Self-contained Australian talent SLOE JACK has been described as “a voice for the voiceless” and a “living embodiment that anyone can surmount their obstacles, regardless of how daunting.” Meeting him at a recent Dreams Never Die dinner party, I now understand why.
SLOE JACK’s demeanor is gentle, open, kind, and honest. He emanates the sort of light that only someone who knows the darkness can exude. His confidence is rooted in his willingness to be vulnerable, and he speaks directly about the pain he’s endured. “I grew up in a small country town in Australia, about three hours away from the city of Melbourne. Life was pretty good in my early childhood, but it slowly became pretty terrible. I didn't really have my dad in my life, and my parents who were around, were on drugs and had mental health problems. There was also abuse in the household. Us kids had a really hard time dealing with that. I grew up with a lot of fear, a lot of angst, and a lot of problems. Kids shouldn't grow up in harsh situations like that. Unfortunately, me and my brothers did.”
Starting to make electronic music at age 11, music became his sanctuary, his hiding place, and eventually, his saving grace. “I started making dubstep and hard electronic music–dubstep, trap –really emotive and aggressive genres,” says SLOE JACK. “Making music gave me some footing in this world, something stable in my life. It was the only thing I had to keep me sane, keep me waking up to do something.”
Without access to vital resources he needed to make music, he nearly gave up. “I was out of school when I was 15. I didn't really have many opportunities or money,” says SLOE JACK. “Luckily, my dad came back into my life and put me on the right track, and I started writing rock music. I decided to give it one last go before I went to university and started a little rock project called SLOE JACK.”
In 2021, after uploading a demo to Australian radio station and discovery platform triple j Unearthed, SLOE JACK received a DM from Chad Hillard of Dreams Never Die, an online music blog and label. With no music released at the time and a very small social following, SLOE JACK thought it was a scam and almost ignored the message. Thankfully, a quick Google search convinced him otherwise. “I’m like, ‘Oh shit, Chad Hillard. I didn't know he basically discovered Billie Eilish, ran Hillydilly, and all this other shit. He's got golden ears, he’s a legendary tastemaker in the industry,” SLOE JACK says. He and Chad met over Zoom and signed a deal together shortly thereafter.
A year later, SLOE JACK released his debut album BACKSTAB. “It was the hardest I've ever worked. I think I finished five songs in the span of a week,” says SLOE JACK. “I was going through University getting my bachelor's degree in audio engineering, and I had a job. I was doing 10 times as much work than I probably should at my age. But I didn’t give a fuck, that shit was so fun. It was the best experience ever when the album dropped. Me and my whole crew–my girlfriend, my brother, and my friends–got drunk in my hotel because it was just such a relief to finally get that record out. It was super exciting for the future, but most of all a relief to get it off my chest and let it ride.”
Channeling his love of metal, grunge, hip hop, and electronic music, SLOE JACK’s approach is off the chest, in your face, and totally supercharged. Impossible to manufacture, the music captures a visceral release of pain essential to his healing journey. It’s raw, aggressive, and reverberating with deep humanity. It’s medicine. “I like to make music that releases energy because I have a lot of pent up energy,” says SLOE JACK. “Sometimes making a song, or even listening to a song, that's more intense than the emotions you're feeling is actually quite a cathartic experience.”
SLOE JACK’s addition to HIGH FREQUENCY, “MONEY & FAME,” is angsty while offering an element of joy–the satisfaction of calling out bullshit. Channeling 90s punk, SLOE JACK’s distorted vocal sits atop heavy rock drums and grungy electric guitars as he sings, “Are you gonna wipe up that mess, wipe up the mess you made? You did it for the music check. You did it for the money, yeahhh. You did it for the money and fame.”
Written in response to navigating the sharky waters of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, “MONEY & FAME” is the quintessential middle finger to The Man. “My good friend Jack Laboz and I hit the studio quite often and that day we came in with a bit of frustration,” says SLOE JACK. “Coming to LA, we both noticed there's a lot of flakiness, a lot of cash grabby-ness, and a lot of clout chasing. The track is about people in the music industry who sellout and want to do things for the wrong reasons.”
At first, the song was just a creative exercise–an emotional outlet to have a bit of fun. But as the track took shape, they both ended up liking it too much to let it get lost in the demo graveyard. And thank god, because “MONEY & FAME” is a mosh pit banger for the people. “In web3, you can drop tracks that probably wouldn't be released,” says SLOE JACK. “That's what's perfect about it.”
Dropping his genesis tracks via Sound, prior to his DSP debut, SLOE JACK is forging the way as a web3 native breakout artist. His drive is palpable, focused, and unrelenting as he continues to make waves in LA, web3, and beyond. “At the moment, I'm staying at the Dreams Never Die house, in a spare bedroom in their crib/office, just banging out tunes. Having lots of fun, finishing songs, collabing with friends, going to events, talking to people, just really enjoying being in LA right now doing stuff that I wouldn't be able to normally do over Zoom in Australia.”
Setting out to fuse the gap between web2 and web3, SLOE JACK equally attunes his attention to both arenas. “I like to keep a good balance,” says SLOE JACK. “Web3 is potentially going to be a huge part of the music culture and industry in the future once there are a few breakout artists, platforms are stable, and there's more of an understood and defined ecosystem.” Growing his audience in both realms, thriving creatively, and backed by Dreams Never Die, SLOE JACK is reclaiming his voice and making it heard loud and clear–his art and his life, scream for hope.
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Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1. “MONEY & FAME” is the fifth track to be released from NOISE, for HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1. “MONEY & FAME” is dropping via Sound Swap on April 06 at 2pm PST.
HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1 is a compilation album curated by NOISE, with 16 tracks released on Sound. The album features new songs from artists we believe represent the values of web3 and whose work will be essential to every music NFT collector’s set in the future.
Collect and add HIGH FREQUENCY writing NFTs to your digital library. There are 10 editions of this article available for 0.01 ETH on Mirror.
Article by Wallace Morgan for HIGH FREQUENCY, NOISE’s weekly newsletter. Subscribe for more.