Slum Sociable

Whilst many musicians appear to be living a dream life and thus be impervious to mental health issues from the outside, sadly this can occasionally be far from the case.

Just last week Slum Sociable, a duo consisting of Edward Quinn and Miller Upchurch, finally released their debut album after delaying the release due to Miller’s battles with depression.

In a recent social media post Miller opened up about his battle with depression, not only to fans of Slum Sociable but also to his close family and friends.

“I hadn’t really spoken with family or friends about it beforehand,” reflected Upchurch before also saying, “Since making that post I haven’t really had an excuse or been able to hide away as much because it’s out there now which has actually helped.”

Battles with depression can be different for each individual but for Upchurch he says his big issue was “shying away, not talking about it or actively trying to cope with it.” Understandably this put a big strain on both his personal and professional relationship with Edward.

“He understandably would get frustrated with me because I wasn’t putting in the work that we both need to be doing moving forward and following our dreams.” said Upchurch when speaking about delaying the album’s release.

Since taking the daunting step of opening up Edward and Miller’s relationship has improved significantly. Couple this with the “overwhelming” outpouring of support from fans Upchurch says he is “definitely doing much better now.”

With a newfound positive outlook on life and music Slum Sociable are set to kick of their tour in Sydney tomorrow night.

“We’re very excited but there’s definitely nerves as well,” explained Upchurch, “We’ve played Oxford Art Factory as a support act before so it’s kind of surreal going in as the headline act.”

As these are some of their biggest shows to date Slum Sociable have been working diligently to improve their live show and ensure they live up to the standards they feel a headline act should bring.

Some of the improvements they’ve made are to increase the overall level of production but they also want to bring the emotion to life in these songs.

“We pour a lot of emotion into the performances because we have such powerful ties to the lyrical content.”

In order to further bring this out during the live show Slum Sociable will be bring along two of their best mates, Dylan Savage (bass) and Ryan Beasley (drums).

“The whole sound of the record changes when we play live in the four piece setup so the people who have heard lots of the songs can expect a couple of screwballs for the live show.” concluded Upchurch.

Dec 1. Oxford Art Factory, 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst. $23.26+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.oxfordartfactory.com