Whenever I think of someone trying to live out their dreams and fight their way to the top, it’s always an Eminem song that plays in my head. I’ve been brainwashed. There’s always some lyrical fragment involving whether I should take that one shot, or something or other about Mum’s pasta. That silver tongued, peroxide hair (at least back in my day), guy from 8 mile told us it was all about the vomit on his sweater and losing yourself in the moment and being opportunistic. But what is it actually like to try and musically make your dreams come true?
Urgh. I had promised myself before starting to write this that I wouldn’t mention Eminem.
Lately, I had been talking to a fellow heavy music lover about his desire to shift from performing Heavy Metal music to a hip-hop inspired genre. I first heard about Slimivich when he was just Slim, vocalist for an Otautahi Heavy Metal band called TAINTED. Slim was a much shorter, hairier, vocalist than some, who always seemed to end up with his shirt off in amongst the crowd. He performed with Tainted for eight years, which included opening for bands including METALLICA, IRON MAIDEN, SEPULTURA, CHIMAIRA, FEAR FACTORY, ARCH ENEMY and PARKWAY DRIVE. The man knows his music.
When I started writing for Nexus, I put a call out for bands wanting short reviews written. He got in touch and showed me some of the stuff he was working on. Despite his most recent work being so far outside of Heavy Metal (at least it appeared to at first), I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanted to help promote it, but with only having links to Metal people, all I could do was give moral support and hit up one or two people on the off chance. When we would catch up, he would tell me about what he’d been up to. Wow. It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll (or hip and hop). I was meant to record the interview but my recording equipment failed me. Fortunately, I have a lot of experience with having to adapt in the middle of interviews and so I took notes. In presenting some of Slim’s experience and thoughts, my hope is that he may inspire others out there to try and create their own stuff. I had some experience of putting myself out there, but wow music is another story altogether…
“I was really worried people would think I’d wanna be Zac de la Rocha, even though its true”
Starting to try and fulfil your dreams can be lonely at first. Guitar virtuosos spend years in their bedroom fingering before they even play on stage. This may be why Yngwie Malmsteen is such a wanker. Trying to get people to buy in to your vision might take a while. Especially if they’ve never heard you play, sing, or write before. And this is when you’re in an environment where your musical tastes are shared. But before Slim even started, he had the interesting situation of trying to transition from Metal to Hip Hop. While trying to talk to people to try and get them involved, he drew upon the music that was already inspiring him to play – DEATH GRIPS, ONE DAY AS A LION, DANNY BROWN, and RAISED FIST. Testing himself out, he tried singing some of the songs of these artists and found that he could do it. This was particularly the case for DEATH GRIPS “If I was doing this song, how would I do perform it, then looked it up and it matched how I was thinking”, but even though he could do the songs, he still found it difficult and at times lonely and difficult. As someone interviewing him, he appears grateful whenever I share a post or do any minimal (and they are minimal!) thing to support what he is doing.
“Pick yourself up, put yourself out there, put yourself out there, put yourself out there”.
While there is obviously a certain amount of being the right person at the right time further down the road on this journey, the overall impression I got from Slim is that this takes a lot of hard work. You have to be prepared to do the hard yards. This isn’t to put anyone off, but if you are serious you can’t go in half assed. Only full ass will do. “I really really really like surfing, but I have done very little surfing in the last two years cos every single night I’ve got some other specific task to do. You do shit.” Each time I talk to Slim, he shares with me how many emails he has sent out to radio stations and various gatekeepers of the music industry. “100 something emails – maybe 8% reply rate – its daunting. It’s like applying for jobs you’re not qualified for. No replies are worse than nos.” But for every no reply, I get the sense that every reply he gets keeps the motivation up, as he shares stories of support that he has appreciated and is grateful for.
“Put the time aside and do the fuckin course.”
Youtube videos are often my saviour when I’m trying to pull apart a Megadrive controller or a flat screen TV. But I do find it frustrating when I’m trying to learn a skill. So I wasn’t surprised when Slim starts talking about needing to do a course that has structure so that he could learn the technical side. A follow on from doing all the hard work, is that there are so many different skills that you need to have and be able to apply. “There’s no incentive for a youtuber to lay stuff out nice and tidily. They’ll give you hints and tips but you won’t understand half of what’s in their video so if you have to watch another video to understand that stuff”. There’s a reason people talk about ‘going down a rabbit hole’ when looking on Youtube – great for finding new music, not so much when you’re trying to learn how to mix gis tracks. Slim managed to find a course that didn’t rip him off, cost him $300, but “I’m a cheap **** and that means I have to put time in instead of money. You trade money for time and time for money.” You can save money by doing it yourself, but it may mean your dreams are that much further away if you have to solve the internet just to learn how to do something.
It feels like you’re doing something. Something that drowns out the existential dread. It’s something substantial. What do I want to tell people I did when I’m 70?
So why do it at all? As a fan of the age of the Wayne’s World movies, we all have that naked Native American with the gratuitous crack in his bottom that tells us we need to make something of our lives. Despite being in a highly successful band already, Slim still feels like the existential dread is not fully held at bay. To be able to do shows with people, with a type of music that he is not known for, when he has struggled at times to get across the vision in his head to other people (both supportive and unsupportive), is his ultimate dream. All of these musical releases, music videos (I’ve run out of word count to even talk about what that’s like!), and emails to radio stations so that he can tour and do the things he really likes. But this hard work will be worth it when he’s once again shirtless and high fiving people in the crowd:
“If people turn out to this shit and get it. It’s a leap of faith for a lot of people. I might just fucken cry. Straight up. Full on breakdown on stage. I might. I don’t know yet. If it does, I’ll try and get someone to film it”
Good luck Slim, you deserve it and sorry for the Eminem reference at the start.
Wanna hear what all this sounds like? Check out:
Website: www.slimivich.com
Music video for first release ‘Desert Shimmer’:
Slim’s first gig as Slimivich is June the 5th, down in Otutahi, check out his website for details.
https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/gig/78944/The-Dollar-Mix.utr
If you hear of any other opportunities for Slim, give him or me a yell at drdavesnell@gmail.com
