Sluice's “Beadie” is a homespun reflection on community, belonging, and time stood still

“I think that if not the space of the room then definitely the location, being out in the country is important to the song”, says Justin Morris, the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist from Sluice. He is on the road with US band Fust, calling from a service station between shows in London and Bristol. It is fitting to talk about upcoming single “Beadie” whilst Morris is away from home. The song evokes a sense of stillness against the movement of life, a feeling of time moving forward whilst you stand still and try to take stock of what has, and continues, to happen.

Between these two locations, the roadside pitstop and the electrician hut referenced in the call with BEST FIT, exists “Beadie”, the new single from Sluice: now consisting of Morris, Oliver Child-Lanning (bass), Avery Sullivan (drums), and Libby Rodenbough (fiddle). “Hillsborough is just an hour from the town I grew up in and it feels very similar to where I grew up, but also settling into adulthood and fitting into the locale, a fresh community feels like it's in the lyrics there somewhere.” The song plays as an ode to love, friendship, and to the romantic indulgence of sparing a moment to take in the world. However its origins aren’t entirely clear to Morris, “that’s a good question,” he jokes.

“I remember starting to write the song in our rental house in Hillsborough. I lived with Oliver and his wife who were renting out a farmhouse. It had a couple of little outbuildings, one of which was an electricians workshop and we turned it into a practice space. It was there that I first remember running through that ‘splinter’ line and coming up with the melody.” The minutia of a detail such as a splinter is contrasted by the scale of the sound achieved toward the end of the song: “How do you keep a fire in winter / I’ll keep trying pulling the splinter” is wistfully sung over the top of churning guitars and throbbing drums.

According to Morris, poppier influences have crept into this record, a huge influence is his love of Bruce Springsteen. “Around the time I wrote ‘Beadie’ was the time of my 30th birthday party, where my friends and I did Bruce Springsteen covers, so learning all those songs got me in that mindset,” says Morris. As well as "the Boss", UK band Caroline played a key role in Sluice discovering the sonics of the record. “We were playing a lot of them in the studio, they’re a really inspiring band with how they do the avant-garde thing whilst still being really, really listenable.”

Whilst the song is not a major departure from Morris and Child-Lanning's previous album Radial Gate, it is a development, a step forward to a more rounded sound. The singer-songwriter influences of Bill Calahan, Alan Jackson and Kenny Chesney are still there but now layered in amongst fuller instrumentals. The final minutes of “New Leicester”, the closing track on Radial Gate, sounds as if they’ve leaked into the beginning of this next one.

At once both mournful and hopeful, “I think it came from a place of feeling kind of alienated from a true love feeling, and seeing that in other places and wanting to find that,” says Morris of “Beadie”. “It combines some fictional television relationships with actual relationships, and parental relationships, all sort of swirling together.” Characters come and go in the song: “And fall in love with McNulty and Beadie / Joe Pera and Sara / McNulty and Beadie.”

But their profile is never specified, leaving room for the imagination to fill in who these people might be. That is a testament to the universality of the lyrics on “Beadie”. We may not all have played in electrician huts with bandmates in North Carolina, but we have all indulged in the melancholic musings Sluice have espoused.