Shooting Daggers: Love & Rage Against The Machine

SHOOTING DAGGERS have just released their debut album Love And Rage and it sees the band on the uplifting but assertive form that we have come to expect from them but delivered with a series of extra musical facets and that mixture makes their music a special prospect indeed. Their myriad of fiery musical flavours seem apt for this album as the impression they have made on it seems appropriate for their first album as it is a statement made with authority. We caught up with all three members of SHOOTING DAGGERS in guitarist/vocalist Sal, drummer Raquel and bassist Bea to get the lowdown on the album, their vital music and their even more vital message. 

We get things started with Sal telling us how excited the band are to be releasing Love And Rage. “We are definitely excited to have it out since we’ve been working on these songs for a long time. We stopped playing gigs to wait for the release shows so there’s also that. We hope people like it. We have a good feeling about it, even though it’s a bit more experimental!” 

Sal continues by telling us that SHOOTING DAGGERS didn’t feel any pressure in making Love And Rage and it allowed them to be more free with the music they made. “For me, talk about expectations with numbers or how the EP was gonna go didn’t matter, but I think it just made us do whatever we wanted to do with the album.” 

The title of Love And Rage sums up the music of SHOOTING DAGGERS perfectly as Sal tells us about the thinking behind their debut album’s name. “I think it’s a concept that came out after we had the songs almost done, it’s a concept that summed up the whole thing.” The songs on Love And Rage take in topics such as taking the power back, queer love, self love, sorority and skateboarding as Bea tells us; “it’s what we thought about when we wrote the songs.” 

Asked about how writing the album both lyrically and musically was compared to the material that they had done before, Bea explains, “it was definitely harder because we pushed ourselves in terms of composing and also in terms of adding more elements to it. It’s less straightforward, more thought through. When we went to the studio, we’d sit down and and think of the effects so that we can add a lot of layers of vocals, so it was definitely more difficult work to do compared to the EP.”

Sal adds, “we were super precise on what we wanted. We came back to the studio three or four times, as we had so many ideas, which was so great, to try everything in the studio.”

The music video for Smug (which is about never forgetting where you come from), features skateboarding at its core and the band did an open call for more female and queer skateboarders as Bea tells us. “Punk is like skateboarding to me, those two communities are cis male dominated, they’re very related, To me, they’re the same scene almost so to bring more of us into that was cool.”

The message of SHOOTING DAGGERS is obviously very important and the band tell us why they won’t ever stop. Raquel begins, “for me, one of the main reasons that I start playing music is because I want to say something. I think for all of us, it’s a way of expressing ourselves. I think for us, it’s really important to have a message. I love making music. I love playing music. I love listening to music, but I like it to say something. We found a way to be heard and talk about what remains important.” Sal continues, “I also think it’s very important to keep the hardcore and punk community political because I see a shift in how people don’t want to put politics in the lyrics anymore. Whatever is empowering or just talking about important issues, I see a shift into deciding to not do that anymore. To me it’s very important to keep that integrated.”

Sal goes onto divulge about the political aspects of SHOOTING DAGGERS and how that sits at the core of their DNA. “I think for us, because we’re all very political, it matters a lot. Just being a woman in the band is already a political opinion but I think if you can use this platform to say what you really think and what you really want, I think it’s even more powerful.”

With the prevalent cancel culture that is active today, Bea details how this may affect bands to be less political. “I think it’s more because they’re scared of not reaching enough people. There’s so many bands that wouldn’t necessarily say very radical stuff, because they don’t want to be able to put off people online so they can reach more people.” 

With such a strong message, our conversation turns to whether SHOOTING DAGGERS have had any resistance or hate about their music. Predictably, it turns out that nobody has the guts to do that face to face. Sal says, “at shows it’s happened a few times, not to our faces though. Hardcore dudes or metalheads saying something like that they don’t like us, we should go back to the kitchen and stuff like that. It happened behind our backs and online as well. For example, when Metal Hammer shared our article last year, the messages of angry cis men were pathetic. Nobody says anything to our faces though.”

Whether that makes the band want to piss more people off this way, SHOOTING DAGGERS dismiss this idea and don’t want to waste their time entertaining these idiots. Ultimately, their true meaning and message will shine through as Sal laughs, “I don’t really care! We know that because those people that are mad at us, I don’t want them to listen to my music anyway. I’m not pissed off, they’re proving our point because that’s the reason why we started playing music and saying those things.” Bea adds, “it’s not about pissing people off, it’s about putting women together, that’s the real goal. This is not how I want to be perceived at all. We’re not being rebellious against all men. We’re just trying to make women safe and comfortable enough to do whatever they want.” 

The subject of safe spaces at gigs is obviously very important and SHOOTING DAGGERS do all they can to continue to keep them safe. Raquel says, “there have been times we actually stopped playing because it got crazy. While we are playing, for me, I cannot see anything most of the time because I’m at the back, but for you guys, because you are focused on playing you don’t always realise that things are happening while we are playing.” Bea continues, “if we see something wrong, we can say it, but sometimes you can’t. It’s hard to see what’s happening. A lot of the time, I wish I could have seen things better and done better things to stop the mess.” 

We finish off this great interview with the band telling us us what they still want SHOOTING DAGGERS to achieve with their music and their message in the future.“Personally, I just want to keep writing music and just keep producing albums as long as I can,” Sal says. “Honestly. Albums, EPs, singles, tour. That’s it!” Bea adds, “expressing ourselves and trying out new stuff, experimenting, playing shows meeting new people. That’s just a dream if we can do that forever!” 

Love And Rage is out now via New Heavy Sounds. 

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