Interview V2

COOL AS A CAT

Sam Shaw’s goes over his career and tells AMPED about his interesting - and a little bit weird -experiences…

Q-Okay, Hi its Elliot Robson here from AMPED, we just want a couple of answers, we just want you to let yourself go and reminisce on your highlights and experiences with us.

A-That seems fine by me

Q-Why have you finally decide to come back from your break up from ‘The Shades’

A-Well, the break up did hurt me a lot.  But I just really missed it, I missed just getting out there and rocking the place out.  I missed writing music, I missed my fans.  I have received a lot of messages over the past from fans to try and convince me to make a return, so I just wanted to give something back to my fans because of how loyal they have been to me.  

Q-So how is your new album?

A- I know the guy that owns ‘Sound Effects’, you know the one in Ormskirk?  Jeff… he’s a good lad him you know.  He’s done me a lot of favours.  He let the band record the album in there, because there is a recording studio upstairs, not many bands know about that which benefits us.  He let me record my album there, so I am happy that the album is finished now and will be out on Sunday I think. 

Q-We know about the Jaffa Cake incident haha, have there been any other bizarre incidents that have occurred in your time in ‘The Shades?’

A-Ohh haha I knew that would come up, that was a weird one! Mad thing is I f*cking despise Jaffa Cakes now! Oh yeah do you know about the story about the puppy?

Q-No, we haven’t heard about that one

A-Oh well, we had this s*ht gig in Manchester that Shaun sorted for us! He is a proper doughnut!  Well anyway! We had the worst gig ever! And we missed the last train home; we had to check into a scatty, scary, back alley apartment.  The room stunk of egg and toothpaste because there was a massive bin outside the window.  I got woken up by a dog in the back alley; it was like a terrible groan.  So I got up all the other lads were fast asleep like babies.  I look out the window and there is this deranged skinny dog that was moaning like hell! So there’s me in my bills, sticking my head out the window.  Next minute one of the lads pushes me out the window and I go flying into this bin.  The dog jumps in the bin and sits on me.  So that night I slept in a minging bin with a smelly old dog.  So I got the train home smelling of egg and toothpaste.  I don’t know who pushed me out that window, none of the lads will tell me and I don’t think I will ever find out.   

Q-Oh Lord! That story was great! There have been reports that for one of your songs, you took drugs to help you write it.  Is that true?

A-Well yeah know what, I am not going to lie to you and I did.  I had writers block, I just could not come up with anything.  The band was relying on a good song to go on this album.  So Shaun came round to my apartment and told me that my troubles would go away, if I snorted this cocaine.  Me being me I did, and I wrote a great song out of doing it.  I am not going to tell you what song it is, I will let you figure that out for yourself.

Q-So you snorted cocaine to help you write a song?

A-Yes, but never again, because I have heard I did some whacky stuff that night.  I woke up with 2 midgets, a hooker and a bottle of Tizer.  So never again haha

Q-Do you miss being in ‘The Shades?’

A-Yeah I do, I mean it was decent, I miss the banter me and the lads used to have, I used to come out of the studio crying laughing and my stomach hurting I had been laughing that much.  We had our problems, like every band experiences and we just couldn’t solve them and sadly it resulted in ‘The Shades’ splitting up.  So yes I do miss it.

Q-Have you got any big gigs coming up?

A-Well, we are going to wait for a while.  Wait until the new album comes out, then I’ll hopefully be headlining in the Reading festival.  I hope that happens because I’ve never played at Reading, so to be headlining there would be magnificent.    

Q-You have got a range of fans all at different age groups, do you think that is a good thing for you?

A-I think so because in ‘The Shades’ we had a massive fan base, so because we went different ways, I think they will still support me. 

Q-Do you regret anything in your musical career?

A-yes I do to be honest, I regret letting band split up.  I think that was a massive mistake because we were getting really good and our fans were growing.  Our gig line up was growing rapidly and we were just getting more popular, so to split before we even got close to our peak was devastating, but I look forward to the future, I really do.

Q-So should we expect a lot from you in the near future?

A-Yes you should (Haha) I have got a good gig line up for the year so yes you should.

Sam Shaw thank you for speaking to AMPED