Meanwhile… At The Welcome Break
by The S.L.P. (featuring Slowthai)

Album: THE S.L.P. (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • When Serge Pizzorno first came up with this song, it reminded him of a romantic Italian film soundtrack. In order to flip the powerful and emotional sound on its head, he thought he'd get a rapper to do a verse.

    Pizzorno got excited by Northampton rapper Slowthai's Runt EP and thought he might be able to lay down a few bars. He recalled to Q magazine:

    "I went to see him play in Birmingham. Me and my mates got the train, got right in the mosh pit, and he was just there in his boxers, jumping off speakers. I got home and I was like, 'Man, that was as excited as I've been at a gig for a long time.' It reminded me of the early Kasabian gigs. It felt like the same energy. So I went to see him again, met, had a little chat, and I sent him an email."

    Pizzorno and Slowthai met up and spoke about this track, which is set at a motorway service station. The S.L.P. mainman recalled to Apple Music that he asked him to do a verse expecting it to be "quite aggressive and venomous." However, when Slowthai sent it back, rather than rapping, he was singing, having "turned it into this psychedelic tune."
  • Flipping expectations, Pizzorno told Q magazine, is the raison d' être of the S.L.P. album. "The concept of the record was always to make people go, I was not expecting that. I just wanted every track to have that moment. That element was hugely important."

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