“We never expected to be four albums in and still getting to do this.”  Post-punk cult favourites shame on mirrors, motives, and their riotous fourth record, Cutthroat.

Post-punk and art rock bands in the UK are thriving. Scores of exciting new groups have popped up over the past few years, generating talk of a guitar music renaissance. But it wasn’t always like this. Back in the mid-2010s, after seemingly most modern ‘indie’ music had become monotonous, publications and industry folk were speculating on the death of the British band.

That would’ve been a crying shame. Luckily, alongside the emergence of the likes of Idles and Fontaines D.C., Charlie Steen and co dropped one of the most explosive debut albums of 2018. Songs of Praise breathed a vibrant grit into British guitar music, and the post-punk revival was born. In the seven years that have followed, the five-piece have become known as one of their nation’s most challenging, dynamic and progressive acts, and undoubtedly one of the best live bands on the planet. 

2021 sophomore Drunk Tank Pink took shame into complex, existential and musically experimental territory; a flaunting of the depth of their artistic ambition. Food for Worms heightened the avant-gardism of its predecessor, opting for sprawling arrangements and long, atmospheric passages of instrumentation.

Steen, frontman and songwriter, labels this new fourth album, Cutthroat, as the closest in intent to their debut. And it does feel like a band stripping back the – perhaps sometimes unnecessary – intricacies, instead chiselling the composition and songwriting formula. It’s an angry album in large, distasteful at the state of the world, but dripping with humour and humanism, like an outrageous joke that you shouldn’t laugh at but can’t help but smirk. 

A near decade into their career as paradigms of post-punk and leaders of the underground, shame continue to illustrate their worth among the upper echelons of British alternative music. Speaking to Wonderland, Steen discusses the return of the band, their prior catalogue, and the meaning of Cutthroat.

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Hey boys! How’s it going? How’s your summer been?

Hello, hello. It’s been a grand old summer thanks, lots of shows and feels great to have the new album out. 

This is the first time we’ve ever released an album over summer and it’s been great fun getting to play the singles at festivals showcasing them in their live format.

Talk us through the origins of shame. How did you first come together? How has your personal and professional bond evolved over the years?

We’ve all known each other since we were kids and started the band in our final year of A Levels. 

We started at the Queens Head, a pub in Brixton that’s no longer there, ‘cause Forbes’ dad was good mates with the Landlord. The people in the pub would show us all these bands, The Fall, Stooges, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, who heavily influenced our sound. 

We’ve been through a lot together, personally and professionally. Because of how young we were when we started out, we went through all these life experiences together. 

We know each other inside-and-out and that’s what makes the bond so strong. 

You’ve been central to the renaissance of post-punk in the UK. Why do you think the scene grabbed such attention in the backend of the 2010s?

I think it was how a group of bands, who were the same age and shared the same desires and viewpoints, had organically come together and were pursuing this music, not out of profit, but out of passion. 

How do you measure the post-punk and wider guitar scene in the UK now? Do you think bands hold the credibility and authenticity they did prior? 

I think there’s a fuck load of guitar bands now lol. Lots of bands have maintained their credibility and things have changed in some ways because of how many people are now doing it. It’s amazing to have so much good music out there that’s contemporary. 

Your breakout 2018 debut album Songs of Praise, has gone down in folklore. How do you reflect on those early days, playing the Windmill etc, finding yourself and your audience?

I think back on those times with a lot of fond memories, it was only seven years ago but feels like so much longer. 

They were filled with a lot of fun, naivety, and passion. We didn’t expect anything from starting the band, we just did it because it made sense.

We never expected to be four albums in and still getting to do this. 

Describe your debut as an emotion, your sophomore Drunk Tank Pink as a colour, and your third album Food For Worms as an object.

Desire, blue, a mirror.

Congrats on your fourth album! How are you feeling about the release?

Thank you, we’re all very happy with it and we’re all very proud of this album. I can’t wait to take it on the road, it’s gonna make for a good show.

Cutthroat is such a visceral album title. Why is that the choice? 

I think it sums up the sonic and lyrical motives of the record pretty well, direct, to-the-point, provocative and confrontational. 

Thematically, the album casts its gaze on very current worldly issues. How did you tackle such difficult, divisive topics within the writing process?

It came pretty naturally, I guess you take it what’s around you and there’s a lot to swallow at the moment, maybe too much. 

You worked with Grammy-winning producer John Congleton on the new record – how was that experience? What inspired the sonic direction?

He’s a hero. Love that man. He was just to perfect person to steer the ship, and we had a lot of fun doing it. His whole thing was not to over-think or over-complicate, which we can sometimes be prone to doing. I guess within the band we have different tastes, and it was about putting them all together. We wanted this album to be fun, primal, and loud – so with this direction in mind we were able to have a lot of fun. 

Where does this fourth album sit within the shame discography? And within your wider vision of what the band is and can be?

It feels a bit closer to our first record; it’s not an introverted album that’s self conscious. It’s arrogant, callow, and loud. I think we’ve pushed ourselves here and have created something that is a real joy to play, that’s got to be a good sign when you can’t wait to play something live. 

You’re soon embarking on a sprawling tour of the UK and EU, followed by a run of dates in the States at the beginning of next year. How are we feeling? Ready?

Very good. Very ready. 

What are the long-term ambitions of shame?

To leave ‘em laughing.

Words – Ben Tibbits