The Blinders | Interview | 01/07/17

IVE MOVED! TO SEE MY NEW WEBSITE CLICK THIS LINK, IT HAS ALL THE SAME FEATURES BUT IS EVEN BETTER! On Saturday I was lucky enough to interview The Blinders before they performed supporting Cabbage, alongside Strange Bones, at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. The Trio, made up of Thomas Haywood, Matt Neale and Charlie McGough, are a band I've always aspired to interview ever since I started to write and are one of the earliest bands I wrote about. I also reviewed the amazing event which took place on the night in another blog post which you can read here . Introduce yourself... Matt: I'm Matt and I play drums and backing vocals Thomas: I'm Thomas, I sing and play guitar Charlie: I'm Charlie, I play bass What inspired you to start a band? Thomas: Boredom Matt: Yeah, I was in a band prior to it and it wasn't really my thing, I just kind of got asked to join a band at about 13/14 and I was like alright, why not. Then Tom was like do you want to start a band and I was like yeah go on then, wait no he actually asked me loads of times Thomas: While you were in the band. We were all mutually interested in music anyway, to a point where - we all went to the same school - to a point where at school we used to do these after school sessions and jam and we just really clicked with each other, but Charlie never played bass Charlie: I always played guitar Thomas: Charlie always played guitar with me, and then you [to Charlie] got forced to play bass, I got forced to sing, so boredom and the eventuality that we were always going to be in a band together Who are your favourite musicians and how would you say your style is influenced by them? Thomas: Matthew? Matt: Charlie McGough is my favourite *laughs* Favourite musicians? Charlie: You're quite Kieth Moony I think Thomas: Yeah I think you're very Kieth Moon Matt: In terms of drummers, Kieth Moon, John Bonham, Stuart Copeland, Ginger Baker, but in terms of just like general attitude, Kurt Cobain I'd have to say Thomas: Yeah Cobain Matt: I think everyone has a bit of Cobain in them Thomas: And Hendrix Matt: Hendrix, definitely Thomas: That sort of style of making everything as difficult as possible but as fun as possible. For example, to make it a bit clearer, Jack White used to put the mic right at the far end of the stage and he'd play at the other end so he'd have to run to sing into the mic Matt: It's a show as well Thomas: So in that sense I think Jack White, Cobain, Hendrix Matt: Morrison Thomas: Fucking Morrison's a god, Jim Morrison is my hero, spirit animal How would you describe your style? Thomas: It changes Matt: Jonny dream and the Codeine scene *others laugh* Thomas: It's a genre. It's very feral, sort of like a controlled chaos, there is a punk attitude there lyrically Charlie: Definately yeah Matt: Punkadelic we say Thomas: We say Punkadelic but I don't know it changes, we're constantly up for developing as a band, as you should be, but feral I'd say What's your writing process and where do you look for inspiration when writing songs? Charlie: It usually comes from lyrics, me and Thomas will sit down and get some sort of lyrics together and then we go and write a bit of a song up Thomas: It's all written down in a poetic style at first, it's never put as a song first, we put music into words rather than words to music, then we'll bring it together, Matt then comes in and does a lot of the music Matt: I'm sort of the musical one Thomas: I think one day you'll write a song Matt: Maybe, but I'll do a Yellow Submarine *others laugh* Charlie: You're the Ringo Matt: At least I'm still alive What do you try to make time for outside of music? Charlie: Fucking sleeping Thomas: Sleeping, uni, I think we get into a lot of literature as well, we like books Charlie: We like to read where we can If you could travel anywhere in time or in the world, where would you most like to perform or visit and why? Charlie: Half an hour, The Blinders walk on the stage at The Ritz Thomas: *looks at Matt* Three... Thomas and Matt: ...Two, One, Woodstock *both laugh* Charlie: You are the most unoriginal people in the bloody whole wide world Matt: Other than performing if I was going to travel anywhere in time I'd find who wrote House of The Rising Sun and write it Thomas: I always think about that, what if you go back in time and just write the whole of The Beatles back catalogue Charlie: All your favourite songs ever Thomas: Just write all your favourite songs, be a dick, what if the best musicians in our world have gone back in time and they've stole.... Charlie: You cant do that, you can't change the space time continuum, its wrong What can you tell me about the instruments you play and why did you choose to play them? Matt: DRUUUUMS Charlie: I couldn't tell you a thing about the bass Thomas: Charlie still is learning how to play bass Charlie: I know it's got four strings Matt: He knows one scale, couldn't quite work out how to play six strings so he cut it down to four Charlie: It was the fifth one that did me, the sixth I'm alright with but the fifth one Thomas: I play a Vox Teardrop at the moment, that was inspired through Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, the early sort of twangy sound, I noticed that The Fat White Family's Saul [Adamczewski] also played a Vox and I craved that sort of sound Matt: Avalanche Party's Jordan [Bell] does as well Thomas: Avalanche party as well, an upcoming band, he plays a Vox style guitar and it just sounds superb and I think ever since I've changed to the Vox, it really does give it a unique sound, so I' ve put thought into my instrument Charlie: I haven't Thomas: You haven't [to Charlie] Charlie: He just bangs things [about Matt] What band old or new would you most like to see perform and who is the favourite band you've ever seen perform? Thomas: We've always said we'd like to see The Who, back in the early days Charlie: I'd go back and see The Clash actually, if I was going to see anyone that's who it would be Thomas: When they were in their heyday Matt: I'd like to see The Proclaimers Thomas: Shut up *laughs* Matt: The Doors Thomas: Yeah, or Joy Division or someone, if Joy Division