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Sharp Pins, the songwriting vehicle for Chicago native and pop-eclectician Kai Slater, (guitarist-vocalist of Lifeguard, publisher of Hallogallo), self-released Radio DDR as an all sales benefit the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund back in May. Throughout the tape, timeless and catchy melodies splendor all the way down jangly guitar lines, ominous percussion, and noisy sound effects laced through the arrangements, creating an odd, but often productive tension that consciously undercuts power pop conventions. While on tour, we caught up with Slater to discuss the new identity of the solo venture, splitting time between projects, and the importance of all ages shows.
Paperface Zine: Hi Kai! First tell me, what music have you been listening to lately?
Kai Slater: I've been having a major Robyn Hitchcock moment/deep dive. I've always been a big Soft Boys fan but I was recently made aware of an outtakes album of sorts called Invisible Hits by my friend Patrick Amory which sort of reintroduced me to Robyn's super absurd and unique sense of humor. I love his usage of words like "fingers," "sand," "eyes," "fly," "ding dong yea," etc. Anyway, I've been getting into his first solo album a lot especially too and The Egyptians stuff which has some great Hitchcock jangle. Besides that, the new Mystic Tide reissue is so so good, love the teenage psychedelia thing from that period.
PZ: How did your recent tour go with Lifeguard? What were some of the highlights?
KS: Well in our press kit and public media display, we've very elaborately devised every possible way to mention and intricately extract profit from the fact that I broke my foot before tour (I was doing parkour) and the fact that I wore a boot the whole tour. So you have probably caught wind of that. But besides my ailments it was really fun and met some cool fans. In Boston (or "Somerville," I guess??) this guy knew the bass line to our newest single and played it instead of Asher. It was really embarrassing for Asher to stand there without a bass and it was really fun for me.
PZ: What exactly are the origins of Sharp Pins? Did it transition out of the Dwaal Troupe recordings?
KS: Ya, Dwaal Troupe was largely an outlet for me to do solo home recordings which is something I have done for a while. The last record Lucky Dog was even more so in that vein of solo recording and the writing process was more insular because all of the songs were written by me during quarantine and all existed in 4-track demo states before the album (minus one song that Charlie wrote which rox). And after that album, people in the band started to move to college and lose interest in the band. So it became stressful to keep the band afloat and it made more sense for us all to focus on our own personal projects more once Dwaal Troupe started to become less collaborative. I think we'd all like to make more Dwaal Troupe music when we all can, but it feels good to have a stage name/clear solo zone or whatever.
PZ: What's it like splitting time between Sharp Pins, Lifeguard, and maintaining your zine Hallogallo Zine? Has it become natural and easy?
KS: It can definitely be stressful but I think I have found good ways to stay sane between each project...also if I get too intense in my head about one project I will probably move to the other one so I hop back and forth a lot. It's a good way to stay busy and creative which are two things I have found I tend to be and I become a confused person if I'm not.
PZ: What do you recall about putting together the previous Sharp Pins tape Turtle Rock from March '23?
KS: I recall that being a really fun and natural process that came together relatively quickly. It felt super exciting and freeing to conceptualize this sort of stream of consciousness pop project and the songs came very naturally once I had that concept. Since I was a little baby I always liked the imagery of turtles going into their turtle shells and having little rooms where they hang up paintings and plants and stuff. So I think of turtle shells as an image of your imagination and personal world of creativity or something. That's kind of how I think of Turtle Rock, as the inside of my turtle shell at the same time. Do I sound like a hippie? Sorry.
PZ: I've always really enjoyed that album's fifth track "You Turned off the Light." What's the story behind that one?
KS: Like almost all of my songs it started with a vocal melody that I found on a walk when I was in a really good mood. I remember walking my dog and hearing the chorus in my mind and running back home as quick as I could to lay some chords down to it. So that's melodically where it came from. But lyrically, it is definitely something of a break up song...eek...my roommate said that he took it as more of a happy song which I'm glad it can be taken in a more light way too. It's not a super dark song or anything either, it just is pretty matter of fact...it covers a lot of ground, sad, and happy.
PZ: Your newest tape Radio DDR, an all sales benefit the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, is one of my favorites already this year. What was it like putting this one together over the course of two weeks in April and May of this year?
KS: Thank you! So the songs were written over the year after Turtle Rock mostly, with some of them written before Turtle Rock. "Chasing Stars" was written in January of '22 and Dwaal Troupe used to play it a lot. So the writing for the album was a good bit less off the cuff than Turtle Rock and all the songs were generally considered as good enough to be performed as a solo singer during the time I was performing as Sharp Pins completely solo all the time. So I think the songs are strong. Given the process of writing I knew it was gonna be a bit harder to have an off the cuff fun recording process so I gave myself a deadline by announcing the album before I had finished it, and besides "Race for the Audience," I recorded it mainly in one week with some overdubs the next week. I had been working on new recording techniques before that so I could work relatively quickly and in a natural fun way with it sounding good to me! I want to get into a less focused recording style again though...it's fun to record with no goals too.
PZ: Let's dive into some of the songs here. I really love "If I Was Ever Lonely." What can you tell me about it?
