The three-piece band Slow Animal originally hail from Franklinville, New Jersey. “It’s the most corrupt state in the nation, but South Jersey is not that bad.” Lead vocalist Alex Kabable says this sarcastically. The trio now reside in Philadelphia, and at a last minute request drove their van to Chicago to play at the Empty Bottle on Wednesday night opening for locals Gypsyblood. Immediately following their set the three were more than happy to sit in the basement of the venue with us, where they discussed everything from their love for Seinfeld and distaste for NYC ("Driving there is in the in the top three of my list of things I hate to do,” Kabable reveals).Slow Animal book their own shows, release their songs for free to download via Bandcamp, pay out of their pockets to tour around with their friends to colleges, house shows and anywhere willing to give them the opportunity. Their first aid survival kit for touring includes peanut butter, paper towels, pee-bottles and podcasts. This accidental alliteration is symbolic of their friendship, which started when they were punk kids back in middle school. “We’ve been in various bands with a bunch of different people since 9th grade. Dan [Colanduno, drums] and I started this as a fun secret project, and cool stuff started happening. We needed an extra person for shows, so we asked Jason [Milazzo] if he wanted to play live guitar for us,” says Kabable. They aren’t full-time musicians though--they are gainfully employed: Kabable is a pizza delivery driver, Colanduno works at a school and Milazzo works at a fitness center for the elderly.
Kababale admits proudly that Blink 182 was, and still is in a way, his favorite band, “I’m not all acting like my influences were Morrissey and Joy Division; it’s not as if when I was 6-years-old my parents made me listen to Day Dream Nation. I mean, we were born in the '90s," he says. “We get compared to Wavves, Beach Fossils, Best Coast. We never get labeled as anything close to garage rock--we get pegged beach pop…but that was never our goal. I say fuck sub-genres. We just like to play around with new sound…”
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