“You’re Welcome America”: A Conversation with The Shroons
Interview ★ Kenzie Gay and Annsley Jennings ★ @kenzwrites @annsleymedia ★ 7 Minutes
“I listened to Katy Perry before I listened to rock. I listened to radio pop. I used to hate rock as a kid” says Connor Armstrong, a singer and guitarist from Houston, Texas. Armstrong, alongside his bandmates Allen Almazan (drums) and Mac Blackwell (guitar) make up shock rock trio The Shroons.
A group known for their electric performances and jolting stage presence, The Shroons have been a solidified name within the Houston rock scenes for a decent amount of time by now despite the members’ young ages. Recently, we got the chance to sit down with Armstrong and Blackwell to discuss The Shroons (and their new single) at large - featuring an unexpected/surprise guest: Paul Duty of local band Thrower.
The Shroons via Annsley Jennings
Just a few weeks ago, you guys released Nazareth. Can you go into detail about the process it took to create the song from start to finish?
Connor: So I wrote Nazareth one year into playing guitar. I was experimenting with Drop D tuning, which is not very uncommon now, but it was for me at the time. That's the first thing I ever wrote as a little noob but it was good enough to make it through the pipeline and then the filters of our material. It's about the story of Jesus - which I'm not particularly religious, but I think it is moving so I wanted to write about it. We recorded it ourselves in this room. It was lots of trial and error and it was the first time we did outsource the mixing services from somebody else. It took a while to record it because we were noobs - we're not up to professional standards in a lot of our practices. So we had to learn how to do a lot of it ourselves through trial and error and talking to our guy, Chris, my goat.
Mac: It was alot of us sitting in a room and restructuring it over and over again and then at the very, very fucking end, like, as it's being released, someone would be like “hey guys, I think we should do this instead”. Five technical rewrites of certain parts later and now we're here. It took so long - partly because Connor didn’t want to play it. I did because I like the song: you’re welcome, America.
Kenzie: Oh, that’s the headline.
AJ: *laughing* Yeah. “You’re welcome, America”.
Connor: The Shroons are doing a service to America.
Mac: What’s the service you may ask? That’s for you to figure out.
What is the story behind the band‘s name?
Connor: We used to have a designated singer: Denzel from Velvora. We were going through names in his garage where we used to practice and he said the Shrooms…I misheard him.
Read our interview with Velvora hereWhat music have you had on repeat lately?
Mac: Tool. Only Tool.
Connor: Yes! One million percent Tool.
Mac: Tool and bands that sound like Tool. A whole box of nothing but Tool. And Counterfist, my beloved. Also a local band, they’re like frog Deftones…they’re called Dimphonic but I like them alot.
Please note that Mac, Connor, and Paul went on to have a roughly 8 minute long debate about Kolm following this question.Who are some of the band’s biggest musical inspirations? Are there any that people would be surprised to hear?
Connor: Yeah, I mean, we used to do, like, Black Sabbath Led Zeppelin stuff then we got pretentious.
Mac: *gesturing to the Hendrix posters behind Connor* Believe it or not, Connor really likes Jimi Hendrix…We wanted to become self-indulgent. We wrote one riff that was in Phrygian, and we went, this kind of sounds like tool music. Now it's all we do.
Connor: Down the rabbit hole, yeah.
Mac: As for ones people would be surprised to hear? Mac Miller. I fucking love Mac Miller.
Connor: I like Tiktok liminal music. I use it to sleep. I like shoegaze a lot, too.
Connor and Mac proceeded to also shout out Jeff Beck and Minecraft Volume Alpha, a soundtrack album by C418.What is your opinion on the state of rock music in 2026? Do you think it’ll ever fully emerge back into the mainstream or will it stay a hidden gem?
Mac: There's rock music that's popular right now but not many. Who’s popular right now again?
Connor: Yungblud.
Mac: Yeah. I appreciate what he's doing a lot. I like that he does the covers. I like that he's spreading a lot of the music that I like to a new generation. But his own music? Eh. The tryharding-ness of it all... It's so unsubtle.
