SHA-LA-LEES - "we are now planning is to record our 4th album in september at the Sun studio’s"
We've already talked about them, but we liked their latest album so much that we wanted to have a chat with them. Which led us to this very nice interview with Cédric from SHA-LA-LEES!
Cédric, you play guitar and sing in the band. Tell us what made you want to get into music.
Wel, like a lot of kids growing up in the 90’s my first encounter with music was trough MTV but I had great luck with my older brother who liked a lot of punk, hardcore and weird shit. He turned me on to bands like The butthole surfers, Misfits, Black Flagg, Roky Erickson and very important the Cramps ! So when I was 12 I decided to pick up the electric guitar.
Sha-La-Lees originally came from three bands: the Sore Losers, de Noordkaap and the Spades. Can you tell us a bit about the history and highlights of each of them?
After El Guapo broke up I started the sore losers with Kevin, our bassist. I wanted to do a more “song “ based band and only play guitar (I sang and did guitar in El guapo too) and I wanted to see how far we could get and we did get far, playing all over Europe, Japan and the US. Big stages in Belgium and it was a lot of fun but in the end I think I missed playing sweaty dirty R’n’R shows! The Spades were the most notorious Punk rock and roll band in the Netherlands, and quickly became good friends with El Guapo. Noordkaap is maybe the most known Flemish singing band in whole Belgium!
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| Sha-La-Lees (By Lennert Cusumano) |
Can you introduce us to your band mates?
On the drums we have Ries Doms, ex the Kik, Hydromatics, The spades and Cheetah Chrome. Straight edge, loves jazz and cycling !
Bassguitar :Kevin Maenen ex The Sore Losers. Not straight edge, loves soccer, beer, and thinks Robocop is the best movie of all time.
Blues harp : Christophe Vaes ex El Guapo Stuntteam and Noordkaap. Really loves old blues, really hates Joe Bonnamasa!
What musical style is closest to Sha-La-Lees? Some say hard rock, punk, others garage, and what's your opinion on that?
Yes, all of the above. I love Garagerock with all of my heart but I also like a lot of shit. There are people that think that garage rock or punk is one thing and that guitar solo’s are not part of it but fuck them. MC5, the Stooges are only 2 punk garage bands that played solo’s! So we don’t care? If it’s good it’s good. We listen to Elton John, the Beatles, John Coltrane and Napalm Death.
I don’t know what’s up with the Courettes but all I can say is that I met Gregor Samsa ,the label boss of sounds of subterrania when I was 19 year old, touring Europe with El Guapo Stuntteam and the Monsters. He released our first 3 albums. And now the second Sha-La-Lees record. In all the time I have known I can call him a true friend that lives for underground music, never does it for it money or anything, he runs that label all by himself and only cares about music.
Tell us more about El Guapo Stuntteam ...
El Guapo Stuntteam was a wild and crazy fucked up band. We started out trying to be dirtier and faster than Guitar Wolf and evolved into Deep purple on a lot of bad drugs!
Can you tell us why the harmonica is so important to the band? What difference does it make to the band's sound?
The harp is very important because we use it more like second guitar. We are a lot of things but we are NOT A BLUESROCK band!!! Vaes is one the most original harp players I know.
Do you tour a lot? Are there many opportunities to do so in Belgium and Holland?
We try to play as much as we can. Hopefully more in France and Scandinavia. Belgium is really small…
You've been around for ten years. Is it possible to make a living from a band? If not, what compromises would you have to make to get there?
No way you can make a living playing this kind of music! I think if you wanna be a successful band you gotta play really shitty music.
Every rock generation has its cult band that provided the spark and desire to get started. Who were yours and why?
OBLIVIONS . Saw them when I was 15 and started my first band the same night. Still one of the best bands of all time. Good songwriting in the first place. Good humor, great sound!
Imagine you could organise your own festival. Which current bands would you invite to share the bill with you?
The Monsters, Guitar Wolf, Greg Cartwright, New bomb Turks, Miranda and the beat, Tuff Guac, Wixcakes, The Jackets, Brain Setzer, Snõõper, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones for the afterparty!
The French aren't always kind to the Belgians. What do you think of the French?
Hahaha! This is a funny question! Very first time we toured France together with the Liminanas one of our guys told us, watch out with the French, they are always grumpy and don’t like Belgians sometimes, but I have only met the nicest people ever so far!!! Really, we love playing France and enjoy the culture, food and crowds!
Can you tell us what you think the difference is between your different albums? What are the highlights?
The first one was recorded 10 years ago and was the first time I kinda wrote the song by myself and I can tell now that I still was searching a little bit… Best songs on that album are Sunny and Hold me down, we still play those live. Another Belgian legend played drums on that record, Dave Schroyen from Evil Superstars, Millionaire, Creature with the atom brain and Peuk. Garbage Dreams is recorded with the current line up and as soon Kevin got in it made it a lot easier for me since Kevin and I are playing together for almost 18 years now and he knows with I’m trying to get at and helps me out ! Ries made it harder! He plays so tight he makes us all work harder ! Born to lose for you, It aint nova and Wasted youth are still my favorites. It’s a dirty garage rock album with songs. Hex is a different sound, a little bit more of a 50’s R’n’R sound but fucked up. I see, I see and My love is gone are songs I am proud of. I really try to write songs, not just they have the image and cool instagram pictures. I think this album is our best yet.
What's the nicest anecdote that's ever happened to you?
Wow! So many, meeting Lemmy, meeting Paul McCartney, Jack Oblivion eating Belgian stew at my house !
What are your next plans?
Next thing we are now planning is to record our 4th album in september at the Sun studio’s in Memphis in 5 hours. No joke, the studio is booked, the songs are written.
Thank you Cédric
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