Headshrinkers are a 4-piece punk outfit from The Black Country who since 2019, have been making waves with their noisy yet poetic sound that blends confrontational guitar riffs with pummelling drums. The band have gone from strength to strength over the years with backing from BBC 6 Music, appearances at festivals such as Truck Festival and releasing a series of singles as well as their debut EP ‘Doorway Conversations’. With a new single set to come out at the back end of this month, the band are gearing up for the release of their second EP ‘Judgement Day’ which is scheduled for release around late spring 2024.
Regarding the band members individual influences, drummer Scarlett Churchill says, “I’ve always been into indie and punk and post-punk, but before I joined the band, I realised my knowledge of that genre was actually really limited. I’d spent my whole university life listening to jazz and stuff like that, because that’s what I was studying. But when I joined the band, it kind of rekindled my high school love for the music that we were making, and I just really got into it again. And they introduced me to bands like Fontaines D.C and Sports Team that I’d never even heard of before. It was all like, Catfish And The Bottlemen and The Vaccines and that for me growing up so when I started to listen to this new kind of music that I’d never really heard of, It just inspired loads of different beats and rhythms.” Frontman Garran Hickman adds his side by saying, “My first record was Eminem ‘Curtain Call’, and I firmly believe that’s where my love for words came from.”
The band are from The Black Country and are proud represent the area through their music. When asked about the significance of The Black Country for the band, the frontman says, “A lot of our songs are peppered with characters who are from the Black Country, I think it’s definitely an inspiration.” On the topic of whether it’s harder to get noticed by claiming The Black Country as where they’re from rather than just Birmingham, he replied, “If we’re saying we’re from Birmingham, when we’re not it just wouldn’t sit at all right with us, especially with how inspired we are from it. So yeah, I do I do feel up against it. But if you want to hold the torch, then you’ve got to knock down these doors. I think I’m prepared to do that.”
The band’s artwork is a key element to Headshrinkers image especially with their two most recent singles ‘Plasticine’ and ‘Bang Bang’, both of which adopt colourful, attention-grabbing paintings for their covers. When asked about the importance of artwork for them as a band, Scarlett says, “we are all individually and differently, creative, so it does guarantee that it goes hand in hand with the music we want to put out that is reflected in the artwork that goes with it, and the visuals that go with it.” Guitarist James Knott adds, “We put a lot on work into our music videos as well. We were just filming a music video the other day and are editing it at the moment which is really important to us, and we enjoy doing it as well. It’s an extension of the music really. Another way to tell a story.”
Two years on from their debut EP, the band reflected on their evolution over the years to the point they’re at today. Guitarist James says, “We’ve definitely found our sound more recently, maybe in the last year or so. I think we started a year before lockdown, Scarlett joined in lockdown. I think at that time, we were sort of experimenting. We were looking maybe a bit more to other bands that we’d like for inspiration, but I feel like now we know what we sound like, which I think is the main way that we’ve developed. I don’t feel like we need to look at another song and think, ‘oh, let’s write a song like that’. I feel like we just kind of know how to write a song that sounds like our own band now.
Looking back on their journey as a band, bassist Xavier Al-Naqib spoke on the defining moments thus far, “There’s a few defining moments, I think for us as a collective. One of the big ones was we managed to play at the O2 Institute in Birmingham, which is always like, you know, it’s a big one and it’s local. And then in Wolverhampton, we played The Walfrun, which are two very, very big venues. We were there supporting The Twang and if felt like what we were doing was right, and that you had some form of like payoff at the end.”
Finishing up we asked Headshrinkers about what they hope as a band their legacy will be. Garran says, “For kids from the working class, kids from the Black Country, that we held the torch, took it to places to inspire people to carry on writing music and writing words. In terms of for me, it’s just, I can look back and go, ‘they were they were all my thoughts, and I managed to share and speak to people with a lot of them.’” Scarlett adds “I think we’re just we want to we want to be known as the hardest working band to come from the Black Country, and I think with what we’re doing already, we work damn hard in this band to do to do what we do. I mean for God’s sake; James drove us 13 hours and back to France in last summer for a gig.”
Keep an eye out for Headshrinkers new EP ‘Judgement Day’ which is set to release later this year.
Listen to the full chat below:
