About an hour after stepping offstage at Governors Ball in New York City, Slayyyter sat down backstage with Rolling Stone to shuffle through songs on her phone and chat about whatever happened to pop up. This was, of course, another fun episode of Rolling Stone’s Song Shuffle series.
First up was “Country Song,” by Jake Bugg, from his 2012 self-titled debut LP. “I love Jake Bugg,” Slayyyter says. “I had this CD when I was in high school … It would be a nice song to come on when you’re by yourself in your house and there’s a little bit of rain hitting the window. You’re having a calm night, and want to be sad about something.”
Portishead‘s “Threads,” from their 2008 comeback album, Third, followed. “This song is kind of hectic,” she says. “The outro freaks me out … I like when music can evoke fear out of you just from the sonic palette and chords being off and dark and scary. I like weird noises. The music I’m working on now, I want it to feel scarier and creepy and wrong and off-putting.”
The manic energy continued with the title track to Mannequin Pussy’s 2016 album, Romantic. It came out when the group was still playing tiny clubs, before they were given the chance to open up for the Foo Fighters at football stadiums all across America.
“[‘Romantic’] has soft/slow moments, and then gets really extreme,” says Slayyyter. [Mannequin Pussy’s 2024 song] ‘I Got Heaven’ is so great. That’s a great summer song. It feels very hallucinogenic at first, very psychedelic, and then the beginning is just [lead signer Marisa Dabice] screaming. I love screaming.”
Her love of screaming also drew her to “Blackout,” by Turnstile. “I saw them years ago at the Shrine, and then I saw them at Coachella,” says Slayyyter. “They are so incredible. Very cool to see a hardcore band pushing their own genre forward, and then also do a lot of different things in different genres. I love that. They don’t just stick to one.”
The California-based hardcore quartet Niis don’t have a following quite as large as Turnstile, but they’re also a favorite of Slayyyter, especially their song “Fuck You Boy.” “The lead singer Emily [Sando-Brown] is so cool,” she says. “She’s so hot and so talented. I’ve seen them live a couple of times. I listen to it at the gym. It’s a good gym song, honesty. I like listening to heavier music at the gym or when you’re walking down the street and you’re pissed off.”
If anyone wants to add one of Slayyyter’s own songs to their playlist, she recommends “Crank” from her new album, Worst Girl in America. “I think it’s wonderful for weddings, graduations, funerals, baby christenings, first holy communion, maybe your grandmother’s 90th birthday,” she jokes. “Everyone is walking to it at graduation. When they get their diploma, they turn to the camera and they’re like ‘Crank it!’ I’m obsessed. I hope they still love me when they’re old and they look back at their graduation videos.”
Slayyyter returns to the road July 17 at the Neon Skies Festival in Edmonton, Alberta, and has dates all over North America throughout the summer and fall. An overseas leg begins Oct. 9 in Rio de Janeiro. It wraps up Nov. 5 in London.
