SHAME PENGUIN – A COOL CONVERSATION WITH THE BAND
Photo Amanda DeFillippo
By Ralph Beauchamp
Shame Penguin is a band everyone should know. Not because they are the best group in the world or are the prettiest. But because Shame Penguin unleashes barrages of incredible punk magic. Every song they release delivers ferocious bouts of pure adrenaline. AMP has featured the band several times. Most recently, reviewing their masterful single “Sam Jackson”. Now the ensemble have dropped a full length entitles Ride The Wave which encompasses “Sam Jackson” and several other already released singles. Also, the album showcases a bevy of new material.
Part of the draw of Shame Penguin is their prodigious musicianship. Each member is an accomplished player. In addition, their dramatic edge and ferocious energy easily captures the hearts and souls of their devoted listeners. Ez Bluez’s (Dustin Sclafani) voice hits you like a crazed run away train while Matt Brown’s guitar flares like dreamy dynamite. He can segue from bold psychedelia to brazen funk in an instant. Jon Ozaksut’s bass thunders with unbridled determination while drummer Kenny Maraczi powers through with dynamic intensity. The entire band creates singular punk textures that easily transcend the norm.
Shame Penguin were kind enough to sit with AMP for this cool interview.
AMP: We haven’t spoken in awhile. What’s new with Shame Penguin?
EZ: It’s been a hot minute, but we’ve been busy. Just released Ride the Wave and we are coming off of a busy summer including our first two festivals (Hartbeat in June and Shoreline Fest in August.)
AMP: You’ve nurtured a strong punk scene in the New Haven area. Do you feel that the community is flourishing?
EZ: I’d say the scene nurtured us. It’s tough to say the community is flourishing when we’re all under the kind of stress we’re facing this year. Touring is only getting more expensive, too. But artistically, the scene is doing great.
KENNY: Yeah, we’ve played with so many bands that are inspiring to me – just in CT, there’s Egg!, Trashing Violet, Fuselaje, the Human Fund, Haunting Titans…
AMP: What’s your creative process like?
EZ: We’ve got this thing we call “tuning into the radio”. One of us will start playing a riff or a beat and we’ll feel out where to go next together. Sometimes someone will come in with an idea, but more often it’s an idea from the practice space that’s too good to let go.
JON: I love that so much of our writing happens at the practice space. You never know how a riff or a chord progression is going to hit someone else’s ear, so we’re always surprising each other.
KENNY: We just tune into the cosmic radio and radiate it through music.
AMP: You have a new album out entitled Ride The Wave. Can you give us a little insight into the release?
EZ: This album covers a lot of ground because we started writing it before COVID (!) and the prolonged writing/recording process meant we had room to grow. We were grabbing whatever time our amazing producer Vic Steffens had available, but having weeks or months separating sessions gave us room to explore filling out the songs with backing vocals, synths, and percussion.
KENNY: Here’s the explanation behind the title Ride the Wave: You think of a surfer riding a wave with a surfboard, right? Well yes, but life is the same way. Things may come into your life dramatically, and sometimes we’re caught off guard and don’t know what to do. Or you feel as though you are stuck in a rut. Maybe you just broke up with someone, or maybe you’re dealing with school issues. No matter what the problem is, it’ll fall into place. Don’t stress, ride the wave. Ride your own wave and don’t get caught up in stressing out. Just ride it out.
AMP: What’s the band’s internal energy like?
EZ: Honestly we’ve got a really easy energy. It’s about friendship – we genuinely love each other, and not just playing together, but we enjoy being in each other’s presence. No ego-trips or conflict, just a singular mission to create something awesome. We’re lucky.
MATT: Very good vibes. We all have different creative inspirations from one another, but it always feels like we’re on the same page when putting it all together. No ego-trips or conflict, just a singular mission to create something awesome.
KENNY: The band’s internal energy is like colors blending with vibrations and emotions and different personalities blending in great symmetry. We all have different backgrounds in our musical taste, but what’s cool with this band is we know how to talk to one another with our instruments. When we tune into the radio, it’s like magic.
AMP: Your songs have a crazed aesthetic. Do you feel that your live shows accurately capture that dynamic drive?
EZ: Oh, definitely! The songs are written live, the feelings we try to encompass are live – so when it’s time to play a show, we do whatever we can to bring the energy these songs deserve.
AMP: In today’s music business framework, there seems to be a sink or swim mentality. Does that kind of realism have any effect on the band’s drive?
EZ: I think success is being redefined. It isn’t about a gold or diamond record. It’s about being one with the songs and your audience. I look at the streaming metrics often and I appreciate every person that takes three minutes out of their day and spends it with Shame Penguin.
JON: My favorite thing is when there’s someone out there in Buffalo or Oslo or whatever who listens to us for 3-4 weeks in a row. When somebody finds us and lingers on one (or more!) of our songs, it’s a sign of a genuine musical connection. That’s success for me.
MATT: We do this out of a passion for music and performing. I’d be just as motivated to get out there and play these songs whether it’s in front of 5,000 people, or 5.
AMP: If you could collab with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
EZ: I would have loved to collab with MF Doom or J Dilla, I feel both are true artists expanding our idea of what music is and spinning it on its ear.
JON: Who’s my Fantastic 4? Kurt Cobain, Greg Edwards, Bernard Purdie, uhh… Steven Drozd.
MATT: For me it would be Gareth Liddiard (The Drones, Tropical Fuck Storm). He comes up with such interesting musical arrangements, and always seems to be pushing forward with something different creatively.
KENNY: I would collab with the violin player in Yellowcard, Sean Mackin. He’s done so much musically, with so many artists in addition to Yellowcard. I’d also want to collaborate with Bowling for Soup because they are awesome.
AMP: With the rise of social media, do you feel a band needs to constantly drop content to remain relevant?
EZ: I feel it’s important because music is bigger than the radio now, so again, finding new ways to let people get to know you better is always a good thing.
JON: Yeah, that promotional treadmill. We’ve been posting a ton of our live performances on our YouTube channel, one song at a time, and that helps a lot. Our photographer Amanda DeFillippo has gone above and beyond in doing lyric videos for us, and this year directed 3 music videos for album singles, too – she’s done a ton to help make our work exist online. I wouldn’t do a TikTok challenge or anything like that, but I love it when artists share part of the process or their influences, and we can (and probably should) do more stuff like that.
AMP: What’s next for Shame Penguin?
EZ: Well, we still have some key CT spots to check off on our bingo card (looking at you, Toad’s Place), but expect us to push out further past the boundaries of CT and New England. We’ve also got a lot of music in hand – we have at least one EP written and ready to go into the studio with.
KENNY: We’re performing at the AJJ Skatepark Festival on October 18, 2025. The festival has been running for 6 years now to help fund the AJJ Foundation, which was formed to help young teens out with their problems by teaching them to play music.
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