Indietracks interview #15: Shrag

Today we're joined by Bob from Shrag for a quickfire Indietracks interview!

Shrag are Helen, Andy, Stephanie, Russell and Bob from Brighton. Expect jagged post punk, ragged electro pop and a bundle of ramshackle, runaway energy, alongside nods to everyone from Le Tigre to Penetration. Their debut album Shrag was released on WIAIWYA in 2009 and has garnered comparisons to Love is All, Gang of Four, B52s, The Long Blondes and more. The band will be playing on the Sunday at this year's Indietracks.

"A spectacularly bitter indie girls-set-on-stun dual vocal attack, in what is one of the better bands to juxtapose schmindie twee and angered literary abstraction since 1990s unsung legends Prolapse." (The Guardian)

Hi Bob, tell us a little bit about Shrag

We are Shrag, a five-piece band from Brighton and London. We make noisy pop music.

What music are you enjoying at the moment?

Enjoying the latest Fall record very much. As fresh and vital as a band's 28th studio album has any right to be.

Tell us about an unusual place you've played a gig in the past

I could talk about the whole of our European tour last year. A pizza restaurant, a boat, a salsa club, a remote farmhouse, a fish restaurant, but it always comes back to the farmhouse; 20 miles from Milan down a dirt track into a rustic old farm building with a roaring fire. It didn't look like like a venue at all. We certainly weren't expecting it to be full of revellers when we took to the stage at 2am on a cold Monday morning. It wasn't. We played to the other bands and the promoter, then went up to our rooms and made a horror film.

Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the year?

We made an album. It will be released later this year. Hopefully that will be exciting. We may even visit different towns and play some songs to people.

What's going to be on your compilation tapes as you travel down to Indietracks?

Probably lots of Shrag so we can learn the words.

Do you have any surprises planned for the Indietracks festival?

Yes.

Brilliant! And finally, who are you most looking forward to seeing at the Indietracks festival, and why?

So many great bands but I'm choosing Love is All. A fantastic live band and the new album is awesome.

Thanks Bob!