When a band have an EP out with a major label you can generally guess their immediate plan. An EP, then an album, then a tour, then world domination etc. The Shoos have a plan that includes most of that, expect for one vital part.
“We don’t want to do an album,” says Scott, the band’s drummer and unofficial spokesman. “For the time being?” I venture. “No we’ll never do an album, just the time-frame involved…and we’d prefer to have a really strong EP, like 6 great tracks, instead of having some just OK songs and saying, ‘that’s an album track’.”
“Albums can work for some bands I’m sure, it’s just not for us,” points out Barry, diplomatically.
The album as a format may be declared every other week these days but it’s unusual to hear an upcoming band, with the means to record a long player, dismissing the tried and tested route for promoting your music. It speaks of an admirable single-mindedness, the band clearly have big ambition but aren’t going to be merely passengers on the journey.
It’s a long way from their beginnings as an “awful covers band”. Scott is joined by Texas, vocals, and Barry, guitarist, today. Bassist Steve, and Scott’s brother, makes up the foursome. Any particularly bad cover they played? Texas cringes at the memory of ‘Bad Moon Rising’ and ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ in particular. The band quickly found that developing their own material ended up sounding a lot better than trying to ape Creedence Clearwater Revival.
There is an open enough policy on writing new music, everyone has a say “Yeah Texas might have a bass line or I might have a lyric or hook, or Steve or Scott,” explains Barry. “If it works it works and if it doesn’t it doesn’t but most of the time I think it works. It’s a democracy, kind of.”
“Lyrically..it’s great to write about things that maybe everyone can see a bit of themselves…like writing about becoming a bit like your Da” enthuses Scott. I’ve listened to a bit of their stuff online before the interview but make a note to go back and give it more time. Their enthusiasm is infectious.
The EP ‘Rescue Room’ was released on Friday (April 8th) and it’s a record the lads are clearly proud of. The plan is to promote it to death and hopefully play plenty of the summer festivals. We should be hearing a lot more of them in the coming months.