Shooting Daggers recently released a split single with Ukranian punk band Death Pill. The track ‘Not My Rival’ is included on their debut album Love & Rage, set for release on 16 February. Having had a sneaky early listen I just had to find out more from the ground-shaking trio.
How does it feel to create your debut album Love & Rage, and for it to be unleashed out into the world imminently?
Raquel (drums): Putting Love & Rage together has been such an intense journey. We invested a lot of ourselves into this album and it paid off because we’re proud of our baby. We really can’t wait for listeners to dive into the album. We’ve been working on our new set lately and it’s nerve-racking to practise all these new songs that we’ve never played live before but we’re beyond excited to share them to the world soon! Feeling blessed to be able to make the music we want with our besties, experiment with our sound and identity and spread important messages to who is willing to listen.
Could you share a little of how Shooting Daggers came to be?
Sal (Guitar/Vocals): Bea and I met on an app for musicians back in late 2018. We both recently moved to London and we didn’t know anyone. It was a match! We played a couple of shows with our former drummer Godinha. Then lockdown happened and Godinha left to live in Spain. In November 2020 we found Raquel through acquaintances and we clicked straight away! I think we all wanted that band to happen, we’re glad we found each other.
You’ve stated that as early as when you started writing Love & Rage you didn’t want to limit yourself by any genre. The final track ‘Caves/Outro‘ will definitely be a surprise for listeners, and ‘A Guilty Conscience Needs an Accuser‘ is another gorgeous surprising highlight. Was that a challenge or did it open up other possibilities for you? You also said you wanted to share a positive message. Can you expand on the themes and inspirations behind Love & Rage?
Raquel (drums): Exploring diverse genres in Love and Rage was both a challenge and a gateway to new possibilities. We paid great attention to details in the writing and in the production which is influenced by producers like Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), and Will Wip, Sylvia Massy. We experimented with layers and noise a lot, it was so much fun.
‘Caves/Outro‘ and ‘A Guilty Conscience Needs an Accuser’ defo pushed out creative boundaries.
Like Athames, Love & Rage revolves around emotions, personal experiences (being queers and women in this world and in this cis-male dominated scene that is Hardcore, Punk and heavy alternative music in general), but Love & Rage is conveying a positive message through the transformative power of music whereas Athames was more about raw angst.
We were on a different stage of our lives when we wrote Love & Rage than we wrote Athames.
We grew up together and we now are in a different place mentally. Love & Rage feels like the natural progression of our musical journey. This uplifting empowering album is the next step after the gut wrenching EP. It makes sense, it’s like “healing after despair”. It’s a cycle, it’s in the natural realm of things, it’s an evolution.
I have to ask about the start of ‘Wipe Out‘, how was that sound created?
Raquel (drums): ‘Wipe Out‘ is about skateboarding and we thought that it would be fun to use skate sounds in the track. The sample at the beginning is from one of Sal’s Skate edits. We also used a sample from the short movie “Skate Witches” at the end of the track too. The director Danny Plotnick was kind enough to let us use it and that’s really cool.
Supporting Amyl and the Sniffers must have been one heck of an experience. How did you feel stepping out in front of their crowd?
Raquel (drums): Having the chance to open for them a few times was such an incredible experience, especially for the electric ballroom gigs as back then our EP wasn’t even out yet and we had this extraordinary opportunity. It felt truly transcendental, it felt like this was where we belonged and it pushed us even further into putting work into the band. Amyl and the Sniffers’ crowd at the Electric Ballroom was so lovely, we were the opening band but there were quite a lot of people and they seemed to really enjoy it. We got a few reviews after the show which were funny tbh, we got described as “death metal” on some of them. I think we might be a little too heavy for some Amyl and the Sniffers fans! And when we played again with them at the O2 Bristol the next year was truly amazing as we even managed to make some people mosh around and seeing that in such a massive venue with such a big crowd was truly unreal! People were also taking selfies with us after the show, and asking us to sign records as if we were a big band, that was odd but super flattering haha. Loved it x
Anything we need to know about Shooting Daggers going into 2024? Have you gigs and festivals planned?
Raquel (drums): Our debut Album Love & Rage is out on the 16th of February. We’ll play Rough Trade East for our Album Release on the 22nd of this month with the Menstrual Cramps and Out of Love. We also have a new music video coming up soon and a tour with Spaced and Going Off in March. We’ll play 2000 Trees fest and we’ll support Unbroken in November among a few other super sick dates and tours upcoming.
In short: Big things coming soon!
For more details on Shooting Daggers please check their facebook and instagram.
