Adebisi Shank

Sargent House is a label I can always rely on for music that’s truly innovative and inspiring. Wexford, Ireland’s Adebisi Shank fit right in with the label’s roster both in the sense that they exude sort of a free, child-like jubilance not unlike Fang Island or Tera Melos, but also in the sense that you’ve still never heard anything quite like them. AS are a trio that play an energetic style of futuristic punk that one could probably come up with a pretentious tag like “math-dance” for, but as Vincent would say, there’s really only two kinds of music. His bass can often shape-shift from ballsy pick-attacked Fender Jazz to sugary synth sounds and plenty in between, but it always grabs your attention. Below Vin provides one of the best interviews I’ve had the pleasure of having.

How did you guys form?

VM: Ah tis a familiar tale, we were just a bunch of friends who decided to start playing together. We kinda grew up together. I used to see them around playing in a band called Terrordactyl and they knew my solo electronic stuff, so we came together to form a Rock Toblerone.

You’re from Wexford Ireland, how would you describe the music scene there?

We’ve actually only ever played in Wexford once I think. It’s more our base of operations, but it’s a magical place for us. Think Skyrim.

You’re probably used to people saying your band has a unique and distinct sound, were there any pre-existing ideas that came into this or did it just happen naturally when you guys got together?

Fun happened naturally, sound came later really. I think of the whole thing as a learning experience. We all have different kinda ideas about what kinda music we make which means it’s constantly changing. But at the core is always fun. We’re pretty militant about fun. You could say we’re fundamentalists.

I was surprised to find out that AS is a trio, once I saw a live video I saw that there’s a good deal of pedal work going on. Do you have any advice for acquiring large quantities of gear for the musicians that want to have as many tools available to them as possible? Say for instance, for someone on a budget or someone who lives far enough away from a city that they can’t try gear hands on.

Well first thing I would say is you don’t need any specific gear to make music. I came from an electronic background so while I was pretty into gadgets I also knew that all you actually need nowadays is a basic laptop and a bit of software. There’s costs associated with being in a band, but the cost of making music, of expression, is probably as cheap as it’s ever gonna get. So knock yourself out. The only limitation is your imagination! With that said, sniff out the pedal bargains on craigslist but beware of psychos.

Speaking of which, tell us about your bass rig and why you use what you use.

I play a jazz bass into ampeg pro svt head and an 8×10 cab. When I first was learning bass I got a lend of a jazz bass and that’s what I’ve had ever since. I used to have a Lemmy signature cab but it was just insanely heavy and sounded like, well like Lemmy’s ass probably. The 8×10 is pretty light and sounds cool.

Pedalboard?

Boss Tuner, Super Octave, some Boss Distortion pedal, Bit Crusher, Digitech Whammy, Eventide Pitchfactor.

It sounds to me like you use not just a variety of effects, but techniques as well. Did you practice slap, picking, and finger playing equally in your formative years of playing bass?

I genuinely have no idea what the hell I’m doing 99% of the time. I think what you’re hearing as technique is a secret sauce of ineptitude and desperate sweaty invention. As a beginner I’d read people saying ooooh I’ve no idea what I’m doing and it would dishearten me because it made the process seem overly mysterious, but I know now the intention is liberation. There’s no right or wrong way to do music. We’re all still learning and anybody who says otherwise is either in the Rolling Stones or a liar (or both)

Your label mates in And So I Watch you from Afar are also hard to pin down stylistically. Is genre cross-polination something you see in alot of Irish bands?

I dunno, that’s interesting though. A lot of musicians have multiple projects on the go over here, and I remember like the Kaboogie/Porco Dio gigs where you’d get punk bands on the same bill as breakcore artists, that was pretty inspiring. At the end of the day though, there’s really only two music genres – good and shite.

Are than any awesome Irish bands that we should know about here in the states?

Yeah loads – Ireland has a ridiculous amount of talent – check out Adultrock, Heathers, Tvvins, No Spill Blood, Speed of Snakes, Spies, Le Galaxie, Solar Bears, I Am The Cosmos, Chequerboard, Jape, I could go on and on but blogs like Nialler9 and Harmless Noise are your best bet. Nialler did a great Spotify playlist for St Patricks Day with tons of deadly Irish music so go check that out. There’s also this band called U2, keep an eye out for their new record “Fizzbottle” gonna explode in 2014.

What does Adebisi Shank have planned for the rest of 2014?

Gonna release our new album “This is the Third Album of a band called Adebisi Shank” tour the shit out of it and adopt a kitten.

I want to thank Vincent from AS and Dave from the US/THEM Group for a great interview. Everyone make sure you check out Adebisi Shank’s bandcamp and keep a lookout for the their new record later this year.

Hear Adebisi Shank: http://adebisishank.bandcamp.com/
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