Band profile - Shabby Rogue (From Epsom Guardian)

Band profile - Shabby Rogue

3:50pm Friday 20th November 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share

• Discuss this...

My Life as a Secret Agent is the new single from Barnes-based indie rockers Shabby Rogue, writes Will Gore.

It is the first single to be taken from the band’s second album, By Hook and By Crook, due for release in early 2010.

Band member Johnny Famous tells us about the new tunes, embarrassing coat hangers, and who would make the bill at his dream festival.

Introduce the band.

Shaun, Tom and myself sing and play various instruments and Tez is on drums

Tell us about My Life as a Secret Agent and By Hook and By Crook.

My Life as a Secret Agent started as a garagey-sounding spy movie guitar riff over a low-fi punky backbeat. Shaun wrote lyrics about a paranoid London train journey and yelled stuff.

There’s nothing dressed up about the song or the recording of it, it’s just us in a room playing it loud. The album ranges from pastoral to punk to folk to prog to pop. Many of the songs were written on trips we made to remote parts of Scotland and Wales. Much of it evokes periods of inclement weather with the occasional burst of sunshine.

  How did the recordings go?

We hired a cottage with a converted barn near the Brecon Beacons, brought some recording gear, and created a temporary studio. We placed marinated amplifiers throughout the house and grounds, such as a bass amp in the woodshed for that oaky flavour and the acoustic guitars were recorded in the loo.

What’s in a name?

Shaun and I recording in my bedroom in Finsbury Park. It was a small room made chaotic with mics and mixers and instruments and beer cans so we called it Shabby Road. The name mutated and stuck to us. It’s a fine line between clever and stupid.  Best moment so far?  Probably a gig we did at the secret garden festival, that was my favourite time onstage anyway.

Embarrassing moment?

Forgetting to take the coat hanger out of the shirt I wore to play on national television.

  Fantasy festival line-up?

Jimi Hendrix, Nina Simone, Brian Eno, Johnny Cash, Kraftwerk and Tom Waits, with Bill Hicks or maybe Jack Kerouac hosting and stage design by Picasso.

  Nightmare line-up?

Three consecutive days of boy bands could be traumatising.

 Visit myspace.com/shabbyrogue for further information.

• Print
• Email
• Share