Walter Slide is a beloved Chattanooga rock group. Walter Slide is a band which transports its listeners to a place of contemplative bliss. The basslines are impossible not to dance to, and the lyrics are so funky that you have to work not to memorize them. Their songs are so melodic that it’s easy to be transported to another plane.
Walter Slide. Courtesy of Cooper Twit.
I had the opportunity to see Walter Slide live on Friday, February 2. Their stage presence is entrancing, and there was not a single person in the audience who was not dancing to the band’s hypnotic songs. There were five new songs performed at this show along with all of the songs which are currently released.
Composed of Jaron Utt, Hampton Peay, Daniel Nelson and our own Covenant grad Cooper Twit, Walter Slide is a hard rock group with aspects of shoegaze, jazz and hyperpop; but a group with influences all across the musical spectrum. Because of their broad range of influences, it’s easy for people of all different preferences to enjoy. The band’s biggest asset is that they’re making music which is different from anything else being made. Although one can broadly narrow them down to a “rock” group, their music encompasses much more than that.
Twit graduated from Covenant in 2023 with a degree in graphic design. For his first two years here, he was a singer in the jazz band and then as a guitarist and then a bassist his senior year.
During his time at Covenant, John Hooker and Jake Brown and Juno Kauffman came together to create Dook Walt Jr. Twit’s musical journey took a new form the first summer after his freshman year at Covenant, journeying for gigs with his father under the name “Indelible Grace.” During Twit’s sophomore year, he and Hooker combined to create E-Grits, and released the hit song “Love On Hold,” (if you haven’t heard it yet, you ought to set down the newspaper and pull it up) which immediately exploded with success. During Twit’s senior year, he lived at The Moat (a senior house) where he started a small in-house recording studio. Twit joined Johnny and the Libs (a band with Covenant grad John Livingston) on drums and helped Livingston with his recording process.
Twit drummed for a youth retreat at Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church when he met Daniel Nelson. When Nelson heard Twit drum, he offered him a place as a guitarist in the group he was forming. The first band practice was in the back of an abandoned church in a bad part of town. Twit, sure that he was at the wrong place, called Nelson. Inside, there was a lot of professional recording equipment. Twit remarks being enamored with the “new level of professionalism … I felt like I had to step up and take things really seriously. We jammed really well, and it all just meshed really well. The rest is Walter Slide history,”
Twit explains that the difference between Walter Slide and his college projects is that “in a college band, you’re not trying to be the best band in the world. Whereas us in Walter Slide, we’re trying hard to maintain professionalism and be the absolute best that we can be. We all push each other to get the best sound,” Twit said.
Concerning new material, Twit remarks that “our goal is to put out a 6-song EP with combined new and released material. We have the bare bones of the songs which we recorded in November 2023.” Their goal is to finalize these songs and have them out by April of this year.
“The Covenant jazz band had a huge impact on my music. When it comes to Walter Slide, my guitar is definitely inspired by Steely Dan, Mac Demarco, Hippo Campus and Stevie Wonder,” Twit said. Twit is also a fan of Chattanooga band Gumm. He has also been playing with a band called Girl Puppy, which he says “has really pushed me to further develop my guitar playing.”
His words of encouragement for other musicians are: “if you’re playing in a band that you want to be successful, play often and treat every gig like it’s the most important gig of your career. It is important to stand out. I think a reason why Walter Slide does well is that we listen to each other. It’s important to know when you need to shine in the spotlight and when you need to step back,” Twit said.
“It is easy to tell when musicians are playing music to be famous versus when they use it as an outlet to express themselves,” Twit remarked on stage presence. A goal for Walter Slide is to play Bonnaroo (a music festival in Tennessee). Of course, goals include putting out an LP and to play on a tour with a band which they enjoy.
Make sure to follow the group on Instagram at @walterslideband and keep your eye out for their live concerts! You won’t want to miss it! Walter Slide’s music is also available on Spotify, Apple Music and you can find their studio recordings and their live performances on YouTube.