June 27, 2025 • 32 mins
What happens when a musician rediscovers their creativity after a 15-year hiatus? Neil Hill's journey with his project SHOPFIRES answers this question with a soul-stirring blend of reverb-drenched melodies and DIY ethos.
Unlike many musicians, Neil grew up in a home devoid of musical influence. No parental record collections, no instruments lying around—just the chance encounters with music through television and radio that would eventually shape his artistic sensibilities. The turning point came through John Peel's legendary radio sessions, introducing him to post-punk and experimental sounds that resonated deeply with his emerging musical identity.
After early musical explorations followed by a lengthy break, Neil returned to creating music with a beautifully minimalist approach. Armed with nothing but "a cheap laptop and the same acoustic guitar from the 80s," he began crafting the intricate, layered soundscapes that define SHOPFIRES. What makes his music truly remarkable is how he creates rich, complex arrangements using just one inexpensive Hohner guitar purchased decades ago for £25.
The result is a sound both nostalgic and fresh—interweaving melodic lines that dance around each other, created through his distinctive technique of recording multiple guitar parts and drenching them in reverb and delay. His latest album "We Are Not There, But We Are Here" represents an evolution toward more mature, cohesive songwriting while maintaining the dreamy atmosphere fans have come to love.
Beyond SHOPFIRES, Neil maintains another project called NEUCLOUDS, his self-described "vacation band" where he challenges himself to write songs under two minutes. This parallel creative outlet showcases his versatility and commitment to exploring different facets of his musical expression.
Listen now to discover how limitations can spark creativity and how sometimes the most beautiful sounds come from the simplest tools. Share your thoughts with us about Neil's unique approach to making music and what inspires your own creative endeavors!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SHOPFIRES (00:21):
Sparking Nights Kitchens swept aside.
Sparkling nights A new songtied alive After 14 years alive.
colleyc (00:37):
Oh, here we are another episode of ifitbeyourwill
Podcast coming at you.
I am reaching across to the UKtoday and I have Shopfires, neil
Hill from Shopfires and alsofrom New Clouds.
Neil is this multi-artist whohas two bands or two projects
(00:58):
that he works on.
Shopfires is the one that we'regoing to talk about, mostly
because he has a new recordcoming out called we Are Not
there, but we Are here out onJanglepop come July 1st, which
is an outstanding record.
I got the fortune of listeningto it.
I'm still listening to it.
So, neil, thanks so much forhopping on here and joining us
for a little chat about you andwhat you do.
SHOPFIRES (01:21):
Absolutely Thank you.
Thank you for the invite andwhat you do, absolutely, thank
you.
colleyc (01:25):
Thank you for the invite.
So you know, before we kind ofjump into the nuts and bolts of
your music and how you make itand distribute it, and play it
and create it, where did musicstart to hum for you in your
life?
What were some moments in yourpast where you started to
(01:45):
realize music had to besomething that you were going to
be doing, um, for your person?
SHOPFIRES (01:52):
um, well, strangely, music didn't really have much of
an impact in my younger life.
Um, I, uh I didn't really havemusic in the household,
particularly, um, neither myparents were big listeners to
music.
I have an elder sister whodidn't really listen to much
music.
There weren't records around ortapes or things in the house.
(02:18):
I was always kind of envious ofthe people I knew and friends
who had access to parents'record collections, either good
nor bad record collections.
I didn't have either of those,so it's a strange one that I'm
not sure where it came from inmy younger years.
colleyc (02:37):
When did you start listening to music that you
could decide upon yourself andyou didn't have to rely on
family tastes or music orrecords, but you could actually
go and turn the radio on orwhatever?
How did you start to exposeyourself to to music?
SHOPFIRES (02:51):
yeah, I guess, like most kids growing up in uh in
the uk, in the kind of 80s, late70s, early 80s and uh stuff,
you'd be listening, you'd bewatching top of the pops, I
guess, and you'd be exposed tostuff like that.
And I'm guessing back in thosedays there was more variety of
music on on those programs thanwell.
Those programs don't existanymore but, um, it seems less
(03:14):
variety now.
When you, when you look at amusic program, um and I think I
mean I have to put my finger,like most people will point the
finger at is, um, I think theperson responsible for my music
taste is probably john peel, um,and you probably get that quite
a lot yeah he was very prolificand the fact that he kind of
(03:36):
had a great um vision of musicand and who could you know?
colleyc (03:42):
spark his creativity as well in and his sense of
wanting to collaborate with Imean, he collaborated with such
amazing artists.
SHOPFIRES (03:51):
Yeah, I mean I used to be obsessed during.
I mean, probably my firstmusical obsession would have
been John Peel Sessions andstuff like that.
Yeah, yeah, I kind of was a bittoo young for punk and I never
really kind of went back to punk.
Punk didn't really do it for me.
I know it was, you know,probably a necessary uh
intervention in the in themusical universe.
(04:11):
But, um, I was more kind oftaken by post-punk and the stuff
that came after punk, which tome seemed uh, more interesting
and it still followed the kindof the idea that you didn't
necessarily need to know how toplay, you could still just make
a noise.
Uh, and um, I found it a littlebit more experimental, a bit
(04:32):
more interesting, a bit morechallenging.
Uh, it could be equally aschaotic and noisy as it was
melodic and interest uh, youknow, melodic and interesting.
And I I used to kind of takeappeal sessions and listen to
them back probably all the waythrough, uh, the early eighties,
pretty much the whole of theeighties.
I pretty probably had everyJohn Peel session on tape
(04:55):
somewhere in the house which Iwould go back to and listen to.
So so, yeah, I mean, yeah, Iguess, I guess early eighties,
post-punk, going into the stuffin the mid-80s, great, great,
the band that, really, if I haveto focus on one band at that
particular time, the band thatkind of and again I guess it
(05:16):
must have been John Peel, whereI heard them first would have
been the Scottish BandAssociates, william McKenzie and
Alan Rankin.
Great.
And strangely, I kind of gotinto probably through their most
weirdest phase, which wouldhave been their Situation 2
records that they put out whichwould have been like Kitchen
Person, message of Bleak Speech,q Quarters, white Car in
(05:38):
Germany, all of that, and theyall sounded completely different
, all completely bonkers, and Ithought, wow, you can do that
and get played.
It's great.
And I thought, is that the wayin Just to make a nonsense noise
and have people listen to it?
So I probably was into thatkind of stuff first.
(05:59):
The oddball kind of left fieldstuff.
colleyc (06:03):
Right, right.
What was it about it?
Was it just that experimental?
You never kind of knew what toexpect aesthetic to it?
That appealed to you the mostabout what they were making?
SHOPFIRES (06:16):
I guess.
So I mean, it's not to say Ididn't listen to other stuff as
well.
