The pandemic has stopped everything in it’s tracks but Edd Maughan of Shy Bairns won’t let it get him down.
Edd, whose band Shy Bairns were just beginning to find their feet before lockdown saw both members of the two piece separated back in March.
However, instead of allowing it to get them down the band have instead turned to other means of expressing themselves creatively.
“Independently, I do all the social media so I’ve been trying to engage with the audience on Instagram which has been a change.”
“I’ve learnt new skills in that sense so we should have a bigger audience when we get back.”
“We’ve only been a band since October so it made sense to get an Instagram, I’ve had it since December however didn’t properly start working on it until January, we hit a thousand followers in 90 days.”
The Instagram has seen everything from excellent covers to online tutorials as well as baking however, ultimately this is not what the band want to do.
“It’s definitely stunted the band in terms of progression, it is impossible to get ahold of Rich if you don’t go in person so if you don’t use a phone call then he’s useless.” Edd exclaimed with a chuckle.
“The two of us getting together has just stopped due to the lockdown.”
“I feel for us we’re back to square one.”
The band before the lockdown were beginning to work on finding their sound.
“We’re still in a demoy phase, when we release something it will be electric because I prefer electric (Edd has some amazing custom made guitars) however we start out on acoustics as if it sounds good acoustic it will sound good electric.”
However, there are range of artists which have influenced the band despite the two members coming from varying musical backgrounds.
“We want to take classic pop for example pre Sgt.Pepper’s Beatles for example when they were churning out classic tunes with a lot of vocal harmony stuff really comes from there.”
“Then we really split, Rich is really into Motown and more abstract music whilst I love big band acts like Nat King Cole as well as post hardcore stuff,” Edd laughed.
“So I suppose we meet in the middle with bands like Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters.”
In terms of life after COVID it appears that Shy Bairns have plans to make up for lost time.
“We want to get back together, I’ve been writing some song ideas and been keeping people interested on Instagram and Rich has been building a little studio room.”
“We’d like to get a little 3 track EP out, we’re already registered with Spotify we wanna release something solid so people know what we’re about and look maybe to support and steal people’s fans, we’d be very happy with that” he exclaimed, letting out a chuckle.
Prior to the lockdown, the band had done an open mic night which has given them a taste for even more.
“Ultimately, we try to live by the name of our band, Shy Bairns, which obviously stands for Shy Bairns get nowt so we’re gonna try and push and push to see how far we can go.”
“Hopefully we can get on local radio or even a festival we really want to shove it in people’s faces, Instagram has been really important in that sense.”
“It would have been nice to do more open mics during the summer with me being off but at the end of the day Shy Bairns is fine because it hasn’t really started yet.”
When everything reopens make sure to catch Shy Bairns and in the meantime make sure to catch them on their socials:
Instagram: @shybairnsband
Facebook: Shy Bairns
You Tube: Shy Bairns.
Humbug North East 