Shame have collectively built an empire in London. From the small stage of the Windmill Brixton to sold out theaters in New York, they have defined the newest wave of punk music. They aren’t one to push releases often, but with two fantastic records already under their belt they have announced Food For Worms, slated to be released on February 24th via Dead Oceans. Guitarist Sean Coyle-Smith sat down to discuss the new record, touring, and London.
I saw you guys in Albuquerque recently, playing with Viagra Boys. Can you tell me how that tour came to be? How it went?
Um, how did it come to be? I think it got put forward by our booking agent and obviously we’d met the guys a couple times previously so we were like fuck yeah let’s do it. Yeah man, it was wicked. That’s the fun thing about doing those kind of co-headline tours is that it gives people an opportunity to kind of see a bill they wouldn’t otherwise get to see, and the shows were just crazy, but yeah Viagra Boys are a tough bunch of men to keep up with. I’ll put it that way. Those dudes like to party.
Was that the first time you’d been back to the states since the pandemic?
Yeah, actually we’d just done our own headline tour about three weeks before, so we’d kind of just gone out and done some places and then went straight back. So, we spend like a good two months in America over the course of the summer. It was wicked man.
So, getting into the new record, I feel like Songs of Praise and Drunk Tank Pink were starkly different records. What evolution do you feel like you are making with this new one?
I feel like this was, apart from the first album, the most natural writing process. With Drunk Tank Pink it was maybe a little, not forced, but I think we had to put in a lot more effort to write the songs and I think that gave them a more specific direction where we were aiming for a certain sound. I think this time it just kind of came together so naturally that it turned out as it did without any real kind of steering of the ship from us. That’s why I think it’s probably our best record yet, because I think it’s the least overthought.
Can you tell me about the band’s alter ego, Almost Seamus?
Well, we had our own studio space for a bit and I think we were in a bit of a rut creatively so our management suggested the idea of doing a gig at the Windmill under a different name with the intention of having like a whole set of new songs. That kind of gave us something to work towards I suppose, and then we went on a writing retreat. I think five or six of the songs that were written in that period ended up on the new record so it definitely worked, and the gigs were fun as well. It kind of felt like a throwback to what we used to do back in the day.
What’s the meaning behind the title, Food For Worms?
Well, I came up with that actually. I think I was reading Game of Thrones or something and I saw it written down and was like that’s a cool phrase. I kind of like the fact that is speaks to the cycle of life in a quite a positive way. Death isn’t so final necessarily, you know, you go back into the soil. I just thought it was quite a striking title.
What was it like working with the producer, Flood?
It was pretty chaotic I’d say. He’s got an interesting way of working. He quite likes to direct from the back. He works with a lot of engineers so, I think we had three or four guys other than Flood in the studio at the same time. I don’t think he could function without them to be honest. I think technology has surpassed him, but no he’s amazing. Any idea goes with him. That’s the whole idea is that he wants to try everything. I remember I would try to come up with the most ridiculous ideas just to see if he would actually believe if I was being serious and he would be like, let’s do it.
It was also our first time doing an album in London, as well, which is where we all live. Yeah, it was a bit of a different experience kind of commuting to and from the studio every day. It was long though. It took us two and a half months to finish the record.
The record is very different musically. It steers away from a post-punk sound. What was the inspiration to move in that direction?
Since we released our first and second records, I think there’s been so many albums done in a similar genre and I think we all had our obsessive phase with no-wave and post-punk with the second record and I think we got it out of our system. I think it just didn’t feel very fresh anymore to do that kind of music. We were listening to a lot of different things like I was personally listening to a lot of Talk Talk, Jeff Buckley, and Springsteen. I kind of wanted to have less of a rock sound and more of a 90s alternative one. My writing would gravitate towards a lot of that sort of thing. A lot of alternate tunings and stuff like that.
What’s your writing process like?
We hammer out stuff in the rehearsal room, but usually an idea will get brought in and it usually starts on guitar. I’ll bring in some chord progressions or some riffs and then we’ll kind of work on that together and flesh it out from there.
My favorite track from the new record would have to be “Adderall”. Could you talk a little more in depth about how that track came to be and the significance behind it?
Well, when we had that month to write all those songs for that set we went on this writing retreat up to a studio in the countryside and Josh, our bass player, actually got covid the day before. So, the four of us went up with our friend Max who’s a sound engineer and yeah, Adderall came about on the first day. Steen started playing that bass line and I started playing that riff in the chorus. While we were working on that stuff we were sending the tracks to Josh and he came up with the end section. He turned up two days before we finished and we tacked it on to the end. It was very natural that one, it just came out of nowhere.
Post-punk music has exploded in popularity in the U.K. How does it feel having watched that genre, which was historically kept more underground, come into the mainstream?
It’s been interesting. I think after a certain point it kind of seemed like it was going to be inevitable. There was a bit of a lack of that kind of music. I feel like music was a bit stale. At a certain point there wasn’t anything in that punk, rock realm floating about. There were a couple of bands I remember seeing really early on, like Idles, and you’re just thinking these guys are going to be massive. So, I wasn’t really surprised to be honest. Same with Fontaines D.C as well.
What’s it like to be a part of that scene in London?
I mean, I suppose at a certain point when we we’re playing a lot around London it was quite exciting because you know every gig you’d do you would see other bands, but I mean the main place you see most of these people is when you’re touring the festival season and you’re kind of bumping into people dotted all over the world. Everyone knows each other. Everyone’s churning out music and there’s a bit of healthy competition going on, which is good.
What do y’all have planned for next year?
We’ve already started writing more again. There was a lot of writing going on while we were recording the album so there’s been a lot of going back through that stuff. I think we feel the creative juices are flowing at the moment and we kind of want to strike while it’s hot. Traditionally, once we’ve finished a record we’ll stop writing for like six months while we tour, but I think the aim is we want to keep the ball rolling and try to get new music out after this album as soon as possible. I think that’s the plan.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for you. Do you have any final thoughts about anything? The band, the record, life, death, politics?
Yeah, I think I’m just super excited. I think with the last album coming out during the pandemic, it’s gonna be great to do a proper album campaign again. You know, where we can actually do the full mega tour and get back out there. It kind of felt like we missed out with the last record so, yeah man, I’m just really excited.
Photo courtesy of Pooneh Ghana
