It was our second time seeing and talking to Shame. First was at last year’s Off Festival. In few months they became a massive revelation selling out venues all over the world. Fortunately, personally they are the same as the first time – highly energetic, loud and brutally honest.
It’s nice to meet you again, guys. At Off Festival you were a small, unknown band. Few months later and you’ve nearly sold out every show in UK and Europe.
Sean Coyle-Smith (guitar): Lucky.
Has anything changed for you?
Sean: I think it’s very different playing shows post album coming out. It’s pretty amazing.
Josh Finnerty (bass): Yeah, we didn’t play any shows in UK and Europe directly after releasing the album. We went straight to America and Australia and it was weird for us going over. We were, like, doing alright in the States because people knew about us everywhere. And then before we know, the UK shows sold out. It’s weird. It’s really strange. But you know, I guess, it’s not gonna last forever.
I don’t know if you remember, but we had an interview with Preoccupations after yours and you asked us, if we could ask them about you going on tour with them.
Josh: Yeah! I was saying that I love Women!
I asked Matt (Flegel of Preoccupations), and he said: “No. Well, maybe if they’re nice people”. And I believe you did play with them in America.
Eddie Green (guitar): Yeah, we met them in Belgium, and he was like: “This guy in Poland asked me if you could support us.” I asked: “What did you say?”. He said: “Absolutely fuckin’ not.”
Josh: But then he said: “Actually, I would like you now.”
You had a chance to play with all these amazing bands like Ought and Protomartyr. Was there any difference between these concerts and the ones you had touring with, for example, Slaves?
Charlie Forbes (drums): The difference is, these bands don’t make shit music.
Charlie Steen (vocals): The tour with Slaves was very corporate. It was all about money. And this tour was more about music and the fans.
Eddie: On a personal level it’s nice to perform with bands that you actually like as people. The shows with Ought were nice. Protomartyr was really fun to tour. I was told not to keep up drinking with Joe from Protomartyr, but I tried. It’s impossible.
You’re also more present in media right now. I saw that article about you getting a grant from the government.
Eddie: That’s hilarious. The Sun is basically like the single worst newspaper in the UK if not the world. It’s very right wing and if they’re not attacking left-wing people, they’re attacking some celebrities for no reason.
Charlie F.: They’re attacking immigrants.
Eddie: It’s so bad, they actually don’t sell it in Liverpool.
So you didn’t get any grant?
Charlie F.: No, we did, but they were angry we got it, because we’re anty-Tory. They say we shouldn’t get any funding because we don’t support Theresa May. Which is a bit fascist.
Sean: It’s very fascist.
Charlie S.: We’ve gone for 18 thousand pounds. We were doing six-week tour of America and we were going to lose 20 thousand pounds. Instead we only lost 2 thousand. The thing is that there were only 7 artists or bands, who got any funding from the government. Out of thousands that exist in United Kingdom, which is quite ridiculous. And people think we’re making tons of money out of it, which is completely untrue. The UK and America don’t really have any funding system for the creative industry.
Eddie: It’s so bad to see all those American bands touring Europe, renting and driving the vehicles for hours, and hours, and hours, spending their own money. It’s ridiculous.
Speaking of touring, I believe this is the first punk show in the history of this place (BARdzo bardzo).
Josh: Oh, we didn’t decide that. It’s the agency.
Eddie: In America we did a lot of houseshows. That was cool.
Josh: Felt like a houseparty.
Eddie: There was no stage, no barriers. We were really close to the crowd.
Josh: I think we have a good mix of DIY venues, places like this one and, like classic venues on this tour.
Let’s get to the album for a second. I’ve noticed that you’ve changed one, rather controversial line (“It makes me feel like you’re my bitch”) in lyrics to “Gold Hole” in comparison to the single version.
Charlie S.: We’ve changed that, because we did a radio session in December two years ago. It was our first live session with Steve Lamacq. Of course, you can’t swear on the radio in the United Kingdom. So, I’ve changed that lyric and we liked it.
Josh: It’s the less obvious thing to say.
I believe you’ve also changed the mixes in older songs.
Sean: We’ve re-recorded all the singles.
Josh: Yeah, because we recorded the album in Residential Studio in Wales and we wanted the album to all have, like, cohesive sound to it. We wanted to be mixed by the same things, played with the same drums. To sound like an album.
Sean: And I think it’s a bit lazy when bands just put already released songs on their albums.
Josh: It depends on the album, but yeah.
Charlie S.: It’s a good thing if you have a chance to re-record something.
Eddie: I think the bands like Sheer Mag would get away with this, because they sound the same all the time.
So, as I said in the first question, your position has changed since our last interview. What’s in the plans for future?
Eddie: I think the plan is to basically finish the rest of this tour, see the rest of the year out, go to some new places and then get some time off touring and start thinking of album two. We’ve already demoed some new songs. Off course it’s great to be touring but I think we’ve done it long enough. So, we see the end of this year out and we’re going to start working on the new album in few months. It’s gonna be out… whenever it’s out. Or never!
Josh: We’ll get rich or die tryin’.
Eddie: Yeah, with all that government money that goes straight to my pocket (Laughs).