Neu Shelf Lives: “We like to elevate the shit stuff and make something fun out of it”

We speak to the hedonistic dance-punk duo putting the art back into party.

Words: Tilly Foulkes
15th August 2023

Fresh from Glastonbury and eagerly packed for another string of festival dates, hilariously chaotic, London-based duo Shelf Lives are in exceptionally good spirits right now. They’ve got a lot of reasons to be cheerful, too. Taking inspiration from the likes of Peaches and Gilla Band, Toronto-born vocalist Sabrina Di Giulio and Northampton guitarist / producer Jonny Hillyard aim to put “the punk back into house parties”. They’re a bit like if Confidence Man were formed in a grotty London squat.

“It kind of happened by accident, just for fun,” Sabrina explains of their wildcard outlook. “We were going to parties and they all seemed a bit too serious. They were only playing background music; it wasn’t, like, jumping around music. We were wondering, ‘Where did that vibe go?’ We just wanted to break stuff!”

“We were experimenting, making loads of different types of music, and then we just landed on this sound. It makes sense to us, what we’re into as musicians,” Jonny continues. Their influences swing between “underground, UK-based dance music” (Jonny) and “loads of rock music, particularly grunge” (Sabrina); Shelf Lives land somewhere in the centre. “I realised I didn’t know a lot of dance-oriented rock bands that do it in a cool way,” says Jonny, as Sabrina adds: “A lot of rock bands that have electronic influences tend to steer more to one side or the other, rather than go down the middle. Sometimes it’s good to sit on the fence!”

Meshing electroclash, dance, electronica and hardcore, Shelf Lives’ maximalist sound distorts the party until it’s something horrifying and grotesque. Much like an abominably debauched afters, it’s pushed to extreme exhaustion, always on the brink of collapse, before luring you back in. The so-called indie sleaze revival couldn’t have come at a better time for them. However, though they celebrate the cheap and trashy, and tip a hat to the controversial, in-your-face attitude of the genre (a la The Dare), there’s more to the pair than hollowed-out hedonism.

“We like to elevate all the shit stuff and make something fun out of it. It’s like you’re laughing while you’re drowning.”

— Jonny Hillyard

“We like to elevate all the shit stuff and make something fun out of it. It’s like you’re laughing while you’re drowning,” Jonny explains. Dance-punk is the ideal avenue, then - a space that combines reactionary punk values with club culture methods of coping. Their newest single, ‘Off The Rails’, further balances these two attitudes in a zealous examination of consumerism.

“The lyrics are: ‘You can’t go off the rails, because you’re none in a million’,” says Jonny. “It’s all about addiction - addiction to anything - and how we keep buying things to keep our mask up in society. And the other meaning is like, you can’t be off the rails - meaning cocaine - because, again, you’re afraid of not being able to wear that mask.”

“We’re always being marketed to, and taught we need all of this stuff to feel special. But then we’re not special, we’re all the same,” Sabrina continues. “But by realising we’re all the same and accepting each other for who we are instead of being whoever others want us to be, that’s how we’re going to feel better. It’s kind of a mean song, really, because we’re saying: ‘Don’t stop taking drugs, because you’re actually not that special!’”

Next up is a new EP, which they claim will be “still [Shelf Lives], but different.” After firing off a multitude of descriptors including “clubby”, “hip-hop chill vibes”, “experimental” and “melodic”, Sabrina grins: “So actually, we’re exactly the same - we’re all over the fucking map. But I think it’s better!”

Tags: Shelf Lives, Features, Interviews, Neu