It's just that I don't know.
I just found somethingbeguiling about the fact that
these people were just makingseemingly just random noises,
and songs were kind of comingout of that noise.
Obviously, if you dig deep intothe noise and the chaos,
there'd be a melody, there'd bea tune in there, probably.
(06:37):
But I just like the idea ofstuff seemingly appearing from
nowhere.
But it wasn't.
It was there all along and thatkind of appealed to me.
colleyc (06:48):
Yeah, that's cool I like that, yeah, very
interesting.
And then, when, when did whendid you say, okay, I'm jumping
in the pool, I want in um?
I I had read something whereyou, you were cart carrying
around old banged up Mac and aguitar and um recording where
you could and um.
(07:08):
Can you tell us about yourearly experiences, when you
first started to pen your ownmaterial?
SHOPFIRES (07:16):
Um, I I've kind of I've quite a fragmented kind of
musical history in a way, Iguess.
Um, I didn't really pick up theguitar probably till late teens
, early 20s.
I was in a couple of bandsduring sixth form, college,
which were pretty useless.
There was one moment where Ithought, oh, this sounds half
(07:40):
decent, when I was kind of leftand got my first job and uh, got
together with a few peoplewhere I worked and we just used
to.
We used to.
That's quite amusing.
We used to practice in an oldschool music room, um, which was
both kind of influentialinfluential and distracting,
(08:00):
because we had all theseinstruments around us and rather
than stick to what we wereplaying, we'd just mess about
with all the things that were inthe room, which kind of added
to the experiment, experimentnature of music.
But at that point I wasactually more into, I think I'd
come out of my experimental kindof yearning and decided to go a
little bit more melodic and getget some tunes going um, and so
(08:26):
I started um playing guitarwith the intent of creating
almost proper songs, I guess.
Um, all we had was just, uh, meon an acoustic guitar, a
drummer, uh, we didn't even havea bass player, uh, at one point
uh, the drummer's uh sisterturned up playing the trumpet,
which didn't seem a bit bit.
(08:46):
I guess we said we sounded alittle bit like, if I don't know
if you're familiar with theband rumble fish, you came from
birmingham.
Yeah, totally yeah.
There was a label, I think, andtherefore the ep, that um
tugboat line where, well,perhaps not that song but the
other tracks on that ep, whereit was just like an acoustic
guitar, drums and a trumpet.
That's kind of what we soundedlike a little bit at the time.
(09:09):
But beyond that, that kind ofdidn't last very long.
I ended up being on my ownmessing about.
I had a four-track at home, I'dgot a drum machine, I just made
up, you know, little sillysongs and uh, nothing really
happened with that.
It wasn't until um much later,really very late.
(09:34):
I had kind of a break foralmost like 10, 15 years without
playing a single, playing asingle note.
Um, wow, wow.
And then I started what, what,whoa, whoa.
colleyc (09:50):
What prompted all that?
Like, I mean, I imagine life.
Just, you know, life happens.
Um, yeah, was that a consciousthing that you had decided like,
okay, I just I'm kind of donewith that for now, like, and I
were you thinking that, okay,I'm done, or were you thinking I
need a break?
SHOPFIRES (10:06):
um, probably the time I probably felt I was done.
I felt like I I've missed theboat somewhere, that I probably
should have done somethingbetter than I had been doing,
concentrated a bit more, uh,been a bit more, um, committed.
Um, I was none of those thingsat the time.
Um, and it wasn't until kind ofit was kind of around well, I
(10:28):
was actually pre pre-covidpandemic, I guess I kind of set
about, uh, I went out and boughta cheap laptop, as my old
tagline on the bandcamp pageused to say, uh, diy pop
recorded directly into a cheaplaptop, which is pretty much
bang on really.
That's how it was.
(10:48):
Um, I bought cheap laptop, Ibought a midi keyboard.
I still had the same acousticwell, still have the same
acoustic guitar that I had inthe 80s.
It's, it's the instrument, it'sthe guitar that's all over the
record, all over the songs, it'sguitar.
I don't use any other guitar,it's just that one acoustic
guitar.
So that's still with me.
colleyc (11:10):
That's amazing.
Can I ask what kind of guitarthat is?
It's a cheap nasty guitar.
SHOPFIRES (11:16):
It's a Hohner guitar.
I think it was about £25 backin the 80s, wow, and I don't
think it's gone up in value atall because pretty much it was a
mass produced thing.
Obviously people I mean theremay well be fewer of them
because it was mass produced andpeople probably look after them
, so maybe it's worth a littlemore these days, but it's
(11:39):
perfect for what I do and Ididn't.
That's amazing.
Yeah, my own kind of doctrinefor the old point was I wanted
to make music for as cheap aspossible with the least amount
of instruments.
colleyc (11:50):
That was my aim, okay now, was that mindset
established during COVID, whenyou, like you were, you were
alluding to that.
Covid brought you back into themix like was that just?
A sheer just because you hadsheer time on your hands, or
were you kind of longing stillfor an outlet um an artistic
outlet?
SHOPFIRES (12:10):
yeah, kind of both of those things really.
Um, it was kind of pre-covidwhere I started to to mess about
and I didn't even play theguitar at that point.
We're talking probably like2016, 2017.
I, great, I messed about withdoing ambient classical loops, I
concocted these strange fake TVthemes and wrote whole synopses
(12:36):
for fake TV programs, just tokind of do something creative
and kind of get it out there,great, great, creative, and kind
of get it out there.
Um, it wasn't until kind of late2000s, probably 2018, 2019, um,
where I thought now I've gotthis and I, when I got my head
around what I was doing with thetechnology because I was only I
(13:00):
was limited by my own abilityto play and also my own
technological ability toactually know what I was doing.
So I thought, within thoseconstraints, I thought what can
I do with this?
And I initially just was goingto do instrumentals.
I thought I'm not going to singon any of these things, I'm
just going to do instrumentals.
I wasn't comfortable doing thesinging, I didn't really
(13:21):
particularly want to writelyrics.
I thought, no, I'll just stickto instrumentals.
And I didn't reallyparticularly want to write
lyrics.
I thought, no, I'll just stickto instrumentals, but then late,
kind of 20.
2023 coming up to 2023, I I hada an operation on my spine.
I had a spinal operation and, uh, I was laid off work for about
(13:41):
six months, uh, in recovery, andand it was that point actually
where I decided I think I shouldstart singing now.
So I'd had these backing tracksdone, which I'd done, which
were are going to beinstrumentals, and I thought,
well, let's just write somewords and see what happens.
And I'd got plenty of time onmy hands, I was home, I was
(14:02):
recovering from surgery, I'd gotthe house to myself pretty much
, so I could sing as loud as Iliked or as out of tune as I
liked, and I just put togetherthe track Summer Bruises, which
was the first thing I put onBandcamp.
colleyc (14:20):
Right, that was the first song that, as Sharp Fires
that you were, that you put downon tape was Summer Bruises.
