LOON on Slow Your Roll, Vulnerability, and Accepting Imperfection
Interview by: Peter Eckhardt
LOON’s latest EP, Slow Your Roll (Mid to Buns Records), hit soundwaves May 23, 2025. Combining a surf rock/jangle pop sound with country-style, story-telling lyrics, the quartet stays in the tradition of the San Francisco music scene by not sounding like anything else in it. “[My favorite comparison] we’ve ever gotten was when someone said we ‘sound like The Band mixed with Pavement,” recounts bassist Tom Weisbrich.
Slow Your Roll stands tribute to the band’s versatility. The EP’s three songs– “Bitter,” “No Sense,” and “City Thing”-- all feature friendly strings and laidback, conversational vocals. That said, don’t mistake LOON for the kind of band to make the same song twice. “Bitter” listens like drinking a shandy on a warm Saturday afternoon: easy, upbeat, and smooth. “Me, I’m not the cool, collected kind/but when I don’t think too much, I think I’m doing fine,” twangs the track’s writer and lead vocalist, Noah Fortino-Young. “No Sense,” written by guitarist Conrad Sloand, evokes a similar feeling, but slower and steadier– like a slow morning sipping coffee, light spilling in through a window: “Got no plans, got no plans to make plans” sings Sloand. The EP’s third song, “City Thing,” is more acoustic, airy, and nostalgic than the other two. Also written by Sloand, “City Thing” closes the album with a cool nighttime breeze. Collectively, the EP feels like one of those weekends where, through all the nothing happening, you somehow emerge a different person.
The EP changes more than just vibes— nearly everything is different track to track. “Bitter” features Fortino-Young on rhythm guitar, Sloand on bass, and Weisbrich on lead guitar, while “No Sense” puts Fortino-Young on lead, Sloand on rhythm, and Weisbrich on bass. “City Thing” is even more of a shake-up, featuring Fortino-Young shifting to lap steel, Weisbrich to mandolin, and oft-drummer Dan Potts as the track’s bassist (“Make sure you put in that we recorded that one on a TASCAM 4-track tape machine,” exclaims Sloand). Additionally, all four members of the band contribute vocally. “No one is on one instrument for too long,” Sloand assures.
Despite the constant changes, LOON’s agenda isn’t to show off their seamless virtuosity– things like this happen naturally to the band’s four members. For example, LOON didn’t really start on purpose. Fortino-Young put out a Craigslist ad initially to find people to jam with. “I was super pessimistic [at first],” he admits. First, Potts joined, then Weisbrich, and finally Sloand. United by a similar taste in music and lacking the desire to merely repeat it, the four began to play. Though Fortino-Young and Sloand were the primary songwriters, all four added to the creative process. “It’s been the most vulnerable, genuine songwriting of my life,” recounts Sloand, “A lot of that has to do with the boys just being so accepting.” Fortino-Young agrees, “Everybody has free range to do whatever they’re feeling. [Being in] the band has made me better at trusting other people.” Of special interest to the band was recording with the 4-track. “I had to not overthink it,” says Fortino-Young, citing Sloand as an inspiration, “It became a sacred ritual, keeping or rerecording tracks.”
The camaraderie is obvious over FaceTime. The three present members in LOON finish each other’s sentences, smile remembering musical experiments, and tease each other the way only good friends can (“This call would have been two hours if Dan [Potts] was here,” laughs Sloand). Aside from friendship, part of the reason the EP was recorded was that the four members were finally in the same place long enough to do so. Now, however, Sloand is moving away from San Francisco. There’s a shift when this comes up– Sloand quiets a bit, and despite our digital connection, Fortino-Young and Weisbrich seem to make deliberate eye contact. “We have to be accepting that [LOON]’s just gonna change,” says Fortino-Young. “The reason our whole set-up has been so great is that we’re friends. That’s what’s at the core of it,” adds Weisbrich.
The somber turn doesn’t last for long. An AI replacement is quickly dismissed (“it has to be uglier and smellier than Conrad,” jokes Weisbrich), and a dog jumps on Sloand, sending him to the floor. We wrap up, and I listen to the EP again.
“I could never be in the city without you,” sings Sloand on “City Thing”. Though the move wasn’t known when the tracks were recorded, the line reminds the listener that we all have pushes and pulls that determine where we need to be. As it stands, LOON will continue after the move, but the basement hangs, and the live shows will not be quite the same. “It’s not gonna be better or worse, it’s just gonna be different,” Weisbrich says thoughtfully.
Despite the changes, Slow Your Roll remains. For fans of lyrical rock, human imperfection, or “silly, beer-drinking music” (Weisbrich), the EP is an excellent listen.
Bitter
Noah Fortino-Young (songwriter): rhythm guitar, lead vocals
Conrad Sloand: bass, backing vocals
Dan Potts: drums, backing vocals
Thomas Weisbrich: lead guitar, backing vocals
Adam Reid: recording engineer
Brian Bond: mixing + mastering engineer
No Sense
Noah Fortino-Young: lead guitar, backing vocals
Conrad Sloand (songwriter): rhythm guitar, lead vocals
Dan Potts: drums, backing vocals
Thomas Weisbrich: bass
Adam Reid: recording engineer
Brian Bond: mixing + mastering engineer
City Thing
Noah Fortino-Young: lap steel, backing vocals
Conrad Sloand (songwriter): guitar, lead vocals
Dan Potts: bass, backing vocals
Thomas Weisbrich: mandolin, backing vocals
Brian Bond: recording + mixing + mastering engineer
