Esteban Flores found inspiration to move forward by looking back to the past.
The Dallas-based singer-songwriter, who performs under the musical moniker Slow Joy, is readying his debut LP, A Joy So Slow at Times I Don’t Think It’s Coming, for release via indie label Mick Music on May 16.
The record, produced by Mike Sapone in Massachusetts and far west Texas, is a gorgeous fusion of turn-of-the-century alt-rock and emo-tinged pop, alternately sweepingly cinematic and achingly intimate, and one of the sharpest records to emerge from North Texas yet this year.
“I listened to Oasis; I listened to Nirvana; I listened to every great rock band from that [late 1990s and early 2000s] era,” Flores said during a recent conversation. “I just kept trying to dissect how they did it, so that I could work it into my own thing, and figure out how I could do it. That was the north star of the entire album … there’s making good singles, but then it’s like, ‘How do you make an album’?”
Flores succeeded, expanding on the substantial promise shown in his prior releases, including last year’s Mi Amigo Slow Joy, his third EP in two years, while demonstrating a sensitivity comfortable amid thick guitars, thunderous drums and an abundance of atmosphere. He’ll celebrate the album’s arrival with a release day pop-up event at Spinster Records on May 16.
I spoke with Flores about why how he approaches collaborative songwriting, the way making an album changed him and what he hopes people take away from his debut LP. The following conversation has been lightly edited and condensed.
I did want to talk about the mindset of crafting an EP versus a record — the songs can maybe be a little more discrete on one versus the other. There does seem to be a hinge point on the record around “Te Amo,” where the punchier songs are up front, and then it turns a little bit — gets bigger, slower, majestic, for the back half of the record.
Flores: I felt like I wanted to earn the listener’s attention for those last songs — like the third act of a movie. I just kept thinking, we frontload it with these songs that are in your face, aggressive, kind of like [Nirvana’s] Nevermind. If you frontload it there, you earn the listening at the end of it. Where I ended up is, at the end, you have these more thought-provoking, almost more Oasis-type, melodramatic songs. I started to play with that sound during the [Mi Amigo Slow Joy] EP with “4U” but I love that melancholic sound, and I wanted people to give it more thought.
You did some collaborative writing for the record. How much of that was you coming to the table with ideas, and collaborating from there — or was it even further back, at the beginning of the process, collaborating before you even got to the point of ideas?
I always try to create seeds. I read this book called The Creative Act by Rick Rubin — changed my life. I started to read it right before the [Mi Amigo Slow Joy] EP, and I try to re-read it every time I go into a new process of creation. Basically, there’s this concept where it’s just collecting little seeds for later, where you don’t try to finish the idea. You move through life, you record [the idea] and then you hold onto it, and bring it out later to maximize it and make it better. I collected a series of seeds for this album, and went in … a lot of the collaboration was with things like that where I took moment I felt, the ones that got me excited, I got to go to the studio and finish them off with really great writers who I really look up to.
Now that you’re on the other side of this process, has how you think about songwriting or expressing yourself in general changed?
It’s changed a little bit — now I start to look at albums less dauntingly. It makes me excited to make another one. Before I made this album, I was like, ‘How?’ Because I’ve never made one in my life. Making an album was just a scary hurdle I didn’t know how to cross, and I thought too much of it. Now, it just excites me for the future.
What are you hoping people take away from this record?
The honesty. I think the songs deal with different things — they range from love songs to songs about grief and songs about people who are not-so-great people. Ultimately, it’s this idea that we’re all just waiting on some sort of joy, and we’re all doing it in our own way.
Slow Joy album release pop-up at Spinster Records, Dallas. 8 p.m. May 16. Free with recommended RSVP.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky (@prestonjones.bsky.social).Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
