Slippers’ Babuka Black rejects pop perfection on Slippers 08

Madeline Babuka Black, the mind behind Slippers, talks through Slippers 08—garage pop that borrows from the 90s-to-60s bridge she loves, while pushing back against how “a little too perfect” modern music can sound. From the album’s Song Salon roots and her blu

The first thing Madeline Babuka Black says—before she’s even finished warming up to the conversation—is that kids’ TV nearly ruined her day.

“I was nannying at the time and just so annoyed at how bad the shows I was watching with the kid were. ” she tells MISRYOUM Culture News over Google Meets. Paw Patrol. she says. was “like my number one enemy.” When she laughs. it’s not because it’s a big dramatic origin story. It’s because that irritation still feeds the music she makes under the name Slippers.

Her instinct is to write songs that feel slightly off-kilter but undeniably catchy. The track “Monkey Over There”—released in 2019 on the Here’s Some Slippers EP—does it in a single minute and thirty-four seconds: deadpan. Liz Phair-ish vocal delivery. surreal lyrics about a sombre simian (“He just sits there / And reads New York Times”). and then. mid-track. a flex into a shimmering ’60s bop. The blend is whimsical, but the target is precise: Babuka Black wants specificity, not sanitised charm.

That same preference for character shows up loudest in Slippers’ new album, Slippers 08. It’s a follow-up to their debut 2024 record, So You Like Slippers?. On Slippers 08, the songwriting is gauzy and the textures are fuzzed up, but the emotional feeling is bright and intentional. Babuka Black is blunt about what she’s balancing against.

“I do think a lot of music sounds a little too perfect these days,” she says.

She doesn’t sound nostalgic for chaos for its own sake. She admits she loves Joe Meek’s recording aesthetic and the early experimentation that made that kind of sound possible. But her point lands with everyday clarity: perfect is easy. Human is harder. And she’s chasing the songs that still have room for mischief, storytelling, and little scenes that feel lived-in.

“The ‘90s-does-the-’60s thing is something I’m attracted to,” she says, pointing to bands like Jellyfish. She likes bands inspired by The Kinks or The Beatles. and calls songwriting from that era a “home base” because “I like the storytelling.” She adds that “The Kinks are masters of making songs that are funny and ‘slice of life.’”.

That sensibility isn’t abstract on Slippers 08. “Reading Lucy’s Diary” is described as baroque and sharp-edged. and it carries a plot that’s almost too specific to be a pop song: “about a husband and wife – and the husband’s cheating and the wife knows it.” It’s inspired by The Kinks’ story-songs. but also by Of Montreal—“Kevin Barnes is an incredible poet and lyricist”—and by Saint Etienne’s Good Humour. Another track, she says, feels like a soap opera: “You’re my sister – don’t take my man!”.

If the album’s characters look like they were pulled from TV and rewired into music, its process comes from something even more communal than retro taste.

The songwriting began in an experimental setting she describes as a “Song Salon with other musicians where you try and write 12 songs in 12 hours.” Babuka Black couldn’t do that. The idea shifted instead: “why don’t we try to write a song in one day. from start to finish.” She says getting input from the collective was “a great way to get out of your own way and be like. ‘Okay. I need a verse here.’”.

When that collaboration bled into Slippers 08, she says she also had “a bunch of friends who played on the record.” The family logic behind that openness goes back farther than the studio.

“My father played bluegrass music which fed into communal ideas about playing together,” she says. “With bluegrass there’s kind of no limit to how many people are playing.” Music was part of her extended family life: her grandma played dulcimer. her cousin is a composer. and “in my family there are several preachers.” She grew up going to an Episcopal church and says there was “a lot of old school choir music going on.”.

Even her own creative path began early and strangely—writing and recording her first song when she was three (‘Fleas That Mite You Bite You’). Before music became her central language, she also worked as a balloon artist. “I used to be a balloon artist. I got fired because somebody thought I was stealing their balloon designs. ” she says. then adds. “I need to make a TV show about the balloon community because there’s something about them that’s so incredible. They all used to date each other.”.

Later, animation became the more successful route. She says she fell in love with the ’90s-meet-’60s aesthetic on kids’ shows like The Power Puff Girls. Dexter’s Lab. and Cow and Chicken. She moved from Atlanta to New York to pursue studies in animation. She notes that she’s “made two films. ” and she describes music as a necessary antidote to how solitary animation can be.

“Being part of the music community gets me out of animation which can be solitary. With music you have to be physically there to do it.”

On the recording side, the album is also a change of texture. Unlike So You Like Slippers. which was “largely recorded on a four-track. ” Slippers 08 is “a more expansive affair. ” while still beginning the same way. Babuka Black says: “Being a drummer. usually the way we do it is I’ll do a scratch take while playing the drums. which is psycho.” She likes playing live from behind the drums because of the setup—“You have a beverage holder. you have a little seat. It just feels more comfortable”—and because it creates a meditative focus. “I can close my eyes and if I’m singing and playing. I have no room for any thoughts at that point because I’m in survival mode. You’re in the moment.”.

The “in the moment” feeling is especially audible in her favourite song on the new album. “Wasted Tonight.” It’s chamber pop that sounds breezy even as the lyrics wobble into tragi-comedy about a stumbling drunk (“Said I don’t care / It’s an anti-social affair”). Babuka Black says. “I’m sober now. ” and connects the track to her memory of high school and college nights: “I was thinking about my friends from high school and college and you’d go out and get wasted.”.

For her, the line between music and alcohol isn’t poetic—it’s practical and personal.

“Drinking and music go hand in hand, they’re besties. Everybody who does music not under the influence – that’s quite brave,” she says. She remembers feeling frustrated younger on the timeline of success: “Thank fudcking God they didn’t happen because I would have tanked.” She continues: “Without being under the influence of drugs and alcohol it’s so much easier for me to take myself seriously. I’m grateful for my sobriety.”.

That gratitude also carries the weight of what touring can demand from a body. “As an alcoholic it’s just not sustainable for me to go on tour and expect my body to keep up with how much I want to drink.”

The new album isn’t the end of the story. Babuka Black is also set to premiere a second animated short film at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal. With that launch in mind, she’s planning more music, too.

“I’m hopefully going to record a new record in September with Ross Farbe in New Orleans,” she says. “He’s really into weird recording techniques.” She’s thinking about live shows as well. “I need to freaking learn magic for Slippers. If I could do some magic tricks in the show. That’s the next step.”.

Slippers’ Slippers 08 is out now via K/Perennial.

Slippers Madeline Babuka Black Slippers 08 Here’s Some Slippers EP So You Like Slippers garage pop indie pop garage pop storytelling The Kinks Jellyfish Joe Meek Of Montreal Saint Etienne Fantasia Festival Ross Farbe animation bluegrass sobriety chamber pop