Connor: Yeah. Like, what if I just looked like I had good music instead of actually having good music?
Mac, Connor, and the interviewers continued to discuss modern bands Geese and Greta Van Fleet, which sparked an argument regarding whether or not Geese actually is rock and a shared joy for Jake Kiszka’s "Weight of Dreams" solo. Performance is a big aspect of your guys’ artistry as a group. With that being said, what is your typical attitude going into shows and why do you think performance is such a big part of The Shroons?
Connor: I'm just like, I don't know how to fucking dance so I just do whatever on the stage. That's it. I don't know. I’d feel like a goober if I was just sitting still.
Mac: I kind of just go up and plug in and then kind of just start playing notes that I know are correct. And then just kind of throw my body in every single direction that I can physically come up with at the time. I don't know. We can't do a waltz or a boogie or anything. But I feel like we don't look too abnormal while we're standing there on stage and performing our songs. My favorite dance move we have is when we're playing Keep On Turning and Connor has his pants that have the strings and everything on them. And he's just going side to side and the strings are going all over the place. That's my favorite one.
It’s no secret that you guys are young and you didn’t necessarily grow up in the heart of the golden era of rock music. How were you first introduced to rock?
Connor: I listened to Katy Perry before I listened to rock. I listened to radio pop. I used to hate rock as a kid. My dad would put it on in the car and I'm like, turn that shit off. I still hate glam metal. But most of it is okay.
Mac: But then you heard the Beatles and everything changed.
Connor: I didn't like the Beatles at first either
Mac: Die
Connor: I was 12.
Mac: Fair…I'm kind of the opposite. I came out the womb with Ozzy Osbourne playing and I just felt a connection to where I was like three years old and apparently kept asking my dad to listen to “Crazy the Train”.
Connor: *laughing* Crazy the Train?
Mac: Yep, that’s what I called it. And I remember having this really shitty, small Fisher Price mp3 player that had like a whole like 20 songs on it max. I remember having that and a bunch of Beatles songs.
Local scenes are arguably one of the most important things to a small band‘s career. What are your thoughts and feelings about your scene?
*please note that Connor asked this question*Mac: The Scene? Like the one that we have right now?
Connor: Yes… It's mostly my friends. I mean, they're my friends now because they like our music and they hang out and they want to hang out and I like them. I met a lot of great people that I like hanging out with. And Paul is in my bed. Paul Doody Butt from Thrower is in my bed right now.
Mac: I kind of concur with this statement. Pretty much all the people that we hang out with are just our actual friends at this point. So it's pretty chill. We're all just friends. The best of friends.
OK, this is a desert island type of question. If you could only listen to three albums for the rest of your life, what would they be and why?
Connor: Trout Mask Replica (Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band). Philosophy of the World (The Shaggs). Uh, let me think of a third…
Mac: I'm gonna go Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Led Zeppelin I, and 10,000 Days by Tool.
Connor: Are you stupid? 10,000 Days is not their best album.
Mac: It is.
Connor: It's your favorite, but it's not the best. It is. I feel like Lateritis is the best.
*Connor, Mac, and Paul carried on about which album is best for roughly 8 more minutes*Mac: Just pick your third album, dude.
Connor: Uh…Believe by Justin Bieber. That's my third album.
What are your plans for 2026?
Connor: Um, kill Allen (their drummer)
Mac: *laughs* Yeah. We have a nice ritual that we're gonna do where we're gonna make a bonfire and we're gonna sacrifice him to the drum gods.
Connor: So we’re gonna need a new drummer…Um, we're looking to, uh, how many songs was it? 5 or 6? So we're looking at putting out a song about once every two months, yeah.
Kenzie: Alright, that’s all we have for you. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us and talk, guys.
Connor: Wait! You're not gonna ask us why we don't play Nerve?
AJ: Ooh, yes!
Kenzie: If you want to go on record and say why, go ahead.
Connor: *leaves interview*
Mac: Such an ass, oh my god.
