Shooting Daggers is said to be “burning it up” at the moment. Since releasing their EP Athames in 2022, a split single with Ukrainian punk band Death Pill in late 2023 and their debut album Love & Rage in February this year, the whispers are getting much louder.
Having recently supported U.S hardcore outfit Spaced as part of their Trippin Thru the UK Tour 2024, Shooting Daggers now has a new single outabout the queer skateboarding scene, in ‘Wipe Out’.
Band member Sal said: “We wanted to show how fun, powerful and epic skating is. Even if it means eating shit and wipe out more than actually staying on the board. With this video we wanted to show the collective sense of freedom and highlight queer skate communities from everywhere, that’s why we gathered footage online from all over the world and put it together.
“I got into skateboarding during the whole Skate Kitchen (all girl skateboarding film), glue skateboarding and there (queer punk skate crews) era. It influenced a lot of people in the UK back in 2018. There were girl skate sessions for free at House of Vans, Bay66 and Hopkingdom every month in London.
“It felt like all the girls started skateboarding around 2018, skateboarding was huge back then (all ages and all genders too). I remember seeing Beatrice Domond skating at HOV and she blew my mind. We were all learning beginners tricks together, lifting each other up and evolving together at our own pace. Many queer skateboarding collectives emerged and are still running like Queerskatebristol, Clumsy (Toulouse France), Siblings (London), Transkaters (London), Bronxgirlsskate who participated in this video, among many, many others.
“Glad to see trans and queer night in Bay66 by the way. My way of consuming skateboarding is primarily through Instagram so Instagram skaters inspired the most like Briana king, the girls from Brixton Baddest Stefani Nurding, Amy Hillingwater, Marbie Princess, Arin, Kien Caples too, Atalimendes, Palice (representing Birmingham), the girls from Skate Kitchen. There are so many, I’m sure I will miss some. A lot of regular skaters girls and queers making sick edits and posting on IG inspire me to keep going everyday. If I had to chose 3 from the top of my head I would say that my heroes are: Cher Strauberry for the punk atttrude, Savannah Stacey Keenan for the steeze, Vitoria Bortolo for the lines.”
Love and Rage has been described a huge leap forward from their EP, and about which the band said: “We want to spread a positive message, we are challenging rage into a good force, seeking for justice and unity. Anger serves us as a bodyguard for our personal pain and suffering. But when you recognise rage within you, if you handle it with attention, love, and compassion, it can be a powerful mobilising factor to take action in solidarity and commitment to enacting social change.
“This is a time to focus on ourselves and our community. Protect our rights to be in this world and stop caring about men’s validations. It’s time for women and queer people to channel all our power together. In this album we touch subjects such as Unity, sorority, self-love, taking the power back, queer love and skateboarding.”
Featuring nine tracks, Love and Rage is out now on New Heavy Sounds and was produced by Wayne Adam’s at Bear Bites Horse Studio, the record sleeve by Greta Bungle. It is available on limited edition clear and sky blue galaxy vinyl, plus a limited edition CD. Check them out Bandcamp.com, Cargo Records and for digital access go here.
You can watch the video for ‘Wipe Out’ here at RAMzine.
