Cardiff’s Panic Shack return with their first new material in over two years in the form of incendiary new single ‘Gok Wan‘, out now on Brace Yourself Records.
Premiered yesterday evening by Huw Stephens on BBC 6 Music, ‘Gok Wan’ marks the first taster of what will be the debut album from the quintet – comprised of Sarah Harvey (vocals), Meg Fretwell (guitar/backing vocals), Romi Lawrence (guitar/backing vocals), Em Smith (bass) and Nick Doherty-Williams (drums). It comes off the back of a busy couple of years for the group, including tours with the likes of Bob Vylan and Soft Play and festival appearances including Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Green Man, End of the Road, SXSW and more, earning plaudits all over for their frenetic live show.
‘Gok Wan’ sees the band taking on the toxic culture of body ‘improvement’ shows that dominated the airwaves in the noughties during their formative years via towering walls of guitars, propulsive drums and a laser-focused vocal turn from Harvey as she stares down the patriarchy head on. Produced by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius, Yard Act), it’s quite possibly the biggest Panic Shack have ever sounded and a perfect primer for the band’s much-anticipated run across the UK this May on their headline Don’t Quit Your Day Job Tour.
The single is accompanied by a stark, unadulterated video that perfectly plays on the societal pressures for women to work hard to adhere to a certain type of male gaze-coded body image, directed by Ren Faulkner with choreography by Lauren Fretwell.
“Growing up in the ’00s we were bombarded with constant images of super skinny models and ‘IT girls’ as well as TV shows all about ‘looking good’ and ‘being thin’. We wanted to write a song that embodied the ludicrous nature of what we were consuming as literal children and how it affected us then and to this day.
“We dug deep into our shared memories of that time, bought some trashy magazines at the corner shop and watched some old shows on YouTube, ‘Trinny and Susannah’ and ‘Ten Years Younger’ being a couple… but honestly there are SO MANY to choose from. It was shocking to watch them back. The stark difference to what’s acceptable now, discussing women’s bodies with such negativity felt satirical, albeit a plus knowing things have come along a fair bit since then. We took headlines from the magazines and worked a few into the lyrics, ‘fat or pregnant’ being one, yes that’s a genuine magazine headline.
“The title ‘Gok Wan’ comes from the show he presented How To Look Good Naked which in all honestly was one of the better shows, in terms of negativity but still obviously had the main focus on women’s bodies. No hate to Gok (Trinny and Susannah didn’t have the same ring to it for a title), it was the time we lived in and through but it was still shit, it still shaped our little teenager minds into this grown up hellscape of constantly focusing on how we look rather than what we do.”
‘Gok Wan’ is the first release from Panic Shack since the 2022 double-header of the ‘Meal Deal‘ single and their long sold-out debut EP Baby Shack.