About Me
THE STORY OF SHANKMIN
We originate from Frederick, Maryland. (Yes, Frederick. Not FredNECK, not FredROCK. Fucking FREDERICK) The town itself is your fairly unoriginal, suburban town. We've got a somewhat decent music store, a cool record store, and a lot of kids that like music. Their liking of music has sprouted a trendy little music scene in Frederick county fronted by bands like So Damn Thirsty, The Venkmans, and Dreams in Fear. We like going to shows and moshing and the like. Therefore, it's only natural for nubs like us to get into playing music.
The first punk rock albuim I'd ever heard was Sum 41's second album, All Killer, No Filler in middle school. I listened to that particular record almost non-stop, basically to the point where it is now unplayable. That album is one of the reasons why we began making music. By the end of 7th grade, I was obsessed with punk rock. My favorite bands consisted of Lagwagon, MXPX, Blink 182 and The Ataris. By 8th grade, however, all of my punk rock-listening friends had suddenly turned into grungeamaniacs. I was exposed to the likes of Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. These major influences blended with radio tunes from the likes of Nickelback and Staind, with a bit of hardcore influence from acts like Death by Stereo and Thursday.
So when Shankmin was formed, we all liked grunge and punk.... and a little bit of screamin'. Why not combine? It's the logical solution.
However, it was not until the summer of 2006 that we had achieved our true inspiration and realized almost exactly how we wanted to make music. At the Vans Warped Tour, we saw Helmet live for the first time. They were the most awesomely chill, innovative and original band we had ever heard. I jizzed my pants, like, 9 times. So the next week, I went and got a Helmet CD, Betty. It paralled Sum 41 in my younger years.
In the past few years, we have seen quite a few line-up changes, and when our old drummer, Mike, left us, we were basically stranded... Until Moy came along. We gave him a song to try out. The next practice, he had it down perfectly. Like, CRAZY shit. And his brother, Mikko, is a crazy Filipino guitar-flippin' mofo who plays like a madman. They gave me an album that I have always wanted to have, Absolution by Muse. As their favorite band, they are one of our biggest influences as well.
I'm not gonna try to put us into a category, nor be a douche and say that we're so different that we can't be categorized. I'll just say that we make music that if we were to hear on the radio, we would react by saying, "Dude... this is pretty fuckin' nice," and then go out and buy it. That's how every band should be.
So... yeh. That's about it.
-Barry of Shankmin
Playing "The Weed Song". You can't see anything in the video, but the sound came through pretty nicely.
"Mandee's Interlude" and "The Unknown"
"Touch, Peel and Stand" by Days of the New (but played by us :3)
Shankmin-Touch, Peel and Stand
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