BeatRoute Magazine B.C. print e-edition - May 2016
BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper based in Western Canada with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise.
BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper based in Western Canada with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise.
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BLESSED<br />
Fraser Valley quartet cursed by ambition<br />
by Joshua Erickson<br />
Unbeknownst to many, the Fraser<br />
Valley has become a creative hub,<br />
producing a large number of fantastic<br />
bands over the past two decades. This<br />
passion and creativity in the scene has laid<br />
the groundwork for a band like Blessed to<br />
exist. Based out of Abbotsford, Blessed are<br />
a four piece post-punk band that have big<br />
things in mind for their future and the talent<br />
With major momentum behind the band, it is #blessed to be Blessed right now.<br />
HEAD WOUND CITY<br />
all grown up but still screaming<br />
“I recounting the recording process for<br />
hadn’t screamed like that in years,” says<br />
Head Wound City singer Jordan Blilie,<br />
A New Wave of Violence, out <strong>May</strong> 13 on Vice<br />
Records. That may be true, but vocally the<br />
35-year-old hardcore vet has never been in<br />
better shape. Whereas his younger Blood<br />
Brothers-era self only managed to record<br />
line-by-line, due to the strain and intensity of<br />
the process, this time around he was eventually<br />
doing entire takes straight through.<br />
Guitarists Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)<br />
and Cody Votolato, drummer Gabe Serbian,<br />
and bassist Justin Pearson spent roughly<br />
eight days in early 2015 recording the album<br />
in San Diego with producer Ross Robinson.<br />
Blilie and Robinson spent another six weeks<br />
writing lyrics and recording vocals to get the<br />
frontman up to the producer’s demands. “He<br />
wanted my voice to be in the shape it would<br />
get if I’d been three weeks or a month into<br />
tour. So I just went over to his house every<br />
day and did vocals until my voice blew out.”<br />
There have been monumental changes in<br />
the decade since Head Wound City released<br />
their self-titled debut album. The follow-up<br />
is also a milestone for Blilie’s adult life.<br />
During recording he discovered that his<br />
wife was expecting their first child. Furthermore,<br />
the musician was between semesters<br />
at UCLA, where he is completing<br />
his English degree. “I just really wanted to<br />
and songwriting to back it up. Consisting of<br />
Drew Riekman, Reuben Houweling, Mitchell<br />
Trainor, and Jake Holmes, the band’s<br />
collective resume of projects include, but<br />
is not limited to, GSTS!, Open Letters, Oh<br />
No! Yoko, Relentless Ben, and Little Wild.<br />
For principle songwriter and guitarist/vocalist<br />
Drew Riekman though, Blessed is a<br />
fresh start and a departure from his days<br />
photo: Jaimi Wainright<br />
as the frontman of a wild hardcore band.<br />
“This band has been a culmination of a<br />
long time of wanting to walk away from<br />
music based around ‘how fast can I play, how<br />
energetic can we be, how crazy can we be<br />
live.’ Blessed [comes from] an angle where<br />
we stopped writing towards ‘how good is this<br />
going to be live,’ and more towards ‘how great<br />
of a record can we make?’ and worry about<br />
how it will translate live later,” says Riekman.<br />
Blessed are getting ready to release their<br />
debut self titled EP on <strong>May</strong> 20 and it has been<br />
a long time in the making. With the band’s<br />
first single, “Waving Hand,” premiering on<br />
Noisey on April 8 and second single “Feel”<br />
premiering on Stereogum on April 25, the<br />
momentum behind the band is growing.<br />
Recorded at The Barn with Curtis Buckoll<br />
from Rain City Studios, the EP is as tense<br />
and loud as it is sparse and beautiful. All<br />
this is the result of a song they recorded<br />
a week after forming the band. A decision<br />
that has haunted the band to this day.<br />
“‘Swim’ is kind of one of those songs<br />
that has really cursed us. In a way that it<br />
doesn’t represent who we are as a band at<br />
all anymore. The first day we ever jammed<br />
together, we wrote [‘Swim’] and a week later<br />
we recorded it,” elaborates Riekman. “And,<br />
because it has taken us a year and a half to<br />
write and record this EP, the only song we<br />
