When two musicians come together to create something entirely new, it’s always special. SLIMIVICH, a project born from bold experimentation and deep roots in heavy music, brings together Slim Jenkins and Mo Galloway. Known for their work in hardcore punk and rap, they’ve teamed up with New Zealand producer Aaron Hogg from Throng to release their debut single, “Wound Tight.” The track captures the tension of our restless world, blending pain, doubt, and the search for inner peace. And the video, created with the involvement of a talented director and cinematographer, adds contrasts between nature and digital art to this complex musical picture.

Photo by @slimivich

Hi guys. SLIMIVICH — the best grim-hop, without a doubt! You’ve probably heard more than once how your music is described as something fresh and powerful. What do you think is the secret of this unique sound that distinguishes SLIMIVICH from others on the scene?

Slim : Haha! You probably ARE the first to describe our sound as fresh and powerful! But honestly I think becoming comfortable with the idea that we will likely always be outsiders has been the important thing. We made metal for ten years in our previous band and then decided to strike out in a completely new direction. This sound we’re working in and trying to develop, what we’re calling Otautahi Grim Hop, has been a tough sell. There is no Grim Hop “scene” in New Zealand, Slimivich IS the Grim Hop scene. When we play live, we play with punk, metal and Hip Hop acts, anyone who will play with us really. Although we draw inspiration from those scenes and get to play dope shows with acts from those scenes, we don’t sound enough like any of them to be fully accepted into their communities. At this stage we are a couple of cats from the New Zealand Metal scene playing some noisy blend of Hip Hop Punk and Electronica and I don’t think many people have been really ready for it. 

That sounds really arrogant right? But let me explain. People like to belong, they crave familiarity,community and acceptance. When you look at the established genres, Metal, Punk, Hip hop, Pop, Indie, Jazz etc. they all have these established communities with their own lore, code of conduct and in many cases even ways to dress and act. You see it, you hear it, you immediately know what to expect. So when young cats are growing up looking for their tribe, their place in the world and a mode to express themselves there are these ready made spaces for them to slip into. When people see us, hear what we’re doing they often don’t know what to make of it. They either think it’s straight dope or just don’t get it. Grim Hop isn’t codified yet, WE are writing the code it right now. We wanted to do something new and uncompromisingly true to us and part of that was accepting that we would probably remain outsiders probably forever and we have to be okay with that.
   
Your first joint single “Wound Tight” is already out. But here’s the question: what did you really want to convey with this track? Is it purely for enjoyment or is there a hidden message?

Slim : I gotta write with meaning man and I don’t do much about hiding it, It’s gotta mean something even if I’m writing what I’d consider a ‘Dumb and Fun” song. When I first got the music for Wound tight, it had this flow that was really a slow vibe for me to write lyrics for I’m not used to. It had a dark intensity but with this slow ebb and flow feel, like ocean swell rising and falling. It reminded me of those flow state moments you have surfing or skating when you’re locked in, everything is somehow going a million miles an hour yet oozing like treacle at the same time. They’re moments I would chase all day every day if I could, but I can only steal them in seemingly fleeting spaces between all the other things I have to do, work, chores, obligations. So I wrote about that exact feeling, a small vignette of how people like us act as thieves of opportunity, forced to steal the sweet moments of ecstasy we need to stay sane from slight cracks in the grind of our daily lives. Celebrating the act, treasuring the exultantant moment while mourning the circumstance it exists within.

Photo by @slimivich

In “Wound Tight” you so skillfully mixed hip-hop, downbeat, and ambient — Do you remember the exact moment when you realized, “Yeah, this mix works”?

Aaron : From my perspective it was relatively immediate & also somewhat of a happy accident. The skeleton of the track was done some time before we met & I had toyed with several iterations of it, as an instrumental, with a female vocalist, one I even sang on myself but those versions felt incomplete or in the case of the version I sang on, just bad. One of the challenges I have had during my transition from years of habits formed in more traditional band-based punk & metal setups into solo composition for electronic music has been learning to break free from the classic verse, bridge, chorus template most songs are loosely built around. EDM is often composed quite differently to the way music made by bands is & Wound Tight was definitely made while I was still writing songs with that band-type of structure unintentionally baked into them. I was really interested to see where someone like Slimivich would take the flow & to what degree I would have to adjust the song to give the vocals space in a potentially less conventional arrangement.  However when Slim flicked me demo stems I could immediately hear how the vocals slotted in, enhancing aspects of the track in a way I had been unable to achieve with my earlier attempts. The back n forth after that was relatively minor with me doing some small cursory adjustments to part lengths & a bit of work in layering to create more distinct verse & “chorus” sections. It came together very intuitively & from my perspective because I had sat with the song for quite some time it was pretty easy to just hear that it had far more potential than any of the other versions of the track I had made.

