Kent based; fast rising band Strangeways release their latest indie/post punk gem “Modern Art”.
Equal parts raw and rich, “Modern Art” is laced with perfectly placed guitars, rhythmic bass melodies and nostalgic drum patterns laying a timeless foundation for Tom’s distinctively charismatic vocals. Exploring the impact of social media in the modern world, the band continue to build a name for themselves through their poignant lyricism, storytelling abilities and undeniable musicianship.
Comprised of Tom Turner (lead vocalist), Max Sheehan (guitarist), Tom Shaddick (guitarist), Harry Cook (bassist) and James Duffy (drummer), Strangeways’ trailblazing approach is on full display across “Modern Art”. Equal parts raw and rich, perfectly placed guitars, rhythmic bass melodies and nostalgic drum patterns set pace for Tom’s distinctively charismatic vocals. Exploring the impact of social media in the modern world, the band continue to build a name for themselves through their poignant lyricism, storytelling abilities and undeniable musicianship.
The 5-piece newcomers have carved a significant reputation for themselves over the past two years for their cult live performances. Across the South of England and London since their foundation in the summer of 2021, sold out shows from the Louisiana in Bristol to opening up for Feet and Welly at The Tunbridge wells forum and Carl Barat at the Amersham Arms have seen them underline themselves as one of the key ones to watch for 2025 as well as maxing out the 200 capacity of their release gig at The Ship in Medway which in true punk style saw people climbing under and over fences to get in.
Check Out Modern Art Video Below
The Interview
Hey guys, how are you doing today?
All good mate. Wonderful.
On November 29th, you released your latest single “Modern Art”. Would you like to tell me a bit about the song and the making of this video?
Yeah. Okay. The song was basically looking at social media, the way in which we treat people’s social media profiles, and what’s now considered stalking. You know, stalking doesn’t mean the same thing as what it might have meant, let’s say twenty years ago. Now to stalk someone is almost at your own discretion. It’s just a comment on how much we allow ourselves to be exposed, and also the act of how casual this has become.
In terms of the music video, we kind of all sat together, cutting through a couple of ideas with the director and it just came to what you’ve seen now. We wanted to create something that looks pretty clean in comparison to our last video for “The Ponds”, which is very choppy… not messy, but, you know, rough and DIY. We thought it suited this song to have different colours and more square and angular shots.
And then the makeup, I actually believe it was the director’s idea to just have the makeup develop throughout the video.
Touching on your recent track “The Ponds”, how do you feel about the outcome of this release?
It’s been pretty good. I mean, it’s the first release we’ve done where it’s been professionally recorded, and we actually made a music video too. It was a fun experience on a location shoot as well, lots of extras. Overall, it’s been a pretty fun experience.
And the feedback, I don’t know. It’s hard to gauge because every release there’s been more and more people taking it in. With “Modern Art”, we’ve gotten a lot more streams in the first week than we did in the first month for the last release. So it’s quite hard to gauge the feedback of the last one really.
So are you planning to come up with a full length album soon?
That’ll be nice, but I still think we’re a little bit off of that. Still got a few singles and more of a sound to develop… baby steps. We’re not looking that far ahead, you know? We’re just seeing how everything goes with these singles, taking it step by step and gauging each release individually, seeing what happens.
For the people who are new to Strangeways, would you like to tell us how it all started as a band?
Yeah, Tom and Max had been friends for a long, long time. And they got the train home one day and thought, well, why don’t we just start a band? It was our mate Doughty’s birthday and we were all sharing music. I think we were sharing an earphone together, going song for song before we’re like, well, why don’t we do this?
Eventually, we started writing in the garage and got introduced to Tom, and then we started writing prolifically. We used to do six days a week in the garage during COVID. We then took a gig and 3 weeks before, James joined us. Harry was in the crowd, and he loved it. And then, yeah, we all came together. Now three years later, we got some singles out and getting a bit of traction.
You started in 2021, so how has the journey of Strangeways been so far?
Lots of gigs and lots of fun. A lot of hard work as well to be fair. The first year and a half was mostly playing live, not fully focused on professional recording and videos and stuff like that. We were just trying to get our feet off the ground and trying to get some sort of name. We’re learning our live sound and it’s only recently we’ve been doing this sort of stuff. Now we’re here, you know? Still sort of early days, you could say.
Any big touring plans coming up?
No tours planned yet. We’ll see. We’ll see. We’re still early into the release of “Modern Art”. Maybe it’ll really blow up. You know? We’ll see.
Are you planning for a new single?
Yeah… Maybe. We can’t give too much away, but we’re aiming to release stuff in 2025.
Any highlights from your shows lately?
The Macbeth felt like a good gig, you know. Sometimes you play a gig and you just feel good after playing it. Especially that one, there was a lot of technical difficulties. You can get a sort of sinking feeling, like you’re gonna be playing and you’re not gonna be able to hear each other and everything’s gonna go badly and fall apart. That felt quite good to overcome. I think our experience from previous gigs has lent us, you know, where we are now. As when it comes down to doing gigs with technical difficulties, we actually feel quite comfortable because we haven’t always been a recording band, we’ve actually really been a live band.
Also, any sort of support slot we’ve played so far, we feel pretty lucky to receive. That’s where we wanna be aiming for, and potentially that’s where we need to be in the future. Supporting bands so we can reach new audiences that we’re not already hitting from our own gigs.
As a band, do you have any big dreams?
What’s the dream? Just to have a real big gig and have everyone sing back your lyrics you know? That’d be cool. The kind of gig where you still think, wow, that was an amazing gig. To be on the other end of that would be the main goal, I suppose
Any plans or focus towards 2025?
Releasing more music, really. As we said, just taking it step by step. New music, music videos, doing as many gigs as we can. You know, every opportunity we can take. A festival in the summer would be nice too.
For us, it’s just about progressing now. Whenever we’re making something new, it feels like we’re creating something very uplifting.
Also, selling more T-shirts, maybe branch out to hoodies…
And finally, any messages for the Strangeways fans around the world?
Show yourself! Thank you for listening of course, but make yourself known. On Instagram or wherever, message us. Come to gigs! If you’re from somewhere where we haven’t played yet, put our name forward. We’d love to play. Let us know good venues near you, and we’ll go and hopefully see you there!
Thank you so much for giving me today this opportunity to have you on Metalheads.
Thank you. Absolutely. A real pleasure!
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