Shed Seven: 'We’ve got a whole new lease of life'

“They just fitted in perfectly, just great musicians and great guys,” he tells The Yorkshire Post. “None of us are spring chickens any more, so I think for those two guys who have been in the music industry for a long time they feel like they’ve hit the jackpot in a way to now be in a band that is going out and playing to a lot of people and still producing relevant work. They’re absolutely loving it and we’re loving the fact that we’ve got a whole new lease of life.”

He and guitarist Banks started writing the album in March 2022 and completed it the following Christmas. “It didn’t really take us that long, and most of it is brand new,” says the singer, explaining that Banks would send him an email or a text with a guitar hook and he would sit down at home and try to come up with a melody and a lyric.

The riff of Talk of the Town does date back further – to an email Banks sent Witter in 2016 “which, thinking about it,” Witter says, “must have been an idea for the last album, Instant Pleasures, but was never used” – but it seemed too good to waste. He recalls: “I accidentally stumbled on it last year and immediately started going, ‘I could say one thing and you would say three/Just to be different, naturally’. I’d just put it to one side because it seemed too much like hard work and then suddenly you hear this riff and that happens.”

The pair purposefully sought to evoke some of the joyful spirit of their teenage years. “Because we started writing songs together when we were 13 we wanted to reminisce about that in a way,” Witter says. “We were listening to a lot of early Duran Duran, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Smiths and REM. We wanted to reconnect with how we were when we were kids, and I think that really comes through. There’s little nods to a lot of our childhood musical memories in there – and that was exciting in itself.

“We’re 51 now so it’s very difficult to remember those times for starters, but the more we were writing, the more that we were realising that what we were doing was good, so that was a relief, and then it just became fun. The recording of it was hard work but joyous at the same time because we could hear the fruits of our work. It sounds like a set of 18-year-old kids having the time of their life.”

The band road tested some of their new material at festivals over the summer and on their autumn tour. “We’ve been playing Kissing California, Starlings and F:K:H, the ones that people are aware of (from singles releases),” says Witter, noting that “it’s funny how these brand new songs slot in so nicely with all of our 90s stuff – it’s not weird that we’re playing Getting Better, On Standby, Going For Gold, Disco Down, Chasing Rainbows and Bully Boy and then (going) ‘This one’s called Starlings’ and it just sticks out like a sore thumb; it’s very Shed Seven and it fits in, which is a great thing. Yes, we are playing the old songs which we couldn’t really get away with not playing, but the joy in people’s faces when they hear the new songs is just as thrilling.”

Pre-orders of the album suggest the band could be on course for their highest ever chart position, but they will also be doing instores across the country to further boost sales – and at the end of January, they will play the album in full at three shows. Witter says: “It’s weird with this album, the debut album came out 30 years ago (this) year but this is the first time I’ve felt really proper going up here, everything seems to be connecting all at the same time, so I’m going to cherish these moments.

“The music business is very fickle and things can change at any time and before we know it we could be last month’s flavour, so for this period of time I think we’re all just soaking it all in and enjoying it for what it is. In the 90s when we were charting and being on Top of the Pops all of the time and we were young and it was very difficult to assess what was happening to us. It was only after it stopped the first time round that I could look back and go, ‘Wow, that happened to us’.

“It was a bit of a weird conclusion to it to it all because we were that busy do it and it was our jobs to do it, so now I’m really conscious of everything that’s happening and I’m taking it all in and enjoying it more, and I think that’s coming out in what we’re doing nowadays live. I cherish every moment of it whereas before it was a means to an end in the sense ​​​​​​​that we’ve got a new record to promote, let’s go and play it live. It was always worry abotu how you’re going to perform it and will you perform it well enough​​​​​​​, that underlying worry. Now I don’t give a toss​​​​​​​.”

In a first for the band, there are three guest vocalists on the new album – Rowetta from the Happy Mondays, Peter Doherty of The Libertines and Laura McClure from Reverend and the Makers.

