The Journey Wasn't Planned
"Book of Shame is a mysterious group that channels the enigmatic and artistic natures of musicians like David Bowie and Talking Heads, and mixes it with an unapologetic fringe-punk sound reminiscent of The Velvet Underground. Their most recent release, Compatibility, is like an unforgettable LSD trip through time and space, that’s as lucid as it is alluringly ambiguous" - Stereo Stickman
Dangerous Minds full interview
What are you gonna do when you’re on the back slice of life wondering where the fuck your dreams have all gone? Are you still going be there waiting in line at fifty or sixty, the rain running down your neck wondering what you could have been if you’d had just a little more faith? Had a little more desire to change and be the very one thing you always wanted to be?
Peter Boyd-Maclean took that chance. He quit his stellar career as a London-based filmmaker and award-winning TV documentary director and formed a band called Book of Shame. Boyd seemed to have it all but he wanted something more, something real, something to call his own. He teamed-up with multi-instrumentalist Gary Bridgewood from Troubadour Rose. Over a two-year period the pair jammed, rehearsed and laid down tracks for their debut album (out this month) with a little help from singers Jo Foster and Claire Nicholson, percussionist Fergus Gerrand, pedal steel BJ Cole, and renowned record producer (Wire, Depeche Mode, Swans, Laibach, and St. Etienne) Rico Conning.
With a handful of singles already released, Book of Shame has earned comparisons to Captain Beefheart, the Velvet Underground, Joy Division, Radiohead, and even Alice Cooper. Boyd-Maclean’s life-so-far and the beginnings of Book of Shame read like a once-upon-a-time in a land not so very far from here tale full secrets, a bad step-parent, fortuitous meetings and a helluva lot of talent.
Boyd-Maclean started out making Super-8 movies as kid ‘cause he thought in pictures and couldn’t express himself in words. He had a difficult childhood, one that was much darker and far more disturbing than he might ever care to admit. As a student at St. Martin’s College, London, he teamed up with Rik Lander and pioneered scratch video under the name the Duvet Brothers producing promos for New Order and M|A|R|R|S track “Pump Up the Volume.”
