S.C.U.M.’s Thomas Cohen in London, February 2009. Clothing his own. On eyes, Myface Eye Touch Eye Shadow in Midnight Hour

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London has produced some of the darkest and most depraved acts in rock-and-roll history, so it’s no surprise that today it’s home to a band of marauding teenage punks who call themselves S.C.U.M. Nor is it any accident that the band named itself after an incendiary, man-hating tract (would-be Warhol assassin Valerie Solanas’s infamous “Society for Cutting Up Men” manifesto). Their doomtastic electro-punk is clearly intended to incite as much as to entertain.

“Our band was formed mostly out of exasperation,” explains 17-year-old front man Thomas Cohen. “We hated what we saw happening in music, so we wanted to offer some kind of alternative. The reaction we typically got was that people were dumbfounded by us, which seemed to mean we were doing something right.” After forming in late 2007, the band quickly made a name for itself in London with cacophonous live shows that combined waves of reverb, guitar drones, electronic noise, and broken instruments. The fact that the group’s members dress like futuristic goth dandies didn’t hurt, either. After a wave of U.K. press thrust S.C.U.M. into the public eye, the band caught the attention of the Horrors’ Tomethy Furse, who produced its first single—the Bauhaus-esque “Visions Arise.”

Now that a major record deal appears imminent and the band’s touring schedule continues to stretch further and further into 2009, Cohen and cohorts are planning to head into the studio soon to record their all-important full-length debut. “I’m anxious to surprise people,” says Cohen. “I’ve always wanted the band to exist like some kind of distant, recurring dream. I want there to be a sense of mystery about what we do. I never wanted us to be obvious. The aesthetic of the band has changed so much already from when we first started, but I feel like we’re really onto something now. We’ve gotten into exploring melody and trying to make really beautiful sounds, rather than just the harsh ones that we initially made.”

And how does he feel about his status as newly minted rock star and reluctant fashion plate? Cohen can only laugh. “It’s fine. I was a very attention-seeking child, so nothing has really changed.”

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SCUM1968

HAIR SAM McKNIGHT FOR PANTENE (PREMIER)
GROOMING CHARLOTTE TILBURY FOR MYFACE COSMETICS (MANAGEMENT ARTISTS)
PHOTO ASSISTANTS ALEX FRANCO AND TOBY KNOTT
STYLIST ASSISTANTS ZOE SHEPHERD AND ALICE DAWSON
HAIR ASSISTANT KOJI
GROOMING ASSISTANT LOTTEN HOLMQUIST
LOCATION JASMINE STUDIOS, LONDONG
LIGHTING TECHNICIAN CHRIS BISAGNI
PRODUCTION LUCY LEE AND JEMIMA HOBSON (ART PARTNER)
RETOUCHING R&D