INTERVIEW
MUSIC
BLAMIRE
DAMIAN ROBINSON TALKS TO THE NEWCASTLE SYNTH POP GROUP ABOUT THEIR NEW RELEASES Perhaps one of the central questions we need to ask ourselves when it comes to how we impact society is how involved we want to be in the conversations. Whether we’re speaking about politics, culture, religion, or whichever happens to be trending that day, the central question for us all is do we engage or disengage? Do we participate or do we walk away? With that in mind it’s worth asking ourselves to consider which artists provide the greatest possibility of sparking something which nudges us to want to participate and engage. Fighting out of the red corner, and creeping just outside of the mainstream, Newcastle-based synth pop group Blamire may well want to step forward and be counted as one of those bands that are worth engaging with. Sonically dark, combining a punk/emo honesty with strong pop melodies, theirs is a sound that nudges towards an early 90’s Depeche Mode or a One More Light-era Linkin Park, with songs packed full of honest narratives, electronic soundscapes and affirmative guitar riffs. “Who wants to have all that?” they ask in their new single Stay, “I might” is their answer. “It’s been an interesting time in terms of the local scene,” confirms principle songwriter Alex Blamire, “as a band we haven’t been able to play or rehearse together for a while and you can see that in terms of material from other local acts, whether it’s Facebook gigs or recent output. I’d guess we’re all in similar situations of trying to create remotely. Fortunately for us though as a newish band, although we’re finding not playing live difficult, it doesn’t take as
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SONICALLY DARK, THEY COMBINE A PUNK/EMO HONESTY WITH STRONG POP MELODIES much away from us as perhaps it would with other bands who have larger followings.” Remaining optimistic, Alex is keen for Blamire to own their future; new single Stay is being released only a few weeks after debut single In The Waves, which in itself is a statement of intent. “Just before COVID-19 hit, the three of us were ready to release In The Waves and what we’ve done since is to try and mix and re-engineer other work we had which was almost ready. Stay will come out in July and then we’re already thinking about maybe one or two more releases in the month after, perhaps ending up with an EP by the end of summer.” Whilst releasing new material is important creatively for the band, as too is the idea of returning to the live space. “We did some livestreams earlier on in the lockdown but we’d like to come back and have a launch party for Stay, really create something interesting and worth watching. As it may be a while yet until we’re able to play in live venues we still want to enjoy playing live and creating something interesting.” Blamire release Stay on 3rd July and the band will be livestreaming via their social media pages on the same day www.blamiremusic.com
