Post hardcore band Slaves has announced they will be changing their name due to the negative racial connotations in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In an official statement from the band shared on June 25, the group confirmed their upcoming album, To Better Days (out August 7), will be the final release under their current name.
From the band:
“As individuals, as well as a collective, we hold certain virtues close to our hearts – honesty and transparency with our fans being some of the most important. Early on in the process of writing and recording the new album, we discussed what this new iteration of our band should sound like, what it should look like, as well as what it should be called. We decided then, this would be our last release under the name Slaves.”
In the full statement shared on Facebook (below), the band describes that the original name transpired as a nod to the band members’ collective struggle with substance abuse in the past, admitting they had become “enslaved by our addictions and our own demons.”
While To Better Days will be released under the Slaves moniker, the band said fans can look forward to new music and the new name later this year. In recent weeks, more and more organizations and artists have announced plans to change their names in light of the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the country.
In June, mega country band Lady Antebellum announced they will be changing the group’s name to Lady A, due to the original name’s connection to slavery. That move has since become the subject of a much-publicized lawsuit that sees the band suing Seattle singer Anita White, who has used Lady A as a stage name for over 20 years, after she claimed the band did not contact her prior to publicly announcing the change. The two sides had apparently reached an agreement on a Zoom call several weeks ago, but the band says that agreement began to break down down after White’s alleged demand of a $10 million payment to use the Lady A name.
Earlier this month, experimental pop heroes Animal Collective announced they changed the name of their album Here Comes the Indian to its original working title, Ark, out of respect to indigenous people.
The band also announced it had removed the “mammy” from the original artwork of its 2006 EP, People.
Photo credit: Mehreen Rizvi
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