SHOPFIRES (14:25):
Well, technically, technically it was In A Place we
Find Ourselves was actuallyprobably the first song I did
which I released both of thosetracks at the same time.
For some reason, I which Ireleased both of those tracks at
the same time for some reason,I don't know why, but I just
thought I'd put them both out,but it was Summer Bruises that
people seemed to catch on to,yeah such a good song.
colleyc (14:46):
I'm amazed that's your first foray into Shopfires,
Because I mean it's a verycomplete song, very
sophisticated, your vocals aregreat.
SHOPFIRES (14:53):
Yeah, that's what people said.
They said it all.
I mean, when I got thecontacted from uh darren, who
runs subjango, which is who putsthe, the cds out, yeah, even in
the review for that particulartrack said, seemingly comes from
nowhere, fully formed in a way,totally, and I thought, well,
(15:13):
yeah, I get, I get it, I get it,but um, it didn't feel that to
me.
I felt like I I think more byluck than judgment is how that
track came together.
I think I'm, I always considermyself more of a I guess an
accidental music maker than a,than a musician.
I, I kind of mess about a lotand stuff comes out and I'm
(15:34):
lucky that a lot of the time itsounds, I guess, half decent in
a way.
colleyc (15:39):
I mean, if we just go and look at your band camp page,
you know like I mean since 2023, the end of 2023, that's when,
uh, summer bruises are released,december 2023, yeah, you have
so many songs now and EPs andsingles that you've put out
under shot fires.
Plus, I noticed, too, that youalso have New Clouds, which is
(16:01):
another side project that youhave again with tons of tunes.
So my question here, neil, ishow do you are these songs like,
speckled from across even theperiod of time?
You weren't kind of writing, ordoes all of this come within
the last, you know, post-covid,um, the production level of all
(16:23):
the songs that you have put out?
SHOPFIRES (16:25):
um, pretty much everything the shop fires and,
and the new clouds, or noiclouds as some people pronounce
it, um, noi clouds.
Yeah, it all happened in 2020.
They've all been, uh, done in2024.
There's nothing that's comefrom my past.
That's all done in 2024.
colleyc (16:42):
Um, for me and like, how do you come?
How do these come to you?
Like, what's your process forputting a song down?
Like, how do you know when thissong is something I'd like to
keep and keep working on, asopposed to a song that you're
like, or do they all make itthrough?
Um, like, I'm just thinkingabout time and the production
(17:02):
level, the recording of allthese things.
I mean, this takes time.
Um, what's your process forputting a song together?
What do you?
What do you do?
SHOPFIRES (17:12):
Uh it, it does take time.
Uh and I, I seemingly have verylittle time.
Uh, after snatch snatch time,uh and I, I seemingly have very
little time, uh, I have tosnatch time here and there.
Obviously I work full time.
I've got got children, familycommitment, um, so I do snatch
time here and there, like halfan hour an hour here and there.
I try to do something every day, uh, I can.
(17:33):
The shot fires and New Clownsare two separate, kind of
obviously intentionally separateentities.
Shot Fires is my home and NewClowns is my vacation band, if
you like.
So I kind of the Shot Firestunes.
I probably have on my laptopprobably over 100 songs that
(17:56):
have probably not even beenreleased or probably will never
be released, I guess, or atleast work in progress or
snatches of ideas and things.
I rarely go back to them,although I occasionally go back
to them.
I probably need to delete a fewand create a bit more space on
my laptop.
So the Shot Fires thing is Ihave a kind of a process with
(18:17):
shot fires, um, and it kind ofdeveloped by accident with me
messing around with a couple ofpost-production things on the
laptop or the door that I use,um, most of the shot fire songs
are pretty much drenched indelay and reverb, so to create
that kind of jingly, jangly kindof repetitive sound.
(18:41):
My only thing aboutparticularly the earlier shot
fires, less so on the new songsthere's a lot of stuff going on
in each song.
I kind of think there'sprobably four songs in each song
.
Sometimes a lot of the songshave like three or four melodies
playing all at the same time.
colleyc (19:02):
I was going to mention that too, because they're not.
They're not like one line.
There's like the line over herein the right, the one in the
left, and then the one that kindof like plays around between
the two.
Yeah, like there's multiple,and you were saying all those
are through an acoustic guitaras well.
Yeah, it's all played on.
And then the one that kind oflike plays around between the
two.
Yeah, like there's multiple,and you were saying all those
are through an acoustic guitaras well.
SHOPFIRES (19:19):
Yeah, it's all played on the same guitar one guitar.
colleyc (19:22):
So cool, neil, that's amazing.
SHOPFIRES (19:25):
I mean I might add a couple of post effects.
Sure, sure, but not much.
I try not to mess back with ittoo much.
My old kind of idea was to doit fairly quickly, fairly simply
.
Um, and I think subconsciously,maybe part of the reason why
there is multiple melodies onthose earlier tunes was maybe to
to maybe.
I wasn't so confident on theone melody so I thought I'll
(19:47):
tell you I'll add another one.
Oh okay, the second one soundsgood, but maybe I think I'll add
a third, just in case peoplenot that keen on the first two
and it's, it's.
It can get a bit muddy, and Iwas conscious of that, of too
much going on and people notactually hearing anything
because it just became a big,massive noise.
(20:09):
But I think I've managed tobalance it just enough.
It works with all thesemelodies kind of interplaying
with each other.
colleyc (20:17):
So yeah, I think it's really brilliant.
Yeah, and it's not like you're,you know, it's no like eddie
vetter, like lines and solo, butit's these beautiful little
lines that that interplay withone another as and weave in and
out of your lyrical play as well.
It's it's such a beautifulsound that you created and you
(20:38):
know like it's really reallyimpressive it's, it's, it's
repetition.
SHOPFIRES (20:41):
Basically is what it is it's repetition.
Um right, I'm a big fan ofrepetition.
There's a lot of repetitiongoes on in my songs.
If people delve, have a deeplisten, you'll see a lot of
things.
Just it's basically the samenotes and the same tunes playing
over and over again, but it'sdisguised or or kind of uh,
blended in with lots of otherstuff going on where you're
(21:02):
probably not even aware thatthat bass line that's in the
song is is the same bass linethat runs through the whole of
the song and it doesn't changeonce but you're probably not so
you, you loop them sometimeslike just you'll have a loop of
of a sequence of yeah yeah, Imean mostly.
I mean to promise I'll probablysay about 90 of the bass lines
(21:23):
in all of the songs are just thesame bass line all the way
through, from start to finish.
