In 2024, Sleater-Kinney are entering a curious stage of their reunion.
As of this October, they will have been officially back together for a full decade – almost as long as they were originally a band following their 2006 split.Of course, a lot has changed since the winter of 2014 when the band surprised fans with their announcement; four albums have followed, as well as extensive world touring, a global pandemic which prevented such things, and a line-up change that saw the classic line-up splinter.
So, are the reasons these Portland indie-rock veterans got it going again nearly ten years prior the same reasons they're still doing the band circa 2024? "It's a good question," muses Corin Tucker – the band's co-founding vocalist and guitarist, who started the band with Carrie Brownstein circa 1994.
"When we started talking about playing music together again, we felt like we wanted to do something that was fresh and gave the band a new chapter. We didn't want it to just be a novelty reunion.
"This band is really unique, and we have the ability to touch upon what's going on in the world and what's going on in our lives in a way that's pretty special. That's still what we're trying to do, even on this new album.
"This album, in particular, feels like another chapter of the band. I think it really draws upon a lot of the strengths of Sleater-Kinney. I think it's fresh in a lot of ways, and does some different things with our music. Being able to do that keep us invested in doing it for the long term."
The album Tucker alludes to is 'Little Rope', the band's 11th overall, which was released back in January. A blend of eerie quiet and red-level loudness, the album marks one of the most deeply personal in the Sleater-Kinney catalogue given its circumstances.
Early on in the recording process, Brownstein's mother and step-father were both killed in a car accident. Rather than understandably nix plans with the band, however, Brownstein told Tucker she needed to keep writing in order to process her grief.
The pair continued work on 'Little Rope' with Tucker feeling an overwhelming duty of care when it came to her closest friend and collaborator. "I was just so worried about her," she says.
"As the album progressed, Carrie would ask me to sing more. I was happy to do it, but I definitely did feel a measure of responsibility due to the heightened emotional situation that we were in. It became much, much heavier and much more dramatic, and I think you can really hear that on the record."
Indeed, tracks such as 'Hell' and 'Say It Like You Mean It' sport some of the most weighted, heartfelt vocal delivery on any Sleater-Kinney record – carrying a world of grief in each heart-wrenching word.
Though Tucker's main priority was Brownstein's well-being, she ultimately knew that finishing 'Little Rope' was for the greater good of both themselves, the band and their longtime listeners.
"It was so tough for her, but I knew why she had to keep writing," Tucker says. "Because we've been doing this for so many years, we've shared a lot of our own stories, the difficult things that we've been through, in our music. We know it does help other people.
"We just needed to remind ourselves that other people are also struggling, and that by being this personal and this honest it will meet people where they are. We all go through loss. That what the music is for. It's to be able to talk about those things."
Sleater-Kinney have just begun their world tour in support of 'Little Rope', where they intend to play the majority of songs from it mixed in with a variety of cuts from across the various decades of their career.
When queried about translating the songs from the studio environment into the live arena, Tucker notes the experience has been "a real process" – especially given their longtime touring guitarist/ keyboardist Katie Harkin is out on maternity leave for the time being. "It's something that we enjoy, because we love the live show," Tucker says.
"We want to make it as experiential as we can. "In the lead-up to this tour, we've been reprogramming our pedal boards so we have all the different textures of sounds for different songs. A song like 'Dress Yourself' off the new record, for instance, has very dark and distorted guitars.
"We've been dialling through all the different sounds and tweaking things so that it has that kind of bite to it for the live setting. 'Little Rope' is a punchy album – even though it's heavy and it deals with loss, it's also got a lot of melody and songs that you can dance around to.
"There's a real sense of yin and yang that's happening. Getting into that world that we put together with 'Little Rope' and bringing that to the live stage has been really exciting."
Recent set lists from the band have covered at least one track off nine of their eleven albums. Every show begins with the opening two songs from 'Little Rope', 'Hell' and 'Needlessly Wild', but beyond that jumping point it's anyone's guess where Sleater-Kinney will travel next – perhaps all the way back to their self-titled 1995 debut, or digging something out from. . . well, 'Dig Me Out'.
"We always have a member of the crew chasing either myself or Carrie down on show day," Tucker laughs. "They need to know exactly what we're playing that night so they know their cues! It's fun for us to be able to go back and play songs from all these different records.
"Every night changes as we see fit – we obviously want to play as much as we can from 'Little Rope', and this year is also the 25th anniversary of 'The Hot Rock' so we've been pulling songs from that as well. It's always an experiment seeing what songs blend well together, what's fun to play, what we can do differently live. It's nice to still have it be a work in progress after so many years together."
In May, the band will return to Australia for their first shows in over eight years – playing a select run of theatres across the country in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Fremantle.
Australia is tied into the band's history – it's where they recorded their eponymous debut with their Australian-born drummer at the time Lora MacFarlane, as well as a place they played some of their first-ever shows. "There's just so many great experiences we've had in Australia," Tucker says.
"From playing the Big Day Out with Iggy Pop and The Stooges to standing onstage in front of a sold-out Sydney Opera House, every time we've been there it's just been absolutely incredible.
"We're so excited to come and play for some of the warmest audiences in the world again. It's something we're all looking forward to."
Sleater-Kinney 2024 Tour Dates
Fri 17 May - The Fortitude Music Hall (Brisbane)Sun 19 May - Forum Melbourne
Tue 21 May - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Thu 23 May - Metropolis (Fremantle)
