From the remnants of the long-running psych rock project Meddlesome Bells, New Hope, PA-based trio Shaper are stepping into their own noise–drenched space with the release of their first single, Wrong Star, premiering exclusively right here!
The track marks the official beginning of a new era for songwriter and vocalist Yuri Gohen, who—alongside bassist RJ Gilligan and drummer Tony Dunst—has spent the past year shaping a sound that is as industrial and jagged as it is rooted in noise, psych, punk, and raw emotional texture.
Shaper formed in 2023, after what Gohen describes as a necessary hiatus following Meddlesome’s 11-year run from 2007 to 2018. “I took about 5 years off and by the time I started Shaper I had really returned to my first musical loves of punk, hardcore, noise rock etc. With Meddlesome we got branded pretty early on as ‘apocalyptic folk metal’, which then morphed into us playing with a lot of stoner rock and doom bands… by 2018 we’d played with every evil wizard bong around and I just kinda had my fill of that stuff.”
That return to roots is clear in Wrong Star, a track Gohen originally wrote on slide guitar in open D with a folk setting in mind. “I had a bug to slow it down, open it up and explore it a little more and that’s how it became a song for Shaper. I think it functions pretty well as a mission statement for us.” Gohen cites Fugazi and Melvins as key sonic references, describing Shaper’s music as “kind of like if Fugazi and Melvins had a baby,” and Wrong Star makes good on that promise.
But the song’s conceptual core runs deeper. Gohen points to Maurice Sendak’s bleak, underappreciated book We’re All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy as a narrative influence, describing its world of “anthropomorphic rats [who] run an orphanage and gamble for the possession of human children… humans in ill fitting clothing or just half naked live in houses made of newspaper scrounging for bread.”
That imagery resonated strongly with Gohen’s perception of America’s current state: “as we in America now enter into this second gilded age of technocrats and AI… if we want out of this it’s gonna take more than wishes, that’s what the song is about really.”
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Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Heavy Ritual and Coda Live Sound, Wrong Star captures the band’s ethos of layered, rhythmically off-kilter heaviness. The visual art for the release comes from Gohen himself under his woodworking moniker, Gohen Woodworks.
Musically, Shaper draw from a wide palette. Gohen references everything from Neil Young to Today is the Day, and includes less expected sources like Mdou Moctar and Ali Farka Touré—the latter an early influence introduced by Gohen’s father. “African guitar playing and rhythm has been a huge influence on my musical world. And you’ll hear that more as we put out the next few singles.”
The band name, Shaper, is also rooted in Gohen’s trade as a professional woodworker. “The centerpiece of my shop is a 9 HP 1984 SCMI shaper table… an industrial machine, older than I am, weighing in at 1500 lbs. I’ve spent a lot of time with the rhythms, frequencies, overtones, and volume of saws, planers, routers, shapers… the way Justin Broadrick plays guitar in Godflesh kinda hits that spot too.”
Gohen has also spent time honing his vocal work as a traditional folk singer, and released a solo record in May. “That doesn’t mean I’m above some good old fashioned screaming in this band,” he says. “As a writer, I think what you are not doing is just as important as what you are… most music that is too genre bound or just general tends to bore me and that heavily informs our writing.”
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Though Shaper’s output so far is just beginning, the group has already reconnected with regional underground scenes. “So far, we’ve made friends with some great bands, promoters, and fans in MA, CT, RI, and MD… but our local spot is John & Peters in New Hope, PA where we’ve got an actively weird, loud, and proud scene going.” Gohen points out that the town, an hour outside Philly, has a growing network of DIY venues and a multi-genre spirit. “John and Peters is a true hole in the wall punk club, and we get national acts through as well.”
The trio is comfortable in their dynamic, having played together since 2013, with Gohen and Gilligan’s collaboration stretching back to age 13. “Being in this band is easy… none of us are precious about this shit. We do it because we love it. And as with anything, the more time you put in the easier it gets.”
Wrong Star is the first in a series of singles to come through the end of the year as the band shops for a label and finalizes their first full-length. The next track, Gohen says, “will be heavy as balls, chunky AF, and faster, with some odd rhythms and stops and starts. And after that maybe a doowop song, who knows! We’re really just having a lot of fucking fun with this band.”
Shaper will celebrate the release of Wrong Star with a show on Friday, July 18th in the Grays Warehouse courtyard in Philly, playing alongside Uncle Blender, Half the Band, Kenmujo, and Stiff Curls. DM the band directly for location details.
