Interview - Vast Slug

For anyone that knows this band this is obvious - Explicit Content

Photography and words by BeckyKat Kaptures

So full disclosure I did this interview with epic grindcore band, Vast Slug, back in May 2026 before their gig at Voodoo Daddys (review for the gig Review - Vast Slug, Eyes of a Nihilist, Fracture and Bleak at Voodoo Daddy's Showroom, May 22nd 2026).  I'd bought new mics that are meant to block out background noise so thought we could do this in the wonderful bar setting, but as you can guess by this typed interview this didn't work and despite our best efforts the video was not savable.

However these guys are such amazing sports and this was one of the most fun interviews I've done it deserves to be out there.  So here it is in written format:

BeckyKat:

So first off how you all doing? 

Vast Slug all:

All good, never been better.

BK:

Excellent, so first hometown show since January?

Ed:

Yeah, since January and our first headline show since our launch. Yeah. God knows when that was. A long time. So yeah, exciting. We're playing with our mates in the 'Eyes of a Nihilist', so we get to hang out with them as well. But also we get to see 'Fracture' and 'Bleak', never heard those guys before so that's cool. 

BK:

Amazing, what's the most exciting thing you've done this year?

Ed:

I would say last week when we played a festival in Netherlands. That was really fucking cool. That was the Thursday and Friday. We played the Friday, and it was a sold-out show on the Friday, so that was really fucking cool. Yeah, that was awesome. 

Phil:

I think we safely say that that was sold out because of us. 

Ed:

Oh, definitely. The little known band from the UK that no-one had fucking heard of. 

Phil:

Yeah we're a mystery. 

BK:

Yeah absolutely. 

Phil:

And as a result, we sold a load of butt plugs. 

Ed:

We did. Yeah, the Dutch love a butt plug. 

BK:

Ha ha! That's good to know. 

Phil:

Yeah, and all they had to say was we couldn't make them big enough. 

Ed:

Sadly no.

There was a couple of really awkward interaction.

Callum:

Yeah, there was there was these kids that kept walking past the merch stand and were like, what are they? 

Ed:

Yeah, like what's that? 

Callum:

And I was like, so they're earplugs for Shrek.

Ed:

Yeah, I was like, I'm not having this conversation. So I said are your parents about? She went, no. I was like, oh fuck. Now if I've upset an orphan, her parents aren't here. But no it was all good. 

BK:

What's the story behind the band name? 

Ed:

That's my brainchild. Well, it's my idea to steal it. I didn't come up with it. It's a Bottom reference, you know, the sitcom from the 90s. It's literally just a quote from that on the episode of the Ferris wheel. Eddie calls Rich a 'vast slug' in the big monologue. Watching it with my mate and I was like, that'd be a good band name. And then I messaged Callum. I was like trying to do a grindcore band. He's like, yeah, all right. Wrote a few songs, and then here we are.

I'm really pleased when people get the reference, and go, is that a bottom reference tonight? Yeah. 

Callum:

There's been about five so far. 

Ed:

Yeah, there's not many. Not many. I've had someone saying, "Is that a drugs reference?" Yeah, like doing like a line, like a fat line, like a slug. 

Phil:

Or we've had people come and see us that have just been fans of slugs. That is it. 

Ed:

Yeah, expecting to see slugs, like some like nature, like a zoo, like a petting zoo for slugs. They're very disappointed. They're all the same, aren't they? It's just one slug, I should do some research on this. 

BK:

Along those lines. What inspires your songs? Because you have some colourful themes. 

Phil:

Life's greatest celebrities, and.... 

Ed:

Yeah, if there's a big name like in the media that turns out their nods or something, we're like fucking brilliant. Let's capitalise on that. Let's write something like that.

Phil:

So recently, like, our most recent release was the Lost Prophets one. Shinobi versus Mega Nonce. 
So when he got stabbed in prison, right. Well, that Ian Watkins is trending. Let's talk about it.

Ed:

And within a week of his death being announced, we had a song. So we try and be as top of it as we can.

And some of it's just funny shit. Like the first song we wrote was literally about a Robot Wars orgy. So it's not all pedophiles and there are the old killers and there's yeah there's some random funny shit in there as well. I mean it's all it's all very much tongue in cheek. None of the shit we say is things that we actually believe, but we just find it funny. But I guess that comedy, isn't it? Like we're not Comedians, but this is yes. We rather we find funny, and if we're going to get a rise out of someone, we're like, yeah, let's fucking do that.

