A few themes jockey for relevance on “Zillow,” the latest single from Durham, N.C.’s Sluice. First and foremost, there’s the perilous search for a place to rest one’s head in an inhospitable world.
“A mammalian necessity now made a luxury item by ‘the Man,’” says frontman Justin Morris.
Lesser topics include shitty crawlspaces in flood zones and how it’s nearly impossible to bowl on the cheap these days. And if the affordability—and outright survivability—of everyday life for the average 30-something looms large on the band’s upcoming LP, Companion (Mtn Laurel), don’t blame the messenger. Burned out on (barely) living the indie-rock dream in his native North Carolina, Morris moved to New York City in 2019 with the initial idea of changing vocations. Let’s just say it didn’t go particularly well. Less than a day into his Brooklyn sublet, an armed intruder kicked in his bedroom door, forced him to the floor and tied his hands with TV cables. Aside from precipitating his eventual return to North Carolina, the robbery quite literally frightened him back into serious songwriting again.
Now three albums in, Sluice also features bassist/multi-instrumentalist Oliver Child-Lanning, fiddle-player Libby Rodenbough and drummer (and former Bushwick roommate) Avery Sullivan. Morris turned a significant corner with 2023’s Radial Gate, the modestly well-received album he made after relocating to Hillsborough and meeting now-housemate Child-Lanning via Craigslist. The two tracked the songs for that LP at Betty’s, Sylvan Esso’s studio. Sluice returned to Betty’s for Companion, recorded with producer/engineer Alli Rogers, in the winter of 2024.
Morris also makes a living as a carpenter these days, and a particular job inspired “Zillow.”
“I was working on a crew, scribing baseboard for a multimillion-dollar house that was almost certainly going to be devoured by the Eno River in the next 25 years,” says Morris. “I was whistling one of my favorite early Fust songs, ‘Battering Ram,’ while on the job. That expanded to a reworking of Aaron Dowdy’s incredible chorus melody into my own song about searching for a place to call home.”
We’re proud to premiere Sluice’s “Zillow.” Companion is out March 27.
—Hobart Rowland
See Sluice live.
