Slip writer-director and star Zoe Lister-Jones’ career was propelled in part by music. In 2009, she starred in the romantic-drama Breaking Upwards, which her then-husband Daryl Wein directed. The film’s small budget necessitated her writing lyrics for its original soundtrack which were eventually composed and arranged by singer-songwriter Kyle Forester into Lister-Jones solo album, Skip the Kiss. The film helped launch Lister-Jones’ career.
In 2017, Lister-Jones co-wrote the lyrics for the original music in her directorial debut film, the comedy-drama Band Aid.
Most recently, while filming her dramedy-series Slip, Lister-Jones discovered California-based alt-folk singer-songwriter Miya Folick’s music. Lister-Jones was particularly taken by Folick’s 2023 album, Roach. Its songs have parallels with her Slip character’s arc and sometimes the “sad, bad girl anthems” are just what she needs after a long day..
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More: Zoe Lister-Jones: "Band Aid" (2017)
This segment has been edited for length and clarity.
I didn't know Miya [Folick’s] work until Whitmer Thomas, who plays my husband in Slip, sent me one of her songs called “Bad Thing.” That was a single before her album was released when we were shooting, so it was something that I was playing a lot as I would come home from very long days of shooting Slip. I think those songs are always really meaningful, the songs that are the soundtrack to profound and transformative artistic experiences.
Miya’s song “Bad Thing” was really that for me at that time. That song in particular is the story of someone who, at least [in] my take on it, does a bad thing over and over and over again, [and] was being fueled by some sort of addictive tendency, and that's being paired with a self awareness that isn't serving them or the people in their life. While making Slip, that was very much a mirror to my character’s narrative and to the narrative in general. I think [it shared] many of the larger themes that I was looking to explore as a person and as an artist.
It's an incredible album, from top to bottom. I think [it] very, very much explores those themes throughout: relationships that have gone south, how we find ourselves within them and without them, and what it means to grieve and find your footing again. There's anthemic songs and songs to cry to. I'm always looking for sad, bad girl anthems.
I love this song, “Get Out of My House.” [It’s] very anthemic and something that I dance wildly to alone in my bedroom. It's just a sick song and melody and driving drums, to dance alone to. Or with friends, but I prefer alone. It also is about, I think, self-actualization. Someone really understanding what's not good for them and how to feel better alone. Alone and dancing, and sometimes weeping. Weeping and dancing simultaneously, is sort of the Venn diagram of my life.