KS: That was a really fun song to write because I think I tapped into some good early John Lennon melodrama or something. Although I kind of do that a lot. But it's especially whiney and boyish, haha. It's not a very personal song, I'm kind of larping the whole song. The song actually started in an awesome way, too. My friend Joaquin from the band Soaps texted me and asked me what my song was with the line about sitting in the back seat of a car. And I was like, "are you thinking of that Big Star song?" But he could have sworn I had a song with that line! And it got me thinking. So like a lot of my songs I start jokingly singing lines while driving in my car about sitting in the back seat of a car and it happened to turn into a cool melody that I voice memoed while driving and went home and finished later. I have written a lot of songs in my car like that.
PZ: "Circle All The Dots" has a real Radio City pop quality to it. What were the inspirations behind it?
KS: I think most of what I do I have that album in the back of my mind...but for that one I think I was more in a Byrdsy space. I was also sort of thinking about some modern San Francisco sounds like Sad Eyed Beatniks and Cindy too. The verse is kind of George Harrison-y maybe and that bridge I think of as super Hollies-y. I was looking at Brian Jones the whole time I recorded the vocal track so I think he inspired some part of it maybe. The riff for the song was the first thing I wrote on 12-string guitar.
PZ: "Chasing Stars" has a very beautiful and haunting melody. How did this one come about?
KS: I wrote that song the morning after a very wonderful day in my life in early January of '22. I was just really happy and I sat on my floor with my guitar and my dog and wrote it. I remember bending over to a microphone in my lap to record it that morning but my dog kept sniffing it and messing the takes up. But I didn't mind because I was so happy that morning, you know? So I like that song a lot.
PZ: "Is It Better" is the cut I added to our What's On playlist and I've been playing it almost everyday since its been out. How did this one come together?
KS: This song came about when I was doing a lot of solo shows and noticed that people were coming to all of them and I started to write more so it was less boring for myself and everyone who was repeatedly coming to the concerts. I guess in less words, it was written to be performed solo with just me and a guitar. I wrote "Every Time I Hear" and "Sycophant" and other songs in a similar way. I like that song!
PZ: What was it like putting together the music video for the closing cut "Race for the Audience"? I read that it was the oldest track on the album too.
KS: That video was so fun but it was probably less fun for all of my friends that had to run a bunch in the cold wet weather. My friend Mariana Belaval who is so so talented and creative helped me conceptualize and set up all the equipment and friends to help with it. The track itself was recorded a while ago! Sometime in November of '23 I think? It was the last song I recorded at old Stülogülo, which was where I recorded most of Turtle Rock. The current Stülogülo is at Treehouse in Chicago and has much less of a roomy sound so drum recording is pretty different there. The old Stülogülo was at the Music Garage in Chicago and was just a big concrete room that sounded so bad but was perfect for Ringo-style one mic drum sounds and so "Race for the Audience" is the last time I used that room. I mention all of this because I think the drums on the song sound really good. Don't they sound so good?? The song was written about the sophomore slump and the irony of making solo music for an audience I suppose. I realized that I was starting to think more about how an audience perceived me.
PZ: What were the inspirations behind the cover art?
KS: I'm not really sure, but I love the old record covers from labels like Flying Nun, K, and Siltbreeze which have a cut up nature. I love printing and Xeroxing and coloring in things.
PZ: What was it like translating these songs live last month from the tour that ran May 19th - June 1st?
KS: It was really an amazing time! My bandmates Joe Glass and Peter Cimbalo are really insane, make awesome songs on their own accord and have good style too. Joe has kind of a classic skin/hard mod look and Peter has a more baroque/Rundgren glam look which is really cool. Joe plays bass like Tommy Stinson playing guitar in Guided by Voices and Peter plays drums like Jody Stephens having a drum off with Keith Moon...sometimes he never chills. We all do three part harmony and it sounds kind of like heaven (you can hear on "You Have a Way"). I'm super excited to go on the road with them again.
PZ: It's really inspiring and terrific work that you do at Hallogallo headquarters! What else is on the horizon for both the zine and Sharp Pins?
KS: Thank you! Ditto to Paperface HQ :-). I've got a few interviews in the works that I'm super excited about. Gonna be doing only fully risograph printing from now on. For Sharp Pins, I'm getting back into weirder recording territory and seeing where that leads. Who knows!
PZ: Lastly, what is the importance of an all ages show and its impact in local music communities?
KS: I don't know much about not all-ages shows and I haven't been to a lot of them because I only had a fake ID for a few months before I used it as a Pistons game to get beer with my dad and they took it away. So obviously all ages show are important to me because it's what I know and it's what has changed my life. Without all ages shows, I wouldn't have met my best friends in the world and I wouldn't be inspired at all to do anything I'm doing, or at least the stuff I'm doing wouldn't be very good. Creating all ages/youth spaces and setting up concerts with a sense of youth community is super important to me, because it affects me and most people I know a lot. It is such a bummer to play 21+ shows sometimes! A bunch of old farts staring you down. No fun. All ages shows can help bypass a lot of stupid shit that exists in the world outside of concerts and allow kids to dance and be inspired to create some type of new separate culture.