Phil:

And you live for the rise as well. 

Ed:

You what? 

Phil:

You live for the rise. You welcome it. 

Ed:

Oh, yeah, I do. If I go over the line, someone will do it. And if I don't get a reaction, I'm really gutted, and I'll just move on. Okay, well that didn't work. 

Phil:

Not going to lose any sleep over it? 

Ed:

No, yeah. And some people do. 
If someone's like, "Oh my god, that's disgusting!" Like, fucking, yes, it's worked, right? Let's let's fucking double down and like write some more shit down that same line.

BK:

Have you had any complaints at a show? 

Ed:

Yeah, not at a show, have we? 

Callum:

No, mainly by the internet. 

Ed:

Yeah not not at a show, but we have had people online kicking off. Not as much as I'd have thought. 

Phil:

We're overdue another one. 

Ed:

Yeah, we had a couple of people saying like the the Ian Watkins song is, not in poor taste, but it's like you're glamorising his life, and I was like, "Well, no, we're not". Like, well, "you're giving his name, like you're aiding his name" and all this sort of shit. I was like, "All right, dude, that's how you what you want to think. Fine".

Someone kicked off like the Robot Wars song. That was the first controversy. 

Callum:

I think the misunderstood what it was about. 

Ed:

Yeah, they were like, that's like fetishising rape culture, being pro rape, and I was like, one, it's not rape. Two, it's an orgy, and it's a fictitious orgy.

Phil:

Consensual.

Callum:

With robots. 

Ed:

Consensual with robots. Calm down, mate. It's you know it's not that bad, but yeah, he proper fucking went out on that. And then it turns out, yeah, yeah, he protested too much. I think he turned out to be a bit of a wrong'un. I don't know to what extent, but he was. 

Phil:

Yeah, it's true. He likes to preach and like be this savior or voice of women and that.

Ed:

"I'm a feminist". Which great but...

Phil:

It was just covering up his own like seedy um....

Ed:

Yeah, "I'm a feminist here. Come closer to me...
Let me slip a digit or something...". I don't know what happened. But yeah.

Phil:

It's weird that when Ed comforts me, he slips a digit, so he has a habit of kind of saying that. 

Ed:

You've never complained though. 

Phil:

I felt your hand on that ferry.

Ed:

Yeah, sorry, mate. 

Phil:

We got a cabin on the ferry in Holland, and I think I fell asleep quite hard. And... 

Ed:

Yeah, you did. 
Literally like life off of a comedy sketch, fell asleep because you dropped your phone, bounced along the floor. That didn't happen in real life. That's yeah. That was great. Good times.

Phil:

Pro naps. Pro fingering. Pro fairy cannons.

Ed:

No, you know, Vast Slug. Yeah, pro fingerers. 

Ed:

How to tank an interview. 

Phil:

Do you love grindcore, fingering and slugs? We got a band for you. 

BK:

Best advert ever. 

Ed:

Yeah, featuring no slugs. 

Phil:

No slugs, where we can double down on the fingering. 

Ed:

Yeah. This is why we don't get interviews. 

Phil:

But we take the piss. 

Ed:

I know we we are unapologetically arseholes.

Phil:

 My mood has just changed.

Ed:

You've perked right up. 

Phil:

Yeah, I was on a bit of a crash. Like before I got here, I was overworked. I was tired. I was wobbly kneed, and I got here, and I've had some weird, like I don't know Vietnamese monster extra strength fucking energy shoot.

Ed:

It's like a like a triple strength monster.

And then fucking got a big one as well. 

Phil (showing the crazy oversized, over strength monster):

Yeah, you know when there's symbols instead of words. 

Ed:

Where's the little one?

Phil:

I necked it. 

Ed:

I thought so. We're not sponsored by Monster yet. 

Callum:

Or Mountain Dew. 

BK:

So this is the promo to send a monster? 

All:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you could.

Ed:

And Mountain Dew, we fucking love a Mountain Dew.

Phil:

We had this little thing where if you're in the offie and you see a new flavor, you have to get one for the boys as well. Even I'd say I do, and I end up drinking it. 