But because I, I and you'reprobably not even aware of it
sometimes until you actuallyfocus on it.
colleyc (21:33):
But that's what it is because I think some of the
lines also get muddied with thebaseline as well.
Right, they interplay, so it.
Yeah, you got to have a closelisten Like.
I listened to it with theheadphones on and I was able to
pick out things a little bitbetter because you know you can
differentiate between your leftand right, yeah, as opposed to
if it's on a stereo and kind ofan open area.
It's just so.
(21:56):
I wanted to ask you, though sothis new record coming out we
are not there, but we're herehow did you go through the same
process as you typically wentthrough with the rest of the
recordings that you've beendoing?
Like is it?
Does it follow the formula orthe style of previous shop fires
, or did you try somethingdifferent or try writing
(22:16):
techniques that were different?
SHOPFIRES (22:18):
Yeah.
colleyc (22:19):
I mean, is there any differences that you consciously
made in the record that'scoming out in July?
SHOPFIRES (22:26):
Yes and no, in respect that I was consciously
aware of doing it.
I kind of wanted there to beless melody in it.
Strangely, um, althoughobviously the, the singles are
quite over kind of melody, um,strong, uh going on.
(22:46):
But yeah, the other, the othertracks, I'll try to I don't know
strip it back a little bit more.
Uh, maybe focus on one melody,two melodies, rather than three
or four, um, and just to seewhether they, the song, still
stood up without all that extraum kind of stuff going on in the
background.
I kind of guess the earliersongs I was kind of maybe lack
(23:10):
confidence that the songs weregood enough so I kind of
disguised it with lots of stuffgoing on so people had something
to to listen to, even if theyweren't listening to the whole
thing, whereas I guess the newum album is is more song based
than I had kind of like an ideabehind this one, whereas the
other ones not I'm not sayingthe other ones were collections
(23:30):
of songs.
They did they do go together,but sure, sure, the new one I
felt I had a bit of a more of atheme going on, so I kind of
wanted to stay within that andnot kind of over overplay it a
little bit, I guess I don't know.
Yeah, a couple of tracks onthere which may be not typically
shot fire sounding, I thinkbeware of oncoming traffic.
(23:53):
I've kind of slowed it down abit.
There's no drums on it.
I've kind of cut out a a bit.
There's no drums on it.
I've kind of cut out a lot ofthe extra melody lines.
Uh, the final track, um, likeon the ramparts, is a bit
different.
Uh, right, it's still shopfires, totally, totally.
colleyc (24:11):
But yeah, I, I it feels more mature in my you know,
listening back to, and I meanmature in the sense that I feel
like like you're you'rementioning it really feels like
a whole, and again, not likeyour others didn't.
I mean I really love like, letme just get the name right,
holding on to let go.
I mean, what a record.
(24:31):
That is your first self titledshop fires too.
I mean just, I mean so sobeautiful, but it it does sound
like you've had a history withshop fires, right, and you've
been working on this evolutionof your sound, um, and it it
really comes through in this,this latest record that's coming
out in the summer yeah, I guessthere is a more grown-up kind
(24:53):
of feel to it um not yeah.
SHOPFIRES (24:56):
Yeah, I mean, that was kind of partly intentional,
I think um on my part that Ikind of felt like, not that I
want to make a serious record assuch, but, um, I felt like,
yeah, mature is probably theright word.
I think it is slightly moretogether than the previous um
(25:16):
yeah, I think it's verythoughtful.
colleyc (25:18):
I mean as you are, I mean talking to you, you're
you're a very thoughtful person.
You're a great storyteller too.
I'll throw that in there,that's.
I'm glad you're writing songsagain.
Um, that you came back to.
Um, so kind of to bring thingsto a wrap here, neil, thanks
again for for hopping on andsharing some of your your day
with me here.
(25:38):
Um, thank you, what, what, whatis the?
What does 2025 look like forshopfires, where the record
comes out july 1st, and arethere any plans for any shows or
follow-up records, or is thereanything that you could share
with us?
SHOPFIRES (25:54):
uh Shows would be pretty awkward.
The way I make the recordswould be very difficult to
replicate in a live format.
Particularly alone, right, Iimagine.
Well, yeah, it would be just meand a laptop, not the most
entertaining night house.
I would have thought I meanI'll never say never.
I don't think you should alwayssay that would never happen.
(26:15):
I've been asked a few times tosupport other bands and I've
kind of politely declined at themoment, so I can't see that
happening anytime soon.
The next thing on the horizon,I guess Shotfire's on a slight
break.
Regarding recording new stuff.
There is more new clouds on thehorizon.
(26:38):
Um, there is talk of acompilation album coming out,
probably later in the year, umof the tracks that have already
been issued and probably a fewnew ones.
To um make it slightlyworthwhile because of the whole
idea of new clouds was that itwas going to be songs under two
minutes.
Um, the initial idea was uh, I,I, every two weeks, I would uh
(27:07):
write a song under two minutes,which is my challenge to myself.
Um, I did for about the first 10, you know, first nine tracks
and then I obviously then I hadto switch to shot fires to to
finish this album, so kind ofcarry on that way.
So I love that idea, thoughthat's cool.
I'm going back to new clouds,um, shortly, and there will be
new stuff coming out with.
With those and like, say,potentially a, a compilation
(27:29):
album coming out at some point,or cd coming out at some point
and the engine towards the endof the year.
Yeah, uh, guess, after thatI'll probably pop back into
Shotfires and see what happensthere.
I'm just happy to see what thefeedback is on the new album.
I've had quite a lot of nicecomments so far, so I'm quite
(27:51):
happy with the feedback I'vebeen getting for the new one.
colleyc (27:56):
I'll reinforce that positive loving of this record.
I'm so happy I got to listen toit fully before we talked too,
because it's just such a greatrecord.
I'm really excited for theworld to hear it and I wish you
all the best with it, neil, andplease don't take any more 15
(28:17):
year breaks.
I'll accept two years, threeyears, but the prolificness of
your songwriting has just beeninspiring to me, that so many
ideas can be stored up in onesingle mind and that it's in the
ether.
You know like you put it outthere.
SHOPFIRES (28:35):
I love that.
Yeah, I'm kind of hoping that2024 wasn't just like my purple
patch and that's it.
It's done Right.
There's more to come.
Like I said, I've got plenty ofstuff on my laptop, but I
always like to start from fresh,so hopefully, totally.
Yeah.
colleyc (28:52):
Well, I mean, looking at the pre-order page on band
camp, it seems like there's aton of people interested in this
record.
They're excited to get it.
So I mean, many people havealready bought it.
It's only coming out in a month, well over a month still, so
there seems to be a great energybehind this record.
So, um, I wish you all the bestwith that and, and If ever you
want to hop back on and sharesome new music or you want to
(29:14):
talk again, I would be justfloored to have you back, Neil.
