Read our interview with Shy For Shore about their new single "Steal My Car"

Armed with '80s synths and a propulsive undercurrent, it's a shimmering ode to lost love and a pristine bout of (semi-)Scandipop.

Here's our chat with the band (Oz Page and Mari Nordén) about their humble beginnings, performance art and their new single.

Hey guys. You've got quite an unusual/cosmopolitan heritage – how did you form?

Oz Page: We met in London in 2012. We had studied together and I knew I wanted to form a band with Mari from the moment I realised that the reason I couldn't find her on FB because she had a Yuck album cover as her profile picture.

Both: In spring 2013 we released a couple of rough demos on soundcloud. People use the word rough quite sparingly now, but to give an idea of how rough these were: we had to cut off the end of the vocal track because we were recording in a corridor and someone walked past. We didn't always record like this, but we had this realisation (seems obvious now) that if we were going to make something new, we would need to find a new way of making it. With this aphorism we hooked partially broken mics up around our bedroom and drummed down on synths we had jacked up into guitar amplifiers. It was cathartic to be driving ourselves away from studio convention and anyway, at that time we didn't think anyone would listen to it and we didn't care. A few months later we were performing one of those tracks on T.V; the feeling was beyond jubilant. Knowing that the lyrics people were calling back to us were born outside an (almost) deserted art studio was almost too bizarre to comprehend.

What brought you to Amsterdam?

Mari Nordén: It's exactly in-between London and Oslo and neither of us wanted to stay home.

What do you think it offers than England and Norway don't?

Oz: You can be really arty and no-one tells you to fuck off like in London. I’ve started performance art all the time and no-one cares.

Mari: Yeah the freshest thing for me is how people live from art here, and I don't mean live like 'toast sandwiches on the tube all the way back to zone 5', I mean living in central.

What do you miss most from your respective homes?

M: Fjords, mountains and brown goat's cheese, obviously.

O: Crack heads and pubs with carpets.

Where's your favourite place in Amsterdam?

M: It's this place called 'Roust'. It's 50% beach, 50% warehouse and 1045% hipster.

O: It sounds made-up but that's exactly right. One minute I was in a metal container and the next I was lying in the sand drinking strawberry mojito and lecturing some guy about performance art.

What has inspired your music? Where do you draw inspiration from?

O: Most of our sad pop songs are about the lives of our friends. Sometimes that can be awkward because we forget and ask them for feedback then they realise because it's obvious and then we have to avoid them for four months.

Who were your favourite musicians growing up? What's your favourite ever record?

M: I grew up listening to Joy Division at Christmas because my Dad hates Christmas. My favourite ever record is probably Hateful of Hollow by The Smiths.

O: I remember dancing around to Corner Shop's "Brimful of Asha" when I was really small, but then I found out what a bosom was and I was appalled. I think my favourite record is Souvlaki by Slowdive.

M: Shit, I didn't think of that one.

What made you want to create music? When did you decide to pursue it?

O: It was about 2006 and I thought being a thrashing around with a guitar and skinny jeans was a big deal for girls.

M: I started out singing along to my iPod while on my Vespa. It took me six months to realise I was doing it out loud and people could hear me.

What's a Shy For Shore show like?

O: Depends what time of the day it is.

M: Haha yeah, but all the shows are quite pumping and I think people expect that now. Our audiences (Especially in Norway) are getting much more confident with us these days. We had two stage invasions at our last concert. They wanted hugs actually... how lovely?

What was your first show together like?

M: I was really static, I had been on stage with shoegaze outfits before and I was used to having a keyboard in front of me and staring down at my plimsoles.

O: In that show I set my laptop way to high up on the stand and in all the pictures I just look like a nervous headless body in a cardigan.

How do you hope the audience will react?

O: Well when the audience put some energy forward, it makes it less daunting for you to give it back, then in turn they can put more energy in the space and the cycle continues.

M: Haha he's going to start talking about performance art... but yeah he's right. When the crowd get dancing it just really boosts me and those performances are always the best.

What's the most important element of a good pop song to you?

Both: Ooooh!

O: We talk about this all the time.

M: I think it's a often good mix between the vocal melody and some creative lyrics.

O: I think it's the rhythm. I think the secret is great drums.

Who's the best popstar around at the moment?

M: That's a really hard question, there's so many industry ready pop machines around right now... artists like Lykke Li, Sia, Highasakite and Emilie Nicholas are my favourties at the moment.

O: The best pop star around is Stromae. He uses the same tools everyone else does, but somehow the creation is just something totally new. Belgian pop!

Can you tell us about "Steal My Car"?

Both: "Steal my Car" was born in the same vein as its predecessors; buzzing guitar amps sang out the synth melodies and our defected equipment managed, against all odds, to survive another recording. But this time round we also made a studio visit. Our sound guy found our latest single under a bed of buzz and with some mastering magic the single was ready.

Do you have many plans for the future?

Both: Looking to the future, it's difficult to make calls, we just think about unreleased material; and on that trajectory we have some really special things to share in the coming months. We also have some concerts back in Norway this week to celebrate the latest single.

You can catch us 7 November at Seeds in Oslo and 8 November at Drengastova, Storebö.

Listen to "Steal My Car" below.