Megan Magiera, Barbara Barrera, and Alex Hattick of Slice by Debbie Cho

Mellow yet moving, flowing yet focused, Long Beach’s Slice have long been crafting their unique indie spell. Comprised of spouses Megan Magiera (guitar and vocals) and Barbara Barrera (bass), along with keyboardist and vocalist Alex Hattick, Slice’s thoughtful artistry has gained favour with women and LGBTQ+ communities across Southern California. The trio masterfully employs motifs of jazz, post-punk, and dream pop, honouring their respective backgrounds without compromising artistic growth.

Their latest EP, III (out August 9th via Selenite Records), carries that compelling torch. Its captivating melodies are enhanced by earnest lyricism, navigating the waters of mental burnout and the demonization of homelessness. Slice touches on pervasive issues with cohesion, turning moments of isolation into cause for unity.

Late last month, Megan, Barbara, and Alex sat down with Also Cool to chat all things Slice.

Rebecca Judd for Also Cool: The band is coming up on its tenth anniversary. I’m interested in hearing how Slice's story first began, and looking back on the first chapters of the band.

Megan Magiera of Slice: It was kind of just me and Barb. Has it been ten years? Or is it-

Barbara Barrera of Slice: It’s coming up. You [Megan] would jam with your looper and you recorded [debut EP SLICE] – remember? All by yourself.

Megan: Yeah.

Barbara: But then we would also jam in your room – I would play bass, you would play guitar.

Megan: The beginnings are just in a bedroom. I thought it would be fun to play a show for my birthday, so we [Megan and Barbara] played a show, and I thought that was really fun. We met Alex and Kelsey [Landazuri, producer and engineer] through the music scene and… I feel like those beginnings are just in a bedroom, you know? Just making-

Barbara: Lo-fi.

Megan: Yeah, lo-fi…

Barbara: Bedroom pop.

Megan: Yeah, there you go…pop? [laughs]

Also Cool: So what were some of the previous bands you were in?

Barbara: I was in a band called Gaze with Lily Stretz from Meow Twins.

AC: Alex, you came into the band a bit later. What was your experience like before joining Slice?

Alex Hattick of Slice: I was a music major turned psychology major. I started playing guitar…in my early 20s, I guess? And then I started my own project, Hellgal, that Meg was in too. I was playing in three bands at one point.

So I saw Slice play, and there were a couple of songs that got stuck in my head, which is pretty rare when I go out and see bands. Usually, it’s like, “Oh, I like this!” but I don’t remember anything.

But I remembered “Sick,” and it always – I could sing “Sick,” and there’s no lyrics to it. There’s this little melody [that] would get stuck in my head. I remember hearing them play as a three-piece, and just being a little fangirl for a while. And then Michael Williams of Sanguine Knight was like, “You should be in Slice! You should have Alex in Slice!” [laughs] He was the little bird in everyone’s ears.

AC: So it was like a [crowdsourced] fusion of the minds coming together? It was just a matter of time before you joined forces?

Alex: Yeah!

AC: Jumping off of that – you’ve mentioned some of these smaller bands in the scene. Here in Canada, you hear about the music scenes in Orange County, LA, and across the West Coast as some kind of entity. A lot of what I’ve learned about the band is that Long Beach and the OC are important to your identity. I’m interested in knowing how your music reflects the sounds and the vibes of the West Coast, of the OC, and how you think it differs as well.

Megan: It’s hard to say stuff about Orange County – Long Beach is LA, technically, but I don’t know much about the Orange County scene. I know you [gestures to Barbara] were involved in it.

Barbara: I mean, I was in the Orange County punk scene as a teenager. But I feel like [being from the West Coast] adds to our chill sound.

Megan: There you go, there you go! [laughs]

Barbara: People say life over here is very laid-back and chill and I feel like our sound reflects that. What do you think, Alex?

Alex: I feel like Long Beach is a mini-LA in some ways. There are some really good venues here – some well-established venues that are dedicated to local music, which is cool. I’ve never lived in Orange County—Long Beach is right on the cusp, it’s like the last stop before you get to Orange County—but a lot of people from LA have started moving down here. I’ve run into multiple people who say they’ve moved here from LA and they’re like “It’s weird here, everybody just says hi! Everyone says hi when you’re walking down the street!”

I think there’s been a shoegaze-y or a 90s resurgence in stuff [here]. There are also little pockets of post-punk resurgence in the area too. So I think it’s been interesting watching who we parallel and relate to music-wise.

AC: Getting to the new EP, III, a lot of it shifts around some dark subject matter. There are songs that deal with anxiety, and “Depleted” deals very specifically with burnout – I’d like to hear more about the greater inspirations at play here. Did you set out to make an EP inspired by something you were working on [or dealing with], or did you feel like the songs kind of came together organically?

