By Kristina Balboa
This past weekend I drove nearly five hours down to Sauget, Illinois to catch System Slave perform at Pop’s Night Club in the Finals for Pointfest.
Ten bands competed in the Finals for Pointfest, but this isn’t your high school battle of the bands competition! Runner up gets to play Pop’s stage at Pointfest and the first place winning band gets the opportunity to play the white or black stage at Pointfest!
Before the show I met up with Cole, Mike, Rich “Chuck”, Cody, and Stephen “Stefan” to talk a bit about their music and to find out what System Slave is all about!
Holding an interview with five band members at once seems easy until they all try answering questions at the same time; they’re all just so passionate about their music and love sharing that with other people that it becomes very apparent when they get the chance to meet with fans or media.
When asked how they came across a name like System Slave, they all seemed to agree with Mike’s response.
“It took us over the course of two to three weeks to finally decide on a name. I personally am really big on conspiracy theories and System Slave just seemed to make sense. Its almost like we are all slaves to the system, to the government, it’s just what we do. We work, we do what we think we have to do; its almost like being under control.”
They all had their own opinions of their favorite songs they perform, the other bands that have inspired their band, and even different opinions on what genre they played. Lead singer Stephen described their genre best of all.
“We’re so not into the whole heavy-metal-devil-worshipping music, it’s so played out, and the card is overdrawn. Why define? If we write something from the heart and its country, then we’ll play country. If its rock, metal, alternative; then that’s what we’ll play. The feelings I go through inspire the songs we write and I want those feeling to be legitimate on stage when we’re preforming. At that point, why define yourself? Why define you band and their sound?”
Mike was able to sum System Slave’s genre up all in one word; “real”. We all had a good laugh about that but once I watched them perform, it all made sense.
Watching System Slave perform was exactly what they said it’d be. At Pop’s there was a mixed crowd, I was surrounded with people my dad’s age (because yes, I brought my dad with me), and people of whom looked very close to my age.
No matter how much or how little one-on-one time I got to speak to each of the guys of System Slave, watching them perform really goes to show that each one of them feel a sense of accomplishment. They are all so humble and so proud of how far they’ve come.
They really do put on an entertaining show and one person’s opinion isn’t going to sway the feelings they take home afterwards; it’s the crowd and the electricity in the air. Believe me when I say that their fans admire and appreciate them as if they were their own family, just as they appreciate and admire their fans for being so supportive.