Slaney Bay by Rory Dunn
After recently adding the ‘Why Does Love Mean Loss?’ EP to their growing list of impressive early releases, our Artist Of The Week is Slaney Bay.
WHO?
Cait Whitley – Lead vocals and rhythm guitar
William Nicola-Thompson – Lead guitar
Joel Martin – Bass guitar
WHERE?
We’re a trio of childhood friends from South-West London. We’ve known each other since around 4 years old which is a wild realisation. We were each other’s earliest friends, and nothing has changed (except we’re slightly taller).
WHEN?
Slaney Bay started in the COVID-19 lockdowns. We’d written music together before, but I (Cait) was at Uni, and the boys were working full time. When everyone had to stay inside, we suddenly had time to be creative. Zoom became our fourth band member. We thought, if we don’t give it a proper go now, when will we?
WHY?
Music is a bundle of emotion. I’ll still hear a song and be transported back to 7-years old, staring out of a foggy car window and chanting along to 2000s indie rock on my MP3 player. That childlike euphoria is something we always aim to capture. Euphoric synth from The Naked and Famous, soaring guitar riffs from The Klaxons and introspective wisdom from Radiohead. If someone considers our music as long car journey worthy, we’ll be happy.
HOW?
Joey and I played casually together in a band before, and Will was actually a bassist in another band. Members shifted in and out as they do in teenage years, and we ended up with the trio of Will, Joey and I. And it really clicked. We were already such close friends that writing together felt very natural.
PAST?
Joey and Will worked in audio-visual events and retail, respectively. I was at Uni of Leeds for Psychology. We didn’t have that internal fire for those jobs…Music was the release.
PRESENT?
Our sound is like a diary entry. The instruments set a dramatic scene while the lyrics stumble through the fight for self-actualisation. Soaring guitars and punchy bass lines hit home those revelations. I think I actually get the same therapeutic benefit from our songwriting as a diary provides… ‘Family Tree’ really helped me work through the grief of my family member passing. I was made to feel everything that I had been pushing down because I wanted to do the song justice lyrically. Bit of a life hack for you there.
FUTURE?
I’ve often thought about what ambitions we hold for the band. And as soon as I fixate on one goal, five others appear. And that’s what I love about this industry. You never know what’s coming next. A specific goal is to play our dream venue, Ally Pally in London. We’ve seen some of our favourite acts ever perform there, Wolf Alice and Tame Impala, to name a few…So playing there is a big bucket list item. And in terms of wider ambitions, we just want to meet as many of our listeners (called the Slaney Bay-bies) as possible. Creating that community has been the most special experience for us.
DID YOU KNOW?
I notoriously have an awful sense of direction. People will often ask me to guess which way we need to go, and then they’ll choose the other option. When we played The Lafayette in London with Bleach Lab, I was LOST. The green rooms are upstairs by a couple floors, and the stage is through some security guarded doors round the other side. I ended up lost in the kitchen 10 minutes before our stage time. Thankfully, the boys are used to this accidental game of hide and seek and are very talented at finding me! Plus, I got a sneak peak of the dinner menu.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Our sophomore EP, ‘Why Does Love Mean Loss?’, has just been released and we are beyond excited to start touring it. We’ve been keeping these songs under lock and key for too long. They’ll finally be played live this Autumn, at Live At Leeds In The City (October 14th), Sŵn Festival in Cardiff (22nd October) and our biggest EVER headline gig at Colours, Hoxton (London) on 3rd November.
