Im Gespräch mit Shields!

Wir haben ja die letzte Woche ein wenig die Werbetrommeln für das Konzert der britischen Band Shields gerührt! An alle die nicht da waren, die haben ein fantastisches Konzert verpasst. Die Überschrift verrät auch, dass wir die Möglichkeit hatten mit der Band zu sprechen. Das Interview und wie der Abend war, kommt jetzt!

Wir ihr ja wisst, entdeckten wir Shields im Stereo. Dort lief ihr Song Mezzanine, den kriegen wir übrigens seit Donnerstag nicht mehr aus dem Kopf, der gefiel uns auf anhieb so gut,dass wir ihn geshazamt haben. Vor ein paar Wochen erfuhren wir, dass Shields, die besagte Band, nun für drei Konzerte nach Deutschland kommt. Letzten Donnerstag in Nürnberg, dann Freitag spielten sie auf dem Melt! Festival und am Samstag in Hamburg. Diese Chance konnten wir uns nicht entgehen lassen, doch leider konnte Lara nicht und deswegen vertrat ich fresh4funky an dem Abend. 😉

Nun da wir auch Leser haben, die leider kein Deutsch sprechen/verstehen, dachten wir uns mal wir schreiben jetzt mal in Englisch weiter. Bitte verzeiht mögliche Fehler… 😉

Their concert was fantastic! Even if we are saying this after every concert, but this concert is one of our favorite concerts that took place in Stereo. Shields are a very good live band and their music is good for dancing. It’s hard just standing there and listen to the music – you have to dance! 😉 Of course they played my favorite Songs Mezzanine and Pharaohs. Also their new songs, which they didn’t played live before, were quite good! If you have the chance going to a concert of Shields, go to the concert and have fun! I would love to see them again on stage…

Luckily I had the chance to ask Tom (drums) and John (Percussion, Bass, Samples) few questions about festivals and their upcoming album.

For the people who don’t know Shields, how would you describe the band and your music?

John: I think we get described a lot of times as Alternative Pop.

Tom: … or Art Rock or both as the same time. Some tracks are like really poppy and other tracks are guitar based and much more edgy. I like it that it is quite electric.

John: We try to avoid falling in one category. So we try to write songs in different styles.

What is it like playing here today at Stereo, a small stage, and the next day at a big festival stage like Melt!?

Tom: That’s weird, because you can easily think that this gig is kind of like a really small gig. People might see it as something much smaller than Melt, which obviously is, but it means loads to us to play this gig.

John: Personally, my favorite gigs are the ones there are small and sweaty and the atmosphere is a bit closer. Playing on a bigger stage is fun, but for me it’s more fun playing closer to the crowd and the energy goes both ways.

Tom: This gig was good though, because it’s the first time for us to be headliner outside the UK. We don’t get us headlining in the UK very much. So it was really really special and today is my birthday so this is really really good and we didn’t know what to expect like we’ve never played Frankfurt, we’ve only been here two or three times before, so we went…

John: …It is Nuremberg.

Tom: Yeah oh sorry. The people who are in there have such a good time. It meant a lot to play that gig. Tomorrow is going to be the largest gig we play. It’s going to be special, too.

Are you going to play any other festival this summer?

John: We’ve played a few in England like Wychwood festival. We are only playing a few festivals this year because we want to spend most of our time in the studio, writing and recording our album and get back with the album and finish it first.

Tom: We will do every gig we can possibly do and come back here as well.

Have you played at a festival in Germany or is it your first time?

Tom: This is our first festival here.

John: We’ve played in Germany quite a few times before. We played in Hamburg quite a lot of times, in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Cologne. Every time we come to Germany it’s loads of fun.

Do you think the English crowd is better than the German?

Tom: It depends. There are so many bands in England, which everybody can like see a band and it can be awful or it can be great. You don’t know what you are going to get. The Germans are great, you guys are great, because you are going out to see a band and you know you’re going to have a great time. That energy just feeds us and we give it straight back. It is just great!

Sounds great! With who would you like to record a song? Do you have a favorite artist?

John: One of our favorite bands is Everything Everything.

Oh, I love them. They are very cool! My favorite Song is Cough Cough.

Tom: We’ve played with them a few weeks ago and it was an amazing gig. I’m a massive fan and the played Duet from their new album which is my favorite track and I went absolutely mental. It was great.

We’ve heard them for the very first time at BBC Radio 1 and their song was very cool so we blogged about them.

Tom: They are an amazing band.

John: And nice guys too.

Tom: We met Kylie Minogue. I wouldn’t say no to recording with her. She is a very nice lady.

When is your album going to be released?

John: We are not sure yet. We are still writing. We’ve got a few songs done, but we want the newer songs as good as we can get them. So we will see, maybe next year.

Tom: Typical answer is when it’s ready. When it’s done and finished. As soon as possible. (laughs)

Our last question: do have a favorite song or album at the moment?

Tom: I think Arc the new album by Everything Everything. I’ve been listening to it loads, since it came out. I really love that album.

John: The album which is played a few times in the tour bus is by the Metronomy. The album is called French Rivera (wir haben mal nachgeschaut und es gibt nur ein Album mit dem Titel The English Riviera). Do you know the Metronomy?

Tom: You would love them.

Is it an English band?

Tom: Yeah.

I love English bands! So I have to listen to them!

Tom: Yeah for sure! One of their tracks got played tonight before we got on stage. We have to get the DJ playing it again. It’s brilliant!

John: Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors is one of my favorite albums.

That was the last question! Thank you very much for the interview!

Das war unser Interview mit Tom und John von Shields. Jetzt gibt noch ein wenig Musik für die Ohren. Auf ihrer SoundCloud Seite könnt noch mehr von Shields hören.