GREEN CURTAINS X SHARK SCHOOL

Shark School Are Defining the New Underground on the West Coast

THE BAND: Instagram: shark_school_ire Nora Staunton (guitar, vocals), Peggy Ford (bass), Meg Bruce (percussion, backing vocals) and Cathal Curran (drums

The next band to be featured in our Green Curtains project are the Galway-based punky garage-rockers Shark School, who have been shaking things up in their home city and all over the rest of Ireland. In this series we seek to highlight young up and coming talent in Ireland through footage of bands behind the scenes and all the places that their audiences don’t normally see.

Despite only beginning in 2023 and having only released two singles on streaming services with Strange Brew Records, Shark School are already making waves in the music scene in Ireland. Their harsh and noisy take on garage rock is clearly impressing people since after debuting at All Together Now last year they have been invited back to play again this year. 

INTERVIEW:

B: Writing within the world of punk music, would you say you have a goal in mind when you sit down to write songs, or do they just come to you in whatever form that they will be?

Nora: For songwriting it all has to come out in one or else it won’t work, the main goal is to get a thought out but at the moment it is a lot of rage, a whole lot of that

B: Would you say that Galway has influenced you much as a band, and what do you think makes the music scene in Galway so unique?

Peggy: I feel like it has definitely influenced me more as a musician than really us as a band. Nora: Yeah the people, just like my friends, they’re very inspirational. The sky, the sun, the moon, the stars.

Peggy: I love the Galway music scene, and everything would be very different if it weren’t for the fact it is so good, and that there are so many really really amazing people, and friends.

B: You were amazing at All Together Now last year, how was that experience for you guys, and are you excited to go back?

All: So excited!

Peggy: I love All Together Now, last year we were in a tent and it was raining so everyone came in to see us and it was great. I just hope we don’t clash with too many people. Wet Leg if you’re reading this, please come see us!

B: What do you guys think about the sudden surge in love for Irish culture?

Peggy: I have a hot and potentially bitter take, I was thinking this recently: it’s always been there in Ireland, and this isn’t a recent thing in the past one or two years. It’s been a thing for at least the last ten years since like Gilla Band started. Everyone who’s big now is inspired by Gilla Band, and they were going like years and years ago now. I think, maybe we shouldn’t be bitter about it because it is helping us up now as well, but it is frustrating to hear people in the US or the UK say “all of a sudden there is all this good music coming out of Ireland,” but there always was!

B: What do you think are some of the most important things in an environment that make young people feel supported to create?

Nora: I think just a community isn’t it? Like for us, Music Generation is such a big part of how we started playing.

Peggy: Safe and accessible practice spaces, all-ages gigs, get seventeen year olds out of pubs you know, as much as we were the seventeen year olds in pubs. When there is such a good alternative as all-ages gigs I don’t think there really is any excuse.

B: Who have you been loving the most at the moment? If you had to pick like max three artists?

Nora: Definitely Amyl and the Sniffers.

Peggy: Knocked Loose!

Nora: Sprints.

Peggy: Yeah, Sprints always. Gilla Band always. Everyone we have seen and will see this summer to be honest. Anyone loud, Lambrini Girls!

Nora: Yes! I nearly died at Lambrini girls, twice.

B: You have a pretty big gig coming up, 26th of July, how does it feel to have a headline gig for the Galway Arts Festival?

Peggy: I’m so excited, and I grew up going to Arts Fest things. It was like every July it was “oh my God it’s the Arts Festival” and we would be going to all this fun stuff, and now we are the fun stuff.

Green Curtains X Shark School

Writer: Blaise Gilburd