Kendal Calling 2024 - Interview With Shelf Lives

I was lucky enough to interview duo Shelf Lives at Kendal after seeing their set.

The duo consists of Sabrina Di Gullo and Jonny Hillyard and are a Canadian-British post punk act who you need to go see if you get the chance because they are excellent live. I’m in red, Sabrina in blue and Jonny in green.

Hi how are you doing?

We’re good, how are you doing?

So, I’m Iain, I’m here for Three Songs and Out, is this your first time at Kendal?

Yes, first time at Kendal.

What a beautiful place.

Actually, we have been to this castle before but it’s our first time at the festival. We played a show in Glasgow with Lynx, we had a day off in-between shows and we stayed in Penrith.

Oh, okay, so this is quite close then.

We were looking for something to do so we came here for the festival, and we were driving up we were looking at each other saying this looks really familiar but we couldn’t remember why. We then figured it out, we literally have been before.

How was the show in Glasgow, was it good?

Oh man, we’re like obsessed with playing in Glasgow.

We love Glasgow and Edinburgh. Our first headliner sold out as well in Edinburgh.

Where was it?

Sneaky Pete’s

I know it, good venue.

We loved it.

We didn’t play Glasgow as headliners, we opened for Lynx.

Where was that?

It was like a converted church.

Was it Cottiers or St Lukes?

It was St Lukes;

It was so nice.

So much fun.

It’s a really nice venue and just round the corner from the Barrowlands which is iconic, if you ever get the chance, you should play it. It has a sprung floor.

Oh, that sounds fun!

For the audience?

Yes.

That sounds great. We’ve also played King Tuts Wah Wah Hut.

How are you finding the festival so far? Are you enjoying it?

It’s really good.

We haven’t been here long as we were playing at Ynot yesterday and we have to leave at some point to get to Milton Keynes.

I was going to say there’s free beer if you want it but I’m guessing the answer is, no?

Yeah, busy weekend. It’s great here though, it’s like a nice sized festival where you can see everything and discover things.

All the stages are quite walkable, are you going to go out and see anything while you’re here?

Yeah, yeah, just kind of see what calls to us.

Yeah, we’ll see what Kendal Calls.

I knew you were going to say that!

Nothing in mind, no-one you want to see?

No, try not to do that just wander about and see what happens, I feel like people kind of did that with our set.

To be fair I was deliberately there but that’s because I was hoping to speak to you, what an absolutely brilliant set.

Thank you.

Really good, so much energy.

I know, you wouldn’t know it if you knew me personally.

You were just full of life on that stage.

Thank you, actually that probably makes sense as I’m so laid back normally.

Really? I think you’re very angry!

Angry and chilled is a weird combination!

Yeah, maybe I’m just lazy!

Yeah, because you came on and I started texting all of the photographers saying you need to come see these guys.

Oh really, awesome, thank you, I appreciate that.

We got a lot of love from the sound guys as well.

Yeah, from the crew, you know you’re doing something right when the crew coming round to the side of the stage and start watching you.

I did see them as I was slightly to one side of the stage.

Yeah, they were all very handsome as well.

It’s a handsome crew at Kendal Calling. Yeah, it was great fun, we kinda love seeing from the beginning of the set how the crowd morphs.

The audience did grow.

It grew and they started jumping! We were like yeah!

I could see you were trying to get the crowd going but it was a bit of a struggle to begin with.

Sometimes you put yourselves in their position, if an audience doesn’t know who you are and doesn’t know your music their reluctant to get engaged as they’re sussing you out.

Personally, I find it hard to like a band seeing them live for the first time.

Really? Why’s that?

I don’t know, maybe because I’m such a studio guy. I need to have a bit of time over something to get into it.

I’m the opposite, I get the feeling live but then sometimes I’ll check out the recoding and I’m like it much better live.

I’ve had that before, I’ve seen bands here, thought they are brilliant, I will go buy the album as I’m still sad and buy vinyl and it’s sometimes nowhere near as good.

That’s cool, I love that.

But then you put the vinyl on and think that’s not what they sounded like!

Luckily for us we have no drummer but a drum machine, so it usually sounds exactly the same!

Although the guitar riffs and the vocals sounds heavier live, it does come across more full on live.

Our non-heavy songs, well most of them are heavy because I’m shouting. The ones that not as heavy we have a bit more pop in them, they sound heavier live although that’s probably most bands to be honest.

Do you improvise at all when you’re on the stage or is it sticking to what you have planned?

No, we definitely change.

What was the question sorry?

Do you improvise?

We improvise in a limited way because we have the drum machine. We’ll extend intros and we’ll blend songs together, him doing guitar breaks and stuff like that but at the moment we’re kind of limited in improvisation. It’s more of, like a planned improvisation.

So not really improvisation?

Shh! Don’t tell anybody!

I like that though, a planned improvisation, that’s a new one.

It’s a Shelf Lives thing…

Have you got anything else coming up you said Milton Keynes tomorrow?

