Norwegian 80’s-centric rockers The Cocktail Slippers have been performing often in support of 2021’s Shout It Out Loud! (Wicked Cool Records). Between sets, Stine Bendiksen, guitarist, joined TGEFM for our latest in the Roll of the Dice series to discuss the band, the diversity of their influences and the wealth of great acts across Norway.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What can you tell our readers about yourselves, your sound and what makes you tick?
The Cocktail Slippers is an all female rock´n roll band from Oslo, Norway. The band has existed since 2001 and we’ve just released our first single “Good Love” leading up to our 6th full album which will be out 2024. Till then we plan on releasing a few more singles.
Being in an all female rock n roll band is something else – we´ve all been playing in different bands earlier (some of us still have side projects too). As weird as it may sound – something magical happens whenever we get together. We’ve become like a family, like sisters. We know each other so well – we care about and for each other and that close relationship makes our music and everything we do even more important to us… Does that make sense at all? Haha – well, just being together makes us TICK! – and we do our best to share the love and the rock´n roll spirit to the world both thru our music and when playing live shows.
2.What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?
We´re five very different individuals in the band so it´s hard to pull out just ONE particular band or song as the catalyst or revelation. Our musically references are very spread and different from each band member to the next but we all agree (and often mention) bands like Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, The Who, Blondie and Fleetwood Mac as bands that made us – and still makes us – wanna compose and play music. Actually it´s one of our biggest strengths in The Cocktail Slippers – the variation of musical references. We never exclude any genre when we´re making new songs. And we´ve found out a long time ago that it doesn’t matter what the first draft was like – it always turns out as a Cocktail Slippers song in the end. Once we start working on it as a band it just becomes something else… Hard to explain, but yeah…
3. One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
AHA! You should definately check out some Norwegian bands. The Norwegian rock scene is quite unique – and it´s crazy how many bands in all kinds of gengres you´ll find in Norway. We´d like to suggest you check out these; Death By UngaBunga, The Launderettes, Ricochettes, TurboNegro (you´ve probably heard abouth them though…) and The Yum Yums for starters.
4. What’s next for The Cocktail Slippers?
We´re writing new stuff and we´re planning for a new single release in October. We´re squeezing songwriting in between all the concerts we´re doing at the moment – and we´re REALLY looking forward to finally going back to USA for a small Eastcoast tour this November. You´ll find the dates on our Facebook page if you guys are interested in seeing us live!
5. Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
Our long time collaboration with “Little” Steven Van Zandt is something we´d like to express our gratitude for. Steven started Wicked Cool Records more or less after a conversation we had with him in 2004. We were signed on a Norwegian label and we were quite happy where we were – but we started talking about the true spirit of rock´n roll. You know, not just the money machine, like “make hits – do this – do that”, but write the songs YOU love, do it YOUR way, make it real. If anyone understand the value of that it´s Steven. He´s super supportive and we have so much fun working together as well. If you want a REALLY GOOD ADVICE: Check out Wicked Cool Records – because this record label ONLY sign bands that they truely LOVE. And there are SO many great bands on our record label.
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
