SISTER SHOTGUNis a Rock/Metal act based out of the West Midlands. Recently, Metal Temple writerMarcos Garciahas a chance to catch up with the band, get to know them, and talk about their latest album,"Fragments,"which he reviewed and scored as a "masterpiece."

https://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/reviews/cd_3/s_2/sister-shotgun.htm

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Hi dears. I want to thank you for the opportunity, and as the first question, how did you get started with SISTER SHOTGUN? What as the main idea back then? And from where the band's name came from?

Sister Shotgun began at a House party in Niall's one bed Kidderminster home of which he invited between 50-60 musicians and artists for a night of debauchery during this time Niall was searching for a band but had no luck until that night a mutual friend paired Niall and a fellow guitarist who would begin to plan a covers band to earn some money from music. this idea was scrapped after a few failed attempts of finding a skilled enough singer and the hunger for original music was too strong, one vocalist we adored had went of and joined the tv show "The Voice", during our search chloe was doing her rounds in a punk band, she was stricken with singing a previous vocalists lyrics and they no plans on new music she left to search for a band that wanted to write new music, Niall and the band auditioned her, with her skill set and her range we decided we would take her on board, Along with Chloe came the name Sister Shotgun a name she had on reserve, it was catchy and aggressive they took this and never looked back

Some describe your music as "EVANESENCE meets BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE", but personally I don't see this comparison as something fair, your music is far from them both. So, what are the musical influences of you as individuals and as a band?

It's often hard to describe your sounds when you dabble in all the different areas of sub genres within the rock and metal scene, we never set out to be like a specific band like the many out theornthat want to be the next Metallica or the next Djent band, as Individuals we have bands such as Mötley Crue, Killswitch engage, Korn, Tesseract and even punk bands or pop and dance music , as a band there's no real influence we're trying to be ourselves we influence each other and our individual influencers drive us because if you steer to close to your influences you'll end up a carbon copy or a diet version and we didn't want that.

The band was formed back on 2012, but "Fragments" was released only seven years after it, a surprise in times when bands release their albums just after one or two years (or even less than that). Why did you take so long? Were there troubles during this time?

We always said we're not going to do an album til it's the right time we're not gonna rush it we are going to discover ourselves, go out on the road with some Eps under our belts own our craft, We wanted our debut album to have some backing to not get lost in history or forgotten, we've had a few line up changes and with each change has come a new influence a new flavour but that never set us back, We just knew if we was gonna do an album it had to be done right, we didn't want to get to this stage in our careers three albums in and nobody to have heard them or had chance to really knuckle down and write the right songs.

Back in 2014, the song "For the Love of Hate" was released on Youtube, and gave you recognition from fans and press The question is: why this song was chosen? And what's the story that the video is trying to tell? It seems to be something about abusive relationships, am I right? And it was re-recorded to be on "Fragments", or is it the earlier recording?

At that time we released that song it felt like it was our best song writing at the time how it was structured and how it flowed and again we tested it out on the road and it had become a favourite so we did our homework and released the one that had the most reaction.

The video narrates a struggle with addictions the song was influences by Nikki Sixx's book the Heroin diaries, which tells the story of his struggles with addiction, Chloe plays a part as the innocent part of the psyche and the band members play a different addiction such as alcoholism, Drug addiction, Gambling and a broken relationship because of addictions, the video ends with Chloe looking upon herself being the narrative of looking in the mirror and realising the damage you've done to yourself such as Nikki Sixx does in his book and stories of David Bowie staring upon his reflection realising he's an addict.

Then the song was re-recorded for fragments still to this day we are proud of that song and of course each line up change we'd added and changed parts and improved as musicians, Our fans gave us feedback of how our live version of the song had much more intensity and we wanted to bring that to the track as we felt it still deserved it especially on our deput album.

MT: Let's talk about "Fragments". Why did you choose Romesh Dodangoda as the producer for the album? And how was the experience to work with him?

We worked with romesh on the track "No Hope" to trial our using him as a producer we already knew he worked with bands such as funeral for a friend, Sylosis and The blackout each of those bands having high quality recording and as a young band we wanted that quality we didn't want to waste our song writing and efforts on a shoddy producer, he went on to work with bands like Bring me the horizon and bullet for my Valentine too.

The experience with romesh is amazing and him and his engineer rob really have an ear for music it's hyper sensitive and they make you get it perfect if the take isn't perfect or the tuning is out by one cent they know it and you'll do it again they work you hard but creatively too he knows what we're trying to achieve and he helps make that a reality and is an absolute stunner with vocal melodies and ambient scapes makes it's sound huge plus he's like the nicest guy alive he'll come have a drink with you in the City Center afterwards.