The idea to invite Rowetta to sing on In Ecstacy struck Witter while he was writing the chorus. He explains: “With the melody in my head before anything else, I just thought, ‘That sounds really like something Rowetta would do with the Happy Mondays in about 1991’, that’s a period of music history that I love. Then later when I’m starting to piece the words together and I’m writing about ‘Stand with me in ecstacy/Cover me in ecstacy’ again I thought that’s something I could imagine Rowetta singing...so we contacted her...and I said, ‘I’ve written this idea and I can’t stop thinking about you doing it, so do you fancy giving it a listen?’ Then she came back and said, ‘It’s amazing, I’d love to be involved’.

“I think one of the reasons why we’ve never had guest vocalists before is probably the fear of the knockback, but again, this goes to show the new Shed Seven, we know what we does is good, we’re successful at doing it, so who cares? It was great when Rowetta did come back and say she’d love to be involved. Weirdly what everyone hears now, that end product in the song, is exactly what was in my head as I was writing it.”

A couple of months after the track with Rowetta was recorded, Shed Seven were playing at the Bingley Festival just before The Libertines’ headline set. As they were performing their greatest hits, Witter spotted Peter Doherty in the wings “singing every word”. “I thought, ‘That’s interesting’, I had no idea he’d even heard of us,” he says. “After we’d played I went over and introduced myself and he explained how he used to love Shed Seven growing up in the 90s and learned our songs on his acoustic guitar in his bedroom. So I thought, ‘Right, I’m stood here with you now, we’ve got Rowetta in the bag, how about you joining us on our new album?’ and he said, ‘I’d absolutely love to’. I think he even agreed to do before hearing the song that we wanted him to sing.

“Throwaways is the last song on the album and that’s a six and a half minute journey in itself. The song was already written but it almost feels like it was written for me and Peter. Over the years we’ve had our fair share of s*** off certain people in the music industry and the general public and I believe The Libertines went through quite a hard time as well, so the song is all about being outsiders, not being included and being outcasts, but the message of the song is f*** you, we don’t care anyway, this is us and this is what we do, if you don’t want to include us in your life we just quite happily bumble on.

“I’m hoping we’ll do a video for that song at some point. I’ve just got this image of me and Peter Doherty on some really windswept moorland walking with big coats on as if we are the outcasts.”

McClure joined the band for the song Tripping With You. “When I was writing the words for that, the more I was adding to it, the more it was becoming quite a soppy love song, and I’m thinking, ‘do I really want a soppy love song on this album?’” Witter says. “I don’t mind love songs, but not soppy ones, so I spent a bit of time flipping it on its head and now it’s a real sinister stalking-style song, which makes the song instantly so much better in my eyes. We wanted somebody sounding a little bit Kirsty MacColl-ish, we’ve played a few gigs with the Revs in the last few years, Laura’s a lovely lady, so we said, ‘do you think you could jump on board with your sweet voice?’ and she said she’d love to and nailed it straight away in the first take.”

In July Shed Seven will play two long-awaited outdoor shows in York’s Museum Gardens as part of their 30th anniversary celebrations. “Maybe there’s a reason why we’ve been holding off doing something in York for something like this – so again, it’s like things are all aligning. There were rumours about us playing the new LNER Stadium and the Knavesmire, but those were pretty obvious ideas, we wanted to do something slightly different and unusual, so when the idea came along to play the Museum Gardens we just bit their hands off because I think the last time a full-on rock gig happened there was Roxy Music in the 1970s.

“Another reason is I have so many great memories of being 14, 15 or 16 hanging round in the Museum Gardens with ghetto blasters listening to the Pixies really loud to annoy grannies and grandads, so there’s history there for us as people and it’s so much more cool. Two nights sold out within three hours.”

A Matter of Time is out on Friday January 5. Shed Seven play at Project House, Leeds on January 27 and York Museum Gardens on July 19 and 20. https://www.shedseven.com/