Shaman’s Harvest Talk New Single, 2025 UK/Ireland Tour And More

Heavy-weight Missouri rockers Shaman’s Harvest, have released their brand-new single “Rock n Roll Queen” ahead of their first ever tour of the UK and Ireland in March 2025. We chatted to them before they hit our shores:

Who is in Shaman’s Harvest, how did you meet and what do they play?

Adam Zemanek is our drummer. We first met when we held auditions about 8 years ago and he’s been bashing away ever since. Josh Hamler plays rhythm guitar. I first met Josh in my basement back when we were in school together. We needed another guitarist and he had just bought a guitar. He was just learning a few chords which was just as much as any of us knew then so he was the perfect fit. Cord Bishop plays bass. He is in a band from our home state called T.R.O.Y. and we’ve played many shows together over the years. He really brought the zin energy we needed when he jumped on the train. Derrick Shipp is our lead guitarist and we met him at a tryout. The guy that was supposed to show couldn’t make it so he sent Derrick in his stead. D was the most prepared musician we’d seen and knew our material better than we did. I’m Nate Hunt and I cover the vocals.

What is your earliest musical memory?

I remember listening to my parent’s records. Dancing around the living room to Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, losing my mind over the tribal rhythms shaking the floor. That song gets me pumped still today.

You have released your new single Rock n Roll Queen& What was the inspiration/story behind the track?

That song came about over a heated discussion about simplicity trumps complexity in guitar riffs. My point was that many of my favorite rock anthems have the most basic and melodic riffs. Really they’re underlicks that weave into the main melody and can prop that melody up. The complexity is in the simplicity of it. Lyrically then, we had to parallel the discussion with a bit of rock n roll worship/addiction.

In addition, you will be embarking on your debut UK and Ireland Tour with Blacktop Mojo this year. How are you feeling about the tour, have you toured with Blacktop Mojo before and do you have any sightseeing plans whilst you are over?

This tour is unprecedented for us in that we have no expectations beyond what we do and can control on stage. We have an opportunity to perform for people that have never seen us. So my thinking is that they won’t have notions based on other times they would have seen us play and hopefully that puts them in a place where they can exist in the now and be a part of that energy. as opposed to making comparisons to past performances. That’s a rare adventure for us in this age. And we get to embark into the unknown with our friends in Black Top Mojo who are in the same boat. Literally. We are sharing a bus with those guys. May the tour gods watch over us.

Do you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the single?

There are a ton of percussive instruments that tickle all the ear candy spots. Kind of threw it back to the classic rock inspiration for that. The mic I used was a chandler REDD which has all these tubes in both the pre and the mic housing itself. This allows you to drive the mic hard to where it starts to break up while still sounding musical. To emphasize the harmonic distortion we threw it hard into an EL8 Distressor. Love it or hate it at that point it’s baked in to the track.

Which of your tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

The Come Up, Dangerous, Dragonfly

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

That we went hard enough to sleep like the dead on the bus and that I’ve left enough voice to do it again tomorrow and the next day.

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

We’ve all got our own thing. Personally, I like my main vocal to be a Sennheiser e 945 and my b mic to be something like the 609 or even a green bullet. then I’ll run that through a guitar amp to give the breakup I like.

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Good Ole Jefferson City Missouri. My five words are Everyone will know everyone’s business

How do you look after your voice?

Really the number one thing to do for recovery is sleep and keep the chatting to a minimum between shows. It used to be whiskey. Now it’s an Ambien and sleep music.

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

I’d love to do the score for Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I hear it’s actually in the initial phase of production.(whatever that is) It’s going to be a mature space opera and I just think that would be so fulfilling to create sounds, textures, and music to compliment something like that. I’ve enjoyed the series immensely in both paper format and audio a few times over now.

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

I found a band called Shane Smith and The Saints a few years back. They’re still in heavy rotation here at the farm. Honestly we’ve been inspired by so many genres. Every record we make there is a central record we gathered up out in the wild and little moods are stolen here and there.

Do you have any further music releases planned for 2025?

We look to be in the studio and discovering our next form this spring. I think we’d be ecstatic to have something to hear in early summer. Might be ambitious but just the idea of being able to capture raw ideas into another record is exciting enough to flaunt a little ambition. Get that new record strut on.