Oswald Slain leans into chaos, delusion and DIY charm on new single ‘Hot Boys’

Bristol’s Oswald Slain isn’t interested in polishing the edges — if anything, he’s sanding them down even further.

Fresh off the back of his debut album BUCKY, Slain returns with Hot Boys, a sleazy, tongue-in-cheek “self-help bop” that skewers modern masculinity, doomscroll culture and the absurd pursuit of self-worth. It’s scrappy, chaotic and knowingly ridiculous — but beneath the bravado sits something far more human.

Written quickly, recorded even quicker, and deliberately left rough around the edges, Hot Boys captures Slain at his most instinctive. There’s humour, sure — but also a thread of vulnerability that cuts through the noise, as frontman Fitz grapples with confidence, contradiction and the strange theatre of being online in 2026.

With early support from tastemakers like KUTX and CLUNK, and a debut run of US shows at New Colossus Festival under his belt, Slain is building momentum in his own offbeat way — one Guinness-soaked, Marlboro-hazed anthem at a time.

Below, Fitz breaks down the fine line between satire and sincerity, the perils of doomscrolling, and why sometimes it’s better not to overthink it.

“Hot Boys” leans hard into humour and delusion — where’s the line for you between satire and something a bit too real?

Ok this has been really hard to answer. The line between satire and something a bit too real is one that is constantly danced in this song. There is a lot of realism in the song and a lot of exaggeration. Especially as it goes on. It really was a bit of ramble from my end lyrically. The main intention was meant to be more funny and feel-good than anything else but I also hope it highlights some more tender battles we all face when navigating our way through self value. I’m not really a physically confident person. Like I don’t look in the mirror and think ‘yea.. you're hot shit’ but.. if I’m being honest, I would fucking love to feel like that. Hot boys was a kind of attempt to do that in a funny satirical way… mainly just towards myself.

You describe the track as a kind of “self-help bop” — what were you reacting to when writing it, and how much of that mindset do you actually buy into?

I think a lot of it came from just doomscrolling. There are so many adverts now and its like they are all designed to get me to buy something. I always end up getting something stupid.. like some pills that will clean my liver, a really budget oversized sleeping bag or some really expensive jumper that takes 2 months to arrive and is nearly always too small. All these things sell you the idea that they will help with self esteem and your general well being but I think they probably do more damage than good. My Mindset is just to get on with it and and enjoy what you have.

There’s a strong contrast between the sleazy, upbeat sound and the more self-aware lyrics — did that tension come naturally, or was it something you were consciously pushing?

Yea.. I was just trying to find the balance between something that was fun, sounded cool, and would hopefully make people think a bit. It really is just meant to be fun and enjoyable to listen to and I thought it’d be fun to throw some more memorable lines in. I also live in constant tension of trying to be good and look after myself and then just completely letting it all go. I’m always fighting to eat well, go to the gym 3-4 times a week. Not smoke, not drink, keep my outlook positive and be nice to everyone but a lot of the time I just want to sit in a pub garden, drink endless pints of Guinness, chain smoke Marlboro golds and call everyone a cunt.

You turned this around pretty quickly — recorded in February, out in March — did that immediacy change the way you approached the track creatively?

Yea.. we never really finished it to be honest. It was super super rough and on the day. I mixed it and I’m not very good at mixing really. I ended up just taking all the plug ins off so it sounded really budget. It all got a bit Frattelis at one point and just didn’t really sit right. It felt intentional to keep it sounding kinda bad and like it was recorded in a dive bar round and out of tune piano through a shitty PA system.

Off the back of BUCKY and now playing New Colossus in New York, how do you feel your sound and identity as Oswald Slain is evolving right now?

It feels like it's in a good place. Its definitely moving forward and leaning into something that feels exciting. We’ve been working on loads more tunes and they are sounding mega. We’re just figuring out how to get them out and what we can do to get them heard in a day and age where it seems like you have it all at your fingertips but in a way it makes it harder to stand out. Especially as there are so many other great bands and artists out there at the moment.