were showing people was ‘Swim’ and then<br />
study something I was passionate about.<br />
I’ve always loved writing [and] studying<br />
books in a classroom setting.” In 2004 the<br />
singer dropped out of college when things<br />
started picking up for his former band, The<br />
Blood Brothers, who quickly shrieked their<br />
way to the top of the emo/screamo ranks.<br />
Blilie’s penchant for working under stress<br />
and time constraints may prove to be a helpful<br />
skill set for his studies. It’s a definite departure<br />
from his pace a decade ago, when the<br />
band felt it had all the time in the world to get<br />
distracted by the “minutiae of the process.”<br />
Their new approach comes through on A<br />
New Wave of Violence, which is teeming with<br />
the urgency and imminence of coordinating<br />
four musicians leading grown-up lives, pursuing<br />
their separate ventures on the heels of a<br />
“staggeringly violent year here in the States.”<br />
Blilie continues, “Seemingly every week you’d<br />
see on the national news a new case of police<br />
violence against unarmed black men, women,<br />
children. You only really need to have a small<br />
amount of awareness of the world around<br />
you to be presented with violence daily.”<br />
The sentiment also resonated with New<br />
York shredder Zinner, who suggested<br />
the album title “completely independent<br />
of reading anything that I had written. It<br />
cemented the record to right now.”<br />
Whereas their first album has an element of<br />
silliness to it in the song titles and lyrical content,<br />
this time Blilie made a concerted effort to<br />
create something more substantial, an honest<br />
portrayal of his mindset that he’s proud of.<br />
But the album isn’t all seriousness. There is<br />
still evidence of anti-authority snottiness and<br />
a glint of irony on “Head Wound City, USA.”<br />
The song possesses a “brutal repetition...that<br />
lent itself to having somewhat anthemic lyrics”<br />
and is about a fruitless search for refuge.<br />
Its title, however, is explained as such: “I liked<br />
the kind of brashness and audacity of having<br />
a song titled with the name of the band.”<br />
we have people coming out to our shows being<br />
like ‘I listened to your song and it doesn’t<br />
sound anything like you live,’ and we have to<br />
say ‘Oh, sorry,’” say Riekman with a laugh.<br />
Blessed’s plans don’t end with their EP<br />
though. That is just the beginning. The band<br />
has ambitious touring plans, a goal to play 100<br />
shows by the end of year, 60 of them being in<br />
The United States. While the band’s US tour<br />
itinerary is still in the works, in <strong>May</strong> they will<br />
be heading off on a 27 date tour that will see<br />
them cross Canada covering everywhere<br />
from Victoria, BC to St. Johns, Newfoundland.<br />
While the name may seem to allude to<br />
being religious in a sort of sense, that is<br />
not the case. In fact, the band simply chose<br />
the name because they all liked the sound<br />
of it and it wasn’t already taken. I guess<br />
you could say the band are #blessed.<br />
“Coming up with a band name is such a<br />
hard thing for a band to do, and when we<br />
found that [Blessed] wasn’t taken by anyone,<br />
we set out with it” says Riekman. On<br />
the plus side, the band hopes this may make<br />
crossing the boarder into The States easier<br />
for them, a spot where many Vancouver<br />
bands before have been held up or denied.<br />
“We can just tell them we are a Christian<br />
band. It might help. It’s worth a shot.”<br />
Blessed release their self titled<br />
EP everywhere on <strong>May</strong> 20<br />
With members of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Locust, and Blood Brothers, Head Wound City are not for the faint of heart.<br />
Blilie may have graduated from Blood<br />
Brother to actual father, but he hasn’t outgrown<br />
a good sense of humour or hopefulness.<br />
“When I was younger it was very easy<br />
to give in to a very fatalistic world view and<br />
that’s just not something I want to carry with<br />
me when I’m trying to demonstrate love and<br />
compassion to a being that is taking every<br />
one of their cues from his mom and myself.”<br />
Head Wound City perform at<br />
the Imperial on <strong>May</strong> 27.<br />
by Thalia Stopa<br />
photo: Eva Michon<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>2016</strong> MUSIC<br />
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