REWS: ‘We wanted to create that Queens of the Stone Age sort of vibe – really in your face desert rock’

Shauna Tohill aka REWS has released a new single ‘Addicted To You’, a hard hitting track full of grit, sass and a huge, riff-heavy chorus.

Magherafelt, Northern Ireland born Tohill is currently living in Perth, Australia and says of the name REWS: ‘It really was inspired by a name that I saw on a bathroom wall once, actually. I was trying to find the name for the project and I saw that it was a surname, a Dutch surname ‘Reus’, it’s pronounced ‘Royce’, I just loved the look of it. When I looked online to see a bit more about the name, I discovered that it meant ‘the tall people’ or ‘the giant people’. I always was told by people over the years that a band always becomes their name, I sort of thought about, you know, what I’d like the music to do. And I really want it to be music that people look up to and are inspired by, so that’s where the name comes from.’

‘Addicted To You’, with its raw and dirty guitars, has elements of INXS, Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, supported by a chuggy bass riff and Tohill’s vibrant, charismatic vocals as it builds towards an incredibly catchy chorus. It’s the kind of track you could imagine Shirley Manson belting out: ‘It actually started off with a bit of a riff, that “da di dah”,’ she said. ‘The song is about the kind of toxic relationships that people can have, where they fall in love with someone who maybe isn’t so good for them. However, sometimes people aren’t what they seem and actually they might be a brilliant person for you. This song is about the process of kind of figuring that out and maybe being addicted to someone who you don’t think is going to be that good for you.’ 

As the track kicks off: “There’s something about you that I’ve never seen before. You knocked, unlocked all my doors.”

The eye catching artwork was created by her longtime friend and colleague, Shona Cutt (@shonacuttphotography): ‘We spent a few days together nutting out the core idea of what the album artwork was going to look like and then came up with some variations on the shapes for each of the singles,’ she said. ‘Shona took my scrappy ideas and turned them into amazing pieces of artwork! She is genuinely amazing! She also took all of the promo photographs and helped me out with some of the videos, too, including ‘Pretty Face’, ‘Not Your Soldier’ and ‘Addicted To You’.’

‘I had that riff in my head for quite a long time, for a few years’

Tohill wrote ‘Addicted To You’ with Steve King from rock band Fangclub, who are based in Dublin: ‘I had that riff in my head for quite a long time, for a few years,’ she laughed. ‘I think sometimes songs can ebb and flow; you just need that bit of inspiration and one idea leads on to the next, it’s like a wildfire! Sometimes, I can write a song within an hour but then other times it might take years because nothing’s sparked off the idea, if you know what I mean? For the recording guitar tones, I used my Telecaster, which I love. It’s my favourite guitar. I worked with Dan Lucas in the Joplin House Studios to experiment with lots of different pedal sounds, we wanted to create that kind of Queens of the Stone Age vibe – really in your face desert rock.’

She and Lucas played around with a number of guitar pedals to get the sound they were looking for: ‘I usually use a Big Muff fuzz pedal but also Dan has got quite a few really cool obscure pedals (laughs). I can’t remember the name of the other pedal but it had a picture of a grave on it. We pulled out loads of things, tried them out, and then just went for that one – they can be a bit of an addiction!’

Tohill describes herself as ‘a Fender girl through and through’: ‘I think because the Tele was the first guitar that I had, I just love the sound of it,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘I know there are their single coils (pickups) in there, and sometimes that can be associated with more thin tones, but I feel that Teles just have that really chunky vibe and I love it. I just can’t get away from Fender! I would love a thin line Tele to experience that for a bit. I’ve got an American Fender Strat as well, it’s a lovely kind of sea foamy blue. It’s got a wee bit of a shine to it but it’s a bit more matte than the rest of the guitars that I usually would play. It has new pickups, it’s got line pickups, they sound amazing! Sometimes, the single coils can interact with the light a bit more, so you get a bit more humming, whereas with the line pickups, you actually don’t get any humming at all, so it just sounds beautiful.’

