Lower Slaughter returns with Deep Living on Human Worth

Transmission 214: Interview with Lower Slaughter

Lower Slaughter is a British noise-rock group based in Brighton. After a period of silence following the departure of vocalist Sinead Young, the band returned in 2024 with a new lineup: Barney Wakefield on vocals, James Gardiner on bass, alongside long-time members Jon Wood (guitar) and Graham Hebson (drums).

Title: Deep Living
Artist: Lower Slaughter
Genres: Alternative Rock, Noise Rock, Post-punk, Sludge Rock
Label: Human Worth
Description: Lower Slaughter's Deep Living album releases June 6, 2025, via Human Worth, blending noise rock with themes of folklore, trauma, and political unrest.

Their album Deep Living, recorded by Wayne Adams and mastered by Sam Grant, draws from personal trauma, folklore, political unrest, and historical events. The release comes via Human Worth, with a portion of profits donated to The PANDAS Foundation, supporting perinatal mental health.

What drew you toward heavy, abrasive music in the first place? 

I think we’ve been playing music within this type of genre in various bands for so long (me and Jon particularly have been playing in various ‘noise-rock’ type bands respectively for over 20 years now!), that it’s just kind of in our DNA to a degree! It’s just what we naturally feel and gravitate towards playing. I do wish I could perform folk music or even hip-hop in some cases, as that aligns with my musical tastes a lot more these days, but it just feels natural after all these years to keep it heavy and loud (so to speak)!

Were there earlier bands or projects that helped shape what Lower Slaughter became? 

When Jon approached me about starting a new band after our previous respective bands had broken up (around 2013-ish), the general idea he pitched was ‘something like Pissed Jeans and Harvey Milk’. That kind of sold it for me! That inspiration I’m sure is still there somewhere, but generally speaking our influences are all across the board. It’s hard to not be influenced by peers and other bands within any scenes you’re immediately attached to, so for us bands like Hey Colossus and Part Chimp definitely formed some kind of subconscious template in the early days too…

What felt unstable or raw about the early lineup that had to be rebuilt? 

Well, our previous singer Sinead had discussed leaving the band for some time after we’d completed our second album in 2019. After lockdown had eased, Sinead made her final decision around that time to part ways with the group, which we respected totally. No bad blood or drama, or anything like that! The remaining three of us had started the band years before that, and we’d had a different singer for about a year prior before Sinead joined, so we were pretty set quite quickly on carrying on, one way or another, and build back up within what we already had going, and embrace the next potential stage of the group. We tried a couple of new singers, who didn’t work out in the end, and one day I just thought ‘how about I do it?’…! We eventually roped in an old mate of mine on bass (I didn’t really want to play both roles in the band), and here we are now! We’re pretty stoked with now it’s panned out to be honest!

Where did the pull toward folklore and historical references come from—books, myths, conversations? 

Lyrically, I wanted to draw upon other sources of inspiration other than personal experiences or feelings – to find other things to take influence from was exciting for me to explore and play with. One example is the album’s opening track ‘Year Of The Ox’, which is specifically influenced by folklore of the South Downs in Sussex, in this case on the tale of a miller who lived on Highdown Hill in the 1700s and built his own tomb 27 years before he passed away! This to me was a really interesting story to take influence from, and when the music for that song presented itself, it seemed like a good tone to draw on and expand upon. ‘The Shape Of The Fire’ is all about the Great Fire of London, but from the perspective of the painters who were witnessing and documenting the events at the time, in a world before photography or film existed. I don’t know why I’m so fascinated with that particular historical event, but again the music seemed to fit the mood I was going for on that one.  I always write the lyrics after the music has been written, and so I’m driven by the mood and tone of the songs themselves to then work out what lyrical theme I’m going for…

When writing Deep Living, did you have a clear thematic structure in mind, or did it take shape track by track? 

Lyrically, I definitely took an approach to explore a rough narrative arc, which in the simplest term is to not be suffering in silence, although there’s outlier tracks all over the place that deviate into completely different subject matters, themes and tangents. Musically, it did generally take shape as it went along, and the final sequencing of the album was in fact decided on after the final mixing process. But that said, we definitely approached this album with a view to explore other sounds and to write songs that weren’t necessarily built for live purposes, but for the album itself as a whole. We didn’t want the album to just be full pelt from start to finish, and we spent more time considering that and writing accordingly than we have on any of our previous records.

Did any track completely mutate from the demo stage to final version? 

‘Dear Phantom’ took forever to write, and nearly made the scrapheap! We just couldn’t work out the second half of the song, but James our bassist pulled it out of the bag in the end with an idea that channelled a sort of Chat Pile-y sludgy segue way, which kind of nailed what we were looking for in the end. ‘The Shape Of The Fire’ was initially pitched by Jon as a standard full band set-up rock song, but I convinced him to switch it to a stripped back ditty with just us two performing, to kind of add a palate cleanser to the album, with space to breathe and decompress for a moment. I always enjoy albums more where there’s breaks from the noise and the shouting for something more simplified and sonically tempered. 

Was Deep Living recorded in one go, or built up over sessions? 

We recorded the album in 3-4 days in one go, and then the mixing sessions were done over 2 or 3 separate sessions, back and forth. Generally speaking, we kind of crack on and get on it when it comes to recording and mixing, with a large degree of essentially winging it! 

Were there any specific events—personal or political—that pushed the album in a certain direction? 

Whilst I did reflect on some personal experiences and emotions when it came to initially writing words for certain songs, I wanted to use these emotions as a starting block to write lyrics that conveyed a more universal and broader state of mind and feeling. I’m not really interested in writing personal monologues or anecdotes as such. I’m much more driven to use the personal as a canvas to explore a more layered and unambiguous tone, and explore other themes that may or may not be connected to the initial idea itself. 

Is the next step more touring, more writing—or something else entirely?

Definitely more touring. We’d love to head over to mainland Europe more, we just haven’t been over at all really (bar one brief tour around 2018-ish)! We wanna see more places, meet new people, and share our noise elsewhere for sure! We’re always working on new stuff too, as and when we can! That’ll all see the light of day eventually too…!

Photos courtesy of Lower Slaughter

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others