Slicker Cities is a project driven by Sydney musical all-rounder Alexander White. It’s also a band, a graphic novel with a feature film script, and enough storyline to fuel two forthcoming concept albums. It’s also the next step in the evolution of a former stock broker who almost turned his back on music, before a life-changing event saw him go back to his roots – and create a new world in the process.
The world of Slicker Cities is inhabited by Hugh Jenkins – a character created by Alexander while in recovery mode from a work-related burnout. Jenkins is a fictional parallel of his creator; the son of a stock broking tycoon who unknowingly fulfills his father’s legacy while being drawn into the middle of a war where he holds the key to a technological and biological breakout. After his girlfriend Donna, a rocket that he met at his first stock broking job, breaks up with him, his world is turned upside down. He has a manic episode, and finds himself experiencing time elapse – a form of time travel.
That’s the concept behind the entire creative process of Slicker Cities. Alexander’s childhood obsession with Marvel and DC Comics drove the creation of the graphic novel part of the project, and teenage dreams of being a film maker led him down the feature film path. It was also as a teen that his brother introduced him to a music production software set-up that was gathering dust. Alexander picked it up instinctively, as he also did when sitting down at a family friend’s piano on loan to his parental home.
“I wanted to make a soundscape to this storyline,†says Alexander of a quest that began in 2010. At the time the 21-year-old was producing disco sounds as a solo artist – a process he continues to this day, with his first productions as Alexander moniker soon to get an official release. He crossed paths with Dennis Dowlut (Electric Empire, ex-Disco Montego) soon after moving into studio space in Rushcutters Bay. They found a common musical ground in an unlikely sound, crafting a collection of songs with an indie-pop core but the classic sound of Australian summer festival anthems shimmering over everything.
The first fruits of their three years of labour are about to see the light of day. Led by City Lights, the forthcoming Slicker Cities EP release shows that the songs aren’t slaves to their concept – the single and its accompanying tracks, Feels Like Home and Life Goes On, are standalone tracks with choruses that just happen to take you inside the mind of a time-travelling stockbroker.
They’re also damn catchy tunes. And when the full band line-up begins to roll out the sounds behind the adventures of Hugh Jenkins, you can guarantee there’ll be many more anthems to come.