As usual (Marketer’s Day) provided us with some amazing acts like Fat Boy Slim and Ellie Goulding as well as some lesser known acts. Meadhbh Crowley caught up with the Dublin band The Shoos’ lead singer Tex, who’s just spent the past 5 years recording their new album “Panic Slowly”, an amazing album and proof that this album was well worth the wait.
So you’re all performing at (Marketer’s Day), how excited are ye?
Very excited. We’ve played all the (Marketer’s Days) and this year it’s great, as they’re all free in so people can just ramble on in and see us.
Your album artwork features the lips of your fans and a few celebs, what gave you the idea for that?
Well, we wanted to do something to get our fans involved, and feel like they were part of the album; the first song on the album is called Say Something and it kind of fit to put lips on there. That and they look good!
You mentioned in the past that ye went in to the studio with the intention of recording only and EP, and ended up recording an entire album, how exactly did that happen?
Well, we went about recording totally differently this time, before we had done it all in front of a computer, individually recording our bits and building up the tracks and songs that way, and this time we just went into a studio well-rehearsed and did it live. A couple of takes for each song and took the best take. It was a total revelation for us and I don’t think we’ll ever go back to the old way we did it. We initially had planned to do 4 or 5 songs for an EP and then later this year another 4 or 5 songs again but we got loads of songs done and just kept going until the album was done so we thought let’s just release it and get working on the next one!
Your new album "Panic Slowly" is out now, who were the musical influences that helped you write this?
Well we all write together as a democracy kind of thing, we tend to let whoever has the best idea at the time go with their idea and then we jam it out. I think we come from four very different places influence wise, which I think is a good thing, I suppose in a way it brings its own uniqueness to the band because there’s no other four guys with the exact same different musical influences and experience and situational differences to us, so for us it’s about telling our story and stories and putting it all into a melting pot.
Your first single "Say Something" was very successful, do you feel the new single "Same as Me" will do as well?
Yes, Say Something did really well for us, it got a huge amount of radio play, I think it was the most played Irish track on Irish radio for May and June of this year which is cool considering the other Irish music out there. I really hope Same As Me does do as well, it’s such a universal theme as we all will eventually notice that we’re turning into a version of our parents, or say things that only they would say and then catch yourself doing it and almost cringe. So it’s kind of a look at that.
Finally what was the highlight of your career so far?
There’s been a few but I’m going to say going out on tour with One Republic because it gave us a glimpse of what it’s like when you get massive. And it showed us that it’s there for the taking, but it’s hard work and the music has to come first and everything else is just a means to an end once the music is what you’re best at, and the One Republic lads showed us their hard work ethic and their partying hard ethic.
