You may not have heard of Blond Tides (I hadn't), but trust me, after listening to their upcoming EP, I am ready to become their biggest fan.
Based in Chicago, IL, the trio composed of Michael Schumacher, Ethan Mohan and Owen Phillips create music in no particular style, as demonstrated in their new EP "Smoking Kills" (released May 29th). I was fortunate enough to be able to interview them to find out all about their inspiration, building a following as a small band, producing music in quarantine and more.
Read the full interview below:
Q: First off, tell me a bit about the band for those who haven't heard of you
MS: We are based in Chicago, IL. I am Michael Schumacher. I am 21 and I play
guitar and sing, Ethan Mohan, who is 20, plays bass and sings as well, and
Owen Phillips, the old man at 23, is on drums. We try hard not to put a label on
things because I do not think we fit easily into one category, some of our songs
are very trashy punk songs and others are pop songs.
EM: Structure and labels can be limiting so we try and steer clear of those.
However, since we do gravitate to a lot of surf rock, that is reflected in our sound.
Q: Who would you say is your inspiration, what other musicians do you look up to?
EM: Buttertones, The Cramps, The Arctic Monkeys, Regina Spektor, Surf Curse.
The list is much longer, but off the top of my head those work. Some of the
Buttertones songs make me feel like I am in a Bond movie or an old western I
definitely look up to them for that. Their sound is a perfect mixture of all the music
I love.
Q: Are you finding it difficult to build a following when there are so many musicians out there trying to do the same? Could you tell me a bit about any hardships that you have faced when trying to get your music out into the world
MS: I remember watching a video of Cherry Glazer’s Clementine Creevy saying
something about how awesome it is that there are so many bands and
regardless of making it or not being able to contribute to the scene is worthwhile.
We all take that philosophy to heart.
EM: We are having a ton of fun right now and if even one person engages with
our music and it elicits positive reactions that is a super rewarding experience.
Q: Could you tell me a bit about "Smoking Kills" (the new EP), how long have you been working on it and how easy was it to create during quarantine?
EM: “Smoking Kills” has been in the works that has gone through so many
different changes during the past 4-5 months. The EP has some nihilistic
tendencies and features stories from our lives, it is about growing up, it is about
living everyday like your last, but it also fully embraces the negatives of
navigating like that. There were hardships related to us all being out of work right
now and figuring out how to support ourselves, but creatively we work well
together. The goal is to tell stories with a lot of reverb and distortion. We also put
more work into the vocals this time around, layering tracks, harmonies, voice
overs so I am interested to see how people react to that.
MS: We also want to play so many shows once that is a possibility again. We all
pretty much live together so working on the project has been easy. The only hard
part is getting everyone out of bed and focused for more than 10 minutes.
Q: Do you feel that "Smoking Kills" is your best music yet?
EM: A resounding yes. But we are still growing as musicians and that is the part
we love about making music so hopefully that growth never ends. That would be
boring.
Q: Do you have any touring plans for the future?
MS: Yeah. We want to hit a diy circuit in the midwest and then hit all the house
shows we can in Arizona, Ethan loves the desert so we have to do that. Then
hopefully drive to California and play in all the garages and basements we can.
And maybe just end up staying, who knows!
EM: Could not have said it better.
Q: And finally, for anyone who wants to listen to your music: when and where can they download it?
MS: So we have our old projects music over at DUMB House on spotify, you can
listen to a few songs on soundcloud at Blond Tides. We will be rerecording most
of the music from DH again and releasing it under our new name. But most
importantly and presave “smoking kills” to get updated on the new release:
Blond Tides' new EP "Smoking Kills" will be released May 29th. Make sure to click the link above to presave, and I promise you will not regret it.
Big thanks to Blond Tides for taking part in this interview
Questions and article by Poppy @teaandcakemag
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