M USIC
photo by HOOPLA EIO courtesy of Slipping Into Darkness
SLIPPING INTO DARKNESS interview JORGE PEREZCHICA
Slipping into Darkness is an alternative rock band from Desert Hot Springs, CA that was formed in 2011. The members include Michael Durazo (vocals/guitar), Nigel Dettelbach (bass), Adrian Carreno (lead guitar), emAnuel (guitar), Damian Garcia (drums). Collectively, they share a passion for 60s and 70s rock ‘n’ roll music. After building a following in the local desert scene, the group were invited to perform at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Desert Daze. In the summer of 2020, the band released their much anticipated album “Second Wind for Our Love.” The band has been playing together for a decade now. How’d you first meet and what keeps you guys together? What keeps us together has to be that, we have an adoration for music. We are truly passionate about it. Life seems boring without it and honestly we couldn’t see ourselves not playing music. Also, we enjoy spending time together. We are bandmates, but we are also really good friends. Kind of like brothers. We know bands that don’t get along at all and we are lucky to enjoy the good times in and out of the band. Now that “Second Wind for Our Love” is out, what was the biggest challenge releasing an album in a pandemic? The album was 90% finished by late 2019, we were just putting finishing touches on it. Then when we had it 56
COACHELLA MAGAZINE
ready, the pandemic came and we were in limbo with the whole world for a bit. After time though, we decided that even if we couldn’t release it with the original plans the best thing to do was to finally have people listen to this thing we had been brewing for a while. It felt great and I think it motivated us even more to keep making music. The hardest thing about releasing the album during the pandemic was how to properly promote it when you can’t even play a damn show, lol. We still had social media and digital platforms to move around in, but we are old school. Nothing like a good live show to get your music out there. The best we could do was release it on vinyl and upload it to all digital platforms. We still have big plans for 2021 if the world doesn’t end. I hear influences from the 60’s and 70’s, but with a refreshingly contemporary twist. What direction was the band going for with this album thematically? We really didn’t plan a direction or a game plan for the album, but we did feel the shift in sound. The only thing we consciously decided on was to record out of our comfort zone and go for a more polished sound. That’s why we decided to record with Eduardo Arenas and Pete Dee. We were in really good hands and they helped us really sharpen our sound.