This has been a lot of fun,Thank you.
SHOPFIRES (29:19):
Oh, that's great, Chris.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much indeed.
(29:56):
You know me.
I don't take to country InHaley.
We reluctantly agree howknowing you is so painful for me
.
You know me.
colleyc (30:28):
I don't take it lightly .
And hey, I mean we reluctantlyagree.
SHOPFIRES (30:40):
How loving you is so painful for me.
Underneath the harsh light?
colleyc (30:52):
We always wonder why We'll see you next time.
(31:43):
Try, you're not okay.
You're not okay, you're notokay.
You know me.
You know me.
(32:04):
You know me.
I could murder you.
I could murder you.
I couldn't mind a game.
I couldn't mind a game For allthat you put me through.
(32:29):
I couldn't mind a game, thankyou.
Sparking Nights Kitchens swept aside.
Sparkling nights A new songtied alive After 14 years alive.
colleyc (00:37):
Oh, here we are another episode of ifitbeyourwill
Podcast coming at you.
I am reaching across to the UKtoday and I have Shopfires, neil
Hill from Shopfires and alsofrom New Clouds.
Neil is this multi-artist whohas two bands or two projects
(00:58):
that he works on.
Shopfires is the one that we'regoing to talk about, mostly
because he has a new recordcoming out called we Are Not
there, but we Are here out onJanglepop come July 1st, which
is an outstanding record.
I got the fortune of listeningto it.
I'm still listening to it.
So, neil, thanks so much forhopping on here and joining us
for a little chat about you andwhat you do.
SHOPFIRES (01:21):
Absolutely Thank you.
Thank you for the invite andwhat you do, absolutely, thank
you.
colleyc (01:25):
Thank you for the invite.
So you know, before we kind ofjump into the nuts and bolts of
your music and how you make itand distribute it, and play it
and create it, where did musicstart to hum for you in your
life?
What were some moments in yourpast where you started to
(01:45):
realize music had to besomething that you were going to
be doing, um, for your person?
SHOPFIRES (01:52):
um, well, strangely, music didn't really have much of
an impact in my younger life.
Um, I, uh I didn't really havemusic in the household,
particularly, um, neither myparents were big listeners to
music.
I have an elder sister whodidn't really listen to much
music.
There weren't records around ortapes or things in the house.
(02:18):
I was always kind of envious ofthe people I knew and friends
who had access to parents'record collections, either good
nor bad record collections.
I didn't have either of those,so it's a strange one that I'm
not sure where it came from inmy younger years.
colleyc (02:37):
When did you start listening to music that you
could decide upon yourself andyou didn't have to rely on
family tastes or music orrecords, but you could actually
go and turn the radio on orwhatever?
How did you start to exposeyourself to to music?
SHOPFIRES (02:51):
yeah, I guess, like most kids growing up in uh in
the uk, in the kind of 80s, late70s, early 80s and uh stuff,
you'd be listening, you'd bewatching top of the pops, I
guess, and you'd be exposed tostuff like that.
And I'm guessing back in thosedays there was more variety of
music on on those programs thanwell.
Those programs don't existanymore but, um, it seems less
(03:14):
variety now.
When you, when you look at amusic program, um and I think I
mean I have to put my finger,like most people will point the
finger at is, um, I think theperson responsible for my music
taste is probably john peel, um,and you probably get that quite
a lot yeah he was very prolificand the fact that he kind of
(03:36):
had a great um vision of musicand and who could you know?
colleyc (03:42):
spark his creativity as well in and his sense of
wanting to collaborate with Imean, he collaborated with such
amazing artists.
SHOPFIRES (03:51):
Yeah, I mean I used to be obsessed during.
I mean, probably my firstmusical obsession would have
been John Peel Sessions andstuff like that.
Yeah, yeah, I kind of was a bittoo young for punk and I never
really kind of went back to punk.
Punk didn't really do it for me.
I know it was, you know,probably a necessary uh
intervention in the in themusical universe.
(04:11):
But, um, I was more kind oftaken by post-punk and the stuff
that came after punk, which tome seemed uh, more interesting
and it still followed the kindof the idea that you didn't
necessarily need to know how toplay, you could still just make
a noise.
Uh, and um, I found it a littlebit more experimental, a bit
(04:32):
more interesting, a bit morechallenging.
Uh, it could be equally aschaotic and noisy as it was
melodic and interest uh, youknow, melodic and interesting.
And I I used to kind of takeappeal sessions and listen to
them back probably all the waythrough, uh, the early eighties,
pretty much the whole of theeighties.
I pretty probably had everyJohn Peel session on tape
(04:55):
somewhere in the house which Iwould go back to and listen to.
So so, yeah, I mean, yeah, Iguess, I guess early eighties,
post-punk, going into the stuffin the mid-80s, great, great,
the band that, really, if I haveto focus on one band at that
particular time, the band thatkind of and again I guess it
(05:16):
must have been John Peel, whereI heard them first would have
been the Scottish BandAssociates, william McKenzie and
Alan Rankin.
Great.
And strangely, I kind of gotinto probably through their most
weirdest phase, which wouldhave been their Situation 2
records that they put out whichwould have been like Kitchen
Person, message of Bleak Speech,q Quarters, white Car in
(05:38):
Germany, all of that, and theyall sounded completely different
, all completely bonkers, and Ithought, wow, you can do that
and get played.
It's great.
And I thought, is that the wayin Just to make a nonsense noise
and have people listen to it?
So I probably was into thatkind of stuff first.
(05:59):
The oddball kind of left fieldstuff.
colleyc (06:03):
Right, right.
What was it about it?
Was it just that experimental?
You never kind of knew what toexpect aesthetic to it?
That appealed to you the mostabout what they were making?
SHOPFIRES (06:16):
I guess.
So I mean, it's not to say Ididn't listen to other stuff as
well.
It's just that I don't know.
I just found somethingbeguiling about the fact that
these people were just makingseemingly just random noises,
and songs were kind of comingout of that noise.
Obviously, if you dig deep intothe noise and the chaos,
there'd be a melody, there'd bea tune in there, probably.
(06:37):
But I just like the idea ofstuff seemingly appearing from
nowhere.
But it wasn't.
It was there all along and thatkind of appealed to me.
colleyc (06:48):
Yeah, that's cool I like that, yeah, very
interesting.
And then, when, when did whendid you say, okay, I'm jumping
in the pool, I want in um?
I I had read something whereyou, you were cart carrying
around old banged up Mac and aguitar and um recording where
you could and um.
(07:08):
Can you tell us about yourearly experiences, when you
first started to pen your ownmaterial?
SHOPFIRES (07:16):
Um, I I've kind of I've quite a fragmented kind of
musical history in a way, Iguess.
