Interview: Shy Child

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When New York duo Shy Child, aka Pete and Nate, broke off from their last band Supersystem, they decided to step into a more electronic, minimal direction. With only two instruments - Nate’s drum kit and Pete’s Keytar - one wouldn’t necessarily expect the pair to create the electronic, synthesized wall of sound that they do. Infectious and unique in equal measure, Shy Child have been the name on everybody’s lips.

AS: You’re currently on your debut headline tour, how’s it going?

Pete: It’s going very well, we’re in the middle of it, right? We’re playing along with We Smoke Fags, which is cool. We take our gear in their van which is nice of them. The past few gigs have been really good, they seem to be getting better and better.

Nate: The biggest gigs so far have been in London and Manchester. Exeter was really good.

Pete: We’re a little more than half way through the tour I think, we’re got France after this. We’ve got four shows in France and then we’re heading back to New York.

AS: Are you going to continue promoting the album when you get back or working on new material?

Pete: We’re heading back to record new material and then maybe do some holidays, and tour eventually.

AS: What do you get up to on a typical tour day before a gig? Have you been wandering around the streets of Leeds today?

Pete: We get there and sound check, usually early afternoon. We then muck around, which is the period you’re currently in right now. Then we do a show. It’s usually a pretty full day, you wouldn’t expect it to be but it is.

AS: Do you think Shy Child would’ve got as big as you have if Supersystem had not split up?

Pete: Well we wouldn’t have had as much time I guess. They’re kind of unrelated I think. There was pretty equal priority between the two bands.

AS: You were the first duo to ever play the new Wembley stadium, did you feel there was any pressure, due to the huge scale of the event?

Pete: It was just another gig, no big deal!

Nate: Yep! Yeh, right.

Pete: We had a few beers backstage. It was crazy, fucking, Wembley.. I don’t know, how many people was there?

Nate: Wasn’t it 15,000 people or more? It was hard to tell because they were all scattered. Yeh, it was fucking crazy. It was scary, I had no idea how we were playing - there was so many people screaming and there was all these massive videos of us.

Pete: What was it that somebody told you? Wasn’t it. "Oh, ok, your huge fucking nose will be as big as a house! We didn’t happen to tell you that!"

Nate: Yeah, I didn’t know that. I’m kinda glad I didn’t know because if I did I probably would’ve been more self conscious, what with all the faces I was making and shit.. and how sweaty I was getting!

AS: Did you get to see the massive monitors and screens?

Pete: I don’t know how big they were, but they were several stories high. It was crazy.

AS: I was at your Leeds Festival gig (2007) where you encountered a power cut on stage, but you kept on jamming. What’s the worst gig you’ve ever played where you’ve just thought "get me out of here!"?

Pete: It’s not happened for a while, thank God.

Nate: There was a show a long, long time ago, like 4 or 5 years ago. We were using a PA, and everything was going through it but the drums, and it all cut out.

Pete: What about Birmignham, dude?

Nate: Yep, that was fun. We played in Birmignham last year and we blew up the PA totally, and the show had to stop. They moved the show to another venue, and everyone came. That was fun.

Pete: I remember another show where there was no PA, and everybody was like, "play, go on, play!" we was like… you don’t understand! You will not hear a sound from the keyboard if there is no amplifier. This does not make sound! The people didn’t understand, they did not get it.

AS: Where was that?

Pete: I think it was in some like, weird basement cafe in Birmingham.

Nate: There was really crappy monitors. We blew one speaker, then we blew another speaker, then Pete said, "the PA sucks!" and then the owner came and got really mad at him!

Pete: I was like.. sorry! Uh oh! Sorry about your £100 PA!

AS: Do you ever continue the madness at any after show parties?

Pete: Um, yeah, whenever we get the chance to hang out. Lately there’s been a lot of curfews going on, so after we’re done they usually push everybody out, which is annoying.

AS: You toured with Soulwax, Hot Chip and Klaxons; any special memories from playing with those bands?

