The Shanklin Freak Show

In the deepest darkest Isle of Wight in the UK there has been a secret not so much hidden but more waiting and planning until ready to burst out into the world’s senses. With an already dedicated following in the UK The Shanklin Freak Show are now tantalising more and more ears with the release of their brand new 9 track EP ‘Welcome To The Show’the first step in an epic quest for world recognition or global domination whichever comes first. The Freaks have taken time out from their war room to talk to Rock Pulse.

Welcome Gentleman and thank you for allowing us to enter your dark Vaudeville Cabaret Circus to find out more about you and the music you create. For people still unaware of you could you describe the band and introduce the members and their roles within the Freak Show?

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen! We are The Shanklin Freak Show and we are a theatrical alternative rock outfit from outer-space, but currently based on the Isle Of Wight, England. Our music is a mix of genres (everyone says that, but we're from outer-space, so go figure!) but if you have to tag us, 'Industrial - Circus - Rock' probably sums us up best. If you want a more in-depth description of our sound (other than simply listening to our music, which would save my fingers the strain of having to type this!) we blend together a mix of Vaudeville, Electro, Circus, Rock, Diesel-punk, Metal, Cabaret, Goth, all with occasional, bombastic, operatic overtones. It really is something fairly different. 

As far as members go, we have:

Mr. Strange: I generally steer the good ship Shanklin Freak Show. Live, I'm just the lead vocalist, but in the studio I'm the chief songwriter and play a bit of everything, as well as being the bands producer and Jesus-like figure. I was also the bands only member for the initial 3 years. The album 'The Light Fantastic' was pretty much a solo record, every note and beat was played or programmed by my lonesome in the underbelly of my abandoned asylum. I didn't actually want to be the singer, it's frightening. But hey, either I did the vocals myself or left the tracks as instrumentals, because no one was going to do it for me. Luckily all the hard work paid off and we are now a full band of world-conquering circus freaks!

Sgt. Stirling: Beater of the war drums also likes to play the odd "real" instrument in the studio. Likes Jazz and 60's /70's psychedelia.  Strange fellow.

Stench: Lead guitarist, and fast becoming the bands 'co-songwriter' since joining the band in August 2010. Just listen to the song 'Liberate Mae' for a taste of a full collaboration between him and Mr. Strange. Epic isn't the word...

Neandyfoul: Master of the bass, and also the band’s sound engineer - both live and in the studio. Half of the stuff we have in our studio only he knows how to operate! He does try to explain, but his high caffeine intake makes him hard to understand.

Nick Painless: Co-vocalist and DJ, also performer of shocking circus tricks. General lover of rock, metal, JD and parties!

Kwerky Kirk: Main circus performer in the band. He does all kinds of crazy shit! Fire-breathing /eating, poi, stilts, hanging a bowling ball from his ear lobes, etc. Very scary man...

The Shanklin Freak Showhas a very unique sound what would you say are the seeds and influences for this and also the image of the band?

So, you're basically asking us which bands we've ripped off to achieve our sound and look? Aha! Fair enough my good man! Musically and theatrically, the first two bands that inspired the creation of the Freak Show were Marilyn Manson and the Insane Clown Posse, two of the most disliked and ridiculed bands on the planet! It was not only their creepy, circus / vaudeville vibe that sowed the seeds for the sound and look of the band, but also their "I'm and outcast, I'm not like you and I don't give a fuck if you like me or not" attitude, especially Insane Clown Posse. Now there's a band that has sold 5 million records, has their own yearly music festival, 3 feature films, their own record label with some fairly successful artists on the roster, yet they've never been taken seriously or had one decent review in a major music publication in 20 years - despite being so original and bringing a new genre of rap to the mainstream. That's inspiring, and speaks volumes about the music business and those who think they can pick and choose who sells records and who flops!

Other artists whose work has inspired us include: Dr. Steel, Rob Zombie, Danny Elfman, David Bowie, Frank Henenlotter, Gary Numan, Joe Black, Fritz Lang, Babylon Zoo, Twiztid, Tim Burton, Ministry and a few others, who's names escape us right now!

You have just released your new EP ‘Welcome To The Show’, tell about that and where people can hear and buy it.

This record is half of 'ACT I' - for anyone wondering why we have an album called ACT II, yet no ACT I or ACT III - this is (half of) it! The record was originally planned to be released in 2006, but was put on hold due to Mr. Strange still learning how to mix and produce, and not being happy with the overall quality of the recordings. The song 'Twisted Family' remains unchanged since its creation in 2004, however, but the rest are either new songs, or are old songs that have been overhauled with a fresh lick of paint in the studio; see 'The Cars That Ate The World' 'Life's A Cabaret' and'Noir Soleil' for reference on the older tracks.