You mention seeking silence in the track. I’m curious, what’s your idea of a perfect silent escape — total isolation, or just a moment of peace in the chaos?

Slim : I‘m an active rester right? So I don’t do well with chilling out, I gotta get out and do something. I love to surf, although I don’t get out anywhere near as much as I’d like anymore. So that real perfect silent escape? It’s probably that space mid session in between sets in the waves. You’ve caught a few and you’re not gassed yet, you’re just analysing the waves trying to lock in with what they’re doing. It’s definitely that peace in the amongst the chaos I crave.

Aaron : For me being an avid bike rider & trail builder my perfect happy silent escape is almost certainly going to be found in a forest somewhere on my bike. It might be riding for hours between huts through the Beech forest of Old Ghost Road on the West Coast of NZ, or toiling away on building & testing a trail in the company of Fantails & Goldfinches…But I’d also say sitting out in a surf break on a crisp winter day with the backdrop of blue sky & the Southern Alps is pretty fucking serine too. I’m fairly happy doing anything that involves the combination of sun, nature & exercise.

In “Wound Tight” there is a strong desire to merge with nature through physical tension, and you also talk about seeking silence for a wounded mind. How does this relate to your own feelings and experiences?

Slim : As I’ve gotten older I have struggled more and more with keeping the black dog at bay, I mean, I haven’t been through terribly traumatic episodes in my life or anything, but I think as I grow older and share more experiences with those around me, I’ve collected baggage right?  The more baggage I gather the more things that once felt right and honest and true have started to feel corrupted in some way. The world doesn’t feel as stable and sure at it did when I was younger, things might not work out for the better. Getting out to the hills or out in the water is a way of centering myself. Mountains and ocean, especially when you are going out and testing yourself in their environs, are brutally honest places to be. You can’t go out half cut in those spaces, you have to know what you are about or they will straight up kill you. It requires you be honest with yourself, to be disciplined and make sure you really are walking the walk and not just talking the talk out there and that bleeds over to my day to day life. 

Aaron : I spent most of my 20s touring in bands & generally living a pretty hectic, hard-partying lifestyle which was awesome at the time & not something I’d change but once I had my son & I guess as I got older I began to discover that I was getting less & less out of those sorts of experiences. It culminated for me 15 years ago in 2 consecutive weekends of partying that happened to sandwich a 3 day surf trip to Noosa. The contrast between the pure, sunshine-tinged joy I was getting from being in the ocean & the gritty, booze-fueled 2-day recovery of a big night out was so stark that it made realise alcohol wasn’t something I enjoyed any more. Engaging physically with nature has become a more healthy way for me to tap into adrenaline & dopamine & does wonders for my mood & mental health… The injuries that come with it, not so much.

Photo by @slimivich

Visual concepts often reveal a whole palette of emotions and ideas. I’m curious how you approached creating the visual component of the “Wound Tight” video?

Slim : The video was a really simple concept and with both of us being keen surfers and mountain bikers, we wanted to combine images of the environments we like to retreat to with live performance elements that have been such an important core of our practice over the years as performing artists. We decided to avoid actual surf and cycle imagery to leave room enough for viewers to be able to make their own connections to the natural spaces selected.Wound tight was never about cycling and surfing specifically, they are just the vehicles we use to interact with the natural environment. It’s the being in nature, the temporary merging and communing with nature that we wanted to emphasise, leveraging Aaron’s Graphic design skills to achieve that sense.

