Slow Parade // "Jackpot"

​Slow Parade blends layered guitar feedback trills with impeccable songwriting. The end result often feels like putting spurs on your moonboots. “Jackpot” is a world-weary confession and a love letter for the end of days. As the song crackles with a pedal steel lead singer Matthew Pendrick sings “we’re just taking up space / on this melting time capsule / which may soon be erased” but despite the bleakness of this sentiment Pendrick’s earnest croon assures us to “honk the car horn / when you pass by my place / so I know your heart’s beating / I hope it’s keeping good time.” We hope you’re keeping good time, too, Slow Parade.
 
Slow Parade is currently working on a follow up to their last record Big Plans. You can pick up a copy of Big Plans here. 

SC: I love this song because it sounds like one of these letters never sent to a friend. Do you feel there is a relationship between songwriting and letter writing? 

MP: I don't write as many letters as I'd like to, or songs really, but I do like the reflection that they both allow. Giving yourself time to pick through your thoughts explore what the hells happening up there before you make a statement

"If I've learned anything since I started writing songs—and I still have to repeat this to myself constantly—it is that you have to chase that inspiration down and pin it to the ground when it shows up. It will never be there in the same way later."

SC: One of my favorite things about you as a songwriter is where you put melodic interludes in your songs. In Jackpot it’s the the Em-D-C section that prefaces the chorus (and later punctuates the last chorus.) I’m wondering if you have a specific intention with these interludes or if they are part of the way you approach a song?
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MP: Can't say it's very intentional honestly . I guess you got to give yourself a minute to catch a breath. and make some awkward eye contact with someone in the audience

SC: What was your writing process like for "Jackpot"

MP: I wrote this song while on a solo camping trip in Providence Canyon. It tumbled out after breakfast the first morning, pretty quickly. I could tell early on it was going to get heavy but thankfully I forced myself to finish it out. As the smoke is clearing a Ranger showed up and told me there would be a storm and then gave me an orange soda. That night a tornado ripped through the park, but I was hard fast to sleep thanks to my box of wine.

SC: What is your writing process like? Do you keep a schedule, or wait to be inspired?

MP: Wish I could say I was writing on schedule, or that that worked well for me, but the songs i've written that appeal to me in the long run tend to be the ones that happen in a quick burst of inspiration. If I've learned anything since I started writing songs—and I still have to repeat this to myself constantly—it is that you have to chase that inspiration down and pin it to the ground when it shows up. It will never be there in the same way later.

SC: How does your community of songwriters influence your work?

MP: Well I stole part of the melody of "Jackpot" from Ethan Fogus' song "Southbound". Which is to say: Big league. Huge . My friends are a constant source of inspiration. I wouldn't be playing music without them.