Soft Play and Kate Nash tell us about their playful and “very British” new collab ‘Slushy’

nme.com:

Soft Play and Kate Nash have spoken to NME about their collaborative new single ‘Slushy’, and reflected on how the music industry’s “model is broken”.

Listen to the song and read the full interview below.The track is set to appear on an expanded version of the Tunbridge Wells punk duo’s Number Three-charting fourth album ‘Heavy Jelly’ – the original of which arrived last summer.Titled ‘Heavier Jelly’, the project will feature six new tracks taken from the LP sessions that felt “too soft for the record, but too good to scrap”, the band’s guitarist Laurie Vincent told NME.

The playfully snotty duet of ‘Slushy’ marks the second time Nash has joined up with Soft Play vocalist Isaac Holman, following a previous collaboration on his 2023 Baby Dave solo song, ‘Telephobia’.Nash recently made headlines by joining adult content creator site OnlyFans with her ‘Butts For Buses’ incentive, where she’s been using the platform to highlight the increasingly prohibitive costs of touring for artists.Speaking alongside Nash about their struggles with making the finances of touring work for them, Vincent revealed to NME that Soft Play recently abandoned plans for a European tour due to the unrealistic expenses involved.“The guarantees added up to nearly £60,000 and [after all the costs] we would have made £2,000 maximum,” he said. “What’s the fucking point?

We’re playing decent-sized venues and getting really good guarantees, so how does anyone else do it? We’re privileged because we’re able to sustain a career with our UK income, but how is anyone ever gonna get out there?