We Asked Slaves for Their Festival Tips and Found Out They’re Working With Grime’s Biggest Star

It’s absolutely, definitely and without a doubt summer festival season, and at The Levi’s® Tailor Shop (found in every Levi’s® store nationwide in the UK) you can customise, personalise & repair new or old Levi’s® products in an infinite number of ways in preparation for your extended weekend of misbehaviour and fun. And here’s Slaves.

The name of their debut EP – Sugar Coated Bitter Truth – pretty much sums up exactly what Slaves do: saccharine colours and joyous riffs hammered out around lyrics that are pretty dark, pretty righteous and occasionally pretty paranoid. In real life, it turns out, Laurie Vincent and Isaac Holman are pleasant, friendly guys – but behind their eyes, if you look, there’s probably something up.

The duo are from Kent and grew up listening to everything they could get their hands on, developing a sonic style and live show that exacts just the right amount of sweat, tears and blood from its audience. Their first album Are You Satisfied? has done insanely well for something so belligerent – probably because songs like “Cheer Up London” are as much satire as they are punk, blues or garage. We sat down with Laurie and Isaac in the Levi’s® store in Carnaby Street to chat about how they survive the massive festivals they play these days, and what CDs their mums listen to.

Hi Slaves! It’s been quite a ride for you recently, huh? You’ve gone from first on the bill to the must-see festival band this year.

Laurie: We did our first Reading and Leeds in 2012, and slogged away on the small stages but this year we’ve been one of the bands people come to watch. It’s crazy, we get fed and everything!

We just played Glastonbury and were one of the main televised bands – I mean, there’s loads of bands that don’t get televised. That was crazy, I didn’t think that was going to happen.

Isaac Holman: It doesn’t feel real. You’re not watching it on telly – you’re doing it, people tell you about it but you never really accept it. Especially for a band like us. I’d never thought we were going to be radio or TV friendly. It’s quite overwhelming.

And it must have been 10,000 people watching or something wasn’t it?

Laurie: Glastonbury and Big Weekend was the biggest one we’ve done. I think what happens is before every time we walk out onstage we expect no one to be there, then our tour manager will say, “Oh, it’s rammed” and we’re like, “What?” Then there’s this moment where we smile then act like there’s no one there at all and play our music. Then it finishes, we walk away and are like, “Wow”.

Isaac: It’s like a rollercoaster – performing – you’re lost in your emotions.

Now you’re at this scale, presumably you don’t have to camp anymore?

Isaac: No, but we camped at Glastonbury because we wanted to. We get down and dirty and do it properly.

How was it playing with Skepta at the Big Weekend?

Isaac: It was daunting. We didn’t think he was gonna show: we had planned it and practiced with him but I turned round to our stage manager at the start of the song and asked if he was here yet, and he wasn’t. So I thought, “Fuck it, I’ll just have to do all the vocals on my own”, but just before his part, he ran on. He just grabbed the mike and got on with it.

Did he just do that to mess with you?

Laurie: No, he was late cos he’d been up all night. He’s a true rock star; he’s wicked. He did his bit, left and we didn’t hear from him from a couple of days, then he just messaged me saying, “Ah sick that was wicked”, or something. We’ve kept in touch ever since!

You’re one person removed from Drake now.

Laurie: That is mental isn’t it? Drake is a megastar but Skepta’s a megastar to me too. We’ve got Skepta’s mobile number! We talk to him like he’s our mate – he told us we had ‘the vision’ early on. We’ve been in the studio with him a bit.

Can you say anything about that?

Isaac: We thought it was going to be well secret, but there’s been pictures posted, so… there is a track. Who knows what’s going to happen to it though.

Who are your other favourite grime artists?

Laurie: Stormzy’s killing it and this week we both got really into Novelist. We’ve done some filming with (Channel 4’s) ‘Four To The Floor, and they were like, “You need to get into it.” He’s doing loads for that scene, especially the stuff with Mumdance. Mumdance is crazy.

You’ve got a number of different genres mucking around together on your record. What did you listen to growing up?

