New Band of the Month: Dead Shed Jokers

The wonderfully weird and Welsh Dead Shed Jokers first cropped up on these CULTURED VULTURES shores in an edition PULSE: NEW MUSIC YOU NEED, when their kookily unique brand of psychedelia and garage rock got things suitably freaky.

Then they only went and dropped their stellar, self-titled second album, which only further cemented them as favourites of ours here at CV HQ with significant development and strengthening of the band’s sound since their debut; managing to somehow be both impossible to pin down on one idea for any amount of time and insanely infectious too. You can check out the review HERE, if you haven’t already.

In between that though, we managed to catch up with the band for a quick Q&A to get you an insight into the topsy-turvy world of Dead Shed Jokers, including some guilty pleasures and an absolutely outrageous to the traditional vulture based question. Here they are though, to May off proper, our NEW BAND OF THE MONTH.

Hello there, how the hell are you? And who the hell am I talking to today?

You are talking to Hywel, singer of DSJ and I’m tip top thanks.

We featured you a little while back in our new music feature, Pulse, but for those not up to speed; what are Dead Shed Jokers all about? How would you describe your sound?

Dead Shed Jokers are a mash up of dark groovy riffs, eery atmospherics, and storytelling and some say we sound like spontaneous prison monkeys who have just discovered the powers of the electrical whisk for the first time.

As far as influences go, I’d say I can hear elements of Queens of the Stone Age and Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster in your sound, but also elements of pychedelia and garage rock/indie. Am I in the right ballpark there? Are you all bonded over similar influences, or do you each have your own that you bring to the table?

Yeah we try and offer something different with each song but that’s not a million miles off. We have influences from across the board, old school blues, punk, hip hop to the Bubble and Notorious BIG. It all goes in the melting pot and often results in some interesting and original stuff.

Your music has got a very free flowing vibe to it, but with a real kinetic energy. Is that how you approach writing it? A free for all jam where you thrash it out and see what happens, or is it more considered?

It’s both really, sometimes people get hit by inspirational lightning and will come in with fully formed songs. Other times the ideas originate from having a few beers and long jamming sessions in the shed till’ the early hours. We then listen back to the tapes, and refine or combine the best bits to form something more potent and interesting structure-wise but still try to keep the original vibe. Some would say different, but we would prefer to combine three or four great riffs to form an amazing song rather than dragging them out and having four half decent ones. We always serve the song though, that is shed commandment number 1.

Outside of music, and the band, what else floats Dead Shed Jokers’ collective boats? Are there even other musical outlets any of you indulge in?

Trailer Park Boys, real ales, cinema, trips to beautiful Eastern European cities, C.O.D… all the good stuff. We are all members of a hypothetical musical guilty pleasure called Chunky Bitch where we play cock rock songs from our hit albums which include ‘Louder than Lips”, “Fuck it!” and “Destination Rock”.

Your second album has just dropped, I imagine you’re really proud of it. How do you feel you’ve evolved as a band, and in sound, since your debut, Peyote Smile?

Yeah we’re well chuffed, this is how we’ve always wanted to sound. Peyote Smile demonstrated our range as a band and much of the feeling of the music was there, but it was spread over different songs over the album. On this record we have managed to fuse that diversity into single songs, one coherent sound. This was the reasoning behind self-titling the album as we feel the songs on this album are a testament to everything we’ve worked for over the last 8 years.

How are things looking on the live front? Big tour plans in support of the new album? Where can our readers come catch the Dead Shed Jokers live experience?

Yep we’re currently at the arse end of a UK tour but we still have some dates remaining. The dates have been epic so far and we have been playing a different set every night so it’s been really fun for us. After a few festival slots we are planning on touring the UK again and possibly Europe this autumn and this will hopefully coincide with a vinyl release of the album.

Speaking of gigs, are there any bands you’ve played with that we, and our readers, should really check out? Or, even bands you haven’t played with but know of, any recommendations?

There are some amazing bands in South Wales at the minute across a variety of genres; Heavy Flames, Henry’s Funeral Shoe, Chip Pan Fire Squad, Orbits, Prosperina, Lacertilia to name a few. We recently played with the Graveltones too and they are the muts nuts.

Lastly, and most importantly, we Cultured Vultures have our very own vulture by the name of Voltaire. If you had a vulture that was especially cultured, what would you call it?

We don’t need a vulture, we have an eagle called Kreef. He masterminded our last video. The crazy bastard wouldn’t take kindly to us befriending a vulture.