It’s great to have a final Red Shakes track for 2020. Sam Da Silva, the man behind the Red Shakes project, has kept the music bouncy and positive this year, which is totally no bad thing.

However this final song for the year Believe It, has a particularly tasty rocking edge added to that characteristically buoyant Red Shakes vibe. Believe It is your favourite posh coffee with a naughty friday lunchtime slow slart of whisky tot.

Sam’s vocal has a really pleasing slightly raw tone to it, drawing out a new aspect to his voice, which I totally dig. The music too has a rootsy solid rock base. There’s a long running golden thread tracing all the way back to the original rocking bylcream loving cool dudes of the 50’s with this dirty little beat.

Sam tells me lockdown has had him revisit some bands he liked (garage rock mainly), discover some new ones and this inspired him to write rockier tunes. He can tip the latest Cribs album (but only go over there once you have played this beaut a dozen times and saved it).

While I had the man’s attention, I thought I’d ask Sam whether he had any other surprising musical predilections at the moment: “I’m really enjoying music by Mac Miller and this Latin musician called Rodrigo Amarante (…who incidentally did the Narcos Netflicks theme tune), I think those are some of the more unexpected things I’m listening to“.

Believe It is about recognising that someone else just has a totally different way of thinking about things. Sam explained: “The BLM movement made a lot of people have uncomfortable conversations, but led to necessary discussions about race, and I think it separated a lot of people in their views. I thought the way people discussed it and politics in general more recently was interesting, and I wrote the song with all that in mind“.

Red Shakes music until now has felt like a solid, enjoyable and dependable ‘marry’ in that question and answer game, but with Believe It, it’s time to think that answer through again…. and I’m not talking about ‘avoid’ either. From the strong gutsy guitar opener, to the solid riff line and totally banging chorus, Believe It is a well toned love beast.

Given that Red Shakes likes to give us feel good party sounding tunes, my last question for Sam was what a good 2021 night out is going to look like. Like his music Sam gave a solid, dependable and good time answer: “Pre’s with some friends, a cracking gig and then a night out to celebrate“. Can’t wait for that too.

Chris R