Panic On The Streets Of Dublin

A few weeks ago Dublin-based rock heroes The Shoos unveiled their debut album Panic Slowly to the masses at a launch gig in Whelan’s. The product of five years of blood, sweat and tears which saw the band weather more than a few storms (most notably their parting of ways with major label Universal and their move to the States not quite going to plan) it’s a loud and proud testament to the group’s passion and belief in what they do. When Hot Press caught up with guitarist Scott Maher recently, the musician tells us that despite the odd hardship, he never lost faith in his work and sees it all as part of the song-writing process.

“No, I never felt disillusioned with music after all that happened,” he explains. “Disillusioned with people though? Yes, but then that’s what people do – they fuck things up, us included. We’re all guilty of our own downfall and success at times. This isn’t a big sob story. We had a great opportunity that turned into an unbelievable opportunity that just fell at the last hurdle because the money pulled out. It wasn’t our fault and there wasn’t anything we could’ve done directly. We got some great songs from the experience and that’s the main thing.”
Birthed in the Bunker in Tallaght (with the help of studio wizard Keith Farrell) their debut album was recorded live and was initially intended to be a five-track EP. Scott informs us the band were having far too much fun to quit and ended up making a
full-length offering.
“When we started recording everything felt very easy and things flowed naturally,” he explains. “It didn’t break our hearts recording the music – whereas previously it would have. We wanted to get out of that cycle where you’d be writing for five months then gigging for five months and you end up hating the songs by the time you’re done.
“The reason we adopted this approach was mostly to cater for Texas, who sings with a very raspy, emotive voice,” he continues. “When he sings you get the feeling that he means it and we wanted to capture that spark. We’re the kind of people who get bored easily, so doing 50 to 60 takes got on our nerves. That way’s too mathematical for us and I think you lose something every time you do it. We should have recorded live years ago, but you never know if something works until you do it yourself. It’s like some aul’ lad giving you advice and ignoring it, but then you do it and you go – ‘shit, he was right.’”
Gear-wise, The Shoos have also kept things classic and employed some tried and tested old friends to create their sound.
“I used a Vox AC30, which is now 41 years old,” he begins. “I used to gig with it a lot and I retired it last year and now use it as a studio amp. I play a ’62 re-issue Telecaster that I bought in the States a few years ago and it’s got that battered old Tele sound that I love. I put it through a Boss reverb pedal and I’ve also used a Holy Grail pedal on the record too.
“Barry [Plunkett, guitar] used a Gibson Les Paul through an Orange amp and he played it through a Blackstar distortion pedal,” he adds. “My brother Steve [Maher, bass] used a Fender Jazz bass and he went through an Aguilar Tone Hammer, which gives a very warm and beautiful tone. Our drummer Binzer Brennan has a Gretsch kit and a deal with Zildjian, so he used all their cymbals and that was pretty much it. We’re not too gear mad. But we are pedal crazy. We use all the classics, but as the saying goes, you can have all the gear in the world, but if you don’t have a great melody it’s useless.”
The record also has a great cover too-which features a random collection of photos of lips that were submitted to the band after they requested the shots on Facebook. With over 4000 submissions to choose from, it’s perhaps not surprising that they received the odd image of, shall we say, less publicly displayed sets of lips too…
“Yeah, people sent us a lot of rude pictures, which was great,” he laughs. “We always want to engage our fans and keep them interested and I think it’s good some of them have made the cover to our
first album.”
With promotion for Panic Slowly now in full swing, the next gig for The Shoos is a return performance at that little known event called Arthur’s Day on September 27. The boys can’t wait to enjoy the bash as both a performer and punter.
“We’re playing Flannery’s in Dublin,” he concludes. “We’ve played Arthur’s Day a couple of times and we’ve always enjoyed it. We’re dying to do it and it’s great to be asked back. We’re performing two 40-minute sets and then we’re gonna nip over to Whelan’s because it’s only across the road and see whoever’s playing there. I do like the way the organisers keep a lot of the acts a secret. To be in a pub and all of a sudden on comes Bono or somebody – that’s definitely an exciting thing and it should be a great event.”