"Fragments" was released on April, 19. It can be a bit early for this question, but how is the reception from the press and fans to it? Is it what you were expecting for?

Actually really really good it's going as we planned of course we will continue to push this album and see how far we can reach and how many fresh ears we can get this album to as it really showcases who we are and sometimes you can't sum that up in five tracks on an ep you have more room to experiment, we always have high expectations and we never assume it'll do well or bad we just like to see what we can do so far we're happy with the direction and the response from fans has been amazing and even the reviews coming in have been outstanding so there is no way we can complain at all.

"Sacred Heart" is the song from "Fragments" used as official video for divulgating the album. And it's a very good song, and the video is excellent, but once more the same question: why this song? The choice was done by the band along Pavement Records, or only you? And "Silhouettes", even being the B-side for "Devour" EP, can be considered a video to promote "Fragments" as well?

Sacred heart was a song when we heard it back we knew because it felt strong to us it had that sound we was going for and we even got Niall screaming on there. in our opinion it was the song that had it all, big intro, a killer riff,hooky leads, a big chorus a melodic guitar solo, a breakdown and some growls and we managed to fit that into four minutes without making a mess, again before the album release we trialed it live and each time we'd see eyes light up so that's how we knew the song made itself known to us, Pavement definitely had their own opinions on which songs they thought we suggested Sacred Heart and there was no fight from them whatsoever they said "Right let do it then Sacred Heart first single" so they really put a lot of trust in us and really kicked ass with it. Yeah as Silhouettes made the album it can be considered too again it made the album it was a big song for us and live all you can hear is that crowd shouting those lyrics right back at us.

This question will seem a bit naïve, but maybe you have a message on your lyrics, so is there a main concept behind them, or is it a set of ideas?

Some songs yes and some not so much, songs like Sacred heart come from a dark place of struggles and feeling weak but turning that into power and strength accepting the pain and fighting it, whereas Miss Fortune And No Hope are pretty much a concept that comes from horror movies lyrically inspired by artists like Rob Zombie or Alice Cooper just less obvious but they are fictional stories, And From the Ashes is a positive message about reinventing yourself and your life, New Beginnings and not wasting an opportunity. There's no full concept but each song comes from a different place.

You're from Birmingham, the region that gave to the world BLACK SABBATH, JUDAS PRIEST and even some members of LED ZEPPELIN. How do you feel of being from the same city? Is this a heavy responsibility for you in any way? And the most important: are the fans from the city giving you the support you deserve?

Oh it's great they are some of the best bands on the planet!!, Robert Plant actually helps fund a college Niall and Chloe studied music at in Kidderminster and has been often spotted in the same pubs he's a true local legend. It is a heavy weight to try and hold on your shoulders but nobody could ever replace or compare those artists as they are God's so we would never aim to take that kind of responsibility because you couldn't recreate that and their music still lives on and is as popular as ever but just like them were trying to do our own thing and pave our own path and take on some challenges something they have definitely taught us, oh yes the support from the city is huge! They have elevated us and taken us to knee heights the support from Birmingham and the surrounding areas has been incredible a true honour.

SISTER SHOTGUN in known for the energy of its live shows. So how are things going by now? Is there a promoting tour being schedule for you? Are there plans to play outside of Europe?

Yes and yes, We are figuring out the next step the right time the right places, the right venues and the right bands, we understand the modern world is impatient but we don't want to ever bring a rushed half arsed attempt when it comes to the music or the band and give the fans what they pay for people spend their hard earned money and their passion on music so we do not what to ever rip them off, but both are on the horizon but it's all about what's the right time and place for us that includes u.k and Europe.

Ok, we know that "Fragments" was released just two months ago, but are there any ideas for a future release? Maybe there's something left from "Fragments" studio sessions, isn't there?

There's a few clips and few riffs but mainly ideas nothing solid as of yet just a few concepts and lyrics nothing musically has been done but we will do a second album but we'll give it a short amount of time give ourselves some time to go away and explore new sounds and scapes, ideas techniques and just improve ourselves too as we have to compete with this album, so we won't really knuckle down and get down to business with it just yet when it feels right and feels like time we'll crack on until then we just just keep laying down ideas and keep them under our sleeves

Well, that's all. I want to thank you again for your attention, hope SISTER SHOTGUN will become a great success, and please, leave your message for your fans.

Massive thank you to the support we've had so far you've contributed to our success to date and I'm sure you'll continue to do so and we'll keep giving it you back, if you haven't seen us live yet get yourselves down and make yourselves know we need your voices in that crowd!

https://www.facebook.com/SisterShotgun/