How’s things with Shame?
We’re good, just in Clapham doing pre production for our tour. I’ve just got a trigger pad for our live live shows, they’re getting pretty big now so we’re trying to push it out a little bit more. The trigger pad is going to be great, I’m going to get some siren sounds hooked up to it.
We’re going to be heading off to Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong in two days so we’re just trying to cram in as much preparation as possible before we go. Then we’re back home for the UK tour.
We were meant to be playing the O2 ABC in Glasgow but it burnt to a crisp, what is it with Glasgow and fires? We’ve played Stereo about twelve times, the green room upstairs in Stereo is banging.
Have you any stories from when you’ve played in Scotland previously?
My memory is absolutely shocking but there was this one time we supported the Fat Whites at The Garage, we were downstairs in Stereo afterwards. We saw this bloke punch this other bloke on the face, like completely knocked him down. The bouncer walked over and was like ‘If I see you do that one more time you’re out’. Also before hotels were a thing for us, I’ve slept in a car on the hill behind The Garage in mid winter, which was horrible.
How has 2018 been for the band?
It’s been a pretty crazy year for us, I don’t think any of us saw it panning out like this. It’s been non stop. We’ve done about 160 shows all around the planet, playing in places we’d never even dreamed of. It’s fun playing abroad but it’s really nice back playing in London.
The album was the turning point, at that point a lot of people had saw us live. It had become a question of whether or not we could do it on the record. We’d been gigging for years and we were doing alright but them the album came out and everything kinda changed.
So, the band started when you were 16, right?
Yeah 16-17. We’d no clue. My mate Eddie, the rhythm guitarist, I’ve known him since we were 4 or 5 years old. He’d always played guitar, he used to play talent shows when we were in primary school. I started playing drums and I was on at him for about 5 years about starting a band.
We didn’t know what we were doing in the start, I don’t even think now that we really know what we want to do except keep playing tunes that we like.
Do you have any set rules for when you’re writing tunes?
I guess the main rule is just trying to make it not sound like another Shame track. If we start jamming something and it sounds a bit like one of our other songs it’ll usually get shelved. We don’t want to have an album of songs that all sound the same.
No big solos. No power chords. No big fills. No drums solos.
There are just too many bands that don’t give enough of a fuck to actually say anything. I think with a lot of bands, it’s just easier to not say anything and not then risk people disagreeing, it’s cowardly. On the other hand, bands like Idles and Sleaford Mods are just so painfully political, it’s great. You can’t listen to the songs and not think about what they’re saying. With Idles especially, it’s not metaphors, it’s straight up fuck the tories.
