Artist: Cocktail Slippers

Title: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Publication: Aftenposten (Norway)

Date: February 4, 2009

We where a fly on the wall when Cocktail Slippers and Little Steven was in studio to produce the new record. Here is their own story. Written by: Harald Fossberg

The band from Oslo, Cocktail Slippers got to written songs from Steve van Zandt, known from Bruce Sprinsteen and Sopranos, also known as Little Steven. Both of his songs are on their new single, with release date February 14, Valentines Day. Amusingly one of the songs are titled "St Valentines Day Massacre", while the other is called "I Heard You Got A Thing For Me". During two hectic days last year they recorded the songs, that will be on their new record, released on Little Stevens label, Wicked Cool Records. 

Little Steven: I woke up in the middle of the night when I was going to Norway with a melody in my head. When I met the girls I asked them if they could bring me a cassette player to record it. 

CS: The player is Stines, and to put it nicely, its not exactly up to date. So when we listened to his recording you could hear him and his gitar and another noise in the background. 

LS: I dont wont to push my songs on anyone, and The Cocktail Slippers are good writers themselves. As a matter of fact their writing is getting better and better! And there are other band who never should have written their own songs. Its rare that I write songs for others, but I also wrote a couple of songs to The Chesterfield Kings next album. 

CS: The first thing Steven said when he arrived in the studio was: - we need balloons! We went out and bought balloons for NOK 2000. When we came back he said: - Not enough balloons, and he gave us NOK 5000 more. Then he became happy. At one point during the recordings he told us that he needed to concentrate. We said that we could remove the balloons. He answered: - I need the balloons to concentrate!

LS: Cocktail Slippers got what it takes. They have talent. Ingjerd is a fantastic vocalist. They are serious, and they want to make it. They do shows, one of the most important thing for a band to develop. And they are combining the past and the feature, they have their roots in the 60ies, and also the punk from the 70ies and 80ies. Thats new to my ears! The two most enjoyable days I´ve spent in the studio! 

CS: Little Steven is great to work with. He could have just taken it easy, but he is helping young bands.

LS: There was a period when I was only occupied with the business, but I lost the glow and stopped writing. Now there are a lot of young bands, with energy. Cocktail Slippers is a really good band, and with the right attitude. They have an open mind and they listen to suggestions.