Yeah, Multitude Fest, the Crawford Arms, which is a nice venue we’ve played before.

Then we have Boomtown next weekend, then we have a festival in Italy.

That’s impressive! Have you been to Italy before for festivals?

No, this is our first Italian festival.

We played a gig before in Milan.

We supported Skunk Anansie.

So, what was I like supporting Skunk Anansie?

It was good.

It was pretty wild, we’d been a band for six months and suddenly we’re on tour on a massive tour bus in Europe with Skunk Anansie. It was difficult at times; it was like jumping in the deep end for sure!

After six months? Of course.

Yeah, jumping in the deep end but it was like, such an experience! They were all great, everyone was great.

Well Skin is one for championing new bands.

Definitely, we had great talks with her and the whole band, they gave us lots of advice.

They are brilliant live.

Absolutely, they all are. We were on the crew bus but same of them came and hung out with us. They were all so lovely, really, really nice. It was kind of fun, at first it was intimidating.

Well, it was Skunk Anansie.

And we’re jumping on the tour bus, half way through it so the crew’s in a vibe, you know and all of a sudden, this new band is on the bus.

So where did you go with them?

We did quite a few shows in Poland Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy.

A couple of shows in the UK.

Which ones?

Southampton and Oxford.

So not Glasgow then as they played there, and you love it?

No, unfortunately not. We kinda went from playing shows in front of a 100 people to in front of 3-4000 people but you know what, I liked playing to a bigger crowd, it’s almost easier.

Less Personal?

Yeah, it’s easier but less personal.

You lose the interaction?

Yeah, lose the interaction and the crowds were like who are you guys? They have a very devout following.

They do.

They’re a nineties band but they still draw massive crowds.

I’ve been to see them myself and they are great live.

Absolutely, and we really connected with a lot of their audience, especially in the UK actually. Southampton, like represent!

Tour coming up?

No, so if you want to catch us it’s festivals and our London headline show, it’s going to be a big one, October the 23rd.

Whereabouts? Get the plug in.

The Moth Club in East London and that’s like own of our own headline shows and the rest are festivals, even in their winter they are mostly festivals.

And the EP came out a year and half ago?

Yes, we have two EP’s out. One is like a mini album, It’s 18 minutes long. We also have an EP coming out in October. We are working on an actual album, for hopefully next year.

Lots of collaborating happening there.

Lots of people coming in then?

Yeah, other producers, beat makers. It’s really fun.

Not so much artists yet, we’re just keeping it really close just now but anyone who wants to collaborate we’ll try it.

Excellent.

All genres, any type of music

So, you’re up for trying new stuff then?

Absolutely.

But we’ll keep our vibe.

Our vibe yeah but we’ll take on whatever they make because at the end of the day we’re across so many genres.

I noticed that it’s a kind of mix of punk, disco, rock and other stuff but in a good way.

With any new project of band it takes some time and some testing to work out what you’re going to do but I do like the thought that with us you’re always going to surprised.

If you want to stand out you’ve got to do something different. We have enough bands that take it very seriously and stick to a genre, we were like what if….

We don’t really think about it that much.

No, it’s just whatever comes out, a lot of the time it’s what comes out first. So, we don’t overthink it.

If we’re having fun doing it, you know? There was a moment when we started really thinking about things.

And we couldn’t make anything.

We hated everything we made.

So, we decided to try it again but do it our way.

A bit more relaxed? A bit more let’s just enjoy it?

Yeah, exactly, you know when you come in, when you start fresh and there’s no eyes on it it’s just really nice because you’re just doing whatever. Then people start watching it and you start thinking what do they expect? So, you have to think about the expectation.

You just have to trust yourself as an artist, if you have a good idea then go with it, the reason people liked you from the start is because you went with it. There was no-one at the beginning, nobody knew who we were so no-one was saying you should be doing this and this and this. I appreciate everyone’s opinion but that doesn’t mean I’m going to like it or listen to it.

There is a trap with your first album of you think you need to replicate it.

Yeah, you become more conservative as an artist.

As artists as well, there are so many of us and there’s so much music out there I think sometimes its easy to get lost or get scared in saying no. It’s about believing in yourself because you like, if I don’t do that or I say no everyone’s going to hate me or forget about me or blacklist me or whatever. There is a huge power in doing it your way.

Also, if you are doing something different and everyone’s saying no to you that’s probably a good thing. If they can’t place you somewhere don’t worry about that.

It’s more interesting, you could create your own genre?

If you are making people think, get a bit scared then you must be doing something right.

Unless you owe a label lots of money, then don’t do that!

Are you producing yourself and looking after yourself? Have you got your own label?

Yeah, we’re releasing it ourselves, we eventually also want to work with other artists in the future. We did work with Modern Sky UK on our last EP which was great but we’re back to doing it ourselves. We’ve worked with producers, engineers and stuff but it’s mostly Jonny and myself.

Listen, I’m conscious I’ve taken up a lot of your time and you want to go enjoy the festival so thank you for this, it’s been great.

Interview - Iain McClay