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Slow Children was born in July of 1994. Started by former members of the Minneapolis bands Mad Atchu and Riff Raff, bassist Dan Dryden, drummer Todd Litchy, and guitarist Steve “Stibs” Thommes began as a 3-piece, but decided to search for a fourth member. Dan and Stibs both sang, so they wanted to find either a second guitarist who also sang, or a lead singer/frontman to fill the spot. While playing a show at the Pacific Club in Superior, Wisconsin, they stumbled across the former singer/guitarist from the Iowa band Scary Hairy, who was known simply as “Spit”. He was told about the open position and was asked if he wanted to get up to sing a few songs. He ended up on stage for a good amount of the evening and was later asked if he wanted the job. He happily accepted as his band had just played their last show the week before at the Pacific Club. Spit then moved to Minneapolis and started rehearsing with the band. He also decided to ditch the guitar and just sing. For the next year, Slow Children toured extensively throughout the mid-west playing clubs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri and Kentucky.

In September of 1995, Stibs left the band and was replaced by Dr. X guitarist, Shaun Shaver. By this time the band had decided to slow down the traveling a little and stayed more in the Minnesota area and a few surrounding states. They also began writing some of their own material and playing a few songs out at their shows, but unfortunately none of the songs really stuck at the time and most of the ideas were scratched before they had a chance to be recorded. Then in November of 1996, due to some tension within the band and Todd’s decision to move to Florida, Slow Children called it quits… at least for the moment.

In late 1996, Spit joined the band Kickhead, and in early 1997, Shaver joined back up with Dan in a band called Unnatural. Near the end of 1997, Spit had decided to leave Kickhead along with bassist Joe Petersen to put together a new band. With Unnatural having disbanded shortly before this, Spit and Joe asked Shaver to join the new project. Spit had also been doing a few side projects along the way, one of which was called Pull, and was made up of members of the Ozzy/Sabbath tribute, Mr. Crowley. Spit asked Pull drummer Trey Bledsoe, who was actually from Kentucky, if he would be interested in re-locating to Minneapolis to play with the new band. He accepted the offer and began working on new songs at home in preparation, but after less than a month, due to reasons beyond his control, unfortunately was unable to make the move and had to decline the position. Unable to get the band off the ground, Spit, Shaver and Joe started writing original material with a drum machine, while still in search of a drummer.

Finally, in February of 1998, to get out playing shows, they recruited Gemini drummer, Tracy Shell to pull double-duty between the two bands. This started what they decided to call They Killed Kenny (a reference from the Comedy Central show “South Park”, which was still new and somewhat unknown). The band then put together their show, including a few new original songs and began to play a few clubs. Eventually, after a couple of months, the band was ready to pick up the schedule some more, which obviously meant it was time to search for a full-time drummer. So, Tracy stayed on long enough for a replacement to be found.

Then in June of 1998, Gemini guitarist Rob Kruegger bumped into former U.K.I. drummer Danny Heckmann at a show and introduced him to Shaver. The band held an audition and Danny was offered the job. Through the rest of the year the band played some new clubs and began to establish their style. Near the end of 1998, “South Park” was becoming extremely popular, so the band decided that the name should be changed to avoid sounding too cliché. Everyone felt that the logical answer was to go back to the name Slow Children, since two former members were in the band anyway and they basically had the same following that had been established from the beginning. So, at the 1998 – 1999 New Year’s Eve party at Sharky’s in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, the announcement was made and the beginning of 1999 started the re-birth of Slow Children.

At this point the band knew it was time to get serious about moving on to the next level, which meant writing, recording, and releasing their first cd. Within the next few months a handful of songs were put together and tried out live at their shows. The band also decided at this time to try separating the original project from the cover project and took the name the children of a lesser god, which they played their all original shows and would eventually title the first cd.

Then unfortunately, in October of 1999, the band was dealt a major blow when bassist Joe Petersen was in a serious car accident while on his way home from a show at the Press Bar in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Fortunately Joe had survived the crash, but his injuries would take roughly six months to heal enough to play again, so the band looked for a temporary replacement while Joe recovered. They found Chris Moorehouse who was at the time putting together a new project which had not got off the ground yet, so he accepted the offer.

When Joe finally returned in March of 2000, the band started playing a good amount of original shows and focused hard on finishing all the songs for the cd. Then in early August, they went into Gemini Studios in Faribault, Minnesota to begin recording. After roughly six months in the studio, everything was wrapping up and the finishing touches were being completed. Finally, in March of 2001, the children of a lesser god cd was released on the band’s own label, Poo Putt Bitch Records. For the next few months the band kept up with the name separation, but due to a lot of confusion from fans in both the original and the cover scene, they finally decided they were better off having just one name, and with their following being about seven years strong, the decision was obvious. Once again the band was known in all aspects as Slow Children.

With the name problem solved, it was time to keep pushing forward. The band ordered more merchandise, kept pushing sales and playing both original and cover shows. By early 2002, ideas were coming again so the band decided to put out a free 3-song disc to give their fans something while waiting for the next cd. Then in mid-2002, Joe decided to take on another project and joined the band Black Flood Diesel. Although Joe stayed in Slow Children and the band kept writing and playing shows, it still proved to be a setback as schedules of both bands started to conflict. Some shows had to be cancelled, while others were filled in by Spit’s friend and former Scary Hairy, Sludge, and Pull bassist, “Icky”. After roughly ten months, Joe left Black Flood Diesel and was back full time. At this point the band had hoped that it was back on track and ready to go full-force again, but unfortunately problems within the band still existed and although everyone attempted to work through them, things could not be solved and a change needed to be made. At the end of July 2003, Joe was let go.

Now came the challenge of replacing someone who had been in the band for five and a half years. While auditions were held and possibilities were discussed, the band once again turned to Chris Moorehouse, who was now in Cain’s Alibi, and Icky, who was in 45 PSI, to each fill in whenever they could. After a few months, Icky had left 45 PSI and was available. At this time, the band was still auditioning people, but they decided to offer Icky the job as the new bass player.

Next came the start of 2004, with a new line-up and some new motivation. The first goal was to work Icky into the mix. As he learned all of the existing songs, the band began working on new original ideas and started demoing them. Also, more new merchandise was ordered including new stickers, new t-shirts and a few other items. Some more new clubs were added to the schedule as well, so the new change had proven to be working out and obviously pushing the band in the right direction.

By the end of summer 2004, the band did a new photo shoot, printed up new posters and heading into the winter months, finally welcomed the long awaited return of the re-release of the children of a lesser god cd, which had been sold out for almost a year, but could not be re-ordered until certain changes were made to the artwork. The Slow Children logo was placed above the children of a lesser god logo, which remained the title of the cd. Also, the old website address, which no longer existed, was replaced with the slowchildren.net address, and a few other small changes were also made.

The beginning of 2005 brought more new original music to the live shows as well as to the studio, which will hopefully become full-length cd number two by sometime within the near future. Now, as the band approaches the fall of 2005 with a newly constructed website, even more new clubs, and lots of other little surprises, the band looks forward to an exciting and kick-ass new future.

As Slow Children has become a stronger unit than ever before, obviously more exciting details will be happening in the days, months, and possibly even years to come. So be sure to check back to this page as the story of Slow Children keeps growing…