Sleater-Kinney on ‘Little Rope’, London Fans and Letting the Music Do the Talking
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Sleater-Kinney are one of the most important bands in the world. Their history is enmeshed with the lore of modern rock and roll – born as they were from the riot grrrl movement, to which contemporary music and feminism in general owes so much – but 30 years into their career, their work remains as forward-looking and propulsive as ever. In 2024, Sleater-Kinney are still making music which feels like sticking your fingers into a plug socket.
On 19th January, the band – comprised of Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker – will release their 11th album Little Rope. At little over 30 minutes, the record is a response to both personal loss and the seemingly never-ending cycle of violence in contemporary culture at large. Musically, it makes a frenetic return to many of the characteristics at the heart of Sleater-Kinney. When I first heard it, the songs felt like brand new jolts of energy, but there was a familiarity about them too, because they were channelling something essential about the band. As Brownstein puts it, “there's a lot of urgency and restlessness.”
To discuss Little Rope – we well as the role of the artist in the digital age, and why British fans are the most receptive to change – Copy Editor Lauren O’Neill sat down with our first Polyester cover stars of 2024 after two sold-out London shows.
Polyester and Sleater-Kinney feel like a good match in terms of our roots: you guys come from a riot grrrl tradition while we also have similar DIY values. As musicians with a longtime relationship with the press, both mainstream and independent, what’s your take on the independent media landscape right now?
Carrie Brownstein: My hope is that as the print industry, sort of, withers – which is a detriment overall, but it does leave room for independent publishers and small print press to have a resurgence. I always like going into bookstores, like Skylight Books in Los Angeles that have like, a pretty ample amount of small print, you know, whether it's books or zines. So I seek that out. And it always leaves room as things become more monopolised by just a small group of media companies, so that there’s space for other people to come up and do something interesting.
I also wanted to ask you guys about London and the London show, because I know that it was a special one in terms of playing songs from across the catalogue. What's your relationship to playing shows in London in general? And is this a place where you guys like to come?
Corin Tucker: London is very special, because, you know, obviously it's such a historic musical scene. And it's a very big deal for an American band to play here – it's very much a milestone for our band. And we have so many good memories here. For us, English fans have always been really important and really excited by our music. I think we're fortunate that we have really passionate fans here – both our shows at The Dome and the Roundhouse were great.
Do you have any specific memories of playing London, or playing these sorts of milestone shows?
CT: I remember playing shows for The Woods, that was a really big deal, because for whatever reason, that record hit really hard here, but not in the States. It’s quite frustrating when you feel like you've tried to do something interesting or push the boundaries. And a lot of people are like, “Well, I don't like it!” But England has historically been really open to that.
Are we rowdier than the US fans?
CB: I think it's similar, like half the crowd is pretty rowdy. And then the other half of the crowd is contemplative and introverted and that's fine. I think the smaller the venue, the more likely you are to have a rowdy crowd, because people are closer to the stage. Literally at the downstairs of The Dome, people were right up against the stage.
The other great thing with London crowds is that they want to hear the old songs, but they're very open to hearing the new tracks. British artists have a history of pushing boundaries. I mean, you guys have Bowie and The Beatles, and all these bands that came in and made completely radical shifts with each record. I think there's a tradition in England of music fans being open to change and variation in bands. And so we always feel very welcome here.
I think the new record is amazing – I haven’t been listening to it for a long time, but I feel like I have, and the new songs sit really well alongside those older songs that you guys will have played across these London shows selection of tracks across both shows. How are they settling into the live set?
CB: I think we know implicitly, though, that these ten tracks on this album will fit in very soon, live with the older songs. There is something very essentially Sleater-Kinney about many of these songs, like we really return to the vernacular of the band. It's a lot of Corin and I communicating with each other through the music. I'm very guitar based. Lots of Corin singing. You know, there's fast tempo songs, there's a lot of urgency and restlessness. Those are the tentpoles of the band.
It was interesting – we posted last night. As usual, I couldn't sleep, and I posted, you know, “we're excited to be playing live” – and people take that as like a request line, they started requesting songs on the post. And granted, it's a small sampling, but I think we sometimes underestimate how much people like the songs that have more subtlety. People were just listing so many songs that we often overlook.
One thing we did at The Dome that I really liked was we split the set into two. And, I mean – not in a Taylor Swift Eras way, but you know, just to be like, “Okay, we're gonna do three or four quieter songs in a row.” And they don't feel as conspicuous – it brings people into this world “OK, here's some more mid-tempo Sleater-Kinney songs.” The lighting changes a little bit. I think it’s also nice for us. We have fun with it.
One of the things I love about the new album is that it’s really taut, which is always refreshing in the streaming era. But I think it’s also very essentially Sleater-Kinney – I was really thrilled by how much it really reminded me of those really early records. And I wondered, when you were writing did you want to go back to that essential place? Or was it just a natural thing that happened?
CT: I think that we are really still from the era of the album. And we want to make a world that’s very curated, and has a lot of impact so that you feel really dropped into a storyline, and so I think it was more about that than anything else. We really wanted to take people on a ride that had a lot of different emotions, but definitely have like, beginning middle end.
I’d like to ask about the circumstances that you guys feel like you're responding to on these songs. Something I've always turned to your music for is just to be able to sort of sit in frustration about the world that I live in, and I wonder what were the specific things that were really getting to you on a big macro level that you wanted to get into on this album specifically?
CT: In the United States, the culture of violence that we live in is pretty intense, you know, and we try and ignore it. But it's omnipresent. And school shooting stuff is really gross.That violence that is part of our culture, that is part of the problems in the world today is extremely frustrating, and I think that's kind of the basis of this feeling that we are stuck in this old pattern of, you know, dealing with human problems. I think that what you said about sitting in frustration is exactly what this record is trying to do. It's not trying to say, “Let's do this and solve our problems!” As an older person, like, that doesn't seem very honest. Yeah. Like writing. So it's more about taking a look at how we are dealing with things. It’s more of a comment.
These days as fan culture has moved online and we have constant access to people we admire, I'm sure you guys are very well aware that there's big expectation on artists to always be solving problems. Artists can't necessarily always just make the thing they want to make, they also have to say the right thing all the time. And obviously that's just part of being a good person, of course. But when you're making music, or if you're writing or if you're making art or anything, it’s not really your job to solve the problem. It’s more to give people a way of like personally processing it. Over the years have you felt that change of those expectations being thrust on artists more and more, I suppose as a result of the digital era and fans having more access on a personal level?
CB: I think our job as artists, ultimately, is to wrestle with the thorny questions and not necessarily provide answers. I think making music, depending on the kind of music you make, is its own form of resistance, and it gives people a soundtrack to their experience. Hopefully, you meet them where they're at. I think we're aware that our opinions wouldn't matter if our music didn't also touch people. So first and foremost, we want to make good albums that come from a place of honesty where we admit to our own contradictions and fallibilities. And we always write from a place of honesty. Not everything is a personal story, but we approach things earnestly.
Separate from that, I'm not as worried about what people's expectations are about, you know, online statements. I still think a lot of that is very performative. I would rather, with music and actions, contribute to a better society and dismantling injustice, but I also understand that people are very desperate to be seen and heard. I think our first and foremost responsibility is to make great music that can hopefully help get them through something.
Words: Lauren O’Neill | Photography and collages: Chloe Sheppard | Creative Direction: Ione Gamble | Styling: Kate Kidney-Bishop | Styling assistant: Qianling Du | Hair: Sky Cripps-Jackson | Make-up: MV Brown