‘From a lyrical perspective, I was trying to help another friend know that they’re not alone in all the challenges’

Last year, she released her third album but her first independent album, Meridians: ‘It was inspired by the ‘meridians’ in the body,’ she said. ‘In Chinese traditional medicine, its believed that you’ve got all the meridians (the strings connecting the acupuncture points) running through in your body and, therefore, I feel this can be reflected in how we also have lots of different paths in our lives. I just wanted the album to be a series of different paths and different situations that we go through in life, allowing each track to have a different story, essentially, and have different meridians.’

The opening track ‘The World That You Left Behind’ encapsulates that beautifully, it’s a taut, punchy song pulled along by hypnotic marching drums, switching it up to become a bouncy crowdpleaser after the soaring chorus: ‘It was written, actually, with a friend of mine called Cahir, from Derry City in Northern Ireland, he’s in a band called New Pagans, they’re a brilliant band,’ she said. ‘He started with that opening riff, and I was: “Oh my gosh, this is amazing, I love this” and then I just kind of played around with the bass and the verses and all the vocals. That song is a journey, emotionally, in a way. From a lyrical perspective, I was trying to help another friend know that they’re not alone in all the challenges. It’s important to reflect on things that aren’t so good but also allow us to take a bit of a step forward and not be living too much in the past.’

As the song goes: “Is this the world that you left behind? Or is it a place that keeps you? Is this the corner you left untwined? You know I tried, I tried, to keep you, right. You know I tried it.”

Singing is a huge part of her extended family, something that clearly delights her: ‘I’ve been singing since I was a kid, to be honest, I come from a long line of singers in the family,’ she said. ‘My grandmother was a very well-known folk singer, her name was Eileen Donaghy, she used to tour all over years ago. My mum is also a singer, she used to do a lot of the show band kind of things when I was younger and I’ve got three sisters, so all of us sang together and we made our first band as young as we could (laughs). We used to put on Sunday shows to our grandparents, just show them our new songs, I must have been about five or six, so it was really good fun.’ 

It’s a tradition that they try to hold onto whenever they have a get together, according to Tohill: ‘If we meet up in the evenings to have dinner together or something, we’ll just have some songs on in the background and then one of us will start a song and the rest of us will be on the table, singing and dancing, it always becomes a bit chaotic in our family!’

Tohill cites her mum as a big musical inspiration as well as a huge array of influences: ‘I also grew up listening to lots of Nu Metal – Korn, Limp Bizkit, Evanescence. Rock such as Linkin Park, Incubus and Deftones and Avril Lavigne, Busted and more alternative artists like Kate Bush and Tori Amos. Singing wise, I like having my own unique voice – however, I feel inspired by the “whistle” tone that Mariah Carey can hit, I’m going to get there one day! I also LOVE LOVE LOVE the now passed Chester Bennington’s voice, how he seamlessly traverses screaming to singing so sweetly. He was amazing!’

‘Sometimes I might wake up in the middle of the night and I’ve got a fully arranged song in my head’

Songwriting comes to her in a myriad of ways, even in the night: ‘Sometimes, I might wake up in the middle of the night and I’ve got a fully-arranged song in my head and I have to get up and record it into my phone (laughs) and then I come to it in the next morning. Actually, just thinking of some of the songs on the album now, ‘Heart Is On Fire’ was one of those songs. ‘Psycho Maniac Killer’, it came to me in a dream as well, the chorus did. If I’m just playing around with my guitar, I’ll play a few chords that I like, and then it’d be the music kind of comes first and then the melody and lyrics come after. On odd occasions, sometimes I’ll have lyrics first if there’s a kind of theme that I want to write about or poem that I’ve been working on and then I’ll just write the music to that.’

One such song is ‘Pretty Face’ on her Meridians album, a gloriously defiant rock song about sexism in the music industry with a hooky, snarling bass line that captures the mood: ‘It was written about people in the industry and how women can be treated, you’re sort of expected to be looking a certain way, or behaving a certain way,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to do that, I’m just going to be myself and be natural because I was told by someone once: “You’re a pretty girl, Shauna, you should start acting like one”. I remember when I heard that, I didn’t even want to find out what was meant by that. I had that melody in my head, the “hold your pretty face like that”, I started with that and then the music sort of inspired more of the lyrics.’

