SCARBORO

1. Welcome to All the Cores and More! Would you please introduce yourself, where you’re from, and what you do in the band?

Hey there! My name is Shi (pronouned shur), born and raised in Queens and I sing/play guitar for SCARBORO.

2. How and when did you discover punk and hardcore, and what made you want to play it?

I got into punk through Green Day’s Dookie in 1994, shortly thereafter discovering bands like Agnostic Front, Descendents, Bad Religion, Sick of It All and H2O. To me the raw energy, speed, and aggression of the music growing up in that era really fueled my desire to play punk.

3. How and when did Scarboro form?

Scarboro came about due to an old friend from college who wanted to start a band in the early 2010s. I was a young parent and hadn’t played in a band since my college days so I went along for the ride. We had a few lineup changes and then in 2014 Jack Counce joined the band and that in my mind is where the current iteration of SCARBORO was born.

4. How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard the band before?

I mentioned some of the bands that influenced me as a songwriter above, so I think the simplest way I would describe it is 90s West Coast punk meets 80s New York Hardcore.

5. Walk us through the early years, let’s say pre-pandemic. What were some of the highlights and maybe lowlights/foibles of these early years, and what did that teach you?

Pre-pandemic I think the highlights for us were putting out Here Comes the Hangover which had a great reception and really put some wind in our sails. We got to play some awesome shows supporting it, and shared the stage with some rad bands like Murphy’s Law and Kill Your Idols. I think low-lights for us were getting to be added to the MAD Tour Booking roster, but having difficulties with a replacement drummer we had at the time that jeopardized that relationship as we were planning our way to the EU. It was during that period while we were re-tooling that we decided to pause for a bit and I went back into politics.

I think the biggest lesson from that era for us, was to not take anything for granted. We saw some nice numbers on streaming for us in those days, but I don’t think we really understood how rare that was because our day to day as a working band didn’t really change that much. By the time the pandemic rolls around there came a moment where it felt like we may never get to play again and that was a bit of a wake up call. Now I’m just enjoying it doing it for the love of the game and really enjoying every minute we get to play a show or rehearse a new song.

6. What have been some of the major highlights for the band post-pandemic?

The biggest highlight, especially coming out of hiatus, was finding people still cared enough to listen. In the past 3 years we got to tour Canada, play Camp Punksylvania, put out a new full-length, got to tour the West Coast and grace the Gilman stage which was always a dream, and open up for some incredible bands like Get Dead and Pulley that I’m big fans of.

7. Let’s get into your second LP Hate Season, which came out in April. What was the writing and recording process like?

I left the political world in 2023 and came back to do Scarboro full-time.

The period leading up to that moment saw a lot of personal struggle, so when hiatus was over I went back to immediately writing which helped process a lot of that stuff and made the process somewhat easy. We put out “New Normal” and “Liminal Space” when Radhika joined the band, but I still had a ton of material knocking around my head. As I would intro the songs to the band and start adding more and more new songs to the set it became obvious we had a record in the making.

We hit the studio in Feb. of ‘25 to demo the songs and start fine tuning them which was one of the most collaborative moments for us as a band. In the past I’d write the skeletons, everyone else added their parts and that was pretty much it, but we went in this time wanting to make sure everyone’s fingerprints were on the final product. It took us about four months to get the record done and we were extremely proud of what we had created by the time we got to the mastering stage.

8. Do you have some favorite tracks on the record, or is it like choosing between your children?

It’s tough, and it also changes depending on the time for me. It’s easy to pick “Got Soul?” for me because Jack wrote that one and it’s really outside the box for SCARBORO. Right now I would throw “Turn It Up!” and “Chaser” in the mix.

9. What are some of your upcoming plans we should be keeping an eye out for?

We’re catching our breath after spending the past year doing a ton of shows, touring and releasing the record, but stay tuned because we always keep exciting stuff up our sleeve.

10. Okay, last question: there’s a tour package being put together and you are going to be on it. What would be the other three current bands or artists you’d most want to tour with (dream as big as you want haha!)?

This is a tough one to answer, but I know we all are big fans of Turnstile so that would be the grandiose fantasy. Mannequin Pussy and Codefendants would round out the list for me.