Laurie: I like punk music and I used to flirt with the hardcore scene in Medway, but I was never really in it. I was more of an indie kid growing up, but I was into everything. There were times when I’d only listen to The Streets, then Rancid, Clash, The Specials. But mainly I was into anything that spoke to me lyrically. Then I was into that first Kooks album, which was sick. That was when I decided I wasn’t just a grunger anymore.

Isaac: My mum’s got that album in her car at the moment.

Laurie: You don’t want your debut album to be that good, then you’ve got no chance.

Isaac: I was brought up on mostly reggae and punk through my dad, then I discovered grime and UK hip-hop at school.

Any pivotal adolescent moments at festivals that you’d like to share?

Isaac: Cypress Hill at Reading in 2011.

Laurie: MY first ever Glastonbury was mind-blowing. The sheer experience, the freedom, the likeminded people. Also, I went to a punk festival called Rebellion once and we slept in a car in the car park, it was dark but it was great. We got to see Rancid. ‘Also, being at Reading in ‘09, about 16 or 17 years old: everything drenched, the campsite flooded. Everything was dark. Reading and Leeds is dark.

Isaac: Yeah the riots at Reading and Leeds. You realise when you play them today how dark they are – thousands of really young teenagers rolling around on MDMA.

There’s no floral-painted wellington boots and yoga workshops at Reading and Leeds.

Laurie: Yeah, now there’s the 1Xtra stage there too. 5 years ago you had to be either into rock or electronic music, now it doesn’t matter, it’s better. It’s going to be insane this year, marbles will be lost, not by us, but by other people. We’re playing the NME tent there this year, that’s where I remember all my best moments: watching Jamie T for the first time ever and being so scared that I was going to die it was so packed.

Isaac: Claustrophobia mate.

Laurie: Also saw Gaslight Anthem there in ‘08 or ‘07 maybe, none of my mates were into them but I went and got a spot at the barrier and they were still at the stage where they were setting up for themselves, and I was really star struck. But I think we have the exact spot they had that year now.

What’s the turn around on that?

Laurie: 6 years. That’s not bad is it?

Any advice for Noisey readers at festivals?

Laurie: Drink water. I was always getting really bad headaches on the second day of a festival, I realised I was getting really dehydrated. Drink water.

Isaac: Yeah, you walk so much at a festival, you don’t realise it but you’re doing quite a lot of exercise. But also, don’t get really off your face and jump off big tall things, because I did that once and I had to have an operation on my knee – I tore the ligament in my knee the first night of Bestival, and just hobbled around all weekend. I kept walking along and popping my kneecap back into place and had to have keyhole surgery when I got back.

What about clothing?

Isaac: Bring bin bags for your wet clothes! And a bring a bum bag. Bum bags are wicked.

Laurie: People always bring wellies and boots, but just bring normal shoes, because sometimes it doesn’t rain, and there’s nothing worse than sitting in the heat in big boots. I’ve been wearing white Levi’s on stage a lot, and recently I wore them to a festival. Isaac wore white Levi’s at T in The Park – if you want a good reaction, wear white Levis. If they get muddy, just bleach them.

Isaac: Yeah, I’m into white Levi’s. I get mine tailored. I get them taken in and up. There’s a man that does it at Levi’s.

People have pretty strong opinions about Slaves, how do you feel about that?

Isaac: Good. It feels good to divide opinions. I’d rather people had opinions than no opinion on us.

Laurie: Marmite and Red Bull are massive aren’t they? People hate and love them.

Isaac: I hate Red Bull.

Laurie: I think Marmite’s alright; I don’t hate it or love it. Although Marmite, along with Coleman’s mustard, has some of the best branding ever. They’ve stuck with it. I think it’s good for people to hate you, it’s better than being mediocre.

Isaac: Nobody loves everyone, you can’t meet everyone’s criteria; it’d be impossible. If you did it would just be wrong.

Laurie: People shout at us on Twitter, but not very often. I like to re-Tweet the bad ones and watch people bicker. Don’t get involved, re-Tweet and favourite. If they tell you you’re rubbish, just agree, it makes them look silly.

You can find Slaves winding people up on Twitter right here: @Slaves

The Levi’s® Tailor Shop can be found in all Levi’s® Stores nationwide in the UK.

Slaves’ debut album Are You Satisfied is out now and available on iTunes. Get it here.