were playing Lesser Free Trade or something like that Matt: And favourite ever seen... Charlie: Mine was Arcade Fire Thomas: The Moonlandingz for me Matt: Probably... I don't know Thomas: Arctics were good Matt: Arctics were amazing, so probably, but Queens of The Stone Age were fucking great Thomas: They were fucking brilliant weren't they, yeah Queens of The Stone Age, they were superb What small, or local, bands would you recommend? Matt: Strange Bones, Avalanche Party Thomas: False Heads Matt: False heads, amazing Charlie: There's loads Thomas: They're the current three at the moment we're really digging, Avalanche Party are... I can happily say that I am influenced by Avalanche Party with my own music What are you currently working on? Matt: Nothing at the moment but we've got a single coming out in 3 days Thomas: We're wanting to work on an EP, that's hopefully coming around autumn time Matt: Maybe October or something Thomas: It's basically some of the tracks that we play live, but I think we'll interpret them in the studio for singles, so I think the things we will be working on is trying to translate our music from the stage to the studio and get it on an EP and see if people dig it What songs do you most enjoy to perform? Thomas: Brutus Matt: I really like Brave New World at the moment but I nearly pass out every time I do it, I'm really enjoying Ramona [Flowers] at the minute Thomas: It's nice and bluesy isn't it, every songs a bit in your face and Ramona's nice, just have a breather and jam around Matt: Most of our stuff is set in stone but with Ramona it's... Thomas: Ramona's totally improvised sometimes Have you ever performed a cover? Thomas: Come Together Matt: Come Together, Purple Haze, Lonely Boy, Best of Friends Thomas: That was the four tunes, so we used to split our set up into four covers and four of our original tunes and we used to do Purple Haze, Jimmy Hendrix, Come Together, The Beatles, Lonely Boy, The Black Keys and Best of Friends, Palma Violets Matt: Did we do anything else? We did Sabbath, War Pigs Thomas: We did War Pigs didn't we, I want to bring that back What's your favourite venue which you've ever performed at? Matt: Scala Thomas: London Scala, is was brilliant. To be able to support a band like Cabbage, I think we just fit in their vein and their fans like our music, its very nice to be appreciated. I think we're kind of following Cabbage, like a year behind, well I'd like to think that we're a year behind Cabbage Are there any future dates you're looking forward to? Thomas: The your with Cabbage Charlie: The tour with Cabbage, yes Thomas: We tour with Cabbage in October and we're hoping to do our own shows at one point, I think they'll be very exciting How would you say your music has evolved? Thomas: I think it's matured Charlie: It's neater, that's the word, matured Thomas: Everything we did before was very adolescent, because we were adolescents Matt: We were just an Arctic Monkeys cover band weren't we Thomas: Almost Matt: We were trying to get away from being a generic South Yorkshire band Thomas: I think, at first, we intended to get away from it but naturally we've progressed away from it Charlie: It's just a general thing as you get older Thomas: You get older, you experience new things, we moved to Manchester. Manchester had a heavy, heavy impact on our songwriting, it's the life and soul of culture in the north and we've taken as much out of it as we can and it has given us everything What would you say if your greatest achievement as a group? Matt: Still to the day selling out Deaf [Institute] probably Charlie: I think I'd say the same probably Matt: That was the first time we realised, shit we're on something good here Thomas: We felt very young in our heads as a band, we didn't feel like a band until that night, we did the single launch, sold it out and it was like fucking hell were onto something here, so Deaf Institute when we sold it out for our single launch Are there any big challenges you've faced as a group and how have you overcome them? Thomas: I think it's very difficult to develop a team of people you can trust around you and it's very difficult to make yourself approachable to labels and try to adapt to that sort of market, get on the radio and stuff, that's been a challenge. Not that we've made any compromises but we've definitely thought in our minds about how we're going to approach it, and if we do go big then how are we going to go around that, because we're very comfortable on stage Matt: Stick to your roots, stay true to yourself Thomas: I think we've got to realise that soon we might have to be playing stadiums like this big *gestures with hands*, it will come with time though Do you have any advice for people who have just started a band or who are looking to? Thomas: Talk to other bands, befriend other bands, they are your life blood, if you want to do gigs and you want to support other bands than you've got to fucking talk to them, if you're in a dressing room, give them a cigarette, have a beer together and shoot the shit Matt: Don't be that band that keep themselves to themselves Thomas: We wouldn't be playing this today if we didn't get rowdy with Cabbage one night and get cheeky, but just talk to other bands Is there anyone you'd like to acknowledge who has supported you along the way? Thomas: Just parents, parents have backed us up through thick and thin, but also a local bar, from our hometown in Doncaster, Social bar Matt: No matter how big we ever get we'll always go back to play there Thomas: We will forever be in debt to that bar because that's where we started, they've done so much for us that we can't even repay in any way shape or form Any final words? Thomas: Trousers   I would like to say thanks to the band to The Blinders for allowing the time for the interview and I hope to be seeing them again at Blackthorn Festival, you can also find them at Cotton Clouds Festival and at other events over summer, then they are touring with Cabbage in autumn, these are defiantly gigs to keep you're eye out for as well as their own dates which they've hinted at in their interview. Liv X   

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