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 form of socialness 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?
Let’s not be too doomsday focused about this point in our history, but if ever there was a point, or a need, for local art publications like Narc; it’s now. Theirs is the job to inform us of activity within the local art scene. Our job, as people with even a passing interest in local cultural, is to stand up and be counted. Our job, to strip it right down, is to engage and participate.
With that in mind it’s worth asking ourselves to consider who’s particularly interesting in the local scene. 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, local synth pop Blamire may well want to step forward and be counted as one of those bands that are worth engaging with. Slightly sonically dark, and 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 Linkedin Park; 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 Blamire 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 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’ being released only a few weeks after debut release ‘In the waves’ in a statement of intent. “Just before Covid hit, the 3 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”.
And 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”.
Interesting… that’s worth engaging and participating in.
‘Stay’ is released 3rd July. Blamire will be livestreaming on the same day.