From Panorama Music Festival 2018: Shannon and the Clams Interview

Shannon and the Clams is a rising name in alternative and punk coming out of Oakland, CA. Featuring members Shannon Shaw (vocals, bass), Cody Blanchard (vocals, guitar), Will Sprott (keys, vocals), and Nate Mahan (drums, vocals), the band combines ’50s and ’60s doo-wop pop and proto-rock with ’80s-style lo-fi punk. The Harvard Crimson sat down with Shannon and the Clams after their performance at Panorama on Sunday.

The Harvard Crimson (THC): Shannon released her solo project, “Shannon in Nashville,” and “Onion,” the band’s latest work, came out in February, both very exciting. But what’s next for Shannon and the Clams?

Cody Blanchard (CB): We’re mostly just doing a little bit of touring through the end of the year. We’re coming back to New York in November.

THC: Tell me more about the trajectory of the albums. You guys have a lot of interesting influences you’ve mentioned. What direction are you headed in now, and what was involved in your latest album, “Onion?”

Cody: I feel like we’ve been leaning more psychedelic. 

Nate Mahan (NM): There are some sort of glam elements creeping in.

CB: Maybe none of that made it on the record but there were some disco feelings, maybe the second song—it’s a light touch.

THC: Tell me more about “Clams” specifically. Why clams over mollusks, or any other animal out there?

Shannon Shaw (SS): Honestly the worst thing about our band is the name. It just kind of happened. It started off as a joke because I started off as a solo performer. I just sang and played bass. So it was like a joke to be called Shannon and the Clams. And then the name stuck and we kind of took off and it felt too late to change the name.

THC: Cody, you broke a string on stage. Does that sort of thing happen often? Do you have a story about a worst technical malfunction that’s happened to you on show?

NM: I have one. The second show I ever played with the Clams, we were playing at this tiny bar in Eureka and at some point both Shannon’s bass and vocals cut out. And me and Cody just vamped the song for like five to 10 minutes, just holding it down. And eventually Shannon’s bass came back on and we finished the song, but it was like 15 minutes.

SS: And it was something culty, right?

NM: Yeah, it was the “The Cult Song.” Yeah, we just vamped it, it was great.

THC: So you mentioned “The Cult Song,” and I was listening to “The Bog” on my way here. Would you say there’s an aspect of the occult in your music or just general cult stuff?

CB: Yes.

SS: Yeah, actually I really liked what you said about it yesterday. You were talking about how you relate musically to California.

CB: When the hippie utopian psychedelia started to get sort of dark in the late ’60s and there were different California cults, some of the music that came from there and music inspired by that stuff is like really relatable. I feel like that’s where “The Bog“ comes from. But I also used to read a lot of H.P. Lovecraft. And I think it’s funny to put it in pop songs. There’s a period of dark psychedelic folk from the West Coast that’s very cool to me.

Will Sprott (WS): You ever see that documentary about the Source Family?

THC: No, I haven’t seen it.

WS: It’s about this cult in California that they recorded, and they recorded hundreds of albums of music—and it’s good. I think that’s the one that started as a health restaurant called The Source in LA. And then it gradually evolved into this humongous cult. And it ended with Father Yod driving a hang glider off of a cliff in Hawaii.

SS: Have you seen “Wild Wild Country?”

THC: I’ve been meaning to watch that. I’ve heard really interesting things.

SS: Oh my gosh put down everything, leave the festival, go watch that documentary. It’s amazing how much footage they have. Also “Holy Hell” is a really good documentary about another California called like Marin County.

THC: So you guys are really into the whole cult thing…

SS: Well, I didn’t realize I was.

CB: Me and Shannon also come from Mormon heritage. That’s cult-lite.

THC: Should I take this out of the interview? Do you guys play Salt Lake City often?

SS: They love it; they always beg us to play “The Cult Song.” A lot of our fans are varying degrees of Mormon—ex Mormons, current Mormons, in between. I love it, I was raised Mormon. But Nate’s great-grandpa had like 10000 wives.

NM: He had five wives and 56 children, off in the south west of Utah. He was a pioneer Mormon.

THC: Wow, so there’s a lot of Mormon roots in the group. Do you think that influences or informs the music?

NM: I just think it’s like a strange thing.

SS: You know what though, I wonder if that’s why I love harmonies and stuff so much.

CB: Like hymns and shit?

SS: That was my favorite part of church. I didn’t start singing until I was like 25. Attending church I would hold up the hymnbook and just go like, “oooooohhh, haaa, heeee.” Because I couldn’t read, I was so little, I would just make up words and open the book and take it really seriously because I loved how it physically felt when you are singing and feel it in your chest and feel other people’s voices making you buzz. I loved that.

WS: We were just listening to this great podcast, “Cocaine and Rhinestones.” Have you heard that?

THC: No, I can’t say I have.

CB: It’s about the history of country music. The Newman Brothers are a weird harmony group, they’re very religious.

WS: And they stand in a circle and sing these weird harmonies, it’s supposed to be really cool sounding.

SS: Somebody talked about familial harmony?

NM: yeah you can sing crazy harmonies with your family. A blood harmony.

THC: I’ve heard that, yeah. HAIM does a lot of harmony and they’re all sisters. But that’s some juicy stuff there.

—Staff Writer Josh M. Grossman can be reached at josh.grossman@thecrimson.com.