Shame in the USA
shame (non-capitalized with intention) is a band from London consisting mainly of unbridled energy and a certain bursting inexplicability.
They are quite probably the most excited band I have ever seen, bassist Josh Finerty leaping and stomping for the entirety of the hour and fifteen minute set, while the strumming of guitarists Sean Coyle-Smith and Eddie Green whip and weave and around each other forming the casing that holds the song together like a sonic bee hive, drummer Charlie Forbes bashing through more intricate drum compositions than he usually gets credit for, while singer and frontman Charlie Steen gets lost somewhere within or on top of the front rows of the crowd they’re playing for.
Whether they are playing to 60 people in a pub or a sold out theatre of thousands, they bring an exceedingly high energy level and commitment to gravitas to every performance, which is what makes their music work. Not that the music doesn’t work on recordings, but within the setting of a performance, if either the music or the performers didn’t commit fully to the mania - if the music existed without the persona, or the persona without the music - neither would succeed.
I’ve nearly reached the permitted word count for this introduction to their Q+A and I’ve spent it harping on about how fucking good they are at playing the music, and haven’t yet made a statement about the manner of music that they actually play, but really, what can be said about one of the most exciting bands of the year? How could that be properly explained? What’s that famous quote? Writing about music is like drawing about taste? Something like that. shame’s music has guitars, is fast but also slow, is manic but also considered, is screaming but also lulling - when you listen to shame it sounds like you are doing something, or perhaps that something is happening to you, within you, and all around you. Good fucking band. That’s word count. Here’s our interview with Steen.
I am speaking to you as you travel north from Durham, North Carolina in the midst of a North American tour. How have the shows gone?
It’s been good! We are still very early in the tour. We’ve gotten to go to some really amazing places that we’ve never been able to visit in the past. We were meant to do a tour of the American south for quite a long time but for reasons out of our control we’ve had to postpone.
Is it your first time in the south?
It’s not our first time in the south but we haven’t really been here since 2018 when our first album came out. On that tour we didn’t get to play in as many places and at the venues that we are getting to now, so it’s been great.
This most recent album, Food for Worms, is very different from your previous two, particularly from your first album, Songs of Praise, which was the last time you toured in this area. How has your audience received the change in your sound from the previous tour to now?
When we were here in 2018, I remember in certain places, there were only like twelve or fifteen people at our shows. Now, that number has grown significantly, and this tour has been sold off of the new album. Songs like ‘Six-Pack’, ‘Fingers of Steel,’ and ‘Adderall’ have done really well down here. Even tracks from Drunk Tank Pink (2021) like ‘Snow Day’ and ‘Water in the Well’ are doing well with the crowds down here. I think that as the tour goes on, we’ll be able to see which songs are really hitting.
Each of your albums actually sound very evolved and distinct from each other, but particularly Food for Worms from the previous. What do you think that you set out to accomplish with this last album and do you think you’ve accomplished that?
I think we just wanted to make an album that was more focused on the live album. It’s the first album we ever recorded live, and it was written in three months which is the quickest we’ve ever written anything. I think that it sounds sort of the most unified - united. Everyone was very involved, everyone's voice is on there. I think that you can hear that. It’s weird to say, but I think it sounds like us. I don’t think it’s taken massive influence from any other contemporary bands. It sounds quite confident, so in that way, I think we’ve achieved what we set out to.
“I think that we are sort of not a very cool band. We are more like the Inbetweeners than anything else.”
It’s impossible to make something in a vacuum. Do you think that you tried to not draw directly?
I mean, like you say, it’s impossible to not be inspired by things you’ve heard, but I think that instead of thinking about what will sound ‘cool’, or good for the radio, or good for a UK audience or an American audience - we didn’t have those insecurities that we previously had that led to a lot of over thinking in the past. Our producer said not to think of any of the songs as a single, because that’s the kiss of death. Instead of being like, ‘oh this song has to be three minutes, it has to sound like this,’ or whatever, we’d been playing the songs for months and we were able to test them and work them out. We were workshopping boring things like the BPM and getting into the details, so when we went in to record, we were very tight as a band and could basically play the songs at the click of a finger.
You are very known for the energy that you bring to the stage. What do you look for or aim for in a good live show?
Like what I say about being inspired, if you’re trying to be like anyone else, you can sort of lose what this is all about. Not forcing anything other than who you are as a band and as people - it’s about being true to who you are and about being passionate. We’re also playing with a great band at the moment, Been Stellar, who bring a lot of good energy to it. I think the hardest thing for a band can be finding their own identity, and you dont have to be ‘original’ because that’s pretty much impossible. Honesty and passion are it.
Your band identity is very well infused with a strange sense of humor. Can you talk about that?
Yeah… I think that we are sort of not a very cool band. We are more like The Inbetweeners than anything else, and we wanted that to come through from the beginning. We didn’t want to be wearing all black, not smiling, reciting french poetry. I think that we sort of want to have a laugh - that is more in sync with our personalities. That comes across very well with the live show, I think. We don’t want it to be gloom and doom, because that’s not who we are as people. It’s more about enjoying it and having a good time.
Have you been having a good time?
We’ve been having an excellent time, but we are only five days in.
Face your fears, here.