Brooklyn-based Sex Slaves will bring its hard rock 'n' roll swagger to the stage at 10 p.m. Feb. 24 at Synergy, 416 W. Third St.
"We are a three-piece. Besides me we have bass player Del Cheetah, who hails from Williamsport, and our drummer is J/Bomb," Sex Slaves lead singer and guitarist Eric13 said. "We perform in Philadelphia frequently, State College and out in western Pennsylvania. We're pretty much known for our live show. It's high energy, fun rock 'n' roll that a lot of people say combines the attitude and rock of Guns N Roses with the anthemic style of Kiss or Green Day. Some people confuse the name and think we might be some sort of industrial rock or some kind of sex show. It's a tongue-in-cheek name."
The band's name was coined by the legendary George Clinton during an encounter at the Three of Cups Lounge in New York's Lower East Side.
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The Sex Slaves will perform at 10 p.m. Feb. 24 at Synergy, 416 W. Third St. The band got it’s name from George Clinton, who they met at the Three of Cups Lounge in New York.
"It's a pretty wild place where rock 'n' rollers and celebrities will come through this club," he said. "One night, we were hanging out. It happened to be an after party of a George Clinton show and he was sitting in the corner and we had a bunch of girls with us - everyone partying. He looked over at us and said, 'You guys are a bunch of sex slaves.' It was so funny, odd and out of nowhere that we decided 'You know what? That is going to be the name of our band.' "
"We just completed our new record, our fourth, coming out April," he said. "It's called 'Call of the Wild.' " We recorded it with this great, Grammy-nominated producer Ulrich Wild (White Zombie, Static X) out in L.A. - we're extremely excited about it. Our Williamsport debut show will be the first one where we showcase the new material."
The band is not currently on a label. They are free agents at the moment.
"Our last record label was run by this billionaire guy out in Los Angeles, a former CEO of a Fortune 500 company and he decided he wanted to enter the music business," he said. "He was indicted by the FBI, and the FBI came out and shut down the whole record label in this huge to-do, front page news in the Los Angeles Times. Luckily, we were able to walk with our record at the time, which we released ourselves. We were recently offered a deal from New York that looks like we're going to accept. We have a European tour coming up in April - 25 shows in 10 countries over four weeks."
For an independent band like Sex Slaves merchandise is a crucial revenue stream and in that regard they go the KISS approach - the more you have the better.
"People want different things and ultimately you got to, like Ray Davies sang, 'give the people what they want' and offer a lot of stuff," Eric13 said. "We take pride in merchandise. You want something that looks cool but you could wear anyway. Plus it's another form of advertising too. It represents a substantial portion of our income so it (merchandise) is crucial to us."
"We've been insanely touring over the past six years really," he said. "The band's played over a thousand shows during that time in 13 countries including Europe and Japan twice, as well as the U.S. over fifteen times.
"It's pretty grass roots where we rely on those relationships we're attempting to expand that," he continued. "There's a lot of people who over the past couple of years have had to this is the harsh reality of paying bills. There is money to make and a living to be carved out when it's done correctly. We learned that the hard way. You gotta play."
For more info, visit www.synergywilliamsport.com or www.sexslavesnyc.com.
