Words: Andrew Major
As we all know, new bands and artists with a talent of transcending genres and in turn creating new amalgamations of their own aren't exactly a rare gem in the current musical climate. So are new kids on the block Blisseyes up to the task of taking their version of 'gloom-pop' (I just made that one up) to the masses and standing out in a congested time for alternative music.
Following the release of their double AA side single 'Manson'/'Hold', we decided to get to know this mysterious Cambridge/London quartet and find out what really makes them tick with the low-down straight from guitarist Crosby.
Can you recall the moment you realised you wanted to be a musician and what sparked that love for music?
For me, it was hearing my older brother, Jonathan, playing guitar in his bedroom, when I was perhaps six or seven. I would sit outside his closed bedroom door and simply listen. I knew I wanted to be like him, especially once he began introducing me to such a plethora of new, intriguing music, from 90s stuff that was big in his world at the time, to the new-wave revival groups of the early 00s. Then, when he started a band (Kilto Take - for whom he is the singer and guitar player. I was, and still am, his guitar tech/roadie), I knew that it was a world I wanted to be a part of. I felt a previously alien ‘itch’ to join him onstage and play. I took mental notes of his teachings, just waiting for the right time in my own life to implement them.
When I was eight, I began taking lessons on classical guitar - and to this day I am a classical musician first and foremost - but my love for pop music - specifically 60s psych/beat/freakbeat/etc and 80s post-punk/goth - has remained strong. It is composers such as Steve Reich, Debussy, Cage, Messiaen, Stockhausen, Babbitt, Brouwer, and Wagner that keep me intrigued with the possibilities of music and its boundaries. ‘Pop' music, I'm talking V Festival style ‘pop’, holds very little worth to me. It's just so beige.
A lot of new bands seem to be focussed on making it "big" with a lust for fame driving them. Do Blisseyes want to find fame? Or simply make music people can cherish and enjoy?
I think even if we were looking for fame we wouldn't find it. Simply, the nature of our music and indeed our ethics wouldn't allow it. I never play power chords, our lyrical subjects are often very dark and serious, we dress in skin tight jeans and two-inch Chelsea Boots. We are never going to be number one! But, that's not what music is about. I mean, the fashion is part and parcel with the music, you don't have one without the other but fame is not the reason for starting Blisseyes. The reason I'm in Blisseyes is just like every other ‘real' musician in a band; because my bandmates are my best friends and I love standing on stage, looking over at them sweating away and then hitting that big note at the climax of a track - it's the synergy.
Where are Blisseyes going to be in 3 years from now?
Obviously it is impossible to say for sure, but I know where I'd like to be. I'd like to be signed to a really good label - I think Heavenly Recordings are by far the best current label - but I know Blisseyes aren't really the kind of band that would sign with them. I would like to think we'd have released our debut album, and be working on our second. I really look forward to touring, I mean, travelling to a place you've never visited, or perhaps even heard of, and have people gather in a room to hear you. I don't think my/our wants and ambitions are any different from any other band. For people to enjoy listening to our music as much as we enjoy writing and performing it, for them to obsess over our 45's like I do over my collection, and for them to cut our picture out of NME (or SHINDIG in my case) and stick it on their bedside table - that would be cool.
If in 3 years time we are still playing small venues, but to packed audiences of 100 per cent passionate fans, then that is still brilliant. If we're selling out Brixton Academy to 4,000 passionate fans then that is also brilliant. I think our songs are suited to a bigger stage.
A lot of new bands get constantly labelled as "the new [insert iconic band name here]". Do you enjoy being compared to legendary bands such as Joy Division?
I/we try not to take too much notice of comparisons. Nothing is new anymore, everything has been done. As far as I'm concerned, art (specifically music and fashion) reached its creative peak in the 1960s and nothing ‘new' has really emerged from scratch since - just slow morphs and continuations/adaptations of previous entities. It's certainly an epoch I'd loved to have experienced first-hand. But Joy Division are definitely a key influence on Blisseyes, they are one of my favourite bands and it is certainly flattering. However, I see our music more closely indebted to Echo & The Bunnymen. Perhaps not the music people have heard from us thus far, but I believe our current/new material is sounding more like a Psychedelic version of Echo & The Bunnymen. Perhaps 1966-1968 era Beatles meets The Bunnymen, ‘Revolver' mixed with ‘Ocean Rain'.
If Blisseyes could open for any band (living or dead) at any venue in the world, who would they be and where would it be?
This is a great question but also and such a hard one. I think each member of Blisseyes would say something completely different. I'm torn really, in terms of the gig being a humbling experience; reflecting me as a musician and Blisseyes as a band, opening for my brother's band, Kilto Take at our little local venue Esquires, in Bedford would be perfect. It's where I saw a lot of bands growing up and where I saw my brother play live for the first time. That room holds a lot of memories, good and bad, and is somewhat ingrained into my musical tapestry; there is a lot of love for that place. However, being a bit more fantastical - perhaps opening for the Sex Pistols at those legendary Manchester shows, or with The Doors at the London Roundhouse with Jefferson Airplane back in '68 - the night Jim freaked out!
I'm trying to think of venues I love other than small pubs/clubs like Shacklewell Arms, The Old Blue Last, Cave Club, etc. - perhaps opening for The Smiths or The Cure at the Hammersmith Odeon, or The Beatles/The Rolling Stones at Knebworth House - just because that sounds like such a cool prospect. I would muse artists like JULY, The Electric Prunes, Kraftwerk, Five By Five, The Girlfriends, David Axelrod, or David Bowie, but only because I love their music. I don't think Blisseyes would complement them or make a good show for the audience. Also, I'd love to open for Wolf Alice: no one is writing pop songs like them at the moment.
Blisseyes are: Cook - vocals/keyboards/guitars; Crosby - guitars/vocals; Parker - bass; Collin - percussion
Blisseyes play the following live dates, with more shows to be announced soon:
August 26
Esquires, Bedford (supporting Merchandise + Eagulls)
September 26
The Monarch, Camden, London
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