Track-by-Track:
- Don’t Go
Wayne Frear: “Don’t Go is basically about losing it all and going for broke in Las Vegas: gambling and boozing and drinking and hookers. I won’t say making wrong mistakes but sometimes when you’re out and about and you’re having a good time, they’re the best mistakes you ever make, if that makes sense. To the point that you’ve gone out, you’ve partied, you know, you’ve bumped into whoever and you’ve wound up that you bought the cheapest ring from the cheapest pawn shop.
“A lot of stuff is written from past memory, or past experiences, or friends’ experiences. So, for me, as a 20 odd-year-old, that would have been me. I don’t know how to explain it…”
Rob Mills: “I guess what I think you’re getting at, it’s about all those sort of moments of hedonistic youth.”
Wayne Frear: “Right, but as you get older, you don’t go. You know what I mean? You weren’t bothered when you were younger. When you were younger, you’d do anything, wouldn’t you? But as you get older…
“I am old as fook now. I mean, I am really old. And you do, you’ve got your responsibilities that come more, don’t you? You’ve got grandkids and priorities, priorities that change, and things like that. I’m pretty sure if I went to Vegas now, I’d blow five grand. My wife’s not going to be happy. But when you were younger, you know, you’re not bothered, are you?
“Well, I weren’t anyway.” [laughter]
- Hangman
Wayne Frear: “Hangman’s inspired by childhood tales of spaghetti western icons like Billy the Kid. When I was a child, I used to watch things like that. But me granddad – he’s 96 years old and he’s still got them films on when I come round.
“I think though, when I says ‘The hangman sleeps tonight / too tired to run, too tired to fight,’ I reckon… I think you can live quite a short life as a cowboy. So it’s about the spaghetti western, yes, but also it’s about how a cowboy’s life can be quite fast and short.”
- High Heels
Wayne Frear: “A song about family values. [laughs]
“It’s just a dirty song about male fantasies, and just having a good time. But it’s different from ‘Don’t Go’ because it’s more the seedy side, the more sexual side of it.
“There’ve always been songs that delved into that, artists that did that. Prince did it really good, didn’t he? It’s hard for me to pick one song out because I like all kinds of music. And I don’t particularly like it for the guy or the girl who’s singing it: it’s how it makes me feel most of the time.”
- Hundred Dollar Bill
Wayne Frear: “It’s about paying for company. It’s about losing somebody, and then being lonely, and then paying for company. When I say lose somebody, I mean you’ve been dumped, or you’ve moved on from a relationship that probably you didn’t want to end.
“So you end up on your own. You’re in a relationship, she’s left you. You end up on your own, you know, you, you, you, you, you, you want some company, obviously, and you pay for your company.”
Rob Mills: “I am literally crying on the inside now.” [laughter]
Ben Martin: “Yeah me too. It’s a standard sort of blues, I mean, loads of chord progression, loads of bits of music use it, but it is a standard blues progression, isn’t it?”
Ben Martin: “But it doesn’t sound like that on the outset, but when I were, when I was playing guitar parts for it. I was thinking along them lines, so it’s like a country blues sort of style. I’m trying to make, trying to make it, because country is generally along them lines, isn’t it? So yeah, we’re trying to get as much of them influences as I could in, to complement the lyrics really, with the style and sound and texture of the guitar.”
- Living
Wayne Frear: “‘Lines on my face like tracks in the dirt, scars up my soul like roads through the earth.’ I think that says it all, them two lines. To me, it’s just about fucking hardship.”
Andy Parkinson: “It’s wear and tear.”
Ben Martin: “Like a breaking point, sort of, when you’ve pushed it, is that what you mean?”
Wayne Frear: “Yeah. And not living enough. Not giving enough. Not winning enough. It’s about being on your bad luck as well, you know what I mean?”
Andy Parkinson: “So you’re not making the decision at that point, ‘Do I give up or do I carry on?’ That’s down to everybody else to come up with their own conclusion on that.”
Ben Martin: “And then it’s got that driving guitar on it, innit? Which is sort of like, keep going, keep going, keep pushing through.”
Wayne Frear: “Like a train.”
Ben Martin: “That runs all the way through the song, doesn’t it? But then there’s some little bits over the top that, and it might sound slightly unhinged, but notice a couple of notes in there that send it a little bit where you might not expect.”
Andy Parkinson: “And that’s just like life. You get tripped up over bits in life that’s gonna but you overcome it and you keep on that same path. You get back on that rhythm and there you go. You come out the other side going, well that was shit, but we’ve done it.”
Ben Martin: “Because you’re alive, ’cause you’re living and that’s why.”
Rob Mills: “It’s better than stopping.”
Andy Parkinson: “Oh God. If you stop, you’re dead. And that’s it. And who wants to be dead? (pause) Well, I’ve thought about it a few times.” [laughter]
- Sadness & Pain
Wayne Frear: “This one I pretty much wrote about meself, how I’m feeling. ‘All I’m good for is sadness and pain / Scared of mirrors ‘coz I know who to blame.’ Again, I think that just speaks for itself. Why do I feel so sad? I don’t know.
“‘Hangover life banging in my head.’ It’s almost like you’ve got something in your head that’s just always making noise, turning round and round, revolving.
“‘The lines of my mask are starting to crack.’ So that’s this face that you put on everywhere you go, you might have your face on now. We might have this face on now, pretending we’re happy. You know, the lines in my face are starting to crack. And it’s just a song that’s sort of about struggle, and nearly reaching that point where you don’t want to go on.