Um, I didn't really pick up theguitar probably till late teens
, early 20s.
I was in a couple of bandsduring sixth form, college,
which were pretty useless.
There was one moment where Ithought, oh, this sounds half
(07:40):
decent, when I was kind of leftand got my first job and uh, got
together with a few peoplewhere I worked and we just used
to.
We used to.
That's quite amusing.
We used to practice in an oldschool music room, um, which was
both kind of influentialinfluential and distracting,
(08:00):
because we had all theseinstruments around us and rather
than stick to what we wereplaying, we'd just mess about
with all the things that were inthe room, which kind of added
to the experiment, experimentnature of music.
But at that point I wasactually more into, I think I'd
come out of my experimental kindof yearning and decided to go a
little bit more melodic and getget some tunes going um, and so
(08:26):
I started um playing guitarwith the intent of creating
almost proper songs, I guess.
Um, all we had was just, uh, meon an acoustic guitar, a
drummer, uh, we didn't even havea bass player, uh, at one point
uh, the drummer's uh sisterturned up playing the trumpet,
which didn't seem a bit bit.
(08:46):
I guess we said we sounded alittle bit like, if I don't know
if you're familiar with theband rumble fish, you came from
birmingham.
Yeah, totally yeah.
There was a label, I think, andtherefore the ep, that um
tugboat line where, well,perhaps not that song but the
other tracks on that ep, whereit was just like an acoustic
guitar, drums and a trumpet.
That's kind of what we soundedlike a little bit at the time.
(09:09):
But beyond that, that kind ofdidn't last very long.
I ended up being on my ownmessing about.
I had a four-track at home, I'dgot a drum machine, I just made
up, you know, little sillysongs and uh, nothing really
happened with that.
It wasn't until um much later,really very late.
(09:34):
I had kind of a break foralmost like 10, 15 years without
playing a single, playing asingle note.
Um, wow, wow.
And then I started what, what,whoa, whoa.
colleyc (09:50):
What prompted all that?
Like, I mean, I imagine life.
Just, you know, life happens.
Um, yeah, was that a consciousthing that you had decided like,
okay, I just I'm kind of donewith that for now, like, and I
were you thinking that, okay,I'm done, or were you thinking I
need a break?
SHOPFIRES (10:06):
um, probably the time I probably felt I was done.
I felt like I I've missed theboat somewhere, that I probably
should have done somethingbetter than I had been doing,
concentrated a bit more, uh,been a bit more, um, committed.
Um, I was none of those thingsat the time.
Um, and it wasn't until kind ofit was kind of around well, I
(10:28):
was actually pre pre-covidpandemic, I guess I kind of set
about, uh, I went out and boughta cheap laptop, as my old
tagline on the bandcamp pageused to say, uh, diy pop
recorded directly into a cheaplaptop, which is pretty much
bang on really.
That's how it was.
(10:48):
Um, I bought cheap laptop, Ibought a midi keyboard.
I still had the same acousticwell, still have the same
acoustic guitar that I had inthe 80s.
It's, it's the instrument, it'sthe guitar that's all over the
record, all over the songs, it'sguitar.
I don't use any other guitar,it's just that one acoustic
guitar.
So that's still with me.
colleyc (11:10):
That's amazing.
Can I ask what kind of guitarthat is?
It's a cheap nasty guitar.
SHOPFIRES (11:16):
It's a Hohner guitar.
I think it was about £25 backin the 80s, wow, and I don't
think it's gone up in value atall because pretty much it was a
mass produced thing.
Obviously people I mean theremay well be fewer of them
because it was mass produced andpeople probably look after them
, so maybe it's worth a littlemore these days, but it's
(11:39):
perfect for what I do and Ididn't.
That's amazing.
Yeah, my own kind of doctrinefor the old point was I wanted
to make music for as cheap aspossible with the least amount
of instruments.
colleyc (11:50):
That was my aim, okay now, was that mindset
established during COVID, whenyou, like you were, you were
alluding to that.
Covid brought you back into themix like was that just?
A sheer just because you hadsheer time on your hands, or
were you kind of longing stillfor an outlet um an artistic
outlet?
SHOPFIRES (12:10):
yeah, kind of both of those things really.
Um, it was kind of pre-covidwhere I started to to mess about
and I didn't even play theguitar at that point.
We're talking probably like2016, 2017.
I, great, I messed about withdoing ambient classical loops, I
concocted these strange fake TVthemes and wrote whole synopses
(12:36):
for fake TV programs, just tokind of do something creative
and kind of get it out there,great, great, creative, and kind
of get it out there.
Um, it wasn't until kind of late2000s, probably 2018, 2019, um,
where I thought now I've gotthis and I, when I got my head
around what I was doing with thetechnology because I was only I
(13:00):
was limited by my own abilityto play and also my own
technological ability toactually know what I was doing.
So I thought, within thoseconstraints, I thought what can
I do with this?
And I initially just was goingto do instrumentals.
I thought I'm not going to singon any of these things, I'm
just going to do instrumentals.
I wasn't comfortable doing thesinging, I didn't really
(13:21):
particularly want to writelyrics.
I thought, no, I'll just stickto instrumentals.
And I didn't reallyparticularly want to write
lyrics.
I thought, no, I'll just stickto instrumentals, but then late,
kind of 20.
2023 coming up to 2023, I I hada an operation on my spine.
I had a spinal operation and, uh, I was laid off work for about
(13:41):
six months, uh, in recovery, andand it was that point actually
where I decided I think I shouldstart singing now.
So I'd had these backing tracksdone, which I'd done, which
were are going to beinstrumentals, and I thought,
well, let's just write somewords and see what happens.
And I'd got plenty of time onmy hands, I was home, I was
(14:02):
recovering from surgery, I'd gotthe house to myself pretty much
, so I could sing as loud as Iliked or as out of tune as I
liked, and I just put togetherthe track Summer Bruises, which
was the first thing I put onBandcamp.
colleyc (14:20):
Right, that was the first song that, as Sharp Fires
that you were, that you put downon tape was Summer Bruises.
SHOPFIRES (14:25):
Well, technically, technically it was In A Place we
Find Ourselves was actuallyprobably the first song I did
which I released both of thosetracks at the same time.
For some reason, I which Ireleased both of those tracks at
the same time for some reason,I don't know why, but I just
thought I'd put them both out,but it was Summer Bruises that
people seemed to catch on to,yeah such a good song.
colleyc (14:46):
I'm amazed that's your first foray into Shopfires,
Because I mean it's a verycomplete song, very
sophisticated, your vocals aregreat.
SHOPFIRES (14:53):
Yeah, that's what people said.
They said it all.