Ed:

Yeah he'd be here's the empty can, mate. It was lovely.

Phil:

Yeah. You won't see that one again. It was fucking delicious.

BK:

Haha, do you think Vast Slug will do any promo drinks? 

Ed:

Well we had a cocktail. I spoke to Jack, the head barman here, and I was like, "Could you make a whiskey-based cocktail?" This is for our show in January. They called it the Fastest Slug. I can't remember what was in it. This whiskey and a bit of absinthe. 

Phil:

It was meant to include our own brand of whiskey as well. Yeah, we also released the whiskey and it sold out.

Yeah, that bottle got finished very, very quickly, and then, they had to do something else. But still, we got whiskey out, got our own cocktail out.

Ed:

We will have our own beer as well at some point. All the fucking merch. 

Phil:

Yeah.  Alcohol or sex related. We'll release it. 

BK:

Ha, ha, brilliant. 

What's the weirdest thing that's happened at a gig? 

Ed:

Had a bra throwing on stage. That's not weird. That's like a standard old like cliche rock and roll thing. But that's not a grindcore thing.

Phil:

I used to get naked on stage.

Ed:

No you didn't. 

Phil:

I used to get down to my pants. 

Ed:

Yeah, you did. Oh, you did. 

Phil:

Yeah. Yeah, a few times. 

Ed:

We've not really anything weird at a gig. I mean, we had a sword fight, Wall of Death, that we got going. We bought loads of foam swords, and we took them to Tech Fest when we played there. We got a Wall of Death going, and got like red swords to this side, yellow swords to this side was like, oh, that one's really funny, but nothing like organic. That was something that like we kind of implemented. 

Phil:

No, like it did make me laugh when we got a fan who comes on, and he decided one day to jump off of our like riser, and in doing so, he disconnected the audio, and we had to cut the show early.

Ed:

Twice that's happened. Yes, they did another week, and it was just hearing Ed say, "I can't believe you've done this again" . And it was like, it was just quite comical. 

Ed:

The second time was here. At the time, I thought that was like a few weeks prior to that when we played Nottingham. Yeah, same guy. We're like, fucking hell. He's a good lad, he's good fun, and we love him to bits.

Phil:

We tried to start a thing called a slug pit, and it was literally just people laying on the floor, just like that, whilst music goes, and he was the only person that did it. Yeah, but maybe we can follow on from that. Yeah, because you don't want to like give it the big 'un and and then just no one does it. You kind of need to maybe get some people choreograph beforehand to try. 

Ed:

Choreographed pit, ha. 

Phil:

Yeah, we need to rehearse this, and also like venue floors aren't known for being too hygienic, so... 

Ed:

Sticky as fuck. No-one will get up. Once we're stuck on the floor. Well, that emphasizes the slug for like, like slugs are sticky.

Ed:

Slugs are slimey not sticky. 

Phil:

We'll talk about this later.
We need to sort this out.

BK:

If someone was uming and ahhing about whether to come and see you guys, how would you persuade them to come down? 

Callum:

Laughing - I'd say don't 

Ed:

Ha ha, yeah don't. 

Nah, it's good fun, great atmosphere. There's always really great atmosphere here.

Party vibes. For a grindcore band, it's very much party vibes, and we do a VengaBoys song, so yeah. What more could anyone want?

Phil:

We're starting with Cotton Eye Joe tonight for the first time as well.

Ed:

Yeah. So that's our 'walk on music' - 'Cotton Eye Joe'. 

Phil:

It goes really well. Like it's just like when you're playing disgusting, heavy music, breaking it up with a bit of cheese. It goes down so well. You can get the most disgusting-looking greibos in the pit. As soon as like something cheesy comes on, they're all fucking dancing around.

Ed:

Definitely call our fans disgusting looking greibos

Phil:

They're love that.

Ed:

We love you all. 

Phil:

A few weeks ago, we're playing at Manchester, and they're playing country music between it? And people are giving like a little, is it OK we have a little dance right here? Yeah, I love that.

Ed:

Callum  never moves, not at all. I think it seems even he likes it, yeah. 

BK:

Thank you very much, guys.

Check our Vast Slug online here - Facebook - Instagram

And to show they do like to party: