SXSW 2024 Special | Shelf Lives Discuss The Meaning Behind Their Music, Vinyl, And Much More!

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On Day 2 of SXSW, London-based duo Shelf Lives sat down with us to chat about the meaning behind their music, vinyl, and much more!

Still feeling bright and perky on Day 2 of the festival, we decided to chat with Sabrina DiGuilio and Jonny Hillyard, the duo that make up Shelf Lives. Before attending their show the following day, we wanted to see what Shelf Lives was about off-stage before seeing their personas come to life onstage.

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Catalina: Hey y’all how is your SXSW going so far?

Jonny: It’s good.

Sabrina: Yeah, very good.

Catalina: Great! So I need to ask this burning question that I have, before I get to anything else. How did you come up with the name Shelf Lives?

Jonny: Well, originally, we wanted to be called “Shelf Life” but that was taken.

Sabrina: I remember you coming up with it, but I’m not sure if that’s correct. But that’s what I’m going with. Yeah, “Shelf Life.” And then we looked into it, and it was kind of taken so we were like, let’s make it plural, because there’s two of us.

Jonny: Yeah, but the idea came from just like, thinking of gross, expiring products.

Sabrina: Everything has an expiration date. Everything as a shelf life. So let’s just have like the most fun we can without, you know, being destructive.

Listen to ‘PVC Real Estate’ here:

Catalina: How was your first show last night at the Coral Snake?

Sabrina: Yeah, actually, that was our second… technically, we did a boat party earlier that day, but yeah, it was cool.

Jonny: Yeah, it was really cool venue. Yeah, I really liked it.

Catalina: And how has your tour been going so far? I know you were in New York a few days ago? What was the best part of it all?

Jonny: The bagels.

Sabrina: Oh my God Prince St pizza, yum! But no the shows were good. It’s part of like, a little like another kind of festival. And it was just, like, awesome to be in New York and flying. It was our first time playing in North America. So it’s kind of a box ticking. You know, we were like, yes!

Jonny: Yeah, it was cool.

Sabrina: Yeah. Hopefully the beginning of… I was going to say beginning of the end, but no the beginning of the beginning (laughs).

Jonny: The end of the end.

Sabrina: Yeah (laughs).

Catalina: Okay (laughs) moving on to your music; how did you decide what sound you wanted for your music?

Jonny: Umm it wasn’t really like a cerebral decision like that I think. We made music before for various different media kind of projects. And this kind of came about through working on something like that.

Sabrina: A brief.

Jonny: Like a brief. So but, you know, we quickly found out that it was something that really clicked with us. And we made it not a briefing. I guess this is what just comes out. This is how it comes out, yeah. And we try to have as much fun as possible making it.

Sabrina: Yeah, it’s basically, like what we had made for the brief, but more authentic to us. It was kind of like what working on the brief taught us was that we’d like clicked working together doing a certain type of music. So we kind of took that and made it into what we liked, not what someone needed, and through a load of different demos and passive aggressive arguments that we came up with Shelf Lives.

Catalina: Okay cool! What were the lyrical inspirations behind your latest EP, “You Okay?”

Jonny: I think just, I mean, a lot of stuff comes out subconsciously. Like, we don’t really sit and think about what we’re going to write but I think what we experience in daily life and through media and through… it can be anything. Comedians is a big one– big fans of those.

Sabrina: Yeah kind of just subject matter.

Jonny: Yeah, anything can kind of inspire us and then whatever we’re digesting just kind of comes out subconsciously and it makes sense afterwards, you know?

Sabrina: We tend to write about– it’s like social commentary essentially– you know some bands are like more politically inclined, or like, we’re gonna love. Not that we would never do that, I don’t want to say “never say never,” but I think at the moment, it’s constant social commentary. I think we’re so interested in people’s decisions and also people’s opinions on other people’s decisions and how we’re kind of in this like tailspin of opinions. That’s actually– there’s just opinions all over the internet–and, yeah, so I’m kind of fascinated by that and tend to authentically write about it.

“I think we’re so interested in people’s decisions and also people’s opinions on other people’s decisions and how we’re kind of in this like tailspin of opinions.”

Sabrina DiGuilio – Shelf Lives

Catalina: What was your experience writing that whole EP [You, Okay?], you know, lyrical wise, music wise?

