UK punks Slaves have rebranded themselves as Soft Play and apologized for their original name. “As younger men, we responded to criticism of the name from a place of fear and defensiveness,” frontman Laurie Vincent and drummer Isaac Holman, who are both white, wrote in a statement. They added that they had wanted to evoke “the grind of day to day life,” but acknowledge that the intent “doesn’t change the fact that the name Slaves is an issue.” The artists urged fans to respect the decision as they prepare to return with new music. Read the full statement below.

The name Slaves had drawn criticism since the band rose to relative prominent in 2012, with debut EP Sugar Coated Bitter Truth. In 2015, Vincent told The Fader the criticism came as a surprise, because they had been looking for “an abrasive sounding word, like Clash,” and “weren’t trying to provoke.”

Slaves released their most recent album, Acts of Fear and Love, in 2018. The duo had been on hiatus since 2019, in part due to the death of Vincent’s partner, with whom he has two children.

Soft Play:

Until now, we’ve not been able to comment on what’s going on with the band, as life changing events have left us on hiatus, just trying to get through each day. There were times over the last few years when we never thought we would ever step foot on a stage together again. However we feel that the time has now come to pick up where we left off. Before we do that though, we want to address something important.

When we called our band Slaves, it was intended solely as a reference to the grind of day to day life. As younger men, we responded to criticism of the name from a place of fear and defensiveness. Feeling backed into a corner, our own pride caused us to fight for a name we weren’t even sure we wanted anymore. It felt at times as if our band name had defined us and we were scared of what might happen if we changed it.

However, we now recognise that our original intent doesn’t change the fact that the name Slaves is an issue. In this day and age we believe it is very important that people change and make improvements no matter how far down the line they are. The name doesn’t represent who we are as people or what our music stands for any longer. We want to sincerely apologise to anyone we’ve offended.

We are aware that people have differing opinions on the name, we hope you can accept and respect our decision and not continue the argument between yourselves. When it comes down to it, the music and the community surrounding our band are what matter the most and we don’t want anything to stand in the way of that community being as inclusive as possible. Our music is for anyone and everyone.

With that being said, we are very happy to be back together again and are excited for what the future holds.

Our new name is ‘SOFT PLAY’.

Love Laurie and Isaac

Xxx