‘As far as I can remember there’s always been an incredible scene of Welsh talent’
Bridgend-based rock band Those Damn Crows have been making a solid name for themselves in the music scene for the past few years, with the release of ‘Point Of NoReturn’ (2020) skyrocketing them even further. 2022 was a great year for the ‘Crows’, with their festival appearances at both Download and TeddyRocks and a headline slot at the iconic Chepstow Castle alongside Mason Hill and Florence Black.
This year is somehow gonna be even bigger and better with their brand new album ‘Inhale/ Exhale’ set to be released on February 17th and the UK headline tour on the horizon. This interview was conducted prior to their appearance at Download 2022 and so the quotations reflect that time.
In this interview, vocalist Shane Greenhall discussed the anticipation of playing the mainstage at Download Festival, the power of the Welsh music scene, and how the pandemic altered the way music is written. I posed the question ‘What was your favourite music video to shoot’ in which Shane replied ‘’Sick Of Me’ , we shot ‘Sick Of Me’ in a bomb shelter site which has now been modified to be used for TV and filming projects.
This was the time of the pandemic so it was really strange as we all had to isolate and keep our distance from fellow bandmates and the director of the video, there were no shots where the band was all together, we had to do our parts individually. ‘Sick Of Me’ is one of the lead singles from the 2020 album release ‘Point Of No Return’, the music video was released on YouTube on the 5th of February 2021 where it amassed almost 100k views.
Those Damn Crows can generally be found at an array of different festivals over the spring/ Summer months, Shane goes on to describe the anticipation of playing the mainstage ‘It’s so great to be talking about festivals again, we’ve been on the Download poster for nearly 3 years now as we were supposed to have played it a long time ago, literally months before the pandemic hit so it feels like it’s long overdue. We played the Download pilot which was insane and a huge honour to be one of the first bands to be picked to play to 10,000 people in a festival environment. But to be playing on the main stage this year under Iron F*****g Maiden is literally an incredible feeling.
Surely nothing can stop this from happening now! We’ve waited nearly three years…. we can’t wait!’ They performed a critically well-received slot at the festival. The band has found themselves in a supportive and close community with the Welsh music scene, and they have also done a lot to further this scene ‘There’s an incredible pool of talented Welsh bands at the moment and the rock community has embraced us all, but I must say, as far as I can remember there’s always been an incredible scene of Welsh talent.
Why? It’s probably because the Welsh in particular love to get together and have a sing-song, a couple of beers whether it be watching sports, family BBQs, party with friends, or down to the club to watch live music. There’s always music with us Welsh it’s part of our culture and rock music in particular has an incredibly strong hold on us.
During the first UK lockdown, the band came together over video calls to produce a weekly show for fans, they called it CrowCast. CrowCast has reached over 100 episodes, after almost three years of streaming. Although they never expected it to take off as much as it did, it had the opportunity to blossom into a new community for fans alike ‘CrowCast has steamrolled into something bigger than we ever thought possible, the idea was to keep in touch with our fan base throughout the pandemic, little did we know at the time but it was a place where we could all come together without us all being physically together to chat and express how we are all (not just in the band) feeling and experiencing this complete first for our generation with isolation.
’ The CrowCast has brought on some amazing guests including Lucas Woodland and Ruth Jones, this is what Shane has to say about some of his standout guests ‘Favourite guest for me was probably Ruth Jones as she was just so down to earth and truly lovely, but Danny Bowes from Thunder, Ricky Warwick from BSR- live from LA were fantastic, telling stories of how music touched them and has never let go but genuinely every single guest we’ve had on has been wonderful’.
To end the interview, I asked Shane how he would describe the new album in two words and here was his brilliant response ‘HOLY SH*T. The two words I hope everyone will say when
they hear it’.