Sabrina: Yeah. I thought it was fun. Like, “Yes, Offence” was great, but that was our first one. So I think this time, we’re more in the groove and I think we’re also more confident in like…we knew ourselves and like we’re getting to the place where we know what the band is about and what we want to talk about. So I thought it was almost a bit more freer, because we were less scared about how we wanted to write things, or what we wanted to say, in a certain way. And we also have just had experience of kind of what we thought worked from the last EP to this one.

Jonny: Yeah.

Catalina: Okay, yeah! I know you did a limited run release of your EP [You, Okay?] with Blood Records– which I love by the way–how did that come about?

Sabrina: We basically licensed the EP to be distributed through Modern Sky, UK and they sorted that out with Craig [from Blood Records]. We were going to release the vinyl anyway, but it was really cool that it ended up with Blood Records. We are obsessed with the way it looks. I think also, what I love about things like Blood Records is it kind of like, introduces an audience to you through vinyl collection, which is so interesting in this kind of era. Yeah, because we’ve gotten a lot of messages being like, “Just bought your vinyl, never heard of you… so excited.” Like, that’s so cool like, you know, it’s usually the other way around, right? So, yeah.

Catalina: Do y’all collect vinyl?

Sabrina: Yeah, we’ve got loads… definitely. I used to work for a music label and we had like a vinyl allowance, essentially. So I was constantly like, every month just being like, “What should I get today?” For a while, we didn’t even have a vinyl player– or a functioning one– yeah, it didn’t work. But now we do and it’s kind of fun listening to our own [vinyl] sometimes we’re like, “Wow!” (laughs).

Catalina: That’s really cool y’all, I can’t imagine listening to myself on vinyl. So your Spotify description says, “It’s as close to real life as you can get without feeling really depressed about it.” How did that came become a description for your music?

Sabrina: That was through an interview, actually, and I just kind of said it. Sometimes I look back at it and I’m like, “What did I mean?” (laughs) You know, sometimes you just say something in the moment, and you’re like, you know what that meant. But then everything changes, like as you experience life, your experience of everything in the past, and what’s to come in the future obviously changes because you like, experience something new. But I think what I meant by it, or like how it came about was because it’s so easy to like, open your phone, go through the news, and just be like, “Everything shit, everything’s shit, everything’s shit” constantly. So I think our music is kind of taking– not pretending like things aren’t shit– but almost trying to be like, “Do what you can do; be the best version of yourself. You can love everyone around you; be nice to people; have fun, and those shit things might not be so shit.” You know, not to ignore those shit things but like, I think that’s kind of what I was trying to say with that. So you know, you listen to our music and it’s not depressing, but the subject matter could be depressing. So we’ve kind of taken these like hard subjects and, you know, try to be able to play them at a party (laughs). So we like the juxtaposition.

Catalina: Depressed party music. (laughs)

Sabrina: Yeah! (laughs)

Catalina: Okay (laughs) so what’s next for Shelf Lives after your tour concludes? Can we expect some new music soon?

Jonny: Yeah it’s coming.

Sabrina: (puts finger up to lips) Shhhhhh.

Jonny: It’s definitely coming.

Sabrina: Okay okay yeah definitely it’s coming. If you come to a show, you’ll hear a song maybe…

Catalina: Okay, we’ll definitely be there! When looking retrospectively at your career, through everything you’ve done– like Glastonbury, being here– what advice do you have for musicians who are just starting out, and may not think that they can make it?

Jonny: Just don’t think about what’s going on around you at all. Just to make your art say what you want to say. And don’t listen to anyone else.

Sabrina: Don’t compare yourself.

Jonny: Yeah don’t compare yourself.

Sabrina: Everyone’s on their own path and definitely don’t compare timelines, like “Oh, I’ve been around for this long. I’m never gonna make it and that guy has only been around for two years and has made it.” Also like what does “make it” mean? Like everyone’s definition of success is different, it’s just about what makes you happy. Just make music, don’t try and reach for fame because whether 1000 people like your song or 10,000, it will give you the same amount of gratification. Also, this is the biggest one [piece of advice] I think, that I’ve experienced myself personally: every time you’ve kind of reached a goal, or something amazing happens, like the first 1000 people have listened to your song, just stop and appreciate that. Don’t be like, “Oh, what’s next?” because you’re gonna miss so much and nothing is going to be enough–ever– even when you hit 10 million. So nip that in the bud really quickly cuz you’ll just be so much happier and [you] will continue as well.

Catalina: Wonderful words of advice, thank you so much for stopping by!

Jonny and Sabrina: Thank you so much for having us!

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