Eel Men released their debut LP in 2025 and I can't remember the last time I heard a debut record sound so unique yet fully formed right out of the gate! Is it power pop? Is it post punk? Does it sound a bit like Wire meets Nick Lowe? The answer is yes, yes and yes! Trying to pick apart the Eel Men and pin down their influences is not an easy task and that's what makes them so great.
.jpeg)
Shock Treatment: Let’s get things going by telling me who is currently in Eel Men and what
everyone does in the band?
Eel Men: Hi Jay and Shock Treatment! We are Jimmy on vocals and guitar, Rory on guitar, Alec
on bass and backing vocals and Matt on Drums.
ST: On your website, it says you guys formed in 2021, what’s the band’s origin story? How did you guys all meet and decide to play together?
EM: We all know each from playing music around north London. Rory and Jimmy have been
in bands together forever and Matt and Alec are brothers who moved over to London
from Atlanta, Georgia years ago. Our first bass player was Dan but he quit the band in
order to follow his dream of becoming a math teacher. We had the idea just before
covid to make a band that played punk music but without worrying about scenes or
punk formats or any of that nonsense.
ST: I believe your first 7" Are You There God It’s Me” b/w “Meantime” came out in
2021 as well. Did one of you guys already have some songs written or did these
songs come together that fast?
EM: Jimmy put the band together and had the first couple songs ready to go. Meantime was
written by Jimmy before we started the band. Are You There God It’s Me was written a
bit after. Nowadays we write more collaboratively. Any of the four of us might bring an
idea into rehearsal and we all flesh it out together.
ST: Both 7”’s and your new LP have all been on No Front Teeth Records, how did you guys hook up with that label?
EM: Jimmy and Rory had released stuff with Marco who runs NFT before in previous
projects. He’s a great bloke who has a proper ethic and attitude for running an
independent label.
ST: And speaking of your absolutely brilliant new LP Stop It, Do Something, can you tell me a bit about it?EM: I think you can hear on the LP that it's in forward motion. We used some material that is
a bit more punky, but we also didn’t want to hold ourselves back. We wanted to produce
something that doesn’t have constraints. The LP doesn’t just put angst at the center
because that’s been done by everyone, there’s other emotions and ideas in it. The four
of us come from quite different musical backgrounds and scenes. Jimmy takes a lot of
influence from more melodic stuff, whether that’s folk music or rocksteady, Rory is a
blues guitar man, Alec likes funk and soul and jazz, Matt grew up in hardcore bands and
loves country and unlistenable garbage. I think you can hear that in the record. It’s the
most collaborative thing we’ve done yet.
We recorded the record in east London with Ed at Gizzard Studios. Ed’s a great
engineer and his approach to recording is what we like. Most of it was laid down live.
The inspiration for the art work came from a lot of the early Stiff records releases. Alec
and Jimmy labored over that thing for a while. We cut quite a lot of tracks from the
record because we did want to make it cohesive and snappy, being our debut, so you
can look forward to those one day.
.jpeg)
ST: You guys have said that Eel Men have played everything from “family friendly
festivals” to “anarchist squats.” Tell me some pros and cons of playing such
diverse gigs?
EM: We’re just up for it man. We just love playing to new audiences and meeting new
people. I think a lot of bands get sucked into playing to the same people over and over.
Why? Where’s the fun in that? We played a small town in the desert in Spain near
Alicante to about 25 people once. They were all so up for it. They all bought records and
some of them knew all the words even though they didn’t really speak English. It was
fucking great. That means just as much to us as playing to 2000 people at a festival
who have easy access to culture. They’re equally as important to us. The important
thing is to engage with who we are playing to and hang out for a drink after. There aren’t
cons.
ST: The band is currently based in London yeah? What are some of your favorite
places to play and bands to play with there?
EM: We sort of formed the band at New River Studios in Harringey, north London. We play
there once or twice a year still and it's a bit like a homecoming gig. We also like playing
at the George Tavern in east London a lot. Venues in London are struggling and closing
day by day, but New River and the George are holding on and doing a great job.
We try to play with bands that we like regardless of how similar their sound is to ours.
Some of our favourite bands we’ve played with in London are Yowl, Rifle, Snub,
Mapache, Middleman.
ST: Maximum Rock N Roll described your sound as having “clear influences yet
sounding fresh and unique”. Did you guys have any particular bands in mind
when starting Eel Men?
EM: Yeah we did, but man has that changed. When we started the band The Love Triangle
was an influence for example. But now when we’re in the rehearsal space we talk about
Ian Dury and anything Eno had his mitts on. When we write we often imagine the parts
being played by different instruments like horns or additional percussion and that
impacts the sound. A lot of Jimmy’s ideas are actually written on piano and translated to
guitar.
ST: What lies in store for the band in 2026?
EM: A lot. We are going to Portugal for three gigs in February. In May we’re self releasing a
10” and going on tour all around Europe in June. We’ve got a smattering of London gigs
coming up in the first half of the year. Album number two will most likely be out at the
tail end of the year. We’re staying busy.
ST: Where can people go, either online or in person, to listen to your music and buy
your records?
EM: www.eelmen.com go there. All the proceeds go directly to us from there and you don’t
have to worry about your money funding a dystopian neoliberal death machine.
