Timid To Perfection

SHY CHILD
Words: Iain Moffat

They played Wembley Stadium first time round and, with their new record, Shy Child have equally big aims to match their monstrous synth-pop hooks…

Testing times ahead for those that made it big in new rave’s heyday: Hadouken!’s change of direction  has seen only sporadic acceptance, while Klaxons remain frustratingly unheard from. For native New Yorkers Shy Child, though, returning has been, well, child’s play. Maybe that’s because they were already two albums down the road when ‘The Noise Don’t Stop’ saw their dayglo charms chiming with everyone else, but mostly it’s because follow-up ‘Liquid Love’ is brazenly brimful of out’n’out cracking songs set to confound both limitations and expectations aplenty. “It is a different record,” agrees still-keytar-carrying frontman Pete Cafarella, “cos this time we wanted it to be more about the lyrics. We’re trying to be a bit more traditional with our reference points, we want to make music that’d work just written on a page, like we were Burt Bacharach or something.” “We didn’t want to come back with ‘Noise Don’t Stop II’,” confirms his drummy partner Nate Smith. “I think for any artist there has to be progression.” What, even, say, Motorhead or AC/DC? “But they don’t have to do that,” counters Pete. “I mean, AC/DC could decide one day to make a really operatic album…” Ooh, that’d be amazing! “Exactly! They might come up with something that would be my favourite album. It could well be the best thing they’d ever done; it’d definitely be interesting. Like Neil Young’s ‘Trans’. I don’t know how you feel about it, but I think that’s the perfect example. It’s probably the one of his that I listen to the most, it’s his most endearing record.”
“‘Metal Machine Music’’s a bit like that too,” muses Nate. “Yeah, but that’s not endearing. My god, that’s the total opposite of endearing!” It’s fascinatingly appropriate to hear the chaps chewing on stuff from the 70s and 80s, since there are little goblets of those eras (Michael Jackson! Fleetwood Mac! Etc!) dotted with varying faithfulness across ‘Liquid Love’. Have they been drinking heartily from the nostalgic well since we saw them last?
“I did that the other night, actually,” confesses Nate, “just sat at home picking out random videos online that I hadn’t seen for years.” Pete’s a little more specific: “I just really like the production from the first five years of the 80s, when digital technology was first being used but was still being treated like an instrument, it was still recorded and mic’ed like that. You’d end up with a lot of really warm, pristine stuff. But then, I kind of feel that the mid-80s killed everything…” “Who were those guys?” asks a derisory Nate, “Stock Aitken Waterman?” “Yeah, you had everything just covered in reverb, and not the good, Phil Collins reverb. But somebody like… you know Propaganda? They were an amazing band, that’s the kind of tightness we’re going for.” Thinking big, then, although stadia, inevitably, hold no fear… “We did Wembley Stadium last time round,” recalls Nate. “Us, Muse and Panic At The Disco. That was awesome! It was weird – I had no idea people would be so far away. I didn’t even know that, while we were playing, our faces were being beamed up on big screens.” “I knew that,” mumbles Pete. “Really? Nobody asked us. Right, I’m suing them. I’m suing Mr Wembley!” You see? They’ve even got a back-up plan should things somehow not work out for them with this record. Not, as it happens, that practical considerations are top of their concerns, as Pete explains. “See, that’s one great thing about modern life. You don’t have to work at all.” “What?” splutters an incredulous Nate. “It’s true. The structures are in place now. No-one needs to work: bottom line.” But, Pete, you doing your job means we get to hear all kinds of genre-jumping electro goodness! Surely that’s something you’d be doing whatever your precise employment situation? “Of course we’d still be doing it. But when we go into the studio or we go to do a gig, let’s not say we’re going to work. Let’s say we’re going to fun!”

‘Liquid Love’ is released on Wall Of Sound on March 1st.