says Wellbaum.“We know how to workwith each other in a variety of different settings and how to communicate outside of what wedo specifically. That offers us tremendous freedom.”“I feel like we have developed our own unique sound to the point where we can ask ourselves‘what wouldSlothrust do?’”adds`Gorin. “The paradox beingthat ifSlothrustknew whatSlothrust would do,Slothrust would do the opposite.”

Driven by vocalist & guitarist Jess’s creative vision, alt-trio CALVA LOUISE has just released their most multifaceted work to date, a 13 tracks album where their eclectic sound provides a mesmerising introduction to an alternate reality. EUPHORIC is a molotov cocktail, encompassing ambitious songwriting and searing guitar hooks that shows a multicultural proposal influenced by graphic novels and Sci-Fi movies. Accompanied by a 45 minutes animation movie, created by Jess using softwares such as Blender and After Effects, the euphoric experience will continue through the second volume of the graphic novel also created by Jess, where Alizon and Ben will show clues about a EUPHORIC video game project. The three musicians crossed paths in London during 2016, formed the band and started supporting artists like Razorlight, Albert Hammond Jr. and Highly Suspect. Since the beginning, their songs have found heavy rotation across BBC1 with Jack Saunders, Huw Stephens, Annie Mac and Abbie McCarthy; BBC6 Music with Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq, Shaun Keaveny and the legendary Iggy Pop; X-posure with John Kennedy and also a live session at BBC Maida Vale Studios. After their explosive performances at Reading & Leeds, CALVA LOUISE are preparing their European tour for early 2022.