In the first of a new regular slot, Mick Robinson profiles up and coming new bands who are making a bit of a splash. First up, ShameFaced from, well, just up the road

There’s a huge groundswell of local talent waiting to burst out of their garage, rehearsal , studio space and play live, and when the lockdown is fully lifted this place is gonna see one hell of an explosion of energy & excitement.

Several local bands have caught my eye, and apart from playing on the Monty Platters show on Slack City Radio I’ll try and get some of those artists thoughts into the public arena via this page.  

ShameFaced are a young, raw almost 60’s garage style band from the Crawley/ Horsham area – great guitars, melodies and lyrics with clout & meaning. We talk to Mass, Cian, Chris and Jude about life as a rock band during lockdown.

How did the band form? When and where?

Chris: Mass, Cian and I met in secondary school, we all started learning our instruments at a similar time and started rehearsing together badly, we all chose to go to the same college where we met our rhythm guitarist Jude early on and he came to a rehearsal and since then we have been developing our sound.

What inspires your song writing?

Mass – There’s a lot of different ways it comes about to be honest, a lot of the time it’s a very subconscious thing if I already have a clear idea in my head on what I’m thinking about, it’s often a lot of observational stuff from my perspective. I’m a big fan of Mike Skinner (The Streets) and how he creates a mood with his words so effortlessly, David Bowie, Pixies and The Cure are also big influences on my songwriting. A lot of the time we create a vibe when we’re jammin together which helps me know which direction to go in depending on how I think the sound feels. If it doesn’t feel right then we just start playing something else until I feel like I want to write something.

What bands have influenced you?

Cian – Some of the bands that we all like and have naturally influenced our music are The Libertines, The Stone Roses, The Clash and The Streets and we all have our own personal inspirations.

Any contemporary bands you like?

Mass – Slaves, Flowvers, Fontaines DC, The Chats, Easy life.

How have your live gigs been going, prior to lockdown?

Jude – Really well, we have been enjoying every show we’ve played, Live performances are always fun and we like to see the same faces coming back to see us play.

Is there a good music scene in the Crawley, Horsham area?

Chris – Not particularly, although there is definitely the audience around for one. There’s a few great bands and artists about including Slow Time Mondays who we have played shows with a couple of times now. We have recently been playing shows in London which have all gone well, we definitely want to branch out more in London as well as places like Brighton.

What undercurrent vibes are there amongst your generation about this lockdown?

We got challenging rhymes for challenging times. 

Where do you see the band going given a normal non lockdown situation?

Cian – We have big plans for when things go back to normal, we’re currently working on a studio set up which we will be working on something you should expect to hear later on this year.

How do you feel about the music industry today? Spotify, record labels… Is the ideal these days to get signed still?

Mass – Today’s industry is a blessing and a curse. With platforms like Spotify, it encourages more people to make music and be inventive, so there is a lot of D.I.Y about which we are fans of. It is a lot harder to make a living for smaller artists, but everyone is starting to realise that record labels aren’t a necessity anymore and if you’re smart about it, you’re probably much better off being an independent artist.

Hopes for the band 2021 ?

Jude – By the end of 2021, we hope to have released our first body of work and to have played as many shows as possible, the songs we are set to release will be a serious step up from our previous demo releases.

Will you come play my pub in Brighton?

We’re there, any day of the week mate.

Anything to add feel free

For now if you haven’t heard them, listen to our demo releases over on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/shamefaced

and keep up to date with us on instagram or facebook  @shamefacedd. We hope to see you at a show soon.