Megan: I would say it happened organically, for sure. There was no concept – I strived to do that later on. But all of these songs were written so far away from each other that there wasn’t a “theme” or anything. It just kind of [came back to] everyday struggles that we deal with and were inspired by. The subject matter is something that we [all] see probably every day. Dealing with anxiety and things like that, it’s just our everyday lives. The ebb and flow of life, you know?

AC: What would you say are the time frames through which you were working on all of these songs?

Megan: 2018 to 2020, maybe?

Alex: “Depleted” and “Shopping” are the most recent songs. Those are 2020, 2021, I think? Time passes so quickly!

I worked on the lyrics for both those songs and the lyrics came up during specific moments of feeling my own burnout from working as a therapist; of just feeling those feelings of the world, the nature of our political climate, and things like that. Holding all of that is a lot – for everybody, for lots of different reasons! I work with clients on [those subjects] too, so it’s something I encounter really frequently.

Also, as a social worker, I’ve had several jobs working with lots of different populations, so the lyrics for “Shopping” were inspired by some of the political pieces I’ve been following around the unhoused population and the treatment of those folks in our culture.

AC: Yeah, “Shopping” was one I particularly picked up on. It felt very charged, very riot grrrl in that sense of boldness to it. That’s really interesting to hear more about its connection to the unhoused and other [therapy clients] you’ve worked with.

Learning more about the band, it seems like the band consciously refrains from overproduction and you want to replicate the essence of your live shows. Painting the picture of these live shows, what do they look like? What is the connection to your community in those shows, and how did you come to value this in your sound?

Megan: That’s a good question. Have you ever been to a concert where the band didn’t sound like the recording – in a good way or a bad way?

I guess it’s just more authentic and we feel like we’re being ourselves. There’s nothing that we’re hiding behind. It’s an expectation that we set.

Barbara: When we’ve recorded, it’s always felt like taking a picture of what we sound like at that moment in time…rather than making a painting…if that makes sense? We added some [stronger] production to the new EP though.

AC: I like the visual imagery of that – that does make sense!

Alex: Yeah, and I think with how we seem to jam together, we almost work better together with simplicity and a certain amount of minimalism. Between the bass line, the guitar parts, the [keyboard] parts, there’s this natural flow that they have together and there’s three different melodies all happening at the same time.

So in order to hear that, for that to come out, I like that it doesn’t have so much “background noise” that blocks that out. It has that balance that reminds me of Grass Widow, and how they recorded too.

AC: It’s warm and fuzzy, and you can associate it with the memory of being at one of your shows. It sounds like the community really shows up for you.

Speaking of shows, with the EP coming out on August 9th, I’ve heard there’s a big release show on August 10th. I’d love to know – what can fans expect? Are there any other shows planned, or other tricks up your sleeve?

Barbara: Kelsey and Val[eryee Jimenez of Selenite Records] said that we should record another 3-4 songs, and press that EP and this EP together on a 12-inch. So we’ve been talking about doing that. I’ve also suggested we could press all four EPs on one 12-inch, like this one punk band – Subhumans.

But we’ll see. We want to press a 12-inch, press another record for sure.

Megan: We’re also definitely playing more shows. Whenever a friend hits us up, we usually say yes… we have one more show booked in September.

Barbara: The August show, we’re playing with Coleco Club. It has members of the band Baus. They’re really cool, I can’t wait to play with them!

Megan: Angela Jane Bachman…

Barbara: Angela Jane Bachman!

Alex: I’m a big fan.

Barbara: Yeah, Alex is a big fan.

Alex: We’re going to be playing at our “home base” in Long Beach, which is called Vine. I think it became a thing when I was in college – so maybe not quite 20 years.

It’s now owned by Dustin Lovelis, who’s been in the music scene for a long time. [Dustin] has a recording studio, and he’s really involved in booking musicians. They have music pretty much every night of the week. The shows are also always free, so it’s a hub for music in Long Beach. Honestly, the main hub, which is funny because it’s one of the smaller venues. But it really is – if you’re a musician in Long Beach, you know about it. We wanted to play there because it’s the home base.

AC: Feels like a “return to form” of sorts.

Would those other shows also be in Southern California? Are there any plans to tour out-of-state?

Megan: We have no plans for that right now, but we would love to! We’ve toured the Pacific Northwest a few times, and we’ve even gone the SXSW route. We’d love to play more on the East Coast – Canada! [laughs] We would love to.

III

Released August 9th, 2024 on Selenite Records

1. Depleted

2. Don't Overthink It

3. Painfully Aware

4. Shopping

Megan Magiera - Guitar/Vocals
Alex Hattick - Synthesizer/Lead Vocals
Barbara Barrera - Bass
Kelsey Landazuri - Drums

Mastered by Nick Townsend
Produced by Kelsey Landazuri
Album Art by Alina Kano

Slice

Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify

Rebecca Judd is the features editor of Also Cool Mag.

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