Nate: We never toured with Soulwax, that’s a myth. We played a festival with them, or something with that. I love Soulwax but we’ve never toured with them.

Pete: I wish we did!

AS: Is that a Wikipedia myth?

Pete: Must be! Damn Wiki..

Nate: We toured with these bands a while back called Stars As Eyes, and a guy called Hearts of Darknesses, that was pretty messy. Remember that? We went to a weird party, like, a secret party in the woods? In an abandoned warehouse, with like a bunch of runaway teens or something. We had to go across the underside of a bridge over a river. Remember that shit?

Pete: There’s so many weird aspects of that tour I can’t even begin.. and it was only like four days.. [laughs] It was the weirdest tour ever and it was four days.

AS: Is one aspect of touring as much as you do that, you begin to lose count of all of the places you’ve been?

Pete: Not really. As soon as I get to a venue I tend to recognize it if we’ve been before.

Nate: I usually remember at least one thing about each place we play.

AS: How did you go about writing the songs for ‘Noise Won’t Stop?’

Pete: We jam all the time in practice. We come up with stuff, some stuff we like, and we build on it. We demo it, and then we record it eventually, like, eight months later.

AS: Do you ever write anything on tour?

Pete: If we have time, but we usually don’t.

AS: You was recently on TV, performing on ‘Fashion Rocks’, with Stella McCartney as the designer whilst you played. Did you find it hard to concentrate with the models playing musical chairs in front of you?

Pete: I couldn’t see the models. At all!

Nate: It was harder to concentrate with Samuel L. Jackson being there..

Pete: [imitating Samuel L. Jackson] Shhhhyyyy Chiiilllldddd!

Nate: It was more a case of looking at what big celebrities were watching you from the front row. I couldn’t see any though, the only one I recognized was that guy who looks like a woman from Dead or Alive. Is it Pete someone?

Pete: …that guys is so fucking weird…

AS: I couldn’t help but notice that, when you played ‘Drop The Phone’, it had all of the overdubbed brass bits; am I right in thinking it wasn’t entirely live? 

Pete: Yeh, there was a saxophonist backstage, performing! [laughs] So, yeah, Totally 100% live. We pulled that off, I thought, pretty well! [makes a noise like a saxophone] 

AS: I’m interested in how you control your keytar sounds on stage, is it controlled with a floorboard/foot pedal, like a guitar?

Pete: I control a bunch of different patches, it’s just a midi controller, and I control a Nord with it. It has four different outputs, so I can control a bass, and three lead sounds, which I mute on and off with the foot pedal.

AS: As a two piece, do you ever feel restricted by what you can play live? Would you ever draft in a touring member?

Pete: We are restricted, but I think that’s a good thing. We’re forced to work it out with what we have, as opposed to guitar number one, two and three. It works, so we’re not going to fuck with it anytime soon.

AS: Who inspires you? What do you play on the Shy Child tour bus?

Pete: Recently, Nate has been… DJ! On the bus pod. Firstly he plays.. [Pete starts tapping and singing 'hit me on the! hit me on the!] and then he goes to a remix of Prince.. which is awesome. Then we go to..

Nate: ..isn’t it that funky Daft Punk remix?

Pete: ..then we go to Alter Ego! Woop! Woop! Woop! Woop! Woop! Woop! Something like that.

Nate: ..BLN?

Pete: "ba ba ba ba ba ba!" That song is just a beat. I like it though. Although some of that shit freaks me out.

Nate: Isn’t it Berlin?

Pete: I know, Berlin. But what is she doing? She keeps going back and forth between ‘ba ba ba ba BLN’.

Nate: I thought all she talked about was LDN?

Pete: No, she does! That’s in the chorus!

Nate: The chorus is BLN.

Pete: She talks about LND in the beginning.

Nate: You’re thinking of Lilly Allen!

[long silence]

…
…
…

…

Pete: ..crazy.

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