Introducing Interview: The Shaker Hymn

Though recently described as sounding like “The Cure’s “Lovesong” as sung by Aidan Moffat or Jarvis Cocker”, Cork five-piece The Shaker Hymn’s sound can’t really be put in a box – apart from that it’s pretty fantastic. Currently on an Irish tour, they took some time out so we could find out a little bit more about them…

How would you describe your sound in three words?
Idealistic. Melodic. Pop.

Your upcoming album, Do You Think You’re Clever, is your first UK release- what’s made you hold off on a UK release until now?
We release our music through our own label Heavy Noids Records – which we started when we released our first album two years ago. The truth is, we didn’t know how to go about it – or who to contact. This time around it was important that we expand horizons both writing and recording the record, and on the label side of things.

Your sound/lyricism is said to reflect Ireland; do you think this affects how UK audiences listen to/enjoy your music?
When I was writing the lyrics for this album I really concentrated on a small number of things. Who I am right now, the people around me and where we are all at. I wanted to call the record 25 before Adele got there but she sneaked up real quick. Really these are songs about being a little bit lost in a place, Ireland, that feels a little bit lost at a time in the world where a lot of people, seem to me, to be a little bit lost. In that way it reflects – “My Ireland” but on a lot of levels that could be anywhere for anyone.

And how important do you think it is to stick to your roots and make nods to Ireland in your music? Or is it all just coincidental?
I don’t think it’s important at all, music is about connection and change rather than geography or history – I think we make connection with our surroundings and the people we meet everyday, friends and strangers and I like to make nods to those roots but honestly I’m just as influenced by hip hop as I am by anything that’s tangibly Irish. I mean there’s some beautiful Irish music out there right now on the big stage – like The Gloaming for example, but even that is international and contemporary and pushing the boundaries of “Irishness”. What’s pretty exciting is that the roots of our Irishness is just as much about Nas, or Tina Turner or like Nirvana as it is about about Sinead O’Connor or Seamus Heaney or whoever because they have infiltrated and influenced Irish music and culture and our songwriting just as much.

Obviously you’ve been friends since childhood, but was music always an aspiration of yours? What was it that sparked the forming of the band?
Shane (drums) and Robbie (guitar) did a gig in Shane’s bedroom for his 13th birthday I think it was, and they did about 2 and a half songs for around 4 hours. One was definitely Teen Spirit, I can’t remember the rest for the whole repertoire. I got a guitar for Christmas a month later – up until then we we’re going to be footballers. That was the masterplan anyway. We learned to play music together as a four piece from when we were about 16 onwards. Weekends in a container by the docks writing angsty songs. When we got a bit older and started playing with other bands and spread the wings a bit musically. We would push out, playing with different friends and different styles and then eventually coming back together like an accordion at rest or something

You’ve been compared to a lot of 90s bands – where do you think your influence actually stems from?
We listen to absolutely everything but like ultimately we’re four men playing guitars and drums, which is kind of the ultimate soundtrack to the 90’s. When we first started buying CDs and writing songs it was peak era The Strokes and also that kind of cringey NME era of over-hyped indie bands which I honestly, bought into HARD. So that’s stuff is inevitably there, it’s part of our DNA. In making this album we we’re listening to stuff like Tame Impala, White Denim – I was big into Cass McCombs and stuff like that. And there’s a lot of fairly obvious references in the lyrics – to The Bends and Talking Heads – and there’s a very coy sample of Ian Curtis on the album.

What’s the weirdest tour story you have?
All of our US Tour with Chelsea Crowell in 2013 was weird, it was beautiful but it was weird. We stayed in a mansion with a bathroom full of voodoo dolls in Akron, Ohio – an older couple wanted to throw us a party. I think they might have been friends with Chelsea’s mom. The cops got called because our shitty tour van looked suspicious in the area, but then the dude who owned the house sent them away – because he was the DA for the state or something. In the morning we stole a voodoo doll as a memento but we crashed the van within minutes. So we googled how to get rid of cursed objects and learned that you have to bury them in a graveyard – which we didn’t have the guts to do. So we left him buried under some branches at a nearby cemetery. There was also a fight between that lady who owned the house and someone from the NRA but that was in the very hazy hungover morning and I can’t remember the details. Either way, I was absolutely freaked.

What’s next for 2016?
Right now, we’re doing an Irish Tour and we have a bunch of videos and singles coming out over the summer. All of which we shot and directed ourselves. The album gets a proper release May 20th and we will be in UK during the summer doing a few shows. We are playing some irish festivals soon and we’re going to be taking a trip out to the seaside in a few weeks to start writing some new music. That takes us up to Winter which we’re trying not to think about until we have to.

Do You Think You’re Clever? is out via Heavy Noids Records on May 20^th 2016