Slow Joy is the project of multi-artist Esteban Flores. He is new EP Mi Amigo Slow Joy, will come out on June 7th, 2024 via Mick Music. The album was produced by Mike Sapone (Oso Oso, The Front Bottoms, Grouplove) at New Jersey’s Barbershop Studios and along with the news, Slow Joy is releasing the “Pulling Teeth” single and music video. The song is the first from the forthcoming new EP, Slow Joy’s first new music of 2024 and Flores describes the “Pulling Teeth” as “basically an apology to my wife for me not being the easiest person to deal with all the time” along with being an expression of gratitude for her patience and support. “It’s one of those songs where it’s like, ‘Please don’t give up on me; I know I’m taking a little bit.”

Flores first started releasing singles under the moniker Slow Joy in 2020 and by 2022 the project started to gain momentum via a pair of singles – “Crawling” and “Soft Slam”. The music was and continues to be evocative. These early singles featured a sensitive combination of soaring space rock, noisy shoegaze, and dynamic post-rock. “I only shared my music because I wanted people to hear it, not because I was trying to get a career,” Flores says. “Lo and behold, the universe then let me have a career out of it.” Despite the initial success, Flores was unsure about pursuing a career in music, but while talking with a therapist to process his mother’s death, he had a change of heart.

While Wildflower had Flores dealing with his mom’s passing and looking at external influences impacting his life, Mi Amigo Slow Joy has him turning the lens at himself. The EP’s visuals and title, Mi Amigo Slow Joy, are also meaningful to Flores, as they represent him making sure his art reflects his Hispanic heritage and culture. “Naming it Mi Amigo Slow Joy is like, ‘Hey, this is rock music. It’s serious, and it’s important, and it’s me.’ And one thing that is me is being a Mexican-American person, and being proud of that culture, and showing it off.”

Pre-order Mi Amigo Slow Joy HERE