The Shilling

In Orange County, California in mid-2004, The Shilling was formed by four musicians who all had one thing in common: their passion for ska music. Initially playing under the name "The Culprits", these four musicians began writing songs that were not only embodied by key aspects of ska, but also borrowed elements of punk and death/black metal. Without even having a demo recorded, The Culprits immediately started building a fanbase by playing numerous amounts of shows, in various venues across the west coast of the United States. Along the way, The Culprits shared the stage with such bands as: Streetlight Manifesto, Voodoo Glow Skulls, MU330, The Toasters, Toys that Kill (ex-F.Y.P), Guttermouth, American Distress (ex-Choking Victim), The English Beat, The Presidents of the United States of America, and many more. Towards the end of 2005, The Culprits recorded their first five song demo, produced by Rx Bandits frontman, Matt Embree. The five songs represented The Shilling's more modern sound that band still plays today, differing only slightly from their original sound. While still combining ska and punk, their music now explored deeper into the un-holy realm of black metal. After playing massive amounts of local shows, touring all the way to the central part of the United States, and passing out hundreds of demos, The Culprits began getting contacted from several record labels interested in working with them. Unfortunately, some labels were hesitant to offer The Culprits any sort of contract because they were worried about copyright issues which may have came into play from an already established band called "The Culprits". It was because of this and a sudden lineup change which led The Culprits to change their name to The Shilling. After all the dust had settled, The Shilling finally signed a one record contract with High Fidelity Records for the release of their first 7", entitled "Haunting the Dancehalls of Hell". Since then, The Shilling have continued, to this day, to belt out their unique style of music, which they recently have coined as "Unholy Ska-Punk". From our official Interpunk bio. lol