You can listen, buy and/or download (for free!) via our website: www.theshanklinfreakshow.com 

Your first album ‘Act II: The Light Fantastic’which I love and play weekly (as well as the new EP) awoke so many ears to you but it has taken around 3 years until the follow up, any reason for the length in time?

Well, we released the album in February 2008, so spent the resulting 2 years trying to promote it, which was not amazingly successful. Unfortunately we had some rather lacklustre management during 2009 which saw us fall out of favour with some influential UK promoters and rack up debt. By the end of 2009 we were so sick of trying to play the music business "game" we simply took 2010 off to rethink and recuperate. As you can now see, we're back with a bang and are only doing things on our own terms! 

The plan is to release an EP every 3 months for the next 2 years, a mighty task to be so prolific and keep the music fresh. How far ahead are you planning wise and with actual written songs and why a 2 year quest, is the end of the world in 2012 more than a coincidence?

We write, record, produce and mix all of our music in our own studio (Strange Studios UK) for free, so we have a rather large back catalogue of unreleased songs from the past 7 years! Our mission of releasing one EP every 3 months is partly a way of getting all of this unheard and unreleased material out in the public domain. We actually have enough songs to release EP's until the middle of next year, but not all of these songs will make the final cut. Each EP will offer something different and have its own theme and concept, songs that aren't up to scratch or aren't fitting will not be released. I'd say we are about 50% finished at the moment.

Our 'One EP every three months for two years' quest is simply us sticking two fingers up to the established music business model, as we've always been told not to release one record every year (even though we've always wanted to) let alone even more frequently. We get to do what we love (making loads of music) and our fellow freaky friends (we hate to use the word "fan" as it sounds patronizing) get a new instalment of freaky musical goodness every three months! What's not to like about that? We're not in it for the money or fame, so concerns of "over-saturation" does not phase us, this is what we want to do, so we're doing it!

Oh, and of course 2012 is the end of the world, so we want to go out with a bang!

You have just released 2 new videos, the first official ones for the band, gives us the lowdown on those if you would.

It's actually 3 music videos, soon to be 4! The sordid details of the making of those music videos are far too graphic for us to tell in any great depth. All we can say is that the music video for 'Lizard Man' was created by a man / company called 'Eat Cake & Worship Satan' so go figure! The video for 'Twisted Family' was filmed and put together by Mr. Strange one dark night at Strange Studios UK / Freak Show HQ. Finally 'Carousel' is a real glimpse inside our freaky big top and was filmed by the whole band during an epic photo shoot with the legendary Steampunk photographer, Scott Chalmers. Once again, the final cut of the video was put together at Strange Studios UK by Mr. Strange.

Your live shows are much more than just a gig, describe what people can expect when they come to see you live and where in the near future can they see you?

When we get the chance to perform at a decent sized venue, we do our upmost to really bring the circus to town! The full show consists of stilt-walking, fire-breathing, water-pistols, a burlesque dancer or two, bed of nails, glass walking and a face-slapping blast of circus-rock! We like to do the "full show" as often as possible, but sometimes the venues and stages aren't big enough to accommodate such epicness, so we occasionally strip it down to a brain-frying 5-piece rock band type affair.  

You are a complete indie band, doing everything yourselves, do you see that as not only yours but the future of good music?

It's probably the best way for a band that sounds "different" to go about things. If you're playing a style of music (no matter how goddamn amazing it is) that hasn't got a proven track record of selling records, label's will avoid you like shit on a stick right now. Even if you're trying your hardest to sound like The Strokes (or whatever is cool right now) and doing it well, it's still harder than ever to get label backing. We were encouraged to "go metal" with the promise of a sure-fire record deal very recently, but dumbing down our sound to fit into one easily promotable genre made us feel ill. We wrote a few songs as an experiment, but were constantly encouraged to be "less arty" until we were left with some generic metal cheese that we were not happy with. They loved it though! We knew then that that route was not for us, so we walked away. That was the beginning and the end of The Shanklin Freak Show's endeavours in to the bad joke of 'trying to get a deal' We're much happier doing whatever we like, whenever we like and however we like.

With some regular radio airplay on The Reputation Radio Show and great exposure through Devolution Magazine the world is waking up to you so where else can people find you?

We're bloody everywhere on the web! Facebook, MySpace, Reputation Media, YouTube, ReverbNation, Soundclick, Last FM, Twitter, etc, etc...

You can either Google our name, or visit our website for all the links in one place:

www.theshanklinfreakshow.com

You'll find all of our gig listings and up-to-date news there, too!

Thanks for sharing your precious time away from corrupting the youth of the world to talk to us, have you a last message or thought for the readers of Rock Pulse?

Thank you for reading! Please help us take over the world!