Two years after the release of the debut album and its breakthrough single “England Skies”, Shake Shake Go is back. Before the second album, “Homesick”, set to be released in September, there is the EP, “Dinosaur”, with its dangerously catchy eponymous single. Poppy Jones, the reserved and always grinning singer of the three quarters French, one quarter Welsh band, told us about creating the second album, the band’s new direction, and her dark side as a pet stealer.
How does it feel to be back?
Poppy Jones (vocals): It’s good! It feels like it’s been a really long time! It’s wasn’t really, because we finished the tour and then started writing, recording and then there’s all the mixing. But then there’s like a break, where you’re just waiting for stuff to happen, so that was a bit boring. It’s good that things are starting to happen again, it’s good to see people! (laughs)
You guys are soon going to take the important step of releasing your second album. With a first album, there is no expectations, but now you’ve got people following you. How did you approach this new challenge?
Poppy: When we first started talking about working on the second album, I was a bit scared because for the first album, we had so much time to do whatever we wanted. For this album, I was like: “oh god I don’t even know if I’m gonna have anything to talk about”, because I remember one song on the first album, I spent like three months trying to have some lyrics. Now I can’t spend three months on a song. This time, I bought loads of books and just read everything I could, like poetry books, autobiographies, articles, anything to get some new ways of thinking, different perspective. So when it actually came to writing it, it came really easily, more easily than I thought. We’d be just singing a song with no words and it would come into my head right away. But yeah, like you said, there’s expectations, it’s a bit different. I don’t know if people will like it, I hope they will cause I like it! (laughs)
Before we really get into the album, there’s the EP coming out in June, with “Dinosaur” as the lead single. Your first breakthrough single, “England Skies” kind of put you in the “folk music category”, but on stage or even on your albums, you have a really strong rock energy. Was that to highlight this side of the band that you choose “Dinosaur” as the first single?
Poppy: Yeah, when people would come to our gigs after the first album, they’d only just know “England Skies” and probably expected a lot of ballads, so they were a bit surprised! (laughs) So this time, we really wanted people to know what to expect when they come. It might be a bit different to what people are expecting but we really love it.
When you released your first single ever, “England Skies” which really blew up, you guys achieve what every band dream to achieve. But wasn’t having such a huge success to start your career a bit scary and put pressure on your shoulders to try to reach the same level of success with your new one?
Poppy: I didn’t feel that much pressure because when the first single came out, we weren’t here. I was living in London, all of us were not really here, so we weren’t really around to see the song be played everywhere. When that happens, you can feel like a bit of a buzz, but we weren’t here for it so. Even thought people would come to the gigs and we knew it went well, we didn’t have all that feeling around. For the second one, there is pressure but not as much as I think there would have been if we knew what was happening! (laughs) But there’s still pressure because some people love the first album, they’re like: “oh never change”, but I think it has to change, we have to keep growing up. I think people like the single so that’s good! (laughs)
On the EP, “Panda” kind of stands out. Is there a specific story behind that song?
Poppy: It was written differently. Normally, Marc (ed. Le Goff, guitarist) writes the melody and I add the lyrics. For this one, I kind of had the melody for it and took it to the guys, who then fiddled around with it. That’s where it’s a bit different. It’s really fun to sing, we had our residence, practicing the set everyday, and we would just sing it, going like: “waaaaah” (laughs), like really having my moment! (laughs)
There’s also a really nice cover of “Human” by Rag’n’Bone Man on your EP. How did that come about?
Poppy: We needed a cover for Europe 1, they asked us for one. It’s really hard trying to find one because I never want to do a cover by a female singer. You get compared really easily and people are quick to say that you’re not as good. We wanted to do a song that was really like a singing kind of song, that’s why we choose it.
Let’s get to the album now. How was it recorded and in what state of mind were you when you wrote and recorded it?
Poppy: For the recording, the boys did the instruments first. They went to Bonison studio, with Albert Milauchian, who recorded the first album. They did all their parts there. I really don’t like being in the studio, it’s a huge pressure for me, I get really scared. So for this time, Marc produced the album and kind of built a studio in his house. I just had to stay in his house for a week and have breakfast, play with the dogs, go and record. It was kinda different but a lot better, I really enjoyed making it. The last one, I was just really really nervous cause it’s so much pressure.
Not having someone from outside helped you be more comfortable?
Poppy: Yeah, we know how we work together, so it was a lot better for me to do it like that. Marc produced it and he learned a lot from the first album so I think it works better doing it this way.
Your second album sounds generally less folk, it sounds poppier, bigger but with a really strong rock energy. Was that something that you aimed for or did it come naturally?
Poppy: The first couple of songs we wrote we’re kinda in the middle. And then Marc told me that he had a melody in his head for “Dinosaur” but it was really different, maybe too different. He then played it to me and it was really catchy and really good. We thought that, just because our old album sounds a certain way, you can’t say this isn’t Shake Shake Go, because we are Shake Shake Go. We can do whatever we want really. So we thought: “you know fuck it, let’s just go for it and do the songs that we want to do”. When we got that song, that really set what we were going to do for the album.
