shame have announced Food for Worms, their explosive third record, out 24th February 2023 via Dead Oceans. The band have also announced their biggest-ever European headline tour, including a night at Brixton Academy (full dates below).
Shared alongside is the James Humby directed video for new single ‘Fingers of Steel’, which sees the band work 19-hour shifts creating fake social media accounts to like, follow and comment on their own material. On the video, Charlie Steen said: “Self-obsession, social media flagellation and death can all be seen in this Oscar
nominated performance. No one’s ever done a video like this before and when you
watch it, you’ll see why. Think Casablanca, but in colour, and better.”

It’s suggestive of what is left unsaid, what lies beneath the surface, the farcical and fantastical everyday that we are living in, in a society where both everything and nothing is possible.

On the one hand, new album Food for Worms calls to mind a certain morbidity, but on the other, it’s a celebration of life; the way that, in the end, we need each other. The album is an ode to friendship, and a documentation of the dynamic that only five people who have grown up together – and grown so close, against all odds – can share. For the first time, the band are not delving inwards, but seeking to capture the world
around them. “I don’t think you can be in your own head forever,” says Steen. A conversation after one of their gigs with a friend prompted a stray thought that he held
onto: “It’s weird, isn’t it? Popular music is always about love, heartbreak, or yourself.

There isn’t much about your mates.” It’s through this, and defiance, that the band have continually moved forward together; finding light in uncomfortable contractions and playing their vulnerabilities as strengths: The near-breakdowns, identity crises, frontman Charlie Steen routinely ripping his top off on stage as a way of tackling his body weight insecurities.