Dr. Dog drummer Eric Slick lets out 'New Age Rage' and turns on the 'Philadelphia Lights'

PHILADELPHIA — Eric Slick has spent 15 years drumming for Philadelphia-bred band Dr. Dog and toured with Waxahatchee and Kevin Morby.

Since moving to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2018 with musician wife Natalie Prass, he’s also been a busy session musician. He’s played on songs by Courtney Love and Taylor Swift — on the "Fearless (Taylor’s Version)" tracks “You All Over Me” and “That’s When” — as well as country acts such as Sarah Evans and Ingrid Andress.

But like so many drummers who spend hours gazing at lead singers’ rear ends, Slick has secretly harbored ambitions to front his own band.

OK, maybe not so secretly.

“Ever since the first time I saw Tool at the First Union Center in 2001. That was a real turning point for me. I said to myself, ‘I want to be a front person,’” says Slick 36, who grew up in Fairmount. (The Wells Fargo Center was then known as the First Union.)

He started on drums at 5 and studied at the Paul Green School of Rock at 11 with his bassist sister Julie, who tours with Adrian Belew and Jerry Harrison in the Talking Heads tribute band Remain in Light. The siblings are featured in the 2005 documentary "Rock School."

Slick played bass in Lithuania, the Philly band he co-led with Dominic Angelella, which released three albums, the most recent being "White Reindeer" in 2017. He first came into his own as a solo artist with 2020′s "Wiseacre," but he never really got to push the album properly due to the pandemic.

Now he’s ready to hit the road in support of "New Age Rage," his delirious, synthy collection of dance rock influenced by the 1980s funk of acts like Yellow Magic Orchestra and Prince.

Released last week, "New Age Rage’s" tone is set by its title cut, a cautionary tale about the dangers of artificial intelligence with a clever video directed by comedian and actor Demi Adejuyigbe.

The idea for the song title came from a concert by Philly New Age artist Laraaji, which was plagued by sound problems. Slick and co-writer Kyle Ryan drew on Zapp’s 1985 hit “Computer Love.”

“We used that as a template,” Slick said to The Inquirer while driving from Nashville to Philadelphia last week. “Thinking about what if you fell in love with a robot, but then the robot killed you? Kind of an ‘80s pastiche for a very modern concern.”

Slick loves Nashville for the opportunities for a working musician, but gets nostalgic for his hometown. That’s where "New Age Rage’s" 1970s soul homage “Philadelphia Lights” comes in.

“That was written in the throes of COVID,” he said. “I was so sad and homesick. So I really wrote that for my parents. They’re my biggest fans, and I just wanted to write them a song that was just like, ‘Philly is such a special place, and it still means a lot to me.’ It’s always going to be home.”