INTERVIEW W/ Shame: "It’ll be an explosion of Rock and Roll hedonism!"

September 2025 saw the release of South London, Post-Punk rockers, Shame’s fourth album, ‘Cutthroat’. A thrashing and adrenaline packed record, they have since been touring all around the world, from Tokyo to LA, and will be heading to Manchester on the 4^th of September, where they will be playing at Projekts Skatepark, which frontman Charlie Steen believes will be “a nice explosion of Rock and Roll”. In this interview, Steen peels back the layers as he delves into the making of ‘Cutthroat’, life on tour, and what we can expect on September 4th... 

Q. How did the process of making 'Cutthroat' differ from your previous records?

A. “I think, we'd been speaking to John, and we'd been sending him over demos, and he was like, "I like that. I like this”, and he came back with some key words: primal and dangerous. It all sounds super cheesy, but those were his key words, and when we had that, it was nice to have a direction to go towards.  And John, he only does work hours, which it was 10:00 AM till 7:00 PM. We'd never had that before in the studio. You know, we're doing Drunk Tank Pink, all of our other three albums, like we might be in there at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning still recording. And that was a really nice way of doing it because you'd finish, and it was the first time as well where I had lyrics, but I was rewriting everything in the studio, and I'd never done that before, and that was a really nice challenge, still working out different melodies and stuff like that. I remember we would finish and then go back to the Airbnb, and I'd just continue to write lyrics, and it was a really nice work experience, where you're very much involved in that. And it was winter in December in an area near Brighton, near Hove, Portslade, which hasn't really got much going on. So it was, like, very little distractions. It was always raining, and it was nice. You know, you're just there to do something”.  

Q. Of course tracks like Lampião are influenced by different cultures. Have you had the chance to soak up inspiration from the places you've toured?

A. “Sometimes you do, and sometimes you don't. It's like, how much can you do in 20 hours sometimes? But then I think what's always quite nice is obviously we're tourists, but the difference is we'll have reps who are at the shows. You might meet people, you know, the support bands who are playing with you and stuff like that. I think, if I was to go on holiday somewhere, you get to the place and you kinda wander around and you try and find, you know, the bars or restaurants or whatever that you like or the areas you like. Whereas we're there for such a short time and we're surrounded by people from there. Then they'll be like, "Oh, you gotta go to this place, and you gotta have this type of meal, and you gotta have this type of drink or whatever." So sometimes we get quite lucky. I mean, we're very lucky to travel as much as we do anyway, but it's nice to be surrounded by locals on a regular, regular basis”.  

Q. You've said that ‘Cutthroat’ is written to be performed live. When you've been performing these songs throughout all this time, have any songs developed or gained a new life from that? 

A. “Yeah, Lampião was the only one. Most of them are quite straightforward to how we're gonna play them. But Lampião changed in the studio, and John had like a big fingerprint on there. And then live we're always a bit like, "How are we gonna do this?", so that almost becomes extended. We basically wrote an album being like, "Oh, we wanna write sort of shorter songs, more direct." And then throughout playing them live, we're just like, "Oh, we'll make this longer, make this longer, make this longer.",  and yeah, so Lampião has a whole different ending basically. Well, I think on record it just fades out, and then live, it's not crowd rocky, but we sort of jam for a bit and I'm playing the tambourine and stuff like that, which is always really fun”.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEZfLcdJemo&list=RDiEZfLcdJemo&start_radio=1

Q. Have you got any favourite memories from the past few months of touring? Any highlights? 

A. “Yeah, we did the first show of the Cutthroat tour in Paris, and it was on a Sunday. Beginning your big tour on a Sunday- ... is always a bit like, "Oh, for fuck's sake.", and then it was, like, 1,400 people and it was the craziest show. One of the craziest shows we've ever done ever. And in America we did a really good show in LA. That was probably my favourite show we've ever done in America. Also, Tokyo was crazy this time. Tokyo, you're always told when you play Tokyo that the crowd is very reserved because of the culture, and there won't be really any movement. You know, people will just stand still, but from the second we started it was like mosh pits, and people crowd surfing, so that was really nice. I think the general thing is that Cutthroat as a song, the title track, that's had the best reaction to any song we've ever released live, so that's been the fun. That's where the most people are singing along and moving and stuff, so that's been a general high”.  

Q. In terms of your entire discography, are there any songs that as you've performed them more live you've grown to love them even more? 

A. “Yeah. I mean, that's a good question. I'm trying to have a think about that. I'd say sometimes ‘Sixpack’, when we play that with me, sometimes it can be hit or miss, that can really depend on the room sometimes. But grown to love them more? Let me have a think. I think I always enjoyed doing ‘Snow Day’. I mean, that's always quite a nice one to do. I think actually the song that is probably stronger live than it is on record is, we have a song called ‘Adderall’, and...It's nice with that song because I think since releasing it, it feels like over the years that has gotten more and more popular, and when we do it live, that often feels like one of the best moments of the set.  

Q. What can people expect from your Projekt's Skatepark headline in Manchester?  

A. “Well, we've always had a really good time in Manny. Like, ever since the beginning of the band, we have a lot of love for Manchester, and we've made a lot of really good friends there, met a lot of great bands and stuff like that. And it has such a rich culture and history in Manchester. I think, usually it's students wanting to come down and get fucked up and have a good time hopefully. I think I'm right in thinking it's the end of summer so it’ll be a big blowout before work and school start properly again.Yeah, it’ll just be a nice explosion of Rock and Roll hedonism”.