There’s two songs that comes to our mind, that we were not expecting to hear on a Shake Shake Go album, “Control” and “Fake Love”, which starts with a really powerful guitar riff. Where does this new sound come from?
Poppy: Marc came up with them in his bedroom. When he played them, we were like: “wow okay it’s really explosive”, it’s a bit different, but really cool. They’re really fun to play. While I’m practicing “Fake Love”, I’m like walking around on my sofa and my table, doing a mic drop! (laughs) They’re really fun, I think it’s just a progression.
Is there a song on the upcoming album that hold a really special meaning to you?
Poppy: The song called “Blackbird” is probably the most special to me. Like I said, Marc comes up with most of the songs, but this one was a bit different. We were in the studio, practicing and getting a bit bored, so we started jamming and we made up the song in the studio. It’s special that way because it’s a different way of writing. It’s also special to me because it’s probably the most personal one. It’s about my dad. I have a really good relationship with my dad but I don’t know, I always worry about him. I played it to him once, thinking that he would be really touched, and we was just: “yeah okay”. I don’t think he realised it was about him (laughs) It didn’t work on my dad but….
It did work on us, it’s really touching. Most of your lyrics seems pretty personal. Do you mainly get inspired by personal experiences?
Poppy: It’s normally the people around me. That’s why we called the album “Homesick”, because for this album we’ve been in France, writing it. But even though we’re in another country, it’s still affected by the people you are closest to, even if you’re not close to them physically. It always comes from people around us, what they’re going through. The most personal one would be “Blackbird”, there’s also a song called “Alright”, which is more about realizing stuff, you know what I mean? (laughs) I mean, the first album was really cool, you go along with what’s happening and then when you have a break, you have a lot to think back and be like: “why did I do that, that’s not really me”. This song is about saying stop, do everything you want. And then there’s a couple of songs like “Panda”, “Wonderlost”, which are more environmental things, because they’re things that we think about, so there’s a few different subjects.
You frequently listed Arcade Fire, Bruce Springsteen or Oasis as some of your main inspiration growing up. Are their any new artists/bands that inspire you nowadays?
Poppy: I haven’t listened to that much music this year, while I’ve been writing the album. But I have been listening to Sigrid, I really love her, she’s really cool. There’s also a singer called Lizzo, from America, I don’t really know how I found out about her but she’s supporting Haim on tour now. Her music is really not like ours but she’s really cool! (asking her bandmates, sitting nearby) Who’s on our playlist that we listen to?
Kilian Saubusse (drums): Kendrick.
Poppy: He loves Kendrick Lamar!
Kilian: The last The Killers.
Poppy: There’s a lot of different stuff.
Even if there are some quite sad ballads on the new album, the general atmosphere stays the same: it’s really uplifting, refreshing, really catchy. How do you manage to keep such a cheerful feeling and sound at a time when the world and everything surrounding us right now seems…
Poppy: Quite shit? I don’t know. There are loads of horrible things happening in the world but you’ve got to carry on, you can’t just stop. If you really sat down and thought about all the stuff that going on in the world, than yeah, it’s really depressing. But if you like succumb to all the shit that’s happening, than everybody else wins, the other people who want us to be down and not doing things. So you just have to carry on I think, do the best that you can with what you’ve got.
The music industry is also going through a pretty tough time right now, but at the same time, thanks to social media and streaming platforms, it’s easier to broadcast your music. Do you still feel like it’s harder for new bands to make it nowadays?
Poppy: There’s a lot of opportunities because you can literally think: “I wanna see a band in China” google it and find one. But yeah, because there’s so much accessible stuff in music, there’s so many more people to dig through. I think there’s good and bad to it. It’s great for people who want to make music, it’s easier for them, but it’s just harder to get through.
New music means new tour dates, you’re going to hit the road in a few days. You said earlier that being in the studio was really not your thing, so you must be pretty excited to go on tour now?
Poppy: Yeah yeah I’m way happier on stage! (laughs) I really like being on stage, it’s really fun. Even if something really shit just happened before, as soon as you go on stage, in 30 seconds you just get into it, do your thing and it’s really good. Especially when you have a really good audience, it makes me so happy, you can’t help it but feel good. Ever since I was little, I used to do shows on the playground at school with my friends, make them be the Spice Girls. So to be able to actually do that, go on tour, without forcing my friends, it’s like the dream! (laughs)
Is there a date your especially excited about in the near future?
Poppy: At the moment, we’ve got the Paris gig, on the June 5th, which is the first gig really. Right now I’m just thinking about that because even if we have the tour dates, I always look into things like two days before, and I’m like: “where are we going, how long are we going for?” (laughs) So yeah, Paris and then after Paris, into the next. But I’m looking forward to Paris anyway, because it’s always cool to play.
Alright last question: our website is called “RockUrLife”, what rocks your life?
Poppy: What rocks my life? Animals rock my life (laughs) I love animals. That’s probably not the right answer! (laughs)
No no, it’s a great answer!
Poppy: All our neighbours have a lot of cats and I’ve just been stealing all their cats and doing photos with them. They rock my life! I just steal people’s pets and pretend they’re my own and they make me happy. So, yeah animals! (laughs)
Website: shakeshakego.co.uk
