Interview with Shotgun Mistress: ‘Sometimes you just jam it out until you get something’

Melbourne-based rock band Shotgun Mistress brought out their fiery, blistering single, Collide, in October with a new album due out around February next year.

The band comprises Glenn Fogwill (vocals), Matt Wilcock (guitar), Dave Lee (drums) and Ben Curnow (bass). ‘The real reason we picked our name is because it sounded good,’ Fogwill said. ‘I think people know what they’re getting when they hear it and I’m a fan of strong frontwomen.’ They have been together as a band since 2018. Wilcock moved to the UK for 10 years, where he also worked as an embalmer, before moving back to Melbourne just two streets away from Fogwill.

‘Collide’ is about living through things and coming to terms with yourself, Fogwill said. ‘I wasn’t the best growing up.’

As the song goes: ‘The time it takes, the price you paid, your battleground, you put your best foot first and never sold me out. Ingest my fall from grace, to make or break your day, Cause back then I’d pay to see how sweet this bitter tastes.’

‘In other bands I’ve been in, I would write whole songs myself’

Songwriting is very much a collaborative effort; ‘Matt writes the guitar, Dave bashed it out and I wrote the lyrics and the bass player adds his bit. In other bands I’ve been in, I would write whole songs myself. Sometimes you just jam it out until you get something.’

And they’re not afraid to tackle difficult subjects, such as in their song ‘Save Me From Myself’, which they released earlier this year: ‘It’s about addiction – to anything, really,’ he said. ‘I can’t really write about myself in any way, though, but it’s healthy to mix your art with your business.’

The idea of being your own worst enemy comes across in the lyrics: ‘Am I ever gonna live this one down, I’m left with a hole in me and I’m never gonna dig this one out. Are you ever gonna turn around and save me from my own intentions?’

Around February next year, they will bring out a 13 track album, of which 7 songs will be new (or a 10 track album if they do vinyl). ‘Collide’ will also feature on it.

‘If you’re personally invested, these songs are hard to do live’

One of the new tracks will be ‘May Shee’: ‘We’re sticking to the quintessential hard rock rule of just one ballad per album and this is it,’ he laughed. ‘This song is close to home because Dave, the drummer, his sister was murdered a few years ago and this song is an ode to her. There’s a line in the song ‘May Shee never walks alone’. It’s a big song, with a choir in there. If you’re personally invested, these songs are hard to do live. Dave is a happy-go-lucky guy, which makes it easier to play.’

They also have another album underway. ‘We’ve finished five demos. When we release it depends on when we can tour. If we can’t tour next year, we might release it at the end of the year.’

‘No Friend of Mine’, their debut single, is a massive, energetic track, and the one that actually got them signed. ‘We’ve done a new version of it that’s even better. We recorded the original over a weekend but now we’ve re-recorded it properly. It took us four months to record the next album and we’ve added extra guitars, extra vocals and drums etc.’

Fogwill was away for the weekend when we spoke but the band was meeting up that weekend for the first time since March to jam: ‘I was in the first postcode lockdown in Melbourne, which had the longest lockdown in the world (more than three months).’

Locally, he is a fan of rock band Electric Mary as well as Sydney’s Dead City Ruins. ‘I’m a big fan of AshenMoon in LA, the bass player is from INXS.’ he cites his biggest musical influences as US rock bands Halestorm, Pop Evil and English progressive rock band Flash. ‘They’re my go-tos,’ he said.

If he could tour with anyone, he picks Myles Kennedy, who is best known as the lead singer of American rock band Alter Bridge: ‘I’d probably freeze,’ he laughed. ‘Trying to play before or after him would be a joke!’