Slovenly – We Shoot For The Moon

In an interview with Perfect Sound Forever from April 2019, Tom Watson, Steve Anderson and Tim Plowman had to say the following about the making of the record:

Tom: By this point, we had toured a couple of times with fIREHOSE, and we had a pretty regular practice schedule, it was us at our most competent at playing and writing. And after doing a few records we were more comfortable in the studio. We approached WSFTM differently from the other records; we practiced the hell out of it before recording it. We were working with Vitus Matare again and it was good to be in Los Angeles to focus on it completely. For one thing, we wanted the songs to bleed into each other, no real stops between tunes and then it went into the 3rd side, "Things Fall Apart," a 20-minute (I think) collage of part-songs and noisy grooves and some arty covers. We also included a Toxic Shock song in there. Vitus was cutting and splicing the 2" tape, which is kind of nuts, but it was a fun freak out. it takes some effort to listen to.

Tim: This is my favourite record we did. Love that record. It's punchy, loose, with a lot of energy. We had come off a couple of tours and the band was playing really well together. The writing and the practices leading up to the record were kind of fragmented which was not the way we usually ramped up for making a record. I don't think we played any of the songs at shows leading up to the record, which was also unusual. We kind of finished them in the studio. I remember working the songs out in small groups and kind of roughly having things together by the time we went in the studio. It was kind of a weird time – there are a lot of dedications in the liner notes for friends who had died in the lead up to making the record. I think we were also sort of uncertain of where the band was going. We recorded at Vitus Matare's Lyceum Sound Studios in West LA. Great studio, great location and great producer.
I remember we were drinking a ton during the making of that record. Some strange asparagus-flavoured beer we got a Trader Joe's. I think we stopped at Trader Joe's every morning on our way into the studio. I think we also kind of evolved our guitar sound at that point. Tom was playing his mid '60s Telecaster through a Supro for at least some of the songs on the record. I was playing a Jazzmaster through super reverb. Scott was playing his modified 1960s Epiphone. Danelectros were also involved. Vitus encouraged us to really drive the amps and his room had a pretty live sound already as I recall. I also think Tom started to take a bigger role in production on this record. So some of the sound may be attributable to his approach. I remember listening to a final playbook and John Talley-Jones (the Urinals) was in the room and said that this was our White Album. I think that was probably the most fun we had making a record. I don't recall how this record was received. I think it was pretty much ignored because we had stopped touring at that point. I don't think we did much to support it.

Steve: My favourite. Insider information: the original title was going to be We Shoot For The Moon and Jack Off In the Closet, a quote from Charles Bukowski in a book of correspondence between Bukowski and a Canadian poet called Al Purdy. Needless to say, I got vetoed. But that was a fun record. The best collaboration between Slovenly and engineer. Vitus Matare was superb. He encouraged us to create "Things Fall Apart" (note: extended, noisy, seemingly improvised track included on the CD edition). This was our first record in the CD era, he reminded us. This allowed for 60-70 minutes per LP. And he was right there with us, gleefully cutting splicing tape, tweaking, repurposing already recorded drum tracks to be used as jumping-off points and just galvanising a joyful and creative environment. Footnote: I didn't notice at the time, but it's clear now that I was channeling my inner John Cale.