Interview with Tim Shaw from Ensign & Fuck It...I Quit.
Tim Shaw is one of my favourite HC vocalists, period. I'd say it would be between him and Dave Franklin from the mighty Vision. Tim sang in Ensign, who put out a bunch of good stuff (if you don't know Cast The First Stone, get to know it!) in the 90's/early 00's and now yells in Fuck It...I Quit. He also volunteers and dedicates a lot of his time to saving abused animals and fighting for animal rights and welfare, and he is a legitimately good dude.
I've sold out of the new FIIQ LP but you can cop their 2017 EP here.
Fuck It...I Quit is stylistically, wildly different than Ensign. Whereas Ensign had anger and melody, FIQ is literally just sonic rage and it is awesome. Was it a conscious decision, or did the style change happen out of circumstance (ie: band members, different writing process etc)?
I think that FIIQ is the band that I always wanted to do! I love bands like Discharge, Napalm Death, Heresy, and Neurosis. So, when I approached the other guys about doing the band, that was my starting point for describing what I was thinking it might sound like. But, more importantly, I think that what Matt, George, and Paul bring to the band is what makes it what it is. We all have these ideas about how much we want push what we're doing musically and lyrically, and that's what has developed into FIIQ. Don't get me wrong, Ensign was an important part of my life, but I felt sometimes that I was the weak link when we started to get really melodic. Plus we're talking about the lyrics of a twenty year old vs the lyrics of an angry, old man! HAHA,
With the way the world is going, it's pretty hard to be positive about too much regarding society, religion, (lack of) animal rights, government, healthcare and the list goes on. You touch on some of these topics on the new album "The War Ritual", but what else is going on, thematically?
Animal Rights and Earth Liberation are definitely important issues to us. I think that when you start to discuss those issues, you can't help but also talk about politics and human rights. It's all interconnected, how we treat the earth, how we treat animals, how we treat each other. It's all so fucked that I don't know how you can be in a punk band and not talk about those things.
If you were to introduce extraterrestrials to music with five records, what do you choose?
- Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
- Killing Time - Brightside
- Discharge - Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing
- Avail - Over The James
- Minor Threat - First two 7"s
Was there a particular book, speech, person, moment or event that influenced you early on that sparked the formation of Ensign, and have your influences changed? For example, for me, not eating meat came from reading, research, empathy and bands i loved, who I still think spread a valuable message.
Ensign was already a band when I was asked to sing. In fact, I had never thought about being in a band before that. I do think, however, that all of who I am came from growing up within the punk/hc scene. I became straight edge because of Minor Threat. I stopped eating meat because of bands like Conflict, Icons Of Filth, GB, and even YOT. My early opinions on tolerance and social justice came from the HC scene. Those basic ideas were the ones that made me look deeper into those issues. I feel grateful that all of those people and their music are a part of my life.
What's the near future looking like for Tim Shaw, Fuck It I Quit and is there ANY chance of Ensign doing anything else? Cast The First Stone is one of my favourite albums ever.
HAHAHA. Thanks! Well, I won't say never, but I highly doubt Ensign will be playing shows any time soon. I'm really excited about FIIQ and all of my focus is there. We have some new music we're going to record, as well as Europe in September!