When Ian Shelton was growing up in Enumclaw, a small town near Seattle, coming home from school was a constant step into the unknown. “I was living in fear of the next fucked-up experience,” he says. Sitting in a store room above the London venue his band Militarie Gun will later fill with shoutalong aggro-pop energy, the singer is jetlagged but animated as he puts himself back there, his sandy hair peeking from beneath the hood of his sweatshirt. “Twice, my bus pulled up as an ambulance pulled away from our house,” he continues. “There was never a point when you were safe from things getting worse.”
Shelton says his childhood was defined by addiction. His mother was a relapsed alcoholic, meaning rehab, AA meetings and spells in jail. Often, it fell to him to look out for his younger siblings. “There was a huge question mark over what every day would bring,” he says. This feeling created an anxiety that Shelton thrashed out at hardcore shows, having been sucked in by Bay Area greats Ceremony as a 15-year-old. He began to write his own kitchen-sink compositions, too. “That fear needs a release,” he says. “I found music. I wrote a song that was just my mom’s name. At the time, there was a domestic violence incident and a restraining order – and I channelled my anger into a diss track.”
