Circa Waves frontman: "I Thought I Was Going to Die On Stage Every Night"

Last night, Circa Waves joined The Evening Show with Dan O'Connell on Radio X.

Circa Waves frontman Kieran Shudall admitted on Radio X last night that he thought he was ‘going to die on stage every night’ while he performed with an undiagnosed blocked artery, saying that the pain in his chest was ‘ridiculous.’ The singer eventually underwent emergency surgery to treat the blockage. The band also performed an exclusive acoustic version of their track ‘T-Shirt Weather.’

Key
Kieran Shudall – KS
Joe Falconer – JF
Dan O’Connell – DOC

DOC: “The second bit of Death & Love is coming out in October. I wanted to cover for anybody who's not familiar with the story, this is something that's come off the back of near death, right? And I wondered how much of it to you has come from that place of, I don't know, potentially, considering you weren't going to be here, Kieran? Can you give people the story?”

KS: “Yeah, I will. Most of it is kind of about that. I got really ill a couple of years back, and then went to doctors, they said it wasn't anything – ‘Just kind of carry on with your life.’ And then it got worse and worse gradually. And then they went for a CT scan. They said, ‘Your artery is fully blocked, essentially, so you could die any day.’ So, then I was on the operating table within two days, and they – the amazing NHS – went into my arm with a big, long wire and unblocked the artery so I could continue rock and roll.”

JF: “I think it was, like, before you got diagnosed with anything – when you just thought you were ill – that was the bit when it was crazy, because you were absolutely exhausted on stage.”

KS: “I had what you call angina, which is where your heart gets squeezed, essentially. So, we did South by Southwest, so that felt like I was going die every night on stage. And I was like, ‘This pain is ridiculous!’ And everyone's like, ‘You’ve just got heartburn.’ ‘It doesn't feel like that.’”

DOC: “‘Have some Gaviscon and shut up!’”

KS: “Yeah, honestly! So, that was scary. But now I feel like a new lease of life, and I feel good and happy.”