With their new album Gun-Shy, US-German noise-rock band SMILE capture the energy of their live performances on record. Anyone who has seen the band perform live will be familiar with the unrestrained stage presence of singer and performer Rubee Fegan.
On Gun-Shy, the band, working with producer Olaf Opal, have managed to capture precisely that intensity while preserving the rawness and immediacy of the album’s creation. Alongside studio recordings, the album features demos from Fegan’s hometown of Albuquerque and so-called “first takes” that have been left in their original form. Rather than polishing spontaneous ideas after the fact, SMILE give them room to breathe. Noisy guitars collide with haunting melodies, while Fegan’s voice shifts between urgency and vulnerability. It is precisely these contrasts that give the album its dynamic energy.
Präsentiert von BANDUP, ByteFM, Musikblog & Kulturnews
SMILE
SMILE deliver punk, noise and beat-driven tales about gritty, raw reality, dressed in post-rock drag; masked in animal heads, thick eye-liner, fishnets and shocking hot pink; smothered in siren guitars. No filter, lock-jaw; they don’t plan on letting you go. Once you’re in, you’re in, like a secret society, cloaked in old school, DIY and punk values, where release and community are key. They invite you into their world, to link arms, unmask, transform and be set free. “What spaces are built for emotion these days?” They ask.
The five met in the DIY punk scene of Cologne, Germany and started making music during the vacant hours of covid. For them, music is about getting off screens and into rooms. “The DIY scene is about making music with your friends, a space where everyone can participate”, affirms Max Schmidt, bassist in the band. Anti-establishment and anti-marketing; this band value music over content. “If we are not getting the clicks, we are probably doing something interesting.”
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