How Can Shields Fix This?

It would be easy to assume that local indie band Shields originate from either North or South Shields. Not so, as drummer Tom Larthe de Langladure explains:

"It's coincidental. We're from Newcastle and not affiliated to either!" More of problem is the London based rock band, also called Shields. Says Tom: "We did a gig in Bristol last winter with another band and their driver was in the other Shields band! He gave us one of their Shields tee shirts for our manager because he'd been giving them some stick about changing their name!"

With prestigious gigs including the Melt! Festival in Ferropolis, Germany under their belts, Tom and the band have no plans for a name change: "We like it and have had success in the UK and abroad with it so we're going to stick with it. We're more interested in getting on with the job!"

Playing music in the same ballpark as Arcade Fire, Foals, Bombay Bicycle Club and Everything Everything, like those bands Shields are very song orientated, as Larthe de Langladure explains: "We're striving very hard to write the best songs we can. We write honest songs about things that effect us, including the complex relationships with other people. Or coming out of your shell and seizing the moment. Or something more open to interpretation, like the title song from our forthcoming new album 'How Can We fix This?', which is about the conflict between light and dark and good and evil. If a song isn't good enough we struggle to agree whether we're going to play it live. It takes a lot for all of us to be happy enough with a track to play it live and put it on an album."

Shields have striking three part harmonies which used to be four part harmonies with Tom joining in until the drummer discovered he had a problem:"I hit the drums quite hard and live I really do go for it. Often I'd be screaming with my mouth shut while playing! I didn't realise I was doing it until we were in the studio, I was doing drum takes and the others were going: "What's that noise?" So I used so sing but now I don't!"

'Enemy' the latest single from Shields can be downloaded free at https://soundcloud.com/behindshields/enemy-demo

Their YouTube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/user/wearebehindshields