The song was also inspired by sexism she has encountered along the way, including turning up to perform at gigs: ‘I remember a group of guys saying: “Oh, so cute, the girlfriend’s carrying her boyfriend’s gear in”. I think it’s important to call things out but you’ve got to be kind to people as well and aim to educate people where you can. So I just said: “Well, actually, we’re the ones that are playing, so you should come in and check it out.” They were apologetic, I must say. I think, unfortunately, everyone is guilty of it from time to time, it’s kind of an unconscious bias or sexism that is learnt subconsciously because of the way our society is. I’m not saying that it is okay but what I am saying is that we need to be kind to ourselves and others but also very much challenge ourselves and others in all unconscious bias in order to become more equal throughout society – whether that is specific to gender, race, sexual orientation – the lot.’

She is currently in ‘creative mode’ working on some new songs and doing monthly live gigs: ‘I’ll be probably doing a few shows here for a bit but it just means that I can do some gigs technically for all my fans at home, even if they can’t be there.’ Locally, she has become a big fan of Tanaya Harper. ‘There was an International Women’s Day gig happening, so I thought I’m just going to go see if I can find some new friends in Perth and enjoy the music as well. And I came across a band called Joan and the Giants, they’re so good, they supported Pink. They’ve got really good support from Sounds Australia, a company that exports Australian music across the world. The performing royalty agency here (APRA AMCOS) as well, they also try to connect people together for writing sessions.’

‘It took me a wee bit of time but then I realised how much I loved Jeff Buckley’

Some of her new-found hobbies would have been unthinkable back in Ireland: ‘I have really got into a bit more swimming in the sea, it’s really good. Obviously, back home, it’s a bit colder in the old sea! The only issue is that there are sharks here in the water! So you have to be careful but I thankfully haven’t seen any sharks but you do hear awful stories. I’ve been told that you have to look out for helicopters – if they’re hovering, it’s probably a shark!’

She has found loads of fun things to do in her new home city: ‘I would recommend a lot of places! The cool bars I’ve been to include The Bird on Williams street, Gage Roads Brewery in Fremantle, they have awesome pizzas, home brews and put on shows. They also have a wee perch area for t-shirts, beanies, hoodies etc. and Kings Park for a walk around is amazing, Joondalup lake walk, or cycling along the coast from Cottesloe beach to Coogee where you can snorkel around the Omeu shipwreck. All the coffee and food is amazing!!!! My favourite coffee shop in North Fremantle is Brucetown.’

If she could go for a drink with anyone, she picks Jeff Buckley: ‘I was introduced to him and his music quite a while ago, when I was about 13, my friend Connor recommended I listen. It took me a wee bit of time but then I realised how much I loved Jeff Buckley. I would just love to go for a drink with him, shoot the breeze and pick his brain as to what inspired him and his writing for Grace (1994). And yeah, maybe pick up a few of his guitar playing tips!’

Putting together a dream supergroup for the night, she has some big ideas: ‘Dave Grohl on the drums. Yes, that would be great! And let me see, who else would I have on the bass? Gosh, there’s so many great bass players, I choose Melissa Auf De Maur. She is amazing, I love her vibe generally and she is an awesome songwriter, too! And on guitar, Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent), she’s great. If she could play some guitar and then maybe sing backing vocals. Or we could duet!’

Touring has produced some hilarious moments, as she recounts: ‘I’ve got quite a few stories from the tour that I did with The Darkness as support which were brilliant! The funniest might be when I was on stage and didn’t realise the monitor was behind me. I was super excited about playing a new song and was rocking out so much, I literally flew over and landed on my bum during the song! Initially there was fear across the band’s face in case there was severe damage but all was clear, I fell into fits of laughter joined by the rest of the band – we were laughing so much we had to stop the song!’