Shannon & the Clams

About

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Shannon and the Clams was formed by accident. Just outside
the invisible borders of Oakland’s warehouse music scene, Shannon Shaw was absorbed in
studying illustration at California College of the Arts, a 100-year-old institution that draws
freaks into the city from across the country. For many, the school serves as a gateway into the
sprawling music underground that agitates beneath the Bay Area, as a hub for fliers for illegal
parties in backyards, basements, and overpasses.

During a bout of depression, Shannon took up a neglected bass guitar that had been a gift from
an ex-boyfriend years earlier and played it for the first time, writing in a raw and untrained way.
The urge to perform these songs soon took her to open mic nights around the East Bay.
“It was the perfect outlet,” Shannon says. “I never thought I’d be someone who played music,
but one day I picked up this bass and started writing songs. I became addicted to it. It became
my focus.”

Word got around that she was performing and the instigators of art school parties, always
hungry for new talent, convinced Shannon to throw a band together and play. It worked, and it
pushed her to aim higher, but the band was only meant to be temporary. Now, ten years later,
her path has revealed itself and Shannon and the Clams are releasing their fifth album, Onion,
this time collaborating with producer Dan Auerbach and his label Easy Eye Sound.

Over the last decade, Shannon and her chief collaborator, guitarist Cody Blanchard, have
released four albums of 60s-inspired pop on indie labels, toured tirelessly and have gradually
solidified a lineup of devoted Bay Area musicians, Nate Mahan on drums and Will Sprott on
keyboards. Nate has played keyboard, guitar and drums in various Bay Area bands for a decade,
and Will has served as front man and songwriter for his band the Mumlers and more recently
his solo project, Will Sprott, releasing records on his own Hairdo Records. In this current
iteration, Shannon and the Clams have developed notoriety for lively and genuine stage
performances and a zealous following that craves their particular authenticity and innovation
on classic sounds. Their last record, Gone by the Dawn, arrived in fall 2015 and took them to
Coachella and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in the year following. On the album you can hear the
band progressing from straight 60s-inspired rock and exploring their taste for psychedelic,
dramatic throwback pop.