It’s safe to say that Slaves have been one of the hottest bands of the last twelve months. They have  rocketed into the spotlight and gained a huge following after a string of rapturous gigs across the country and the release of storming tracks such as ‘The Hunter’ and ‘Feed The Mantaray’.

Since we last spoke to the duo, they have went out on tour as part of the NME Awards Tour, accompanying The Wytches, Fat White Family and Palma Violets, they announced their very own headline tour of the U.K and have also confirmed the release of their debut album. We can safely say they have been busy then. We caught up with Isaac Holman to get the latest from the Slaves camp

Hi Isaac, how are you and what have you been up to this week?

I’m feeling good thanks, the suns out, good vibes all round this week. I moved back into my parent’s house in Tunbridge Wells last week so I’ve been kind of getting all my stuff together and settling back in.

The new track ‘Cheer Up London’ is available to listen to online now, what’s the track all about?

I’d spent a while on London public transport. I don’t want people to get the wrong end of the stick because I love London but sometimes I feel that The Underground can be a very miserable place. You just sort of have the sound of Oyster Cards beeping and people ‘tutting’ at each other and it just used to piss me off a little bit. I dunno I think I was just going through a little depressed patch and I was quite annoyed that no one was cheered up, I just wanted people to cheer up and smile a bit.

Last time we did an interview with your bandmate Laurie just before you went out on the NME Awards Tour, now we can ask you how you found it.

Yeah it was amazing mate, it was like the first time that people could actually buy tickets to watch our show, we’d been on the back of a huge run of tours where we were the support act so obviously the people there weren’t really there to see us. So on the NME Awards tour it felt like there was actually people there to see us and we got a really good reception every night.

Your own headline tour is on the horizon, what are your feelings approaching it?

I’m feeling really good, I was kind of apprehensive when we released the dates ‘cause we weren’t really sure of how well it was going to sell but now all the dates have practically sold out. We hadn’t really booked any of our own shows in a while so we weren’t sure how it was going to go down in that respect, but I think it all shows that we’re in a pretty good position at the minute. So yeah, I’m really, really excited for it.

The debut album, Are You Satisfied, is set to be released on June 1^st. What can you tell us about the album?

It’s kind of just like a little point in time in our lives. Like you can say you meant to write and album the way you did but that could of come out so differently if any of the circumstances were any different, like you can say you meant to do it with real intent but it could also be such a fluke. I think we just wanted people to see that there’s another side to us, like we’ve experimented a little with different instruments, like there’s an acoustic track where I play the piano. But I also like to think the album is still very us and I don’t think it could be anyone else.

Will the album feature a mixture of both old and new tracks or just completely new ones?

It’s all completely new. We did think about putting some of the older tracks on it but we figured that we’ve got all of these new songs that we want people to hear as well as our old ones.

Is it safe to say that we can expect another tour after the album is released or are you not permitted to say anything just yet?

Erm… you can expect one. Maybe, probably. You can expect one.

It must be interesting to hear how other people would define Slaves, but how would you define yourselves?

There’s been a few comments on our YouTube recently saying that we’ve got watered-down punk values which is rubbish because we never once said we were a punk band, me and Laurie just got together in room and this is what we came up with – we’re just having fun, and the second it stops being fun we’ll stop doing it. We’re just enjoying creating and letting people know what’s happening inside our heads at this moment in time.

Are there any bands or artists that you listen to that people wouldn’t expect you to listen to?

Most definitely. I think people would expect us to listen to punk and rock music but I primarily listen to a lot of hip-hop, reggae and also classical and piano based music. I think if you were to write a list of things we listen to, punk would be right down at the bottom, I think there is so much more that influences us.

Are there any current bands or artists that are catching your eye at the moment?

Let me think. I love Courtney Barnett at the moment, big on her. We like a band called Spring King, they’re pretty cool, and we’re going on tour with a band called Baby Strange who are good lads. It’s hard to think on the spot but I’m liking a lot at the minute.

It’s safe to say you’ve got quite a lot of festival appearances coming up over the summer. If you had to choose one, which festival are you most excited to play?

I’m gonna have to say Reading & Leeds because that’s the one me and Laurie grew up going to so it kind of feels like a real sense of achievement to play those.

What was it that made you want to write music in the first place?

I just think it’s been quite instinctive throughout my whole life, I’ve just kind of it done it and whether it was going to go anywhere I didn’t really know. But I think even if I was never in Slaves I’d still be doing something because it’s always been natural to just pick up a guitar or something or just sit down and write words, I think we’re both quite creative in that sense and I think we’ve been drawn to it from a young age.

If you had three words to summarise your experience as Slaves, what would they be?

Erm… Sweaty. Happy. Exercise.

A huge thanks to Isaac for taking the time to speak to us and we wish Slaves all the best with the tour and the new album, as well as the future ahead.

James Cummins.

@CummyBear