It feels like it’s been forever since the last Fresh from the Post. Well technically, I haven’t done one since last year, so for this year, I’m thinking we should start out with something really fresh.
To cater to the 18 and below demographic of this site’s visitors, this week’s Fresh from the Post artist is a band whose members have a mean age of 17. Blonde Louis is Josh Clarke, Harvey Downes, Jack Cox and Jack Cherry – four friends from Hertfordshire UK, which make guitar-heavy pop songs that are hard not to like.
Josh, the band’s lead vocalist, takes a crack at this week’s Fresh from the Post Q and A and gives us a little background on Blonde Louis, their impending teen-idol status and a song inspired by a missing guitar teacher –
First up, you guys are so young. You’re probably the youngest folks I’ve ever featured in our site. Can you tell us how Blonde Louis started out, and when? (I’m thinking, probably fresh out of pre-school and when you were old enough to hold your own guitar and reach the drum pedals)
This goes back a long way, between myself (Josh, Guitar and vocals) and Jack Cherry (bass). We’d been friends since we were the tender ages of 3, and subsequently ended up at Secondary School/High School together. Jack was certainly the more musical of us, being at grade 8 in double bass (very flash), however I did my best to keep up with his skills, as we began to Jam together during School hours, with various people. With help from the school we managed to get our first gig out our local club in Hitchin/Hertfordshire, back in 2006. We were only 14/15 at the time, so it was a daunting prospect, but one we grabbed with our little hands.
Things gradually developed from there, playing all over South East England, as we finally settled on a line up in the summer of 2008.
Why choose the name Blonde Louis? I¹ve seen your video explaining it, but is there any chance you can tell us the real story? It¹s ok if it¹s as unexciting as picking out a name out of a hat which I actually did when naming my first kid. I¹ve told curious relatives taller stories than you have about your name.
Ah yes. I recall the video to which you are refering. Unfortunately our imaginatons are far more interesting than reality, and the story runs along the same line as your "hat" situation. We were simply throwing random words together, and "Blonde Louis" stuck as the most memorable, but time will tell if that is the case.
You guys make instantly likeable tunes (like your bio says, and which is true as well – I did like a couple of your songs at first listen). You¹re also not bad looking fellas yourselves, which is like, a perfect combination for instant fame. In the event that you become ridiculously famous, are you ready for those screaming obsessive fangirls and a possible movie with Miley Cyrus and/or Selena Gomez?
Thank you very much for your kinds words, on all fronts! We aim to create good quality pop songs, with guitar at the heart of it. We always consider, (whilst we are writing), how we want the song to be percieved, and, as you have mentioned, the songs tend to attract a girl demographic. We’ve worked hard at creating a "Blonde Louis" brand to meet that target market. In regards to the screaming girls? We’ve experienced a fair bit ourselves, pretty hectic at times. But four teenage boys being harrassed by fanatic girls? How bad can it be!? I guess a Miley Cyrus movie would suit us then! But we are very rooted in our work, and always focus on writing better songs. If it takes us over the pond, then so be it 🙂
(Seriously though, if you do ever do get ridiculously famous – you might want to keep a safe distance away from Miley Cyrus. There’s something inherently evil about those Disney stars. Maybe it’s the veneer teeth – C.)
So what¹s in store for Blonde Louis in 2010? I know you guys are touring right now, any dates on when you¹re going to officially release an album?
Right now, as you’ve mentioned, we are preparing for our first national tour in February. We felt it was very important, being so young, to get an early taster for the live industry to keep us in good stead for the future. For the rest of TwentyTen we plan on a single release, whilst constantly improving our material. Certainly the first half of the year is about dipping our feet into the savage sea that is the music industry (how is that for a metaphor!) Much of this year depends on how our we are percieved, but by 2011 we would hope to be in and around your radios in Canada!
We usually feature songs from the band that we interview, can you share some of your songs and tell us a bit more about them?
Well, we’d like to give you Calais, and Wizard. Two tracks straight from the myspace, which cover us quite well.
The first track Calais, is the most anthemic within our repetoire to date, as the opening Oooh wooaahh-oooh-oohh, would suggest. Lyrically it is fairly deep as well. It talks about how a relationship can struggle whilst being in a band, and the line "now my heart beats through the floor" suggests that maybe his real love is for the music. It dips into our naivety as a band also, with the line "You talk about the ghost of time, but I was born this side of 89′.
Wizard is a more groovy number, whilst keeping pop sentiments like Calais with the "Woah-Woah-Woah-Woooahhoo". The song was written about my old guitar teacher, who mysteriously disappeared a few years back. The song ponders on a moment where I thought I had seen him at a local train station; "train tracks ripple but there’s nothing there…"
I always ask this to everyone we feature. What is your definition of ‘indie music’?
Well, we can only speak of Indie music through our own experience. But at the moment we view it as a Genre that is struggling, particularly in England. The increasing use of synth and electronics is drowning out guitar at the moment in the UK charts, and the only Niche market that can compete with Pop is Metal currently.
Personally we have tried to steer clear of the "Indie" label, as we feel it is limited in its running time, but has been a huge inspiration to us over the last 3/4 years, Acts like the Arctic Monkeys and the Kooks have shaped our music significantly, and that is thanks to Indie.
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For such a young band, they strike me as kids who know what they want to do in life and actually know how to achieve it. I can’t say the same about me at the same age though. Come to think of it, I don’t even think I know what I want to do up to now. I figure, as long as these boys stay away from drugs, don’t get a girl pregnant and never wear shirts that say ‘one hit wonder‘ while performing when they do score a hit, they’ll be absolutely fine. Something tells me we’ll be hearing more of Blonde Louis in the future. North America in 2011 then, I’ll be keeping tabs 😉
Blonde Louis is currently doing rounds at different venues all over the England. If you’d like to catch them live, check out their gig schedule at www.blondelouis.co.uk
