Freshly Pressed – Sham Family “Community Service”

Toronto-based punk quartet Sham Family has just announced the release of their debut album, A Deaf Portrait of Peace (out July 19th), and dropped their latest single, “Community Service” – they’ll also be here in Niagara, playing a show at Warehouse in St. Catharines on June 21st. We caught up with Sham Family to chat about the new music, the weirdest show they’ve played, and what bands they’d want on a Sham Family-curated music festival.

From The Strait: Tell us about the new single, “Community Service”.

Sham Family: Community Service is about the lack of reciprocated care and love that citizens receive in a city they claim to love so much. Inhabitants who prop up their city, but get nothing in return in times of struggle. City pride is one sided, community service for those who don’t care about you.

From The Strait: What can fans expect from the upcoming album, A Deaf Portrait of Peace?

Sham Family: ADPOP is an evolution forward in Sham Family. Picking up where we left off from our EP, we wanted to expand towards a more realised sound, both from a songwriting and production standpoint. We wanted to avoid creating a record that rehashed the same concept 10 times over, with a goal of having a unique identity and listening experience for each track, making an exciting journey of a front to back listening experience.

From The Strait: What’s your favourite – and least favourite – thing about being musicians?

Sham Family:  Favourite- The community. We love the music scene in our city, there is so much love and support here, it feels lucky to be a part of it. Playing shows on the road and being a small part of the communities in other cities for a night is a really exciting experience.

Least favourite – the very tough reality of no financial sustainability in the music industry. The ever present sponsorships of festivals being funded directly by the military or institutions that fund the military, especially in a time of an ongoing genocide.

From The Strait: What was the coolest (and/or weirdest… we like weird) live show you’ve ever played?

Sham Family: We played at a venue one time that was being “toured” to a group of corpos in suits as we were loading in. It was mid-way through a tour we were on, so lack of sleep and hangovers were at a peak. They were applauding “the bands” while we were walking in and out with gear. While some of us were heads down in the green room trying to nap, they came backstage with the “tour guide” proclaiming “backstage, where the magic happens!” followed by an immediate much needed GTFO from our tour manager.

The show itself was fine, but it was pretty funny to be observed like a bunch of zoo animals while you’re trying to do your job.

From The Strait: Who were your musical influences growing up, and how do they differ from your current ones?

Sham Family: We mostly grew up on a lot of metal, hardcore and post-hardcore in our early to late teens, both as listeners and playing in bands in this landscape. While tastes grew and evolved over time, playing aggressive music is still true to our hearts and feels like a homecoming with Sham Family.

From The Strait: If you could curate a festival (with you headlining, of course), who would you want on the bill and what would it be called?

Sham Family: Us, Limp Bizkit and a Sonic Youth noise set.

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Check out “Community Service”, the latest track from Sham Family!

Follow Sham Family on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

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