Self Portrait: Emily Massey and Henry Stoehr of Slow Pulp
He is afraid of Squirrels
08 January 2024
Photo by Emily Massey and Henry Stoehr
Web Exclusive
For our recurring Self Portrait feature, we ask musicians to take a self portrait photo (or paint/draw a self portrait) and write a list of personal things about themselves, things their fans may not already know about them . This self portrait is by Emily Massey and Henry Stoehr, Slow Pulp. Both drew portraits of each other and also gave a selfie photo of them together.
Massey is the band's singer/guitarist and Stoehr is their guitarist/producer. Teddy Mathews (drums) and Alex Leeds (bass) round out the lineup. The Chicago-based foursome hails from Wisconsin. Stoehr and Matthews went to grade school together in Madison, Wisconsin. They met Leeds through a local music program, with Massey joining the band in college. A series of self-released EPs from 2015 to 2019 followed the band's 2020 debut album, Movementsat Winspear.
Last September, Slow Pulp was released Courtyard, their second album and first for ANTI-. It was one of our top 100 albums of 2023. At the time of its recording Movements, circumstances dictated that Massey recorded her vocals at her parents' home with her dad Michael, due to a diagnosis of Lyme disease and chronic monophony and a car accident with her parents. Pleased with the results, Slow Pulp once again worked with Michael on vocals Courtyard.
“Working together, we can be very honest with each other in a way that I wouldn't be able to with a stranger or a producer who isn't my family,” Massey said in a press release about working with her father. . “He already has such a big context of what the songs are about, knowing my life so intimately. He is able to be very direct, saying things that I often don't want to hear but need to hear. I think it often brings out the best in me.”
Read on as Massey and Stoehr write about phobias, medical joint conditions, and traumatic childhood memories.
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![](https://undertheradarmag.com/uploads/article_images/Slow_Pulp_Self_Portrait_Photo_Under_the_Radar.jpg)
![](https://undertheradarmag.com/uploads/article_images/Slow_Pulp_Self_Portrait_Photo_Under_the_Radar.jpg)
Emily: Henry and I decided to do blind portraits of each other, which means we sat across from each other at a table and tried to draw each other without looking at the paper. This is what came of it.
Emily: I have double thumbs. I can bend them backwards and forwards in ways that look really unnatural and very gross.
Henry: I have five hidden tattoos, but I won't tell you where they are.
Emily: I have astigmatism in my left eye.
Henry: I have astigmatism in my right eye, neither of us can see very well at night.
Emily: I used to make noises as a kid. I did a radio commercial for Band-Aids once and I paid $100, which was a lot of money for an eight-year-old. I bought a skateboard, fell off it once and never rode again.
Henry: I love Facebook Market. I look at it everyday.
Emily: I'm afraid of squirrels. When I was a kid, a rabid got stuck between a window and the screen in my house. I remember it screaming and scratching and foaming at the mouth. I've never seen them the same way.
Henry: I was a hockey kid.
Emily: My first memory is choking on a piece of pizza at my third birthday party and my dad having to give me the Heimlich maneuver in front of all the kids.
Henry: My first memory is that I opened my hand on a carpet when I was three, there was blood everywhere.
from our partners at http://www.undertheradarmag.com/interviews/self_portrait_emily_massey_and_henry_stoehr_of_slow_pulp