Characters, Surprises, and Sending Nudes

Photographs and Interview By Michelle LoBianco

New York City band Mary Shelley talk about playing post-punk in jazz club, swimming in decisions, and their upcoming single, “Blasé”.

Brooklyn, USA

How was Mary Shelley formed and who are the members? Introduce yourselves.

Jackson: I’m Jackson, I play guitar and sing, as well as a little bass.

Sam: Hey hey I’m Sam. I play bass, guitar, synth, and sing.

Charlie: and I’m the drummer, Charlie.

Jackson: We started the band because Charlie and I were friends in school, he was a filmmaking student, I was an acting student. And when we graduated we found we were both very out-of-work in both departments. I knew he played drums, he knew I played guitar, so we just started jamming - that was the genesis of it.

Tell us a little bit about the origin of the band name and its meaning.

Charlie: Halloween 2020 - Jackson and I were hours away from playing our first gig as a duo and we had no name. We had sporadically thrown suggestions at each other for months but nothing stuck, Jackson was in favor of the clean and ironic Pretty Girls.

Jackson: As we are ugly boys.

Charlie: While I was more of the Shark Fight persuasion.

Jackson: He also liked Knife Fight.

Charlie: Our brainstorming session collapsed into a game of I-Spy - luckily my girlfriend joined in and spotted Frankenstein sitting on the shelf. We originally settled on the author for Halloween purposes, but I’d say we’ve really grown to fit the name: dark, gothic, groovy.

What are some of your favorite venues to play?

Charlie: Berlin Under A, great people, great sound.

Jackson: I really like the rooftop at Our Wicked Lady, that’s been fun to play in this Battle of the Bands competition we’re in. Also The Broadway in Bushwick always has really great bands coming through.

What was the first show you ever played? Which show has been the most memorable and why?

Jackson: Our first show was actually an NYU alumni talent show. And it was just me and Charlie - we started out as a two-piece. We played a 6 minute set for a bunch of people whose graduation year was like 1976, who were not in the mood to hear fast post-punk music, in a jazz bar of all places. We also got upstaged by a magician who went right before us. All in all - terrible show. But, that very night I met the great Sam Pinson and Mary Shelley as we know it was finally complete (and started to move in a much more positive direction).

Charlie: Our show September 2021 at FirstLive. I flew in from a job in Kansas day-of, running on 4 hours of sleep. Also turned 25 the day prior so glean from that what you will. Anyway, got there, drank a coffee martini and we played an electric show. Life affirming.

Jackson: I really loved our show in June 2021 at Berlin - it was our first real show back from the pandemic (our first technical show was in May at the 59th Street subway station) and we had a packed crowd of people who were excited to see live music again. We also got to play a setlist of mostly new songs we’d been writing in 2020 and 2021 that we had never showed to an audience before and the reception couldn’t have been more warm, energetic, and celebratory.

What’s your experience been competing in Our Wicked Lady’s Winter Madness Battle of the Bands?

Jackson: There’s so many good bands in Brooklyn it’s literally dumb.

Charlie: It’s really amazing even just to share the stage with them.

Tell us about the next single, "Blasé".

Sam: Blasé is a fun one because I initially imagined it as a very 80’s stadium rock kind of song and then when I brought it in, the guys, without ever playing this genre before, turned it into a dancey shoegaze song. I was like, “Hell yeah! This is what a band is for: surprising you!”

It’s about making Blasé choices in life. Feeling so numb that you start hurting yourself or others in different ways. When you hear that little voice in your head saying “I know this is wrong,” or “I know I don’t really want to do this,” hearing that voice and acting against it. That’s a real loss of control, and a potentially dangerous place to operate from. We wanted to create this feeling of swimming in the decisions you made against your will and feeling powerless to them.

Your debut album is coming out in April. What can people expect from the record?

Charlie: If you buy this record Jackson will personally send you a signed nude. 100% authentic.

Jackson: It’s true. But besides the nude - which I WILL send - I’d say you can expect a diversity of sounds, rhythms and genres - I think we all made a conscious effort to make each of the songs sound distinctly different from one another. Also a lot of our songs feature characters or narrators who are unreliable or unlikable, and I think we enjoy examining ourselves and the people we know through these skewed lenses.

Who are some of your favorite bands in Brooklyn?

Jackson: We love a lot of the post-punk scene like Dead Tooth, Been Stellar, Wetsuit. The Consumables and Beeyotch are AMAZING and were both gracious enough to come onto our bill for our April 21st release show at The Sultan Room. But the variety of great music in Brooklyn is obscene. Eclectic Charango Beats is this incredible latin, salsa-rock fusion 6-piece that everyone should see, Pinot and the Noirs are an incredible thrash rockabilly band, Bathe is a super catchy R&B two-piece, Laura Galindo is an amazing indie pop artist (who features on our single Nursing Home Jig and absolutely brings the song ALIVE). Brooklyn has some of the best up-and-coming acts in basically every genre you can think of.

Where can we find Mary Shelley hanging out when you’re not playing or practicing?

Jackson: We’re big fans of the meatball sub at Danny’s Pizzeria in Bushwick. It’s like $8, can literally take up two meals, and it’s right by our rehearsal space - we don’t get any money from Danny we’re just big fans of his meat.