Life, In A Slow Dive

Despite the contradictions and opposing forces acting against Slowdive, the shoegaze pioneers have reunited a little more comfortable in their skin, a little surer in their voice, lifting their chins up a little higher to look into the bright-eyed, blissed-out audience that stand beyond their feet.

- Cheryl Ong

For artistes spending a sizeable portion of their life to create works, there may or may not be a guarantee that an audience resonates with their leap of faith. However, the power of the Internet (or these days, TikTok) means that just being online can work up a renaissance, some love-calling to artistes who were probably getting by with a lesser artistic life without fully realising the dreams of their youth - or so they thought.

A pioneer of the once-sub-genre world of shoegaze, Slowdive is one of these artistes who have - in the midst of what frontwoman Rachel Goswell describes as "kinda bumbling along" life - found themselves connecting with Gen Zs thanks to social media. Today's youth are rediscovering the enigmatic rapture of Slowdive's sound; the iconic lyric - "it matters where you are" from the song "When The Sun Hits" - permeates the collective consciousness of this demographic.

The English band formed in 1989-wrapped up its Asia Tour in Singapore last March in an extended celebration of the release of their fifth album, everything is alive. Slowdive was once prophesied to fail in the 1990s by music critics, only to rise from the ashes of a 22-year "life hiatus" with their 2017 self-titled album Slowdive, instantly picking up where they left off from their debut album, Souvlaki, to everyone's surprise. They have never been more alive in music than now.

"I remember our manager saying they were going to book us a show in London for a 900-strong audience, and we were like, that sounds like too many," said guitarist Christian Savill. "Shortly after Primavera (Sound Barcelona) it was our third show back - we had gone from playing in little rehearsal rooms to twenty, thirty thousand. We've never played to that number of people before, so we have many imposter syndrome moments."