“And then obviously at the end of the song, talk about family and friends. They lift you up and you can sort of count on them. You can count on your wife, can count on your family, can count on your friends, but you have got this… you know, you look in the mirror, who’s to blame? Is it me who’s to blame every day? Basically I wrote about meself in that song.
“We don’t have good days every day, do we? Some days are good and some days are bad. Some weeks are bad.”
Rob Mills: “I suppose it’s kind of reflecting on your own ideals and mortality.”
Andy Parkinson: “And that’s the thing where what it means to one person could actually be completely different to somebody else.”
Wayne Frear: “But that’s the thing about that song now: it’s probably going to be the last song we do in the set, and it’s going to be a more upbeat, because the lyrics are quite depressing, but the chords are quite happy. How we’re doing it now live, you can have people dancing to that song.”
Ben Martin: “They’re even happier than that – it’s just about the jolliest progression that we’ve got.”
Rob Mills: “It’s like a pop song, isn’t it?”
Ben Martin: “Yeah, yeah, it is. It’s 100 percent a pop song. It’s definitely a pop song, but with them lyrics… But the contrast is just good, isn’t it? You’re happy with it, though. I think that’s what’s great.”
Wayne Frear: “Yeah, yeah.”
Andy Parkinson: “I think it’s great because it gives that morbid kind of feel with a really happy vibe. Like we’ve got these issues or whatever, but we can play it in this way, which means that we don’t really give a shit. And we’re having a good time and we’re kind of rocking the world. And that’s my take on it.”
- God Knows
Wayne Frear: “‘God Knows’ is all about, if you have it bad, you can just sod off and you can do what you want to do. I don’t know how I’m feeling some days: God knows, you know what I mean? That’s pretty much it really.”
Ben Martin: “I take God knows as more of a point of realization, you know. Going from the start of the album, going all out for it at first, then realizing that living is about keeping going, and then the realization in ‘God Knows’ that sometimes things aren’t so great, you know. And again, it’s a fairly jolly progression, isn’t it?”
Wayne Frear: “It is, yeah.”
Ben Martin: “It’s building some momentum towards the end of the album.”
Andy Parkinson: “How are we going to get home tomorrow? Who cares? God knows.”
Ben Martin: “I like the line about the hand making the painting. The colours don’t make that painting, it’s a hand. It’s a hand that just rolls free. I like that one.”
Wayne Frear: “Yeah, it’s a bit more of a happy one, I suppose.” [laughs]
- Too Late
Wayne Frear: “It’s about losing a parent, to be honest, that’s all. I’ve still got both my parents. I’ve still got a grandparent. And I think about what it would be like to lose them quite a lot now. Cause obviously my dad’s now 75. My mom’s a similar age. And, like it says, always let them know before they go. It’s not too late. Tell them you love them. Tell them anything.
“The first time I played it to Ben, he thought I’d lost my mum! I’m like, no, they’re still alive!
“But yeah, my friend who lost his dad, and I’d thought on me own mortality.”
- Run Don’t Stop
Wayne Frear: “It’s about about the cyclical process of drug use: Buying drugs. Getting away with buying drugs. Taking your drugs, having a massive high. And then that massive drop to come back down to earth. That’s basically that song: Repeat, repeat, repeat. We’re not in that situation ourselves, mind.”
Rob Mills: “But we still all know people who are in that situation.”
Andy Parkinson: “I know people who died in that situation.”
Rob Mills: “Yeah, likewise. And what it’s done to relationships.”
Andy Parkinson: “And families around it.”
Rob Mills: “Everybody knows someone affected by it, right?”
- Just A Man
Wayne Frear: “Well Rob’s gonna take piss out me again for this one.”
Rob Mills: “Hey: I’m very kind and considerate.”
Wayne Frear: “Now I’m not a royalist. Do I like the royal family? Yeah, I do. Do I think about it? Not really. Do I watch The Crown on Netflix? Yes, I do, you should watch that show, it’s really good. But the day we lost the Queen, that song popped in me head. It wrote itself that day. Because, you know, what do I know? I’m just a man. She’s this lady, this monarch who’s done this thing for so long. But then, even somebody like that can die. And what do I know? And yeah, it wrote itself. But these guys, they had no idea it was about the queen until I told them last week. And they all laughed and took the piss out of me.” [laughter & banter]
Ben Martin: “For me, it draws a bit of a picture in my head that I’m just maybe looking off, maybe the horizon on an early morning, or whatever. Maybe looking out at sea.”
Rob Mills: “A nice view.”
Ben Martin: “Yeah, yeah.”
Rob Mills: “To reflect on things, the bigger scheme of things.”
Andy Parkinson: “How unimportant we are.”Ben Martin: “Just about every guitar note’s got a bit of tremolo on it and it’s slightly out of time. Trying to make it as if it’s kind of the air and sea and the land all merging together and just not quite aligning perfectly. But nicely enough to sound like it does. That was my attempt at that picture I’ve got in my head when I’m playing that.”
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Bio:
Straight from Shipley, West Yorkshire, Least We Got Shoes delivers a genuine, unpolished sound they’ve dubbed ‘boxcar rock‘. Blending rock, bluegrass, Americana, and genres beyond, their music captures the spirit of their working-class roots. Frontman Wayne Frear’s raw, honest lyrics, reminiscent of Johnny Cash, are complemented by Ben Martin‘s (B.D.) blues-infused guitar, bassist Andy Parkinson‘s hands-on spirit, and drummer Johnny C‘s eclectic beats. Their debut album is a tapestry of real-life tales and free-spirited adventures, resonating with anyone who’s ever felt on the outside. Least We Got Shoes is the group’s mouthpiece for talking about life on the edge, imploring you to grapple with harsh truths shared under the night’s open sky.
