Introducing the "nice" and intimate world of Slow Dancer + his new video, It Goes On

Slow Dancer is the moniker of Melbourne-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Simon Okely, and he has a brand new album, In The Mood, out this coming June 9 via Pieater/ATO Records. There's plenty of reasons to be excited about that fact, but we'll start with the most recent and that's latest single, It Goes On, and its very perfect visual accompaniment. To get you in the mood (heh) for the release and some live shows he has coming up, we sent him a few questions to get to know him better.

Tell us about about yourself?

I’m nice. I’m not sure it’s the asset popular culture makes it out to be so I’m currently working on being kind. Like Ellen. She’s no bullshit. She says the things you need to hear, and not the things you want to hear. I’m sensitive, I feel the world a little harder than most, it means I see you quite clearly, maybe better then you see yourself. Don’t worry; I probably like you, and your flaws.

What’s the vibe music-wise?

Such as its use in the cult Australian Film The Castle I’ll assume ‘the vibe’ is referring to intention. On this my second record In A Mood, I am attempting to capture the seemingly uncapturable. The pregnant pause before a lover delivers a poorly executed request to do the dishes when what they really mean is they are leaving you emotionally. The disappointed face of your mother when she is telling you she doesn’t mind that you cant visits this year and is really contemplating mortality. I was trying to get the stuff missing in photos, absent in poetry, lacking in cinema, philosophy hints at, a painting gets the edges of, but is the stuff that only music can really get properly.

Production/writing process:

Ah, the process. It is a matter of inspiration. And inspiration is a divine matter. Like the throws of a heady romantic romp, I spend a lot of nights sleepless, tortured; blissfully engaged on the verge of ecstasy, and on the precipice of a life ending depression. As for production; I use Protools 9 on a 2009 Macbook pro.

Can you tell us about your new single, It Goes On?

I can tell you it is the second of three singles (the first is below). It features my grandmother’s piano. As for meaning, I’m not sure it is my place to do so. I like many before me believe it’s not for the artist to tell the audience the ‘meaning’ of anything.

It’s from your new album, In A Mood, what can we expect when it’s released on June 9?

You can expect to be able to purchase another recording of contemporary, guitar-based music. You can expect it to be a Friday. If you buy it and listen to it, you can expect an exploration of the seemingly uncaptureable by a nice, sensitive white guy as explained above.

What’s the rest of the year have in store?

Great question! I feel like crystal balls may provide better insights than I. If North Korea and America don’t “ruin Christmas”, I personally will tour the US in June with a great band called Soccer Mommy, and then holiday with friends in South Korea. I will tour Australia in July and following that, will probably go for a long jog, eat some dates, have a shower, throw a dinner party for close friends, and write some more songs.

Where can we hear more of your music?

I use bandcamp and apple music a great deal. When you were a kid and you loaded your anti-skip Technics Discman with Grace by Jeff Buckley after buying it from 78 Records in the city, did you ever think that in your lifetime you would have access to an entire record store’s worth of music on a touch screen that never skips and is open all the time?

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