Josh rouse interview love in the modern age

Josh rouse interview love in the modern age series#

Josh rouse interview love in the modern age series#

Three years ago, a combination of ShameвЂ™s gruelling tour itinerary and their habit of treating each night like a ladsвЂ™ holiday to Benidorm caught up with them, and Steen suffered a series of panic attacks in Germany. He talks openly about himself with a frank matter-of-factness if what heвЂ™s saying starts to get a little too deep or serious, heвЂ™ll relieve the pressure with a burst of schoolboy laughter. One-on-one, ShameвЂ™s lead singer makes for easygoing and thoughtful company. The next time we catch up with Charlie Steen he is struggling to shake off a hangover: the night before was the third and final time the pubs shut their doors to the public. вЂњWait until the world is in isolation and then drop the record.вЂќ We actually planned it all,вЂќ deadpans Forbes. ThereвЂ™s still plenty to rouse a moshpit once the opportunity arises, but in the albumвЂ™s atmosphere of claustrophobia and themes of detachment Shame have inadvertently made an apt soundtrack to life under Covid-19. Recorded in France at the start of last year with Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford, it rewires the boisterous energy of Songs of Praise into something very different: tracks twitch with nervous rhythms, sharp guitars elbow their way around lyrics filled with uncertainty and dislocation. Yet, while the band recently promoted Drunk Tank Pink (working title Love International on Planet Cloosh) with a video Q&A with Spice Girl Mel B (вЂњMel is a massive Shame fan,вЂќ explains Steen, вЂњsheвЂ™s hilariousвЂќ), it is a surprisingly serious-sounding record.

Hiring a tour van that could only turn left accepting a lift to the South By Southwest festival from a man with no shoes on being told they needed to вЂњupвЂќ their stage show for the Reading festival so renting an inflatable 20ft вЂњtube manвЂќ вЂ¦ the bandвЂ™s career to date appears to consist largely of logistical cock-ups and drunken mishaps.

Listening to the band (all in their early 20s, but looking even younger) reminisce, it becomes clear that life in Shame has been less The Filth and the Fury and more The Inbetweeners. Rave reviews followed, and its white-knuckle clatter can be heard echoing through the likes of Idles, the Murder Capital and Fontaines DC. A riot of roughed-up punk anthems, its pint-hurling choruses and lyrics gleefully fascinated with the depravity theyвЂ™d witnessed in backroom bars found its way into the Top 40. Shame have joined a host of other artists to try to save The Windmill, offering up a number of auction lots: Steen will paint вЂњany picture of your desireвЂќ, bassist Josh Finerty, drummer Charlie Forbes and guitarist Sean Coyle-Smith will write you a song, while guitarist Eddie Green is offering a Zoom cookalong.ДЄfter the success of their residency, Shame embarked on a near non-stop tour of duty, delivering incendiary performances across the UK, Europe and US before their debut, Songs of Praise, arrived in 2018. It was a fertile musical crucible that, as with so many others small venues, is now under threat. Photograph: Visionhaus/GettyДЄs well as earning Shame a reputation as one of the capitalвЂ™s most exciting live acts, their night, Chimney Shitters, lit the touch paper for an explosion of new guitar bands including Goat Girl, Sorry and Black Midi.