Slightly Stoopid is a 7 piece (sometimes 8) band from San Diego, CA. Originally signed to Skunk Records—founded by the late Brad Nowell of Sublime, the band continues to tour throughout the world and are on the cusp of releasing a new album—Meanwhile back in the Lab…
Fusion chatted with drummer Ryan Moran a few before their stop at Neon Desert.
The band has their own studio, how does that benefit the band?
We put our stuff out with Sony Red for distribution. We have our own imprint (Stoopid Recordings) if that means anything these days. The majority of our work was done at our place. We did work at several spots—we were in New York City for our tour, and we started doing work for Fugees bass player, Jerry Wonda; he helped with production on the track.
“Prophet” was a song from your 1st album, what was the reason to re-record it for this album?
That song actually goes way back. Miles recorded it originally with Brad Nowell of Sublime. Occasionally we play it an encore—solo acoustic piece. But he decided for this record, to re-hash it; he changed the groove a bit. We did 2 recordings of it: a band version of how it would sound live, and then we recorded a version for the album. [Miles] also worked with Marshall Goodman, drummer for Sublime, for the song; he programmed a lot from the MPC and did the loops. So you can say we have a lot of connections with the Long Beach camp, for sure.
You joined the band with 4 members, what’s the benefit for adding members, aside from the texture of the sound?
We are basically 7 members with an additional horn player, Karl Denson. He actually just started touring with the Rolling Stones right now, but when he can, he joins us. The 7 piece is the core, but if we are playing punk, it strips down to the 3 of us: drums, bass and Miles on guitar. If it’s an older track, like reggae or ska, we’ll add another member with the percussion. We use the members to add texture, but we also use that to strip it away for certain tunes.
For a band that doesn’t care much about album releases, how does the band develop its fanbase?
The thing about music is it goes up and down, and if you are able to run consistently, you’re happy, beyond happy, it’s hard. So you put an album out, there’s new hype and a new cycle, and a bit later the hype runs out and you have to create a new one. You also hope that album is well received. I think where we start on how this band was built was on the road; it’s always been that way. We’ve always been known for touring pretty heavily, the highest point was 180 shows a year. For us, it hasn’t been important to get an album out.