Cartoons Can’t Die Talk New Album, 2026 Live Dates And More

Mac Gaisford – vocals

Maria Megally – vocals

Dan “Danny 5” Berber – Guitar

Ryan Shepherd – Drummer

 

 

 

Maria – Learning happy birthday on recorder.

Mac – I used to play guess the soundtrack with my mother on Classic FM and fell in love with the Lord of the rings sound track. Concerning hobbits and dual of the fates are the ones I’ll never forget.

Ryan – Earliest musical memory is my mum playing Rainbow in the car…Cozy Powell on drums!

 

 

Mac – I started writing when I was 11 on an acoustic guitar with a couple of friends… Very quickly realised you can’t write acoustic songs with acoustic drum kit.

 

 

The album came together piece by piece over a couple of years, we didn’t have a set plan we just wrote what felt right. Every song we wrote was inspired by who we were listening to at the time and what thematically fitted the story we are writing. It’s how we landed with the word “Shiftcore”, no fixed genre, just true to who we are.

 

 

Mac – All recording was done as most modern artists are doing, at home. I do construction work so I built our log cabin with a walk in wardrobe that doubled as a vocals booth. Guitars and drums are all done the same. It was all mixed and mastered by Christoffer Borg of Art Nation.

 

 

Often Bruenor, one of our German Shepherds would like to get involved in the recording process, we had to go back and remove chunks where you can hear either Mac or Maria interacting with him or him sniffing the microphone (sometimes we sit to record screams). Or the time we were supposed to record the solo for Kinslayer after Nottingham Forest vs Brighton but instead of the game being standard 90 it was something like 3 hours long so has no time by end of it. Unfortunately can’t stop Dan’s love for it!

 

 

Dan is big fan of the Neural DSP, for the guitars, we used in particular Ibanez for the brighter tones and then Schecter and PRS to bring out the low ends I all the tracks, the two work really well in tandem.

 

Microphone is the Shure SM7b.

 

There’s a lot of various horror risers used across the album and samples of a music box for rebirth.

 

 

Mac – a Rebirth, b Bodysnatchers, c The Loss of Something Dear

Maria – a On A Mission, b Bodysnatchers, c The Loss of Something Dear

Dan – Kinslayer , Godless, 5AM

Ryan – Kinslayer , 5AM, The Loss of Something Dear

 

 

Not massively, all the songs were there, Mac and Dan work really well on songwriting so the flow is easy. The vocals were hardest, trying to get the right tone is hard.

 

 

Poppy Porter, a friend of ours.

 

 

Yeah, it’s a rebirth of the band, it disbanded 10 years ago and it has rebirthed with anew line up and sound. But even back then, the genres changed.

 

 

 

The Track was actually from the first album and when we started performing, it was actually a big hit, far bigger than back in the day so we took it back to the studio and remade it.

 

Drums and rhythms were inspired by Alex Rudinger from threat signal.

 

 

It was directed by Mickie of Bellacada Media, even though it’s a straight performance video, it still ties into the post-apocalyptic world we’ve been building. It’s the band caught inside that world, like we’ve stepped into it ourselves. The lighting, tone and grit are all meant to feel like we’ve become part of the story.

 

 

Mac – Aylesbury – Quiet, gritty, traffic, oddly resilient

Maria – unfortunately does not have one

Dan – Nottingham – Robin Hood Men in Tights

Ryan – Dundee – worst music scene in Scotland

 

 

Just practice, warm ups, occasionally Vocalzone and hot ginger honey and lemon.

 

 

Mini tour 27-30th November

27th. – Victoria’s Biker Club – Coalville

28th – The Green Room – Pontypridd

29th – The Pit – Newport

30th – Cart & Horses – London

 

2026

January

24th Brumby Hall – Scunthorpe

February

8th New Cross Inn – London

14th The Hobbit – Southampton

21st – Network – Sheffield

22nd The Flapper – Birmingham

March

7th – Firebug – Leicester

 

Mac – I presume this means at end of music career?

Never having to work because I have to, but because I want to, being able to work for next to nothing because the music can pay for me to help someone else.

 

Knowing that me being annoying relentless and pushing through the struggle was worth it and that I’ve brought and grown our little community that we’ve built over the years with us.

 

Maria –

To have given our fans an experience they’ll never forget

To have travelled the world and being able to have all the experiences that I can.

 

 

Dan – It would be my blue Ibanez RG, 6 string drop C. It has Dimarzio Fusion Edge pickups for a nice bitey tone. Line 6 HELIX

Maria – Schure sm58a

Mac – Sennheiser ep35

Ryan – Pearl drums, ufip/paiste cymbals, dw9000 pedals.

 

 

Dan – Batman The Court of Owls. Court of Owls has that perfect mix of mystery, violence, and intelligence. It’s gothic, secretive, and built on paranoia, everything you could want in a soundtrack. I’d want the score to sound like it’s stalking you through the dark, but still feel grand and deliberate.

 

 

This list is long, it’s what makes us, us.  Starting with Lamb of God, Electric Callboy, Periphery then going to Rammstein, Whitechapel, Monuments, Blind Guardian, Gojira, Skunk Anansie, Alter Bridge.

 

We recommend :

Lake Malice – Blossom

Catherine – inside out

Fire From the God’s – Collapse

Future Palace – All.

 

 

Happy – Board games and a couple of beers and a takeaway.

Unhappy – Fake fronts and people who have not been taught manners.