Sheer Mag’s trip hasn’t been a typical one. Emerging from the mosh pits of Philly in 2014, they quickly set the DIY punk scene on fire by taking a variety of decidedly unpunk sounds (disco, funk, bar rock, dad rock, yacht rock) and shaking them up into a deliriously volatile mix that somehow managed to satiate indie kids, crust punks, hipsters, metalheads, and plenty more besides.
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Almost immediately and entirely unwittingly, Sheer Mag were a Hype Band. The buzz was justified: the band’s early singles (self-released or put out in partnership with Static Shock and the now-defunct Katorga Works) crackled with live wire energy and bona fide songcraft, and the band’s joyous live shows were the stuff of legend. With choice festival slots on offer, the band were courted by labels big and small. While many acts would have tripped over their own tongues to sign, Sheer Mag instead closed ranks.
“We were a bunch of kids living in a house with eight people,” says singer Tina Halladay. “We didn’t know what we were doing and were just trying to figure it all out.”
Two albums followed, and the band continued cementing their reputation as an exhilarating live act for whom pretension was a dirty word. “We were just trying to be as good as we could without any irony or trying to downplay what we enjoyed,” says Halladay. “I never really subscribed to that idea of being ashamed of liking something.”
For their latest album, the bold, catchy Playing Favorites, the band dials down the rawk just a dab while continuing to tease out an inquisitive sense of playfulness. The record required a hard reset for a band who were, until the global pandemic, very much on the way up. “Things have been extremely difficult for everyone,” says Halladay.“Kyle [Seely, guitar] was in Australia for two years and has a new relationship, I’ve been in and out of relationships, and we’ve all gone through like a lot. I think everyone was pretty depressed and weary for a couple of years there, so it’s been a case of clawing our way out of that hole. It’s just been a whole journey, trying to get back on track and do this.”
Even if Sheer Mag needed to recalibrate, Playing Favorites never misses a beat. It’s a fun, stomping record with heart by the bucketload, and though it’s not the same kind of ultra-personal systems purge as 2019’s A Distant Call, it speaks to wider, more universal concerns. “A lot of this record is about a collective loss we had as a band,” says Halladay. “I won’t go into it more than that because it feels like talking about it would cheapen it and make it gimmicky. More generally, these songs are a bit more about the human experience. The album’s not just about me and my traumatic past—it’s more about our collective traumatic past.”
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Playing Favorites is being released by Third Man Records, a move which might have some people scratching their heads given the band’s apparent refusal to consider record deals earlier in their career. “We just got to a point where things were at capacity in terms of what we could do by ourselves,” says Halladay. “There are things that we’re good at, but there are also things we’re not good at. Financial stuff is so hard to deal with on your own.”
“When we first started, we got a lot of crazy offers,” says Halladay of why the band chose to sign with Third Man. “Obviously, people who were chasing us for a long time were mad, and they’re still mad. With Third Man it was never like that, and I think they were the people that understood the most. It felt more genuine than with other record labels who are, like, pissed off that we didn’t sign with them right when we had peak hype status.”
Third Man co-founder Ben Blackwell is on the same page. “They’re a ‘band’ in the way that [Third Man co-owners] Jack [White] and [Ben] Swank and myself were all in bands in that old-school way,” he says. “DIY, tour in a van, just grind it out… I know where they’re coming from because I’ve been there myself. I feel a kinship with these folks, you know?”
“One of the things that really attracted me to them is that they did not need a record label,” he continues. “They’ve done all this themselves. It puts the pressure on me, on Third Man as a whole, to really show up, to put our money where our mouth is, and prove to the band what we can do. The trust they’re showing with us—they licensed us their entire back catalog—is not something I take lightly.”
For their part, Sheer Mag isn’t going to squander the opportunity. “I think this is our make-or-break moment,” Halladay admits. “It’s like, is this going to be any bigger than it is, or is it going to be what it is? Both are fine, but we’re all getting to the point where we need to know what we’re going to do with our fucking lives.”
So what’s plan B? Halladay just smiles. “You know there’s no plan B,” she laughs.
