Premiere: Slowtrip, ‘Follow’

Kevin Bronson on May 11th, 2018

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It’s not a great distance from hardcore and heavy metal to grunge and shoegaze. In fact, it was a quick trip for year-old Los Angeles quartet Slowtrip.

The band is the coalition Alfredo “Tank” Pedrozo (of Rotting Out) and Martin Alcedo (ex-No Bragging Rights), along with two former members of the Greenery, John Alaimo and Dan Mayo. They recorded their EP “Blur” (out digitally May 18, with vinyl coming July 13 via Anchor Eighty Four) with producer Scott Goodrich (Culture Abuse, Southpaw, TSSF) at Nu Tone Studios.

There’s a delicious hard crunch to the quartet’s leaden, harmonized guitars, and, playing the loud/soft dynamic adroitly, their second single “Follow” whiplashes you back to the ’90s. Says singer-guitarist Alaimo: “‘Follow’ was the most recent song we wrote and it is again inspired by things that happened to me during childhood. I grew up going to Christian church and I never felt like I belonged or was accepted. I was constantly judged and even back then I could tell that church was not a place I wanted to be.

“The older I get, the stronger my feelings are against the idea of church as a whole,” he adds. “It is a non-tax-paying business and despite the fact religion helps bring hope to millions of people, the church is diminishing its remaining credibility. When it comes down to it, you should follow whatever it is that makes you happy and makes you the best human you can be. Live by the golden rule and don’t be an asshole.”

||| Stream: “Follow”