Joe & The Shitboys – who you’ll find introduced ‘properly’ in the May issue of Dork, ‘FYI’ – are a bisexual vegan punk band from the Faroe Islands, who make a riotously fun racket while calling out injustices with tunes like ‘If You Believe In Eating Meat Start With Your Dog’. And, they’re playing Homeschool.
Hi Joe! How’s it going? Are you in the house (self-isolating)?
I hurt my knee right before the quarantine season, and I’m on sick leave till 30th April, so I was self-isolating before all of you posers. Seriously though, I’ll survive this, but I’m way too extroverted for isolation, and I’m not good at coping with the situation.
Has coronavirus hit the Faroe Islands much? What’s going on over there?
As I’m writing this, we are number one in the world in cases per capita. However, there haven’t been any deaths yet, and there haven’t been any new cases in over a week. Right now it’s sitting at 13 active cases. We locked everything up pretty fast, and it worked. Things are slowly opening back up again. You guys have it way worse than us.
Has it impacted much band business yet?
Yeah definitely. We were scheduled to release our debut album and tour the UK in May, but that tour has been moved to October. Festivals are closing down as well, and we’ve already lost some pretty big (at least for a guy coming from a small village in the Faroe Islands) unannounced mainland gigs in August, and I’m less than hopeful for the ones that haven’t cancelled yet. We’ll bounce back, though.
What are you up to, day to day? Do you have lots to be getting on with?
When I’m not a bisexual vegan punk rock superstar, I’m taking care of old people at a nursing home. Since the tour dates have all been moved, I started studying to become a healthcare worker, and have been doing a lot of homework. It takes 22 months, but they’re nice enough to let me take as much time off as I need for touring or other music-related activities. I think it’s because they’re desperate for more cis-men in the field, so they’re giving me loads of privileges.
Which of your bandmates would you least like to be stuck in quarantine with?
Ziggy Shit. We’re both two stubborn divas with way too strong opinions.
Do you have any lockdown-friendly hobbies?
I wouldn’t really call myself a gamer, but these are strange times, and I must admit that I haven’t played this much Playstation since I was 12 years old.
Games I’ve recently finished: God of War, Nuclear Throne, Another World, Dead Cells, Enter the Gungeon.
Games I’ve just started: Spider-Man, Pyre.
I’m waiting for the new Doom game to go on sale.
What about film and TV recommendations, what entertainment are you into?
Everyone already knows they need to watch Tiger King, so let’s just skip that one.
Guns Akimbo was the most fun I’ve had while watching a film in quite some time. It had deathmatches, a fast tempo, and lots of neon colours. Just turn your brain off and watch a thousand dudes get shot in the dick.
Also, since you finally have the time, Lawrence of Arabia still holds up after almost 60 years.
What’s the first thing you’ll do once lockdown is over?
I’ll go see my grandfather, who suffers badly from dementia. He doesn’t know me anymore, but the way he lights up whenever I visit him can make my whole week.
When do you reckon you’ll be back playing live again? It feels like gigs could be a long way off.
I’m gonna be talking out of my ass here, but since things are slowly opening up, I bet there’s gonna be some small shows running in a month or two. We won artist of the year at the Faroese Music Awards right when everything closed down, so we’ll probably get invited to play somewhere. Other than that, we’re set to play G! Festival (The best festival in the world BTW) in July.
Anything else we should know?
We have a website where you can buy a t-shirt that actually looks nice enough to wear in public, our debut album is coming out in May, and our Instagram is sick.
Joe & The Shitboys are taking part in new online festival Homeschool, which runs from 8th-10th May – visit homeschoolfest.com for details.
