London queercore punk band Shooting Daggers have released their new single, Not My Rival, with their debut album Love and Rage to follow in February. We asked them the BIG questions . . .
Tell us three things about yourself?
We're all from different countries: Spain, Italy and France but we found our home in SE London. We are all vegans. On that note, two thirds of the band are obsessed with their pets and with cats in general. We’re besties, we got a matching tattoo together.
How would you describe your music?
Our sound is constantly evolving so it’s hard to put a label on it. At the moment we’re modern hardcore, punk, post-hardcore, melodic hardcore, riot grrrl . . . something along those lines. We are whatever genre we feel at the very moment we wrote our songs. Whatever we feel inspired by at a certain period of our lives is what our music is going to sound like. And we’re blessed to have this freedom to express ourselves however we want without expectations. 2025 Shooting Daggers Eurodance album, who knows? One thing for sure, we will always be Queercore.
Who are your musical inspirations?
We all got varied musical inspirations for Love & Rage. We took inspiration from our friends from Sweden Axe Rash (D-Beat) and our friends from London Pettybone among others. This LP is a mix of everything we like personally and altogether we created our own paste, our own dough from these influences. It has a 90s vibe to it, whilst also being inspired by modern bands hardcore bands like Turnstile or Scowl or shoegaze bands like Title fight or Nothing. The vocal arrangements are heavily inspired by 90s bands like Splendora and Veruca Salt as well as Riot Grrrl and Hardcore when it comes to our "cheerleader" backing vocals.
The production is quite modern, we focused on adding dimensions to our song by adding lots of fun stuff like cowbells, blocks, tambourine, synths, drones and guitar noises. Super inspired by Nine Inch Nails on some part of the production.
What was the first gig you ever went to?
Sal: I don’t remember what my first ever gig was but I do remember my first punk gig. It was Jello Biafra when I was 12 or 13. I also remember my first ever crowd surf, it was a year later during Judas Priest, what an iconic unforgettable moment. I love Judas Priest to bits.
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Bea: Tokio Hotel when I was 13, they were a big German rock emo band in the early 2000s and I was obsessed. Only the true European millennials will remember them.
Raquel: First big proper gig I was excited about and I remember was a Marilyn Manson one, I was underage and my big sister has to come with me to be able to get in.
What was the first record you ever bought?
Sal: Rage against the Machine - self titled. A classic.
Bea: Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park.
Raquel: Relief Through Release by Tura Satana.
What’s your favourite song right now?
Sal: Oh! I Love You, Say it With Cobblestones - Pettybone. Pettybone is a band that means a lot to us. They paved the way for Shooting Daggers and we are following their footsteps. All the members of Pettybone are absolute legends too and we look up to them so much. Zel was Raquel’s drum teacher and Ivona is now our close friend on top of being a very talented photographer. In fact, seeing Pettybone live, encouraged some of us to play music.
Bea: Feel The Pressure by Drain.
Raquel: I think I’m obsessed with I Got Heaven by Mannequin Pussy.
Favourite lyric of all time?
We love all G.L.O.S.S. lyrics, Thirdface lyrics too. Any lyric that feels like an angsty spit in your face, I relate to. To me lyrics that are political stand out. It doesn’t have to be obvious, sometimes just expressing feeling like a reject is inherently political. Emotional, intersectional, angsty, apocalyptic, unapologetic, raw lyrics are by far my favourite type of lyric.
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Sal: This is so hard to answer. I tend to listen to music like that: I listen to one song loop over and over again until I get sick of it. Quite frankly, I don’t think I could pick one because I would get sick of any songs at some point. But from the top of my head, I would say Diam's - Si c’était le dernier just because it’s a 10 minutes long song in which Diam's gets it all off her chest and it would take me longer to get sick of it I guess?
Bea: Probably Heroes by David Bowie cause I'm a cliché.
Raquel: Such a difficult question! But if I have to choose one I might probably choose Meditation is The Practice of Death by Om.
Where can people find your music/more information?
IG, Bandcamp, Facebook, YouTube.
Alan Corr
