Fake Shark

Horror fans Fake Shark formed in 2005 in Vancouver, British Columbia and stirred up a choppy mix of MySpace-dwelling electronic art-punk which they poured into their debut 2007 album, Zebra! Zebra! Originally christening themselves Fake Shark - Real Zombie (later dropping the second part of their name) in homage to the 1979 film Zombi 2 by legendary Italian horror director Lucio Fulci, lead vocalist and programmer Kevvy Mental and high school pal Louis Wu began thrashing out tunes in the latter's basement after graduating. They enlisted the help of bassist Dan Hughes – who was replaced by The Heck and Hot Hot Heat's former bassist, Parker Bossley – and after The Heck's former drummer Malcolm Holt replaced Dan Hughes around the start of 2007, set about recording their debut. Largely thanks to the phenomenon of MySpace, Fake Shark made a splash in Japan, whose Vinyl Junkie Records put out the band's album Zebra! Zebra! The Henry Rollins-approval dance-punks toured the UK, Japan and North America before they headed into the studio with industrial aficionado Dave "Rave" Ogilvie to record their second album, Meeting People Is Terrible (2009). After a five-year break in which Kevvy Mental scored an award-nominated short film called Last Flowers, the band dropped their third album Liar (2013) featuring Henry Rollins and Steve Bays of Hot Hot Heat, among others. An electro-poppy fourth album, Faux Real, followed in 2017. They demonstrated a more streamlined indie-rock vibe on their fifth and sixth albums: Walking Through A Fantasy (2018) and House of Mirrors (2020), respectively, but without forgoing their love of a finger-snapping groove. Fake Shark went deeper into synth-pop waters for their 2021 album, Time for the Future. The band scored a hit the following year with "Loser," which reached number three on Breaking Alt (Alternative Specialty) and nine on Alternative Radio in Canada. In 2022, Time for the Future received nods at the Indie Awards for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Rock/Alternative Group of the Year. Fake Shark released their third album Afterglow in 2024 via Light Organ Records. The LP was anchored by the chart-topping single, "Exactly What I Thought You Were," which shot to number one on the Breaking Alt Chart.