I mean, when I got thecontacted from uh darren, who
runs subjango, which is who putsthe, the cds out, yeah, even in
the review for that particulartrack said, seemingly comes from
nowhere, fully formed in a way,totally, and I thought, well,
(15:13):
yeah, I get, I get it, I get it,but um, it didn't feel that to
me.
I felt like I I think more byluck than judgment is how that
track came together.
I think I'm, I always considermyself more of a I guess an
accidental music maker than a,than a musician.
I, I kind of mess about a lotand stuff comes out and I'm
(15:34):
lucky that a lot of the time itsounds, I guess, half decent in
a way.
colleyc (15:39):
I mean, if we just go and look at your band camp page,
you know like I mean since 2023, the end of 2023, that's when,
uh, summer bruises are released,december 2023, yeah, you have
so many songs now and EPs andsingles that you've put out
under shot fires.
Plus, I noticed, too, that youalso have New Clouds, which is
(16:01):
another side project that youhave again with tons of tunes.
So my question here, neil, ishow do you are these songs like,
speckled from across even theperiod of time?
You weren't kind of writing, ordoes all of this come within
the last, you know, post-covid,um, the production level of all
(16:23):
the songs that you have put out?
SHOPFIRES (16:25):
um, pretty much everything the shop fires and,
and the new clouds, or noiclouds as some people pronounce
it, um, noi clouds.
Yeah, it all happened in 2020.
They've all been, uh, done in2024.
There's nothing that's comefrom my past.
That's all done in 2024.
colleyc (16:42):
Um, for me and like, how do you come?
How do these come to you?
Like, what's your process forputting a song down?
Like, how do you know when thissong is something I'd like to
keep and keep working on, asopposed to a song that you're
like, or do they all make itthrough?
Um, like, I'm just thinkingabout time and the production
(17:02):
level, the recording of allthese things.
I mean, this takes time.
Um, what's your process forputting a song together?
What do you?
What do you do?
SHOPFIRES (17:12):
Uh it, it does take time.
Uh and I, I seemingly have verylittle time.
Uh, after snatch snatch time,uh and I, I seemingly have very
little time, uh, I have tosnatch time here and there.
Obviously I work full time.
I've got got children, familycommitment, um, so I do snatch
time here and there, like halfan hour an hour here and there.
I try to do something every day, uh, I can.
(17:33):
The shot fires and New Clownsare two separate, kind of
obviously intentionally separateentities.
Shot Fires is my home and NewClowns is my vacation band, if
you like.
So I kind of the Shot Firestunes.
I probably have on my laptopprobably over 100 songs that
(17:56):
have probably not even beenreleased or probably will never
be released, I guess, or atleast work in progress or
snatches of ideas and things.
I rarely go back to them,although I occasionally go back
to them.
I probably need to delete a fewand create a bit more space on
my laptop.
So the Shot Fires thing is Ihave a kind of a process with
(18:17):
shot fires, um, and it kind ofdeveloped by accident with me
messing around with a couple ofpost-production things on the
laptop or the door that I use,um, most of the shot fire songs
are pretty much drenched indelay and reverb, so to create
that kind of jingly, jangly kindof repetitive sound.
(18:41):
My only thing aboutparticularly the earlier shot
fires, less so on the new songsthere's a lot of stuff going on
in each song.
I kind of think there'sprobably four songs in each song
.
Sometimes a lot of the songshave like three or four melodies
playing all at the same time.
colleyc (19:02):
I was going to mention that too, because they're not.
They're not like one line.
There's like the line over herein the right, the one in the
left, and then the one that kindof like plays around between
the two.
Yeah, like there's multiple,and you were saying all those
are through an acoustic guitaras well.
Yeah, it's all played on.
And then the one that kind oflike plays around between the
two.
Yeah, like there's multiple,and you were saying all those
are through an acoustic guitaras well.
SHOPFIRES (19:19):
Yeah, it's all played on the same guitar one guitar.
colleyc (19:22):
So cool, neil, that's amazing.
SHOPFIRES (19:25):
I mean I might add a couple of post effects.
Sure, sure, but not much.
I try not to mess back with ittoo much.
My old kind of idea was to doit fairly quickly, fairly simply
.
Um, and I think subconsciously,maybe part of the reason why
there is multiple melodies onthose earlier tunes was maybe to
to maybe.
I wasn't so confident on theone melody so I thought I'll
(19:47):
tell you I'll add another one.
Oh okay, the second one soundsgood, but maybe I think I'll add
a third, just in case peoplenot that keen on the first two
and it's, it's.
It can get a bit muddy, and Iwas conscious of that, of too
much going on and people notactually hearing anything
because it just became a big,massive noise.
(20:09):
But I think I've managed tobalance it just enough.
It works with all thesemelodies kind of interplaying
with each other.
colleyc (20:17):
So yeah, I think it's really brilliant.
Yeah, and it's not like you're,you know, it's no like eddie
vetter, like lines and solo, butit's these beautiful little
lines that that interplay withone another as and weave in and
out of your lyrical play as well.
It's it's such a beautifulsound that you created and you
(20:38):
know like it's really reallyimpressive it's, it's, it's
repetition.
SHOPFIRES (20:41):
Basically is what it is it's repetition.
Um right, I'm a big fan ofrepetition.
There's a lot of repetitiongoes on in my songs.
If people delve, have a deeplisten, you'll see a lot of
things.
Just it's basically the samenotes and the same tunes playing
over and over again, but it'sdisguised or or kind of uh,
blended in with lots of otherstuff going on where you're
(21:02):
probably not even aware thatthat bass line that's in the
song is is the same bass linethat runs through the whole of
the song and it doesn't changeonce but you're probably not so
you, you loop them sometimeslike just you'll have a loop of
of a sequence of yeah yeah, Imean mostly.
I mean to promise I'll probablysay about 90 of the bass lines
(21:23):
in all of the songs are just thesame bass line all the way
through, from start to finish.
But because I, I and you'reprobably not even aware of it
sometimes until you actuallyfocus on it.
colleyc (21:33):
But that's what it is because I think some of the
lines also get muddied with thebaseline as well.
Right, they interplay, so it.
Yeah, you got to have a closelisten Like.
I listened to it with theheadphones on and I was able to
pick out things a little bitbetter because you know you can
differentiate between your leftand right, yeah, as opposed to
if it's on a stereo and kind ofan open area.
It's just so.
(21:56):
I wanted to ask you, though sothis new record coming out we
are not there, but we're herehow did you go through the same
process as you typically wentthrough with the rest of the
recordings that you've beendoing?
Like is it?
Does it follow the formula orthe style of previous shop fires
, or did you try somethingdifferent or try writing
(22:16):
techniques that were different?
SHOPFIRES (22:18):
Yeah.
colleyc (22:19):
I mean, is there any differences that you consciously
made in the record that'scoming out in July?
