It is a total earnestness, a powerful excitement about what she is doing – and, perhaps most importantly, what she is about to do next – which is impossible to ignore.
More than that, it is infectious, and it is easy to imagine that this is the very same energy that has made her live outings so memorable. Even from the name she chose, this slightly chaotic energy becomes clear. When asked why Freak Slug, the answer is disarmingly simple: “I just wanted to have fun and fuck around and not take myself seriously. So many other indie bands have these deep poetic names. I just wanted to be a freak slug”.
Crystallising this feeling into studio music may be a little more of a challenge, but if there is another thing that becomes clear almost immediately with Freak Slug, it is that she loves challenges. “Artists are not meant to fit forms and moulds,” she proudly declares. “I don’t fit moulds. I don’t do what people tell me to do. I do what I want to do. Do you know what I mean?”
Take touring, with all its ups and downs: as she discusses it, it’s clear she’s in her element. “I found my live band now, and we’re all comfortable with each other, it’s really good. For me, I don’t think I could tour if it wasn’t fun,” she points out. “It should all be fun. I’m not a professional person. I don’t really wish to be one, that’s not my life. That’s not what’s meant for me in this lifetime. So for me it’s all about family vibes, love – love where possible – and joy and fun. So yeah, being on the road is great. We just get drunk and play shows and it’s great. That really should be the rock spirit, shouldn’t it?”
That is not to say that her voice has not evolved, as she has moved past the success of her first record, 'I Blow Out Big Candles', and into the next chapter of her musical trajectory. “It all started really in my bedroom, when I started producing at 17 or 18 years old,” she remembers. “I started very experimental on my own. And then I worked with somebody to took it to the next level than my weird shit I was doing alone. I like the progression of it”. Does she have, as she moves forward, a specific goal in mind? “Basically I want to make music that is always what I would listen to. That’s the goal.It’s just like, would I listen to this if it wasn’t me?”
She is in the process of writing a second album, putting together the various parts of it and getting a sense of the sound. “I’m writing the next album in my house, on acoustic,” she explains. “I’m writing everything acoustically. Sometimes I’ll produce it and then I want to leave it just acoustic, and have it still fresh and unformed, so I don’t get bored – because I can get bored so easily”. It also serves as a litmus test of sorts: “I really like it because now I know if the song is good or not. You should know just acoustically if the song is a banger”. Before that, however, she’s planning to release another EP: “The last bit of fresh air that Freak Slug is going to give, to be honest. So it’s going to be very happy – well, not happy, but just more light, upbeat. But after that, the album that I’m working on is definitely going to be heavier. I don’t necessarily want anything too brash, but I want it to be solid”.
There is also a directness, in her lyrics especially, that feels very much like she is laying herself bare, and this, too, is something she has been grappling with. “I’m trying to tame the lion currently in my personal life, where maybe I can say something in a nicer way,” she muses. “And I guess that’s aligning to the next album in, like – how can I say this more poetically? How can I say the same message, but in a softer way? Rather than upsetting people because you’re so fucking honest, which, you know, is a classic me move”.
At one point, some of her songs became fairly popular on TikTok, but her relationship with that world – and the world of social media in general – remains ambiguous. “I don’t hate it – I think it is a tool that’s cool to use – I wish I had the energy to engage with it like some people too. It’s just a lot, how much you have to engage with it. I can’t post every day, I don’t want to post every day”. The oversharing on social media platforms nags at her: “Sometimes if I’m low, and my manager says, you need to post something, it’s the worst thing. If I’m feeling low, the last thing I want to do is make a post or show my face. I’m not Gen Z, I missed that boat, luckily. We all did stupid things when we were 15, but there’s no video content of it. Doing stupid trends and crying to random people on TikTok? That’s another level”.
The energies she channels through her music are an active concern for her, too. “I am absolutely spiritual,” she agrees. “I am not holding back my spirituality anymore, it’s so tiresome in this world when you’re dealing with the judgement of people for it. I don’t care, and I hope that people will feel it subconsciously, the message in the music. I’m not going to be cringe about it – there are so many cringe spiritual messages – it’s going to be subtle, and cool. It’s cool as fuck, where we come from and what we’re about”.
For now, however, you can sense that her sights are set firmly on the future. “I’m really excited about the next album,” she says, and there is that intensity again, that infectious enthusiasm. “It’s going to be just wild. Like, proper wild”.
Chiara Strazzulla
Image: El Hardwick
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