Slic

By Sean Maldjian, Contributor

Photo by, Michael Morales

Meet Slic

As we are snowed into oblivion let us warm up our persons to the eclectic and electrifying synth-pop sounds of NYC based Camila Dominguez. Under their project, Slic Camila caries creatively crafted and percussive tracks with their ethereal vocal style. In our latest interview, we chat with the artist about their latest EP ‘Toygirl’, reality TV, and books.

A self-portrait by Slic

Would You Rather

your sense of smell or sense of hearing be a hundred times stronger? Why?

Oof I think either one would make my life impossible in New York, to be honest. I would choose smell and then immediately have to move to the forest and invest one million dollars in bath products.

Some Questions with Slic

What was the creative drive behind your latest EP?

The New Year's Eve before the pandemic hit, I wound up at this exclusive super hyped up after hours that was supposed to be the greatest party in the world. And everyone was just sitting there smoking cigarettes! Barely anyone was dancing. I was outraged. We wait in the cold and finesse the door and drop names to get in and it's so lame at the end of it all. I really started thinking about parties as a sort of collective wish-fulfillment scheme that rarely goes the way you would want. And then once in a blue moon, it does, and it's so intoxicating. That night I accidentally tapped into something deep in my personality that is always a bit dissatisfied, and it became an interesting place to write from.

If you could be on any reality TV show, what would it be and why?

In the near future, there will be a show called America's Next Top Stripper hosted by Cardi B. I would like to be on this show.

What is the best book you’ve most recently read?

I listened to A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid on audiobooks recently. That book goes really hard, she's not pulling any punches. I'm someone who has always felt gross about tourism as an industry and I recommend A Small Place to anyone who is questioning wtf they are doing half the time that they are off on vacation somewhere.

What/who was your biggest inspiration to start writing music?

The biggest push to write music has come from being kind of an obsessive person. When I really like a song I won't play anything else and I have to hear the song 40 times back to back before I can move on with my life. Music can take over your brain and I love being hijacked like that. I rarely do covers, but I will sort of go under the hood and look at chord progressions or production and analyze the lyrics to get a sense of what's going on with a song I like. Some of my sticky brain hijacking songs are No Aloha by the Breeders, I Remember by Deadmau5, Karen Revisited by Sonic Youth, Lost by Boy Harsher, and Whiskey & Coca Cola by Isabella Lovestory. Right now I have Madonna's Music stuck on my head and I think the lyrics to that song are so funny and genius.

How did you come to find your unique vocal style?

I took classical voice lessons for some time when I was younger, and that style of singing for a soprano voice is very athletic. It's like an ab exercise. It's great training if you want to be able to sing without thinking about it too much. On the Toygirl EP I was going for a kind of unaffected sound, where the vocals sound pretty much exactly the way I recorded them except for a little cartoon-y autotune inspired by my friend's project, Pedro TQM. When I recorded, I was singing it all really soft. I definitely want to push against that impulse on the new music I'm working on. I want to go somewhere more intense with my vocals and create more tension. I'm working out how to do that inside the shared space where I record, I have to figure out how to create a sense of privacy and freedom for myself even when people can hear me through the wall.

What are the worst things about being a musician in NYC? What are the best things?

Worst is that I can get caught up in what other people have and where others are at in life because it's such a business center and everyone is always going to talk about their career. Best is that you really can find someone to talk to about anything here, no matter how niche. If you just find a couple of cool spots where you can hang out it snowballs and you sort of start to build a little network where everyone has something to share, or tickets to a show, a synth you should come over and play with, a band they want to put you on to. The first person who ever gave me bass lessons I met outside of a house I was staying at, and we struck up a conversation because I saw him there every day. And we eventually realized I had a bass inside and that he was a great jazz bassist and he had me bring the instrument out and we jammed in the street. He taught me stuff that I practiced for months until I started taking formal lessons. I guess I feel okay talking to strangers here in a way that I definitely don't in other places. Obviously, the pandemic has changed that a bit, but not as much as you would think.

What gear and techniques are essential to the Slic sound?

I use the Fracture plugin from Glitchmachines on every single song I work on. It doesn't always make it into the final mix, but I use it to process simple software instrument melodies and get sounds that are completely different from what I started with. For example, on the song Don't, there's a part that sounds like a guitar lick that I actually got to by processing a synth piano with Fracture. It's magic and free: https://glitchmachines.com/products/fracture/ Also, every musician needs a hot pink thong guitar (https://www.instagram.com/p/CJgjl6zFgEa/).

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Well, since I talked a lot about New York I should mention that the eviction moratorium will end in about six weeks, and if you're not already involved with eviction defense, this is the time that it really will make a difference to talk to your neighbors about their situation. Anyone who lost income due to Covid can fill out a hardship declaration and send it to their landlord, and this will extend eviction protections beyond the moratorium. If you're in Brooklyn, there's a great resource at https://brooklynevictiondefense.org/en/