PREMIERE: INTRODUCING SCAB HAND & THEIR DEBUT RELEASE ‘IRREGULAR BED’

Squeezing out from between the cracks in the floorboards of the garage punk underground come’s Scab Hand. They’re loud, visceral and they will make you itch. Scratch that itch and just below the surface you’ll find ex-members of Love Buzzard rubbing body parts with ex members of Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, giving us a cross bred mongrel of a band, all snapping and snarling with surf laden licks, super fuzz and havoc that all you punksters should be more than happy to strip off and roll about with. Have a listen to their debut release. Read the interview. Then go paint their name on your jacket. Meet, Scab Hand…

BM: Come on then who’s who and where you from?

SH: We are Kevin Lennon – Guitar and vocals, Rob Ling – Drums, Daniel Stirrat – Bass, and we’re from Brighton

BM: You’re a new band, but as individuals you’ve been around the scene for a while now …

SH: Kev was previously the frontman for London two piece Love Buzzard. Rob drummed for 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster in their last incarnation as well as for the band Krak Krak. Dan also plays bass for local legends Guising.

BM: So how did you all end up as Scab Hand?

SH: Kev moved down from London and scouted Rob and Dan out from the local scene and then managed to con them into forming a band. We got together at the end of last year and have been working away behind the scenes writing and rehearsing a shit load of songs. Last month we jumped into Audiobeach studio for a day’s recording expecting to get a few tracks down and we ended up walking away with 7 tunes in the bag. We have also been lucky to have Marc Norris also of 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster mix and produce all the tracks and they sound fucking mint.

BM: Apart from sounding mint, how would you describe your sound?

SH: Well one of the first people to hear it described it as “some proper dirty psycho music” but if we had to pigeonhole we would have to say somewhere on the garage punk spectrum.

BM: And what about the name. Scab Hand – it’s a pretty horrible name…

SH: Our name comes from months of arguing until we settled with Scab Hand because ya know deep meaningful symbolism and all that.

BM: I can definitely pick up some remnants of your previous bands in the current music, which is no bad thing. Other than your own past what are the sounds that influence you all as a band?

SH: When we got together we started putting together a collaborative playlist on Spotify to get a better feel of everyone’s influences. Take a listen to a refined version here that we are going to keep adding to so give it a follow!

BM: You’ve kindly given us (Backseat Mafia) the premiere play of ‘Irregular Bed’, what else you got up your sleeve?

SH: We are releasing 2 simultaneous singles for the band launch to get ourselves out there (Double a-side in old terms but we haven’t found the other side of the internet yet) – “Irregular Bed” and “Johnny’s Howl”

BM: What’s the Scab Hand formula for putting it all together?

SH: Most of the tracks come from recording rough jams in the studio, picking out bits we like, cutting and pasting it into a song and turning the nonsensical lyrics into slightly less nonsensical lyrics. We tried to make it sound like we know what we are doing.

BM: The artwork for the track is quite distinctive and very, very striking. How much is the artwork a part of Scab Hand?

SH: Artwork is massively important and I have brought illustrator extraordinaire Russel Taysom (who used to do all the artwork for Love Buzzard) back on board. For the single cover I just gave Russell the brief “A bed eating someone” and that’s what we got.

BM: You spoke about launching the band, we’ve got the first single, but when can we get to see you in the flesh?

SH: For our debut show we are throwing a Scab Hand launch party at The Globe in Brighton on April 14th with some mates bands. It should be messy in a good way!

BM: I reckon I know the answer to this before I even ask, but here goes – What’s more important to you? Playing live or getting in the studio? Or do you think the two go hand in hand?

SH: Playing live is the tits and we recorded everything live in the studio.

BM: Debut track has been dropped, launch party has been booked – what’s next for Scab Hand?

SH: Firstly we need to get the band out there and start gigging. Then we plan to release the rest of the tracks we recorded as an EP towards the end of the summer followed up by an Album in the not too distant future.

BM: And finally what’s your message to the world…

SH: Don’t be a dick and don’t eat that scab!