{"id":8215,"date":"2019-09-23T05:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T05:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=8215"},"modified":"2019-09-18T20:54:54","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:54:54","slug":"the-x-ray-eyes-sy-shields-talks-x-ray-eyes-cyanide-pills-interview-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=8215","title":{"rendered":"The X Ray Eyes Sy Pinkeye talks X Ray Eyes & Cyanide Pills – Interview Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a> Not content with plying his trade in one of the best bands in the UK punk scene Sy Shields is also on his thirds album with his other mob the X-Ray Eyes where he doubles down as vocalist and guitarist.\u00a0 If you’ve never heard either band now would be a good time to click some of the links and enlighten yourself and make your record collection a bazillion times better. He a Yorkshireman and he’s been busy writing, recording and playing live but can fit in five minutes to answer some daft questions from RPM so here goes… eh up, Tell us a little history of the band\u00a0 Whos in it and where did it all begin?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Me and Deany (drums) have been pals since we were kids and been in a band together since high school. I met Jock (guitar) when I joined the band Lorimer (which eventually became Cyanide Pills) when I was 19. I met Amir (bass) in 2002 through my college friend and former bandmate Stevie. We formed The X-Ray Eyes in 2012 (I think!)<\/span><\/p>\n

You don’t just reside in\u00a0 The X-Ray eyes as singer and guitarist but you also play guitar in the awesome Cyanide Pills, what are the major differences between them that keeps you at it?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Firstly, the difference in music I guess. Most of the song ideas, music, lyrics and melodies comes from Phil when we play with Cyanide Pills. I\u2019d like to think it\u2019s similar to that with The X-Ray Eyes but it\u2019s me instead of Phil. I quite like that with this band we don\u2019t have a record label, publisher, manager, booking agent etc so it\u2019s all pretty much DIY. We can do as little or as much as we want and do things exactly as we want them.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

As for Playing the guitar,\u00a0 who influenced you to pick it up and how old were you when you realised it’s what you wanted to do?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think one particular person influenced me to start playing, it was just guitar based music in general. I started getting into bands such as Oasis, Blur and Supergrass at about 11 years old as I\u2019d just started playing football for an older age group so I was easily influenced and liked what I heard. I started to teach myself to play guitar when I was about 14 and soon moved onto bands like Green Day, Rancid and The Offspring. By the time I was 16 I\u2019d become a big fan of The Clash and Sex Pistols and got we our first band together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>You’ve just released your new album , is it your best?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I think every band says their latest album is their best! It\u2019s my favourite one we\u2019ve done because I think it sounds the best and it has our best songs on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you enjoy singing and playing guitar? or are you more comfortable just playing guitar?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been doing it for a long time now so I feel pretty comfortable doing both. I suppose I feel a bit more pressure playing with The X-Ray Eyes as I\u2019m the lead singer\/frontman and stand in the middle. I also have much more to remember!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you could jump on a tour who would you pick if that were an option?\u00a0 What about growing up who were the bands you loved?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to tour with The Hellacopters, Rancid or The Briefs but who wouldn\u2019t?!\u00a0<\/span>I\u2019d say Oasis was the first band I loved then I went through a Nirvana phase……<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pick a couple of favourite songs and tell our readers why they’re favourites?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a tough one because it changes all the time. Off the top of my head I\u2019ll go for The Peepshows \u2018Surrender My Love\u2019, Jimi Hendrix\u2019s version of\u00a0 \u2018All Along The Watchtower\u2019 and Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, \u2018The Tears of a Clown\u2019. I think they\u2019re all perfect songs in their own way. \u2018My Sharona\u2019 by The Knack should get a mention too!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What about any music you like that might surprise our readers or fans?\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I like pretty much anything so long as it\u2019s tuneful and got a good melody or chorus. I\u2019m more than partial to a bit of classical music, Motown, pop, dance or reggae. I draw the line at metal or jazz though.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re playing with Cyanide Pills is there a favourite track to play live?\u00a0 What about favourite show?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Not sure I have a favourite song to play live, I prefer the songs we never play live! We\u2019ve played so many gigs over the years it\u2019s hard to pick just one. My favourite gig of the last tour we did was probably the one we did for Stefan in Munich. It was a Tuesday night and it was hot, sweaty and busy. Just how we like it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are your plans for both bands that you can tell us about?\u00a0 We know Cyanide Pills have a new album recorded, what can you tell us about that?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re working on the next album with Cyanide Pills but it\u2019s gonna be a while yet. All the songs are written but we\u2019re only part way through the recording. We\u2019ve started writing stuff for The X-Ray Eyes next album too so we\u2019ll be working on that in between gigging. We\u2019ve got a van so we\u2019ll play anywhere within reason, providing we\u2019re all available!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As for Touring – are you a fan of getting in the van? when can we expect to see you guys play in South Wales (either band)\u00a0 would taking X-Ray Eyes out supporting Cyanide Pills ever be an option?<\/strong> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I love touring. Playing gigs is surely the best part of being in a band. I think we\u2019ve only played in Wales once with either band and it was Cyanide Pills when we supported UK Subs in Cardiff a few years back. We\u2019d definitely be up for going back. I wouldn\u2019t rule out touring or doing a gig with both bands but it might be beneficial to have at least one band on in the middle so I can catch my breath.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What about vinyl pressings for X-Ray Eyes?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been wanting to release something on vinyl for a while now but it\u2019s difficult as it\u2019s so expensive. Hopefully, we\u2019ll get some gigs in the next few months and sell some merch so we can afford to put out a single or EP on vinyl in the not too distant future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The X-Ray Eyes Facebook\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0The X-Ray eyes Bandcamp Page<\/a><\/div>\n
Cyanide Pills<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not content with plying his trade in one of the best bands in the UK punk scene Sy Shields is also on his thirds album with his other mob the X-Ray Eyes where he doubles down as vocalist and guitarist.\u00a0 If you’ve never heard either band now would be a good time to click some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[258,3405,3102],"class_list":["post-8215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-cyanide-pills","tag-sy-shields","tag-the-x-ray-eyes","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8215"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8323,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8215\/revisions\/8323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}