Seattle/Nashville avant-garde pop duo, Slender Dan (Heather Dickson and Patrick Ahern) return with I Had A Feeling Today. A bold, layered exploration of emotional entropy and existential unrest. Known for their surreal aesthetic and boundary-pushing sonic landscapes, Slender Dan continues to redefine what modern pop can be: raw, fractured, and unsettlingly human.
With I Had A Feeling Today out now, we took some time to hear from Slender Dan. Read below to learn more about Slender Dan, the story behind I Had A Feeling Today, and what’s to come.
Hi Slender Dan! Let’s start with how did you both select the name?
Heather: We had a song called ‘Slender Dan’ (a play on Slender Man). And when it came time to pick a name and make it a real project, that name was at the top of both of our lists.
What city are you both from, and where are you both based now?
Patrick: Heather is from CA originally and I am from MA, but we met in Seattle and moved to Nashville together during the lockdowns. We write and record everything in our basement studio. It’s kind of by the airport, so we have to get everything recorded in between planes flying overhead.
When did you two meet, and how did the duo form?
Heather: We met when Patrick tried out and joined a band that I was in. During lockdown, Patrick showed me some electronic songs that he had made, and we started collaborating on what turned out to be Slender Dan’s first EP.
How would you both describe your group’s sound to readers who may not be familiar with you all?
Patrick: Genre names are tricky, we try to pull from a wide range of influences. We essentially make pop songs, but with different indie and electronic elements. We shoot for catchy and accessible, but with something interesting that we maybe haven’t heard before.
Who are some of your duo’s main musical influences?
Heather: Any and all Thom Yorke/Radiohead projects, Miike Snow, Tame Impala, Alt-J, Billie Eilish.
What’s one of the proudest moments of your duo’s music career so far?
Patrick: We always create these ambitious mountains of work for ourselves. For GESTALT, we made a music video for every song on the album. For I Had A Feeling Today, we decided to use real instruments for the base of all the songs on the album and I’m proud of the songwriting and production on this one in particular.
What would you both say are the greatest lessons that you’ve all learned so far?
Heather: We’ve both been in many bands, and we decided to just do what makes us happy with Slender Dan. So, we treat it as more of an art project than a traditional band, we focus on making music and producing visual content rather than playing live or touring. Simplifying has made this really fun for us.
Now onto the release, I Had A Feeling Today. What inspired this album?
Patrick: We really just missed playing real instruments. Heather is a pianist and bassist, and I play the drums. So, these songs started with drums and bass or drums and piano which was different and exciting for us. The initial spark came from watching The Smile live, and we immediately went down to our basement studio and started jamming on what would become ‘Lucid.’
What is the overall theme of I Had A Feeling Today?
Heather: A lot of the songs were written during a pretty depressive period in our lives, so it’s a bit of a bummer album, haha. But, the themes center around depression, numbness, feeling stagnant, drifting through life, and death. You can’t forget about good old reliable death.
What was the creative process like when making I Had A Feeling Today?
Patrick: The creative process is always a little bit different from song to song. But most started out as a drum and bass jam. Then, we’d try to lock down a song form and figure out the arrangements. Some of the lyrics came out right away and others were pretty exhaustingly deliberated over. Same issue with the production and mixing process; some were pretty much done as they were tracked and others took over a year to reach their final form.
How long did it take to complete I Had A Feeling Today?
Heather: Just shy of three years. One year of recording (and re-recording) and almost two years to produce and mix everything. We record in our basement, which isn’t a tuned/pristine studio, so we have to listen to our music in as many different speakers and headphones as we can get our hands on. We both make hundreds of minute mix notes and slowly sculpt the thing over time.
Is there a specific song on I Had A Feeling Today that speaks to you two the most? If so, what is it called, and what is it about?
Patrick: I think the title track, ‘I Had A Feeling Today,’ speaks to us the most. It was one of those songs that just kind of poured out of us in one sitting. I like it because it really captured the apathy that we were feeling in the moment. The music was taken in a few different directions before we landed on the tones and feel we did but the lyrics are special because of how quickly they appeared, which is always rare and special when that happens.
What message do you two hope fans take away from your group’s music and from I Had A Feeling Today?
Heather: With IHAFT, we made a pretty sonically and lyrically dense album in hopes that listeners will find new things on repeat listens. In general though, we hope that listeners will be turned onto new tones, textures, and lyrical subjects that they may not normally hear. Our music is cathartic to make, and we hope it’s cathartic to listen to.
How do you wish listeners would consume I Had A Feeling Today?
Patrick: I say this with every album that we make, but I wish listeners can and will take a break from using music as just accompaniment (i.e. at the gym, or in the car) and make it the main form of entertainment. Don’t get me wrong, music makes the best accompaniment to almost all aspects of life. But, we also love throwing on our favorite albums in headphones and just listening, not scrolling on social media or doing anything really except for listening, and I feel like that’s kind of gone away a little. It’s especially tough because albums are competing with things like YouTube and Netflix. But, albums are rad, and we feel they could stand alone as their own experience every once in a while. We hope that we made an album that warrants that kind of experience.
What’s next for you two? Are you all working on any upcoming projects, or do you all have any upcoming shows that we should be on the lookout for?
Patrick: No upcoming shows, no shows at all actually. We just like the writing and recording process, so that’s all we’re currently planning on doing with this project. But, we do have some more music videos/lyric videos/us playing videos coming out soon, so that’s what we’re looking forward to rolling out next. We also have a bunch of other songs and B Sides we’re deciding what to do with, so maybe one of those will start a new collection of songs.
Where can we follow you two on social media?
Spotify
Instagram
Facebook
TikTok
Thank you both for the great interview; wish you two much continued success!
