Sal, Bea and Raquel aka Shooting Daggers, are without a doubt burning it up at the moment. Since releasing their EP ‘Athames’ in 2022, a split single with Ukrainian punk band Death Pill on late 2023 and their debut album ‘Love & Rage in February this year, the whispers are getting much louder.
New single ‘Wipe Out’ is about the queer skateboarding scene. Sal from the band comments:
“We wanted to show how fun, powerful and epic skating is. Even if it means eating shit and “wipe out” more than actually staying on the board.
With this video we wanted to show the collective sense of freedom and highlight queer skate communities from everywhere,that’s why we gathered footage online from all over the world and put it together.
I got into skateboarding during the whole”Skate kitchen” (all girl skateboarding film), “glue skateboarding” and “there” (queer punk skate crews) era. It influenced a lot of people in the UK back in 2018. There were girl skate sessions for free at House of vans, bay66 and hopkingdom every month in London.
It felt like all the girls started skateboarding around 2018, skateboarding was huge back then (all ages and all genders too). I remember seeing Beatrice Domond skating at HOV and she blew my mind.
We were all learning beginners tricks together, lifting each other up and evolving together at our own pace.
Many queer skateboarding collectives emerged and are still running like queerskatebristol, clumsy (toulouse France), siblings (london), transkaters (london), bronxgirlsskate who participated in this video, among many many others. Glad to see Trans and queer night in bay66 btw
My way of consuming skateboarding is primarily through instagram so Instagram skaters inspired the most like briana king, the girls from brixton baddest Stefani nurding, amy gillingwater, Marbie princess, Arin, Kien Caples too, atalimendes, palice (represent Birmingham), the girls from skate kitchen.
There are so many, I’m sure I will miss some. A lot of regular skaters girls and queers making sick edits and posting on IG inspire me to keep going everyday.
If I had to chose 3 from the top of my head I would say that my heroes are:
Cher Strauberry for the punk attirude
Savannah Stacey Keenan for the steeze
Vitoria Bortolo for the lines”
Things have been pretty much upwards, non – stop, and Daggers are fast becoming a fiery beacon at the beating heart of the burgeoning UK hardcore scene. Plus, their full on live shows have made them a must see proposition. Whether it’s Desertfest, supporting Amyl & The Sniffers, a plethora of underground gigs and festivals across the UK and Europe including Fluff and Burn It Down. Or sharing the stage with the cream of up and coming American hardcore, Scowl, Gel, Zulu, Spaced, and being personally asked to play the ‘Cult Of Luna’ curated ‘Beyond The Red Shift’.
‘Love and Rage’ is a huge leap forward from their EP, in fact New Heavy Sounds believe Daggers have recorded something of a corker in terms of modern hardcore in fact … a potential minor classic debut maybe.
Classic you say? As in ‘The Ramones’ or ‘Damned Damned Damned’, as in ‘Los Angeles’ or ‘Bad Brains’, as in ‘Repeater’ or ‘Pussy Whipped’, or as in (because they wouldn’t forgive us if we left them out) ‘Non-stop Feeling’, by the genre-deviating, mainstream breakers Turnstile. And yeah, we’ve noticed how male that list is!
Whatever way you spin it, there is no doubt that ’Love and Rage’ is an album of jaw dropping depth and melody as well as blinding energy and angst. The band say …
“We want to spread a positive message, we are challenging rage into a good force, seeking for justice and unity. Anger serves us as a bodyguard for our personal pain and suffering. But when you recognise rage within you, if you handle it with attention, love, and compassion, it can be a powerful mobilizing factor to take action in solidarity and commitment to enacting social change.
This is a time to focus on ourselves and our community. Protect our rights to be in this world and stop caring about men’s validations. It’s time for women and queer people to channel all our power together.
In this album we touch subjects such as Unity, sorority, self love, taking the power back, queer love and skateboarding.”
And the album sums this up completely over 9 storming numbers. There are kick ass buzzsaw punk bangers of course, blistering shards of pent up fury, like ‘Dare’, ‘Wipeout’ and ‘Bad Seeds’. Daggers ‘as you might expect, but here, more catchy, more direct, more focussed than before. The influences never overwhelm, it’s always unmistakably ‘Shooting Daggers’.
The band will also support U.S hardcore outfit Spaced as part of their ‘Trippin Thru the UK Tour 2024’:
29.3 Manchester @ Manchester Punk Fest
30.3 Bristol @ The Exchange
31.3 Southampton @ The Hobbit
01.4 Brighton @ The Hope and Ruin
02.4 London @ New Cross Inn
Tickets are on sale now – https://lnk.to/TRIPPINTHRUTHEUK-2024
‘Love and Rage’ is out now on New Heavy Sounds. It was produced by Wayne Adam at Bear Bites Horse Studio and features an eye-popping sleeve by Greta Bungle. The album is available on limited-edition clear and sky blue galaxy vinyl and a limited-edition CD.
Bandcamp: https://shootingdaggers.bandcamp.com/album/love-rage
Cargo: Records: https://cargorecordsdirect.co.uk/products/shooting-daggers-love-rage
Digital: https://lnk.to/4wkStf
