Hebridean artist SCOTT C. PARK – returns this Autumn with new single: “Slide”, a track of sanguine slacker-pop that fires subversive pot-shots at organised religion from the sidelines.
Described by Park as “the smirking soundtrack to my exit from Christianity”, “Slide” is a song that finds the Isle of Lewis artist turning down communions to instead turn-up the gospel according to Metallica. A daringly damning indictment of the Church, its Parquet Courts-esque call-back chorus of “joining is easy… the hard part is leaving” is likely to convert plenty of believers to Park’s songwriting abilities, less so the big man upstairs.
Adding personal context to “Slide”s revelatory, if controversial, subject matter, Park reflects:
“In the churches I grew up in, doubting one’s faith was called ‘backsliding’. You’d hear murmurs at the after-church tea & biscuits about such and such a fellow who was spotted out drinking in such and such a bar at the weekend, snogging some heathen lout. Textbook backsliding. It’s a term that bothers me because it implies passivity — like the only conscious choice is to believe in the Bible, and anything else is seen as a form of giving in to the inevitable temptations of ‘the world’. For me ‘backsliding’ was a choice to move away from something that was making my mental health worse, was enforcing upon me a worldview that felt at odds with my inner morality, and most of all — was clearly (at least to my own judgement) historically untrue. In the song I kind of touch on examples of backsliding behaviour, and reclaim the humanity and inherent goodness in these moments. Pretty much; if I’m backsliding, it’s a pretty fun slide.”
Out 12 November on Charlie Clark’s No Big Deal label, the single and EP are available to hear now on all the usual streaming channels.