Foto-© Sam Gregg

2018 waren shame die Sensation und wurden in UK als „Großbritanniens beste neue Band“ (DIY) gefeiert! Grund dafür waren neben dem gefeierten Debütalbum Songs Of Praise, die energischen Live-Shows der fünf Herren. Zuletzt kehrte die Band schon mit den neuen Singles Alphabet und Water in the Well auf die Bildfläche zurück – und heute erscheint nun endlich ihr Zweitwerk Drunk Tank Pink via Dead Oceans! Produziert von James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Mumford & Sons, Florence and the Machine, Depeche Mode) ist der Post-Punk-Entwurf nun noch größer, breiter und mitreißender. Und zeugt von der durch den Lockdown vermachten Erkenntnis auf dem harten Boden der Tatsachen, dass man nach all dem Trubel, Ruhm und Touren nun ohne Live-Shows im Kalender doch irgendwie auch mit sich selbst wieder auskommen muss. „When you’re exposed to all of that for the first time you think you’re fucking indestructible“, erinnert sich Frontmann Charlie Steen. „After a few years you reach a point where you realise everyone needs a bath and a good night’s sleep sometimes.“

„You become very aware of yourself and when all of the music stops, you’re left with the silence,“ so Steen weiter. „And that silence is a lot of what this record is about.“ So zog sich Steen in einen kleinen, rosa gestrichenen Wandschrank zurück, der zuvor eine Waschmaschine beherbergt hatte, um nachzudenken und zu schreiben. Doch nicht nur er und seine Bandkollegen hatten Pandemie-bedingt mit ihren inneren Dämonen zu kämpfen. „The common theme when I was catching up with my mates was this identity crisis everyone was having,” reflektiert Steen. „No one knows what the fuck is going on.” „It didn’t matter that we’d just come back off tour thinking, ‚How do we deal with reality!?’”, stimmt ihm Gitarrist Sean Coyle-Smith zu. „I had mates that were working in a pub and they were also like, ‘How do I deal with reality!?’ Everyone was going through it.”

Coyle-Smith wählte indes eine andere Taktik als Steen: Er verbarrikadierte sich in seinem Schlafzimmer, ging kaum noch aus dem Haus und dekonstruierte stattdessen wie besessen seine Art zu spielen und Musik zu machen. Er zerpflückte die roten Fäden der Musik, die er beim Hören geradezu verschlang: Talking Heads, Nigerian High Life, den trockenen Funk von ESG, Talk Talk… und schuf selbst Werke von panischer und knisternder Intensität. „For this album I was so bored of playing guitar,” erinnert er sich, „the thought of even playing it was mind-numbing. So I started to write and experiment in all these alternative tunings and not write or play in a conventional ‘rock’ way.”

Passend zum heutigen Album-VÖ hat uns die Band zu jedem Song kurz den Hintergrund erzählt – in unserer Track by Track-Reihe!

1. Alphabet

A direct question to the audience and the performer as to whether any of this will ever be enough to reach satisfaction. 

2. Nigel Hitter

This song focuses on daily routine, the motions we go through and how extraordinary all this seemed to me after coming home from touring.

3. Born in Luton

Born in Luton is about being locked outside a flat. It exaggerates the mundane and makes it into something unique and overtly dramatic.

4. March Day

This is about my consistent unwillingness to wake up on time. My obsession and devotion to my bed and my bedroom. 

5. Water in the Well

Over the last few years we’ve been consistently inspired by the people we’ve met and the places we’ve been. All these locations and characters have an effect on us and seep there way into this song, including ‘Acid Dad’, the name of the person who runs Dewar Farm in which we wrote a lot of DTP. 

6. Snow Day

A lot of this album focuses on the subconscious and dreams, this song being the pivotal moment of these themes. A song about love that is lost and the comfort and displeasure that comes after you close your eyes, fall into sleep, and are forced to confront yourself.

7. Human, for a Minute

The first song we wrote after Songs of Praise, the main focus being on a relationship slipping away and the discovery of my own identity through this collapse. 

8. Great Dog

One of the first ones we got down in Dewar Farm for DTP, a nonsense song about the perks of thievery and the beauty of all canines. 

9. 6/1

An intense evaluation of myself, exploiting my flaws, fears and narcissism. 

10. Harsh Degrees

A song of lust and puppets. 

11. Station Wagon

A final conversation with myself and an ode to the great Sir Elton John at the end.