Shark School is an all-female band who formed in Galway back in June 2023. Their track “Choose Life” features on the Netflix series House of Guinness. We caught up with the group’s frontwoman Nora Staunton about how this opportunity came about and what has been their favourite gig to date. Discover all about it right here…
Nora speaks to us in the very room where she wrote the track Choose Life. “I was 16/17 and I was watching the movie Train Spotting, I have the poster right here I was reading it and it has the whole speech ‘choose life, choose a job’ and I thought this was really cool so I decided I wanted to write a song with this in it, it took me ages to piece together because it is a very long speech - I couldn’t put it all in but the idea came from a very simple guard song about train spotting”, says Nora.
If you haven’t seen the hit Netflix show, House of Guinness it is an Irish drama series based on the infamous Guinness family. The soundtrack is jam packed with Irish musical talent which bring the legendary story to life.
Nora tells us about how the House of Guinness opportunity came about, “We got word of it from Gugai who runs a label called Strange Brew in Galway and he said ‘this might happen or it might not, don’t get your hopes up but I need you guys to send me the stems to the track”, Nora says.
Shark School’s track Choose Life makes an appearance in the fifth episode of the brand-new chart-topping Netflix show. When the show aired Nora couldn’t wait to hear their track played in the series! “I immediately skipped to Episode 5 to the very end so I need to go back to the start I think”, she says. “It's been a dream”, she adds.
Nora is a Mayo woman originally but she moved to Galway at 18, this is when she met Peggy - Peggy Forde is Shark School’s bassist! “Peggy is from Galway, I’m from Mayo and at the moment we have this lovely woman Meg who is drumming for us from Cavan and she lives in Dublin”, Nora explains.
Shark School have played a number of incredible venues and festivals both in Ireland and the UK such as Electric Picnic and All Together Now. “Playing All Together Now this year was surreal, we were playing on the Sunday at 9:30pm, I didn’t expect anyone to come because there was someone on at the same time you’d think people would go to instead of us but it was nearly full of people and that was the first gig that we were like ‘Oh my gosh this is crazy”, Nora explains.
In July 2024, Shark School held a festival in the Róisín Dubh called Femme Fest. The festival was curated to bring together female-fronted bands from across Ireland. Nora says this gig stands out to her the most, “Femfest that was the first gig I nearly cried on stage it was just so special because we made it ourselves. It was a space – not just a gig for everyone. That was probably the most special one for me”.
The band are looking forward to the year ahead as they plan to release new music and performances: “In 2026 there’ll be definitely better music on the way and lots more gigs”. To follow along on Shark School’s music journey and to never miss a gig announcement, you can check out their social media platforms; their Instagram is @shark_school_ire and their Spotify handle is @sharkschool.
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