Aaron : Part of my day job for Kona Bicycles is as a motion graphics designer so we knew we were going to lean heavily on those skills in order to make something that looked good on an independent artists budget. I was particularly interested in experimental art film pieces that were made in the 60s & 70s that used a lot of what were at the time cutting edge special effects & often explored existential themes, delving into mankind’s place in the natural world. One film in particular Omega, by Pyramid Media formed the basis aesthetically for where I was aiming to go with the clip but also things like Electrocution Of The Word by Cass Elliot & Steve Barri, Offon by Scott Barlett along with a variety of other 60s-70s era experimental documentaries & art pieces. My basic mantra as I created the clip was to make frames that looked as though they could be taken from those films. 

Collaboration between artists can always lead to unexpected results! What was it like working together with Aaron Hogg from THRONG to create something unique?

Slim : Pretty damn seamless really. When Aaron sent me the draft track I knew straight away I could work with it. The unexpected part was finding we were so definitely on the same wave length with where we wanted the track to go. I think what made the process easier is that we are two cats with a strong history in Hardcore Punk and Metal delving into developing predominantly electronic soundscapes, so we were already inadvertently working in a similar frame of mind. Possessing that common musical language and being able to pull from similar musical experiences was a huge help when it came to communicating our creative ideas.

Being our first colab, having that common ground to work from meant I could just on my job of writing and producing the best vocal performance I could. When it came to feedback and notes for each other, it made it eaiser to be as direct and concise as I could to avoid potential misunderstandings and get things moving.

It’s always interesting to observe how artists develop and change over time! What new musical horizons do you want to explore in your future collaborations?

Slim : We’re pretty intent on getting some solid tracks down with Throng over the next 12 months or so, that’s an immediate priority but outside of that, I’m a pretty big Post Metal fan, y’know Isis, Rosetta,Jakob, that kind of thing. So a project I’m looking forward to in the future is finding some cats in the Post Meatal scene keen to explore where those huge glacial and cavernous Post Metal soundscapes intersect with some more hip hop rooted percussion sections.

Aaron : I’m working on tracks now for Slim & I to collaborate on. I think you can expect more of the same dark, warmly organic, melodically rich stuff that sits at the intersection of hip hop, uk garage/dubstep, downtempo with interesting visual content to accompany it. I’m currently learning how to play the stuff live so perhaps me blowing dust off my live rig & cutting shapes with Slim & Mo around NZ.

How did you guys celebrate after finishing “Wound Tight”? Was it a quiet reflection or a wild party?

Slim : Quiet exhaustion… And the work hasn’t finished! We’re independents so if we want things to happen, we have to make it happen. It’s all emails and socials content and texts calls and the rest. So nah I haven’t really had a chance to stop and celebrate yet, maybe once we finish our album and havea solid catalogue built up Throng. I can’t speak for Aaron, but at the moment I don’t feel like I can rest.

Aaron : For me it was more of a quiet reflection, of just being proud of what we had created, knowing what it took to forge. There was a phenomenal amount of work involved in the 2 primary processes of producing the track, then organising, shooting & editing the clip. This followed by the relentless & overwhelming volume of necessary social media promo that is baseline for any independent artist these days & I generally feel so disconnected from the making music part of things it is difficult to experience in as rounded & complete a way as I think people would assume.

Is there any track or artist you secretly love that would surprise your fans?

Slim : It depends which fans you’re talking about. Myself and drummer Mo were once in a modestly successful Metal band here in New Zealand, all most of our older fans who are getting to grips with this new direction we’re taking with Slimivich would probably surprised how much time I spent neck deep in The Roots, Death Grips or Poliça back in the day, the material that drove me in this new direction. Slimivich fans specifically? It’s the polar opposite, part of me is still just that metal kid slinging heavy sounds like Benighted, Chimaira or Raised Fist in my down time.

Aaron : Because I have come from a punk, sludge & indie music making background I guess the most surprising musical love of mine might be for well made pop. I was a massive Abba fan as a kid & I’m still susceptible to modern pop when it is produced well. This guilty pleasure dovetails with my ongoing desire to hone my production skills. I’m just as likely to be binging on YouTube clips of Ian Kirkpatrick producing Dua Lipa songs or Finneas on how he made the music for Billy Eilish as I am watching Lawnchair Youth Uncut or bands like A Place To Bury Strangers, Slow Pulp or Idles. 

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