What To Do About Mid-20s Anxieties? Slotface Just 'Try Not To Freak Out'

Norwegian band Slotface appear to like pop and punk music in pretty close to equal measures, if their music, attitude and general aesthetic are anything to go by. And when this concept is put to explosive frontwoman Haley Shea, she is quick to agree. "Yes, I think that's definitely fair," Shea says, speaking from her home in Stavanger, Norway. "Musically, we're obviously more of a pop band and a rock band, but we're very inspired by, and try to take part in, the punk ethos of the DIY attitude, doing things yourself and standing up for things you believe in. 

"So we like to think that our lifestyle is more punk and our actual music is more pop." 

The band have only been together for about five years and they are just about to release their debut album Try Not To Freak Out. Many bands go to extraordinary lengths to complete their first record, and Slotface is certainly one of these.  

"We're all still at university, so we all took six months off and moved back in with our parents," she says with a mock shudder, "just to be able to finish a full album. We were very strict with ourselves about wanting to write as much as possible and then keep cutting it back."  

And this plays into the title of the record. "The album deals with the anxieties of being in your mid-20s," she reveals, "and not knowing what you're going to do with your life. So it's pretty much just our mantra to ourselves, that hopefully other people can relate to, too, just reminding yourself to keep it all together. But we also thought it was kind of a cheeky first album title, we're self-deprecating enough to think that Try Not To Freak Out is a good joke."

Slotface will be here in Australia for the first time in early September. It will be the first time for any member of the band to visit our shores in any capacity and Shea has a philosophical way of looking at the fact that they will spend approximately 35 hours in transit just getting here. "We're consoling ourselves with the fact that it will be on an aeroplane, because we've done drives that have been that long without stopping or sleeping. At least on a plane you can lay down, watch movies, someone serves you food and so on," she laughs. 

Shea tells us that the band plans ahead and sets longer term goals for themselves to a certain extent, while still being flexible and allowing things to unfold the way they will. "Right now we're operating on one- to two-year plans," she says, "where the next six months are super-specific and then it gets a little bit vague after that. This is the life of a musician: you have super-detailed plans for a few months and then it's a bit of a black hole, because you hope that everything works out the way you want."