Meet Panic Shack, the Cardiff rabble keeping punk fun
On their self-titled debut album, these firm friends self-mythologise while having a right laugh along the way
‘Girl Band Starter Pack’, the first song from the debut album by Cardiff quartet Panic Shack, was also the first song they ever wrote. The ludicrously fun punk rager serves as a perfect introduction to the group, as well as somewhat of a theme song for the band.
In their own words on the track’s bridge, they sing: “We get loose, we get lairy, we get wild, we get crazy / We get naughty, we get silly, we get loud, we get freaky.” In its chorus, things are simpler but no less impactful: “Woooo! Shack shack!”
In the seven years since they formed, Panic Shack have evolved and bolstered their sound, arriving at album time with a greater musicality, a prioritisation of fun and directness in their lyrics, and the same inseparable bond that has existed since the start.
The debut album – out this month via Brace Yourself Records – begins with voice recordings from the smoking area of an Amyl and the Sniffers gig, and the whole album vibrates with this sense of buzz and excitement.
Ahead of the album’s release, we speak to the band’s Sarah Harvey (vocals) and Em Smith (bass/backing vocals) about their evolution, the album as an introduction to Panic Shack, and why their reasons for forming the band are more valid than ever today.
Read our Play Next interview with Panic Shack and listen to them on our Play Next playlist on Spotify below.
When you formed the band, you did so as a reaction to exclusionary, male-heavy spaces in rock and punk music – do you still see those existing today?
Sarah: We did it because we thought, ‘Hey, if they can do it, we can do it! Let’s just have a go.’ We always get lumped together as “female-fronted”, and there are so many more people doing it now.
Tell us about ‘Girl Band Starter Pack’, the song that began it all…
Em: It’s had so many versions. We started writing it with our first drummer, and that was three drummers ago! It’s our anthem, innit? It sums us up as friends and a girl group, taking things too far…
Sarah: A simple coffee can turn into 3am.
Having so many versions of that song, is it a nice way to be able to track the evolution of the band over those years?
Sarah: The album is a welcome to our world, from start to finish.
Em: It very much does follow us from the start to the end. There’s not really a single song about love or a partner. Apart from ‘Thelma & Louise’, which is about us loving each other! It’s about our energy, what we do together as friends, our experiences, what we find funny, what pisses us off.
Sarah: Night out anecdotes. It’s what we can write about. I can’t imagine doing it any other way. It would feel inauthentic. I’m sure you can write a song without having lived it, but we would never do that.
Ahead of recording the album with Ali Chant, you spent some time writing at Romi’s (bassist) aunt’s house in west Wales – how was that experience?
Em: It was four days across two long weekends. We wrote 14 songs there. We took them to the studio and did the 11 tracks over nine days.
Sarah: We lived, breathed, slept, drank wine for two weekends. It was amazing.
Em: We took a yoga mat and thought we’d do it on the beach. It never got unrolled. We had the thought though, and that’s what counts.
From being in a band together for so long and being such close friends, has a level of telepathy been created between the four of you?
Sarah: We always say that we’ve got a hive mind. When people are around us for a little longer, they become part of it too. We are just one entity – on stage, we’ll know when something’s funny or going wrong.
With this album being an introduction to the world of Panic Shack, what’s your elevator pitch for the band?
Em: It’s a spirit and a friendship. It’s our humour.
Sarah: We like not taking ourselves too seriously, mixing the light and the dark is. You can have some dark concepts, but we always try and keep it quite light. That’s really Panic Shack, lways bringing the fun to every sad occasion. Get us at your funerals!