Laurie Vincent of the group formerly called Slaves performs live on stage at Glastonbury Festival. Photo / Getty Images
Laurie Vincent of the group formerly called Slaves performs live on stage at Glastonbury Festival. Photo / Getty Images
Popular British punk band Slaves has apologised for causing any offense with their original name following their rebranding as Soft Play.
The punk rock duo, led by front man Laurie Vincent and drummer Isaac Holman, have jammed under the name Slaves since creating the band in 2012. However, the pair have faced fallout over the name’s negative historical undertone, according to Fox News.
On hiatus since 2018, the band has resurfaced, issuing a declaration of their return to the stage. But before doing so, the band members wanted “to address something important”.
“When we called our band Slaves, it was intended solely as a reference to the grind of day-to-day life,” the duo wrote in an Instagram post on their new official page.
“As younger men, we responded to criticism of the name from a place of fear and defensiveness.
“Feeling backed into a corner, our own pride caused us to fight for a name we weren’t even sure we wanted anymore. It felt at times as if our band name had defined us and we were scared of what might happen if we changed it.”
The band Slaves has been renamed Soft Play. Photo / Getty Images
“However, we now recognise that our original intent doesn’t change the fact that the name Slaves is an issue.”
“In this day and age we believe it is very important that people change and make improvements no matter how far down the line they are.”
“The name doesn’t represent who we are as people or what our music stands for any longer. We want to sincerely apologise to anyone we’ve offended.”
While the band recognised that fans might have “differing opinions” on their previous name, they hoped that their followers would “accept and respect our decision and not continue the argument between yourselves”.
“When it comes down to it, the music and the community surrounding our band are what matter the most and we don’t want anything to stand in the way of that community being as inclusive as possible,” the pair wrote.
Laurie Vincent of Slaves performs on the Amphitheatre stage during Splendour In The Grass 2019. Photo / Getty Images
“Our music is for anyone and everyone.”
The band continued by announcing that they would be performing as a band again with the name Soft Play.
“We are very happy to be back together again and are excited for what the future holds,” they concluded.
The punk band’s debut album Are You Satisfied? achieved number eight on the UK Albums Chart in 2015 and was further nominated for a Mercury Music prize. Their next two albums, 2016′s Take Control and 2018′s Act of Fear and Love both appeared reached top-10 status on the UK charts.
The band made headlines in a Fader article titled “Why Would A Band Of White Dudes Name Themselves Slaves?” in 2015.
Vincent told Fader that he and Holman were taken aback by the criticism the band’s name gained. He further explained that they wanted “an abrasive sounding word, like Clash” when they were brainstorming ideas for the band’s name.
“Someone once wrote on our Facebook wall, ‘Nobody but African-Americans have a right to use the word slaves.’”
“Obviously, lots of words have two meanings — if you said ‘I feel like a slave at work’ or ‘I’m a slave to the routine’, that’s not being disrespectful to the slave trade.”
“You have to use words, or you’re just going to be scared of everything. We live in a society already where people are terrified of the way they act being interpreted, and it’s just getting harder.”