SHOPFIRES (22:26):
Yes and no, in respect that I was consciously
aware of doing it.
I kind of wanted there to beless melody in it.
Strangely, um, althoughobviously the, the singles are
quite over kind of melody, um,strong, uh going on.
(22:46):
But yeah, the other, the othertracks, I'll try to I don't know
strip it back a little bit more.
Uh, maybe focus on one melody,two melodies, rather than three
or four, um, and just to seewhether they, the song, still
stood up without all that extraum kind of stuff going on in the
background.
I kind of guess the earliersongs I was kind of maybe lack
(23:10):
confidence that the songs weregood enough so I kind of
disguised it with lots of stuffgoing on so people had something
to to listen to, even if theyweren't listening to the whole
thing, whereas I guess the newum album is is more song based
than I had kind of like an ideabehind this one, whereas the
other ones not I'm not sayingthe other ones were collections
(23:30):
of songs.
They did they do go together,but sure, sure, the new one I
felt I had a bit of a more of atheme going on, so I kind of
wanted to stay within that andnot kind of over overplay it a
little bit, I guess I don't know.
Yeah, a couple of tracks onthere which may be not typically
shot fire sounding, I thinkbeware of oncoming traffic.
(23:53):
I've kind of slowed it down abit.
There's no drums on it.
I've kind of cut out a a bit.
There's no drums on it.
I've kind of cut out a lot ofthe extra melody lines.
Uh, the final track, um, likeon the ramparts, is a bit
different.
Uh, right, it's still shopfires, totally, totally.
colleyc (24:11):
But yeah, I, I it feels more mature in my you know,
listening back to, and I meanmature in the sense that I feel
like like you're you'rementioning it really feels like
a whole, and again, not likeyour others didn't.
I mean I really love like, letme just get the name right,
holding on to let go.
I mean, what a record.
(24:31):
That is your first self titledshop fires too.
I mean just, I mean so sobeautiful, but it it does sound
like you've had a history withshop fires, right, and you've
been working on this evolutionof your sound, um, and it it
really comes through in this,this latest record that's coming
out in the summer yeah, I guessthere is a more grown-up kind
(24:53):
of feel to it um not yeah.
SHOPFIRES (24:56):
Yeah, I mean, that was kind of partly intentional,
I think um on my part that Ikind of felt like, not that I
want to make a serious record assuch, but, um, I felt like,
yeah, mature is probably theright word.
I think it is slightly moretogether than the previous um
(25:16):
yeah, I think it's verythoughtful.
colleyc (25:18):
I mean as you are, I mean talking to you, you're
you're a very thoughtful person.
You're a great storyteller too.
I'll throw that in there,that's.
I'm glad you're writing songsagain.
Um, that you came back to.
Um, so kind of to bring thingsto a wrap here, neil, thanks
again for for hopping on andsharing some of your your day
with me here.
(25:38):
Um, thank you, what, what, whatis the?
What does 2025 look like forshopfires, where the record
comes out july 1st, and arethere any plans for any shows or
follow-up records, or is thereanything that you could share
with us?
SHOPFIRES (25:54):
uh Shows would be pretty awkward.
The way I make the recordswould be very difficult to
replicate in a live format.
Particularly alone, right, Iimagine.
Well, yeah, it would be just meand a laptop, not the most
entertaining night house.
I would have thought I meanI'll never say never.
I don't think you should alwayssay that would never happen.
(26:15):
I've been asked a few times tosupport other bands and I've
kind of politely declined at themoment, so I can't see that
happening anytime soon.
The next thing on the horizon,I guess Shotfire's on a slight
break.
Regarding recording new stuff.
There is more new clouds on thehorizon.
(26:38):
Um, there is talk of acompilation album coming out,
probably later in the year, umof the tracks that have already
been issued and probably a fewnew ones.
To um make it slightlyworthwhile because of the whole
idea of new clouds was that itwas going to be songs under two
minutes.
Um, the initial idea was uh, I,I, every two weeks, I would uh
(27:07):
write a song under two minutes,which is my challenge to myself.
Um, I did for about the first 10, you know, first nine tracks
and then I obviously then I hadto switch to shot fires to to
finish this album, so kind ofcarry on that way.
So I love that idea, thoughthat's cool.
I'm going back to new clouds,um, shortly, and there will be
new stuff coming out with.
With those and like, say,potentially a, a compilation
(27:29):
album coming out at some point,or cd coming out at some point
and the engine towards the endof the year.
Yeah, uh, guess, after thatI'll probably pop back into
Shotfires and see what happensthere.
I'm just happy to see what thefeedback is on the new album.
I've had quite a lot of nicecomments so far, so I'm quite
(27:51):
happy with the feedback I'vebeen getting for the new one.
colleyc (27:56):
I'll reinforce that positive loving of this record.
I'm so happy I got to listen toit fully before we talked too,
because it's just such a greatrecord.
I'm really excited for theworld to hear it and I wish you
all the best with it, neil, andplease don't take any more 15
(28:17):
year breaks.
I'll accept two years, threeyears, but the prolificness of
your songwriting has just beeninspiring to me, that so many
ideas can be stored up in onesingle mind and that it's in the
ether.
You know like you put it outthere.
SHOPFIRES (28:35):
I love that.
Yeah, I'm kind of hoping that2024 wasn't just like my purple
patch and that's it.
It's done Right.
There's more to come.
Like I said, I've got plenty ofstuff on my laptop, but I
always like to start from fresh,so hopefully, totally.
Yeah.
colleyc (28:52):
Well, I mean, looking at the pre-order page on band
camp, it seems like there's aton of people interested in this
record.
They're excited to get it.
So I mean, many people havealready bought it.
It's only coming out in a month, well over a month still, so
there seems to be a great energybehind this record.
So, um, I wish you all the bestwith that and, and If ever you
want to hop back on and sharesome new music or you want to
(29:14):
talk again, I would be justfloored to have you back, Neil.
This has been a lot of fun,Thank you.
SHOPFIRES (29:19):
Oh, that's great, Chris.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much indeed.
(29:56):
You know me.
I don't take to country InHaley.
We reluctantly agree howknowing you is so painful for me
.
You know me.
colleyc (30:28):
I don't take it lightly .
And hey, I mean we reluctantlyagree.
SHOPFIRES (30:40):
How loving you is so painful for me.
Underneath the harsh light?
colleyc (30:52):
We always wonder why We'll see you next time.
(31:43):
Try, you're not okay.
You're not okay, you're notokay.
You know me.
You know me.
(32:04):
You know me.
I could murder you.
I could murder you.
I couldn't mind a game.
I couldn't mind a game For allthat you put me through.
(32:29):
I couldn't mind a game, thankyou.
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