Last time we sat with the underground musician Slug Christ we talked about his musical prowess and the formation of his identity. Now Slugga is working on not just music, with two musical projects coming out, but art also which has now evolved into a book. Catching up with Slug Christ this time around, we had the opportunity to pick his brain, see what the future holds for the young artist, and how the pandemic is affecting him.

Classic Entourage Mag: Thanks for chatting with us. We know you are a super creative individual and wanted to know how the pandemic is affecting your creative soul.

Slug Christ: I was just thinking about this and honestly man there’s not much difference in my schedule pre and post quarantine. I’ve always been a home body ya know like lock myself in my apartment for weeks at a time and just paint draw make music whatever. So work wise, not much has changed.

CE Mag: You started writing a book which originally came from you drawings/paintings that people on the internet really love. What inspired you to not only do art but transform it into a book?

Slug Christ: Well at first it was just going to be book of my latest pieces and some journal entries that would kinda relate to the art. I was naming these drawings like paragraph long titles something like “…And though her children were the cause of her vanquishing and loss of corporeal form, she could not bring herself from watching over them, protecting them from otherworldly threats.” So I was playing around with story telling and putting a history to each of these drawings. Ever since I was a little kid I was always creating worlds like whether it was with legos or writing short stories or drawing, whatever, I’ve always wanted to create a world and share it with others.

When writing stories I was always a lot more interested in the world building rather than the actual story line, like the history of this race of people or this kingdom, the plot was like an afterthought, an excuse to make a world. So as I started realizing more and more what this book was going to be, I wanted to focus on world building and exposition. There’s no main character or underlying plot, just like a real world. I eventually came to the conclusion it would read like an encyclopedia from another world and thus came the book’s title: “EncyclopaediaSupermundanae” which roughly translates to “Encyclopedia of another world”.

So I was playing around with story telling and putting a history to each of these drawings.

Slug Christ

CE Mag: How do you feel about the current state of music and where do you think it is going in the future? Where do you see yourself?

Slug Christ: The current music scene is so depressing. I picture it as a game where like hundreds of people are in a big gymnasium right, and the person who has the most people looking at them is currently winning the game. So people are wearing the brightest clothes they can, they put they’re first tattoos on their face so everyone can see it, then dye their hair 15 different colors, and are just constantly yelling shit at the top of their lungs so people will look at them. This is exactly how the rap game works. You feel like music as a whole has been becoming more and more homogenized as time goes on. Like there is no regional differences in music, everyone gets their music off one place, the internet.

So we have country music that has trap hi hats clickin all through it and rappers thinking their punks cuz they yell on the beat, its not bad per say just different. However one con to this new globally homogenized mono-genre way of making music it feels like if you aren’t 100% derivative, like if there’s one experimental bone in your body, people don’t take you seriously. “Oh hes not talking about selling coke and disrespecting b******? This isn’t music!”. Now I’m not saying everyone is like this or whatever but its def something I’ve noticed.

I think music as a whole is deconstructing itself just in the way other art forms like painting have played out, I feel in the future rap will become something like 100% adlibs. I’ve made a few songs inspired by this notion such as ‘Hokay Hokay Hokay’, where the entire hook is adlibs. I see myself doing what I’ve always been doing, on the outskirts chillin.

CE Mag: One of your most recent videos, Cherry Blossom, was really different than a lot of your other ones. Can you talk a little about how you decided to go for a different feel than your previous work? 

Slug Christ: Well my last album, Deep (un)Learning,  was made because of tired I was of making beats. like put the snare on the 3rd beat, cover it in high hats, put down the kick, it was just getting really monotonous and I was sick of it so I made a really out there album and the video kinda followed suit. I was inspired by like pop punk videos of the 2000’s like Blink 182 and Sum 41. I love the way it came out. Shoudout Sam Goldbloom on shooting that. We filmed it at the 1720, my favorite venue in LA. After it was shot we ran it thru a VCR to get that analog distortion.

“A part of me dies with you” which is a phrase a certain Indian tribe uses to say goodbye.

Slug Christ

CE Mag: Can you talk a little bit about the mean of Cherry Blossom?

Slug Christ: Well lyrically its about things me and my longtime girlfriend have cried about to each other. Ya know like one of us trying to convince the other not to kill themselves or protecting the other one while ignoring yourself; stuff any long term couple will know about.

CE Mag: Fans are getting two new projects from you very soon can you talk about both of them? Are they going to have completely different vibes or will they be similar?

Slug Christ: On April 25th I’m dropping a 4 song EP produced by Fishnarc called “A part of me dies with you” which is a phrase a certain Indian tribe uses to say goodbye. I would say its similar to me and Nedarb’s album its “Colder at the bottom of the shower” so if you like that EP you’ ll like this one too. After that I’m dropping a full length mix tape self produced called “Plant Mentality 3”. The Plant Mentality series is where a say **** everything and make whatever the **** I want. PM2 was made right after my studio door got kicked in and lost all my recording equipment, so I recorded it right on the built in computer mic on my laptop. Theres a 4 to the floor trance song, a jungle/breakcore/dnb song inspired by the FF13 score, a ****in 7 min long ballad, all sorts of stuff. That’ll be out sometime after the EP with Fishnarc, not sure when.

CE Mag: With the pandemic going on what do shows look like in the future for you? Are you going to start doing online concerts like a lot of other artist are doing? 

Slug Christ: I’ve been asked to do a few and i dunno man just sitting in my computer chair like karaoking my own songs seems embarrassing. If I was playing guitar and singing or something Id totally do it, but it wouldn’t be a reg slug show that’s fersure.

CE Mag: Recently what has inspired you to create? What is your mindset when you are making things?

Slug Christ: I dunno man. I’m not one of those people that sits around waiting for inspiration to strike. I legit make music or draw, SOMETHING, everyday, not because I just have something in my head. I gotta get out I mean it is like that sometimes, but mostly I work because it’s what I do. I create.

CE Mag: Is it hard to say focused in the internet age with so much noise going on all the time?

Slug Christ: Well I’ve never really been in any other age so I couldn’t say fersure but, I think all the noise is just more stuff to get inspired by. At the same time yeah its hard to stay focused. Just in general, I think humanity is sorta overloaded with stimuli at the moment which sorta freezes us up. Its a concept call “over choice” or “choice overload” that u can look up but I think this is affecting the population on a huge level.

CE Mag: Thanks for chatting with us. Any advice for others who want to create but might be hesitate to? 

Slug Christ: You’re going to suck at first and then after you get you skills up. No ones gonna listen to you for a lot longer than that. It took me 10 years of making music before I ever made any money off it and it took a few years after I popped off to start making a living off this. Its all very serendipitous, like the longer you keep working the more chance you have to get lucky. If you quit after your first EP because you’re not rich and famous yet, well you’ll never get the chance to get lucky. 

Slug Christ Social Media:

Instagram

Twitter

As always follow Classic Entourage Magazine on all platforms