Like The Beastie Boys Before Them, Slaves Are Fighting For Your Rights

Last year, guitarist Laurie Vincent stopped a Slaves headline show, mid-song, when he noticed a girl in the front section looked "a bit distressed". After asking her what had happened, it was soon discovered that she had been sexually abused at their gig. 

When we ask singer/drummer Isaac Holman to share his memories from this incident, he elaborates, "We've always really kept one eye on the crowd the whole time, and our shows have always been like that, and I guess because we have a lot of time between songs in which we talk to the crowd, or tell stories, we always kind of make sure people are ok. I'm glued to my drums so I'm kind of static - I'm looking forward - but Laurie moves around the stage and he looks at the crowd a lot. He noticed this girl who was looking a bit distressed and he just told me to stop. 

“So we stopped the show and I went down and just spoke to her, and asked what was goin' on, and she told me and then, yeah! They got the guy! The security got the guy - he was trying to make his way out of the gig after they called him out. And the security came up to me after the show and they were like, 'We caught the guy, by the way. He's been arrested.' So, you know, it was both a good thing and a bad thing."

The lack of female representation in the moshpit is also something that doesn't sit well with Holman. We discuss how an intentional grope can easily be explained away as an accident within the commotion of a mosh. "I hate all that, it's horrible," Holman stresses. "It's so hard and it's so fucked up as well, but we're just trying to create a safe space, basically, where everyone feels like they can – yeah! We just want everyone to feel safe and have a good time."

"We're just trying to create a safe space, basically." 

For the pair's latest and third album Acts Of Fear & Love (2018), Slaves returned to producer Jolyon Thomas (who also produced their debut Are You Satisfied? set). During softer moments on tracks such as Daddy and Photo Opportunity, Slaves show they're not afraid to express vulnerability through lyrical content and definitely give listeners something of substance to mull over. "I think maybe now we're more established - and we've been doing this for a while now - it's kind of like: you just don't really care anymore about what people think of you," Holman shares, "and you wear your heart on your sleeve a li'l bit more and, yeah! I think it is just about time – now more than ever – [that] people, especially men, need to be talking about their feelings a lot more openly. So I think we tried to do that with this album."

On their previous album, Take Control, Mike D of Beastie Boys sat in the producer's chair and Holman confesses, "Even now, when I think about that whole situation, I can't believe it happened. It was mental. Mike D just called Laurie and was like, 'Hey, it's Mike D,' and Laurie was like, 'What the fuck?' [Mike D] was meant to be working with someone else on our label, but they didn't really work out and then he heard our music and just wanted to work with us and, yeah! We were just blown away. It was a real, like, pinch yourself moment."

His dad ("an obsessive vinyl collector") often played Beastie Boys records at their family home and Holman enthuses, "I love Beastie Boys. It's such a huge deal for both of us [in the band]. In many ways, we feel a little bit similar to [Beastie Boys] - like, our attitude towards music and the industry and everything - they were just havin' fun and they were doin' what they wanted, and I kind of like to think that that's what [Slaves are] all about as well."