When Post-Burnout last spoke with Rob Moore, the guitarist and vocalist of the postpunk trio Fierce Shook, towards the end of 2023, he told us that the band had begun recording at Windmill Lane Studios. The material they were working on there was expected to develop into their debut album, which was anticipated to drop in 2024, but they hit a snag.

“I think the last time I was talking to you, we had started recording an album,” Rob tells Post-Burnout when we spoke again in November. “We had done a session at Windmill Lane, and we were working with a friend of [their drummer] Ozzy’s [Holmes], trying to get that going, but then, a few things happened then, where we weren’t able to get sessions in with him.

“He’s a really good sound engineer, a really good record producer, and all that, but we just weren’t able to get the time in with him – he was kind of doing it as a favour to Ozzy, really, to actually record and stuff – but just different scheduling things got in the way, and we weren’t able to get sessions in with him and stuff.

“And then that sort of petered out, and I think the last thing we heard about that was that the computer he was using to actually store all of the music that we were working on had actually crashed. I think that album’s kind of gone, like. So, we lost that.”

But, for Rob, the story of their loss has a silver lining, which saw them rely on their punk-influenced, D.I.Y. roots. “We’d seen that other bands – like, say, ChRonONaut, and Hubert Selby Jr. Infants, and stuff like that – had gone and worked with different people, where they’d gone in and recorded an EP for a day,” he says.

“So, that’s what we did with the last one; we just booked in with that guy, Shauny Cads, who would’ve worked with a couple of other bands, like Burning Realm, and Chewie, and a few other bands like that. So, we just said, ‘OK, we’ll go and get a day booked in with him, just pick four songs, get them done, and get them done as quick as possible in time, like.’

“I think the idea, as well, was, whatever we get done on the day, just go with that, like, and no working on it afterwards; just try and get it all done, there and then. So, it was just kind of a case of, ‘What are the four songs we have down the best or the tightest, and all that?’

“So, we just went with that, like. But we’re really happy with it. We’re really happy with how that turned out, like. He was great to work with, as well; he was just really easy-going and just really knows his stuff when it comes to getting good sound and good tones and all that. Well, Owen does as well, so it was just great having the two of them working together, just getting all of that dialled in real quick.”

Rob is referring to Owen Holmes, the band’s bassist and younger brother of Ozzy, who has done production work for Fierce Shook in the past. Owen blames his big brother for his interest in the music they are making together.

“Ozzy’s, like, six years older than me, so, [Laughs] when I was six, they were listening to Nirvana and stuff like that, you know?” Owen tells us. “All that stuff was on MTV, so that kind of stuck with me, and when I got to about twelve, I started playing guitar and stuff.

“But, no, I would’ve always been listening to a load of the bands that he would, stealing his CDs and stuff like that! [Laughs] But, sure, we didn’t really have stuff to play with; like, he didn’t have a drumkit back then, you know? We only got that some years after, like.

“And then, yeah, we’d be up in his house in Dublin or something, set up in the kitchen, and just make noise! [Laughs] That kind of thing, like, So, we were always playing together, listening to the same things and stuff, like. Like, punk and grunge and them kind of things, and ska. Loads of ska music! [Laughs]”

Owen then independently developed an interest in the Epitaph punk acts of the mid-nineties, like Rancid, NOFX, and Bad Religion. At sixteen, he took up the bass after being specifically influenced by Matt Freeman, the dextrous four-string player for acts like Rancid, Operation Ivy, and Dance Hall Crashers.

All of these musical loves combined into a very diverse sound that has seen Fierce Shook consistently releasing new music since their official formation in 2021. In October, the band released the material that they worked with Shauny Cads on, with their four-track EP, Something Sophisticated.

“We’re a lot tighter as a band since we tried recording them the first time around,” Rob says of the EP. “It probably worked out better that we rerecorded them for this EP. We had worked on them a little bit more and all that, and they were just that little bit tighter. It probably worked out for the best, in the long run.”

We asked the band how they felt working with Seany as a producer, who is primarily known for his work with metal music. “He does primarily do metal, but he has a very broad range,” Owen responded.

“On the day, I remember, we were talking about Converge, and Manic Street Preachers, and The Jesus Lizard, and those kinds of bands. He just seems to understand it, you know what I mean? He has such broad tastes that he could see what we wanted.

“We went back and forth in the mixing process, and he sent on a first mix, and we just had a couple of suggestions, and he went away and done it again, and, yeah, he just got basically what we said. The same with the mastering of it. I just said, ‘Converge – Axe to Fall, if you want a reference for it,’ and he was just like, ‘OK!’ He went off and did it, and we were like, ‘That’s perfect!’”

The Something Sophisticated EP was recorded at Shauny’s Last Light Studio in Temple Bar. We asked how this differed from the band’s time at Windmill Lane. “It was quite different, alright!” responded Owen.

“You’re in a big, huge studio, and that piano over there was played by David Bowie, and, you know, you’re just freaking out, trying not to mess things up. It was just a nervous aul affair, I would say. I don’t ever really get nervous playing shows, but something like that, you have to get exact. There’s no going back to it, like.

“[Laughs] On the night, we had a lot of issues. There were problems with the desk. We didn’t really start recording until, I want to say, ten o’clock at night or something like that?”  “Oh, yeah, yeah,” confirms Rob. “It’s a nice aul spot, like,” continues Owen, “but it’s a strange one, as well.

“It’s slightly outdated, I would say, in terms of the stuff that’s there. But it was good fun but, when you’re going back in the second time, you’re like, ‘OK, I’ve got all of them problems out of the way. I know what I’m thinking, and what I want, and how I’m going to go about them, and that kind of thing,’ and it just went smoothly the second time around.”

Despite all hailing from Tullamore, the members of Fierce Shook are quite dispersed, with Rob living in Dublin, Ozzy in Wicklow, and Owen remaining in his hometown. Additionally, the members have families and work commitments that limit their time and availability. With that said, this doesn’t seem to be halting the band’s ambitions for 2025.

“To be honest with you, at the scale that we’re working at, we do three gigs a year,” Rob says. “Our releases are very sporadic. We’ve brought this out. We’re going to be bringing out a new single with a guy called Peng Weng early in the new year, then we’re booked in, in February, to record the next EP.”

Fierce Shook’s latest EP, Something Sophisticated, is out now. You can purchase a copy through the band’s Bandcamp or listen on all streaming platforms. You can also keep up with the band’s music, live dates, and social media accounts through their Linktree.

Tune into POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… tonight at 21:00 (IST) to hear this discussion in full. Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music Podcasts.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.