Eric Slick Gets Through Strange Times on ‘New Age Rage’

“Write what you know” is a cliché, but there’s still wisdom in it. Eric Slick is a Philadelphia native who moved to Nashville before the pandemic with his wife and fellow stellar musician Natalie Prass, who was herself returning after an extended period away. His extensive résumé includes playing in Prass’ band and longtime membership in beloved Philly rock ’n’ pop ensemble Dr. Dog, plus his own growing catalog of intriguing solo records. What Slick knows intimately is the creative process — what’s wonderful about it, as well as what’s not so great.

“The window of vulnerability is only open for so long,” says Slick from across our table at a coffee shop. “And unfortunately, my windows were really small during the last couple of years. … This record actually opened the floodgates to a whole new way of thinking about being creative. This is a long-winded way of saying that my ideas about creativity are kind of shaped by the things that I was writing about on the record.”

New Age Rage, out Friday, covers a broad range of emotional and sociopolitical territory, starting in a very personal place but connecting to things that all of us struggle with as we live in this weird time of hyperconnection and intense isolation. Slick explains that the opening pair of songs, “The Moment” and “Freakin’ Out,” are about chasing down musical ideas and wrestling with writer’s block; among other songs on the LP, they examine internal conflicts in an honest way that makes it easy to hear echoes of yourself in them. “New Age Rage” grapples with cultivating meaningful connections when our base-level interactions are warped by social media and, increasingly, artificial intelligence.

“As much as I am preoccupied with social media, and staying in touch with people, and being active as a musician, I ultimately want people to be brought together,” Slick says. “I don’t want people to be divided — music should be a unifying force. So in my own humble way, I’m trying to put that out with this record. It’s not just a record about A.I. It’s not just a record about social media. It’s actually, like, ‘Maybe we should all have second thoughts about how we engage with this stuff.’”

Slick recorded at home but collaborated with an impressively broad array of musicians. Some work was done in person with folks he knows well. He co-wrote the album with Kyle Ryan, whose many credits include writing with Prass and serving for almost a decade as Kacey Musgraves’ music director; Prass contributed lyrics and vocals to New Age Rage as well. Andy Molholt of Speedy Ortiz is an old friend who Slick values as a co-producer for his ability to coax musicians out of their comfort zones, and Battle Tapes’ Jeremy Ferguson, who produced Slick’s 2021 LP Wiseacre, mixed New Age Rage. Using the power of the internet, musicians from elsewhere who Slick has little or no history with also made significant contributions that elevated the album. He cites Kimaya Diggs’ vocals on “Freakin’ Out” and a vocal and flute arrangement from V.V. Lightbody’s Vivian McConnell on “The Moment.”

On New Age Rage, Slick & Co. build on the lush Todd Rundgren-esque 1970s pop sound of Wiseacre, diving headlong into the ’80s pop landscape as it was reshaped in the funky image of legends like Nile Rodgers, Maurice White and Prince. Slick credits the sonic shift in part to a fascination with vintage synthesizers (“that thing that happens in your mid-30s,” he quips) as well as to 102.1 The Ville, the radio station programmed by music and media maven Shannon Sanders. With soul, funk and R&B sounds prevalent on Philly radio, The Ville eased the homesickness that emerged when Slick and Prass found themselves trapped at home in COVID lockdown. Slick heard artists both new and familiar to him, and their musical storytelling skills were a major inspiration.

“So many of the old P-Funk songs are … either hypercritical of the government, or they’re, like, ‘Let’s fuckin’ party,’” he says. “Natalie and I both saw Stevie Wonder, and that’s another show where you are running the gamut of human emotions. You get ‘My Cherie Amour’ — everyone’s crying. You’re getting ‘Living for the City’ and ‘Sir Duke’ — everyone’s dancing. But then you also get ‘Pastime Paradise.’ I wanted [my] set to have more range, so the songs eventually became [that] by design.”

Accordingly, New Age Rage is simultaneously thoughtful and hard not to dance to, even sitting down. The groovy, zingy celebration of difference “Ratboy Two” grew from a writing exercise that involved going down an internet rabbit hole on the Razzy-winning 1986 film Ratboy. “Lose Our Minds” riffs on the necessity of giving your brain a reprieve from the constant onslaught of information and focusing on things you love.

Keeping all these goals in mind, Slick is headed back to his garage after we meet, continuing his work on a kinetic, interactive live show that takes cues from Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Expect vivid lighting and video elements, inflatables and more — maybe even a karaoke segment.

“I didn’t want to just go up there and play songs and hope that people were entertained. I really want to just — even if it’s at a loss, put everything I’ve got into it, because I never get to do that.”