Lawrence duo the Sluts never leave home without it — especially for a new record
Lawrence rock-and-roll duo the Sluts are putting out the vinyl edition of their self-titled album this weekend, but the fact that the songs were originally released on CD last June doesn’t seem to bother Kristoffer Dover and Ryan Wise.
“What does it matter the time a thing’s released?” asks Dover, the Sluts’ drummer, as the three of us take shelter from a deluge on the patio of the Replay Lounge. “We didn’t release on Epic. We’re just some crummy, small-time band. We just do this because we like to do it. We’d released four of the songs as an EP the year before that, but that’s just because we were so fucking excited about recording something. We went out to Element Studios and … do you know Joel Nanos?”
When I say that, yes, Nanos’ name rings familiar as the co-owner of C&C Drums, Dover takes a drink from his Miller Lite tallboy and nods.
“To us, he’s a wizard,” Dover says. “There’s only two of us, right? So, when you’re trying to record something, shit comes up — shit that you haven’t liked about a song. So when we went out there, we were like, boom — there’s three of us. So we let him play the role of producer to break the ties.
“We knew exactly how we wanted it to sound,” Dover continues. “We wanted it to sound as much like our live shit as possible, but y’know, good [laughs]. He plugged a bunch of old-fashioned things together, and it sounded exactly the way we wanted it to. We wanted to have it out sooner, but vinyl is expensive and takes forever to make.”
The duo needed $2,300 to make the red-vinyl version of the album, because a pressing plant’s smallest order is 300 copies.
“We have a war chest we spend on band shit, band money,” Dover explains.
Unfortunately, when they hatched the plan last winter, the war chest had only about half the money needed for the record. In order for the records to be ready for the Sluts’ upcoming spring shows, Dover and Wise needed money fast. Dover had an epiphany.
“I have an excellent credit rating, so I went online, picked up an American Express — 15 months, no interest — got the card, ordered the vinyl, cut the card up and threw it away,” he says, smiling. “We don’t need gas money because we don’t tour. We’re not going to need a van; we bust around in my Honda Accord.”
The duo then took a break from live shows for the better part of the winter, with Dover wanting the Sluts to a be fresh and fun again. Wise, the Sluts’ singer and guitarist, was on the fence, although he admits the time off has reaped some rewards: three new songs to debut at upcoming shows.
“We needed to feel it and love it again, so we took some time off,” Wise says. “I can’t wait to get back at it. You don’t really know until you lay it on people.”
The Sluts
with Wendy Moira and Young Bull
Friday, May 6
The Bottleneck
737 New Hampshire, Lawrence
