As all blogs do, we receive a helluva lot of mail asking us to listen to different bands and artists, from all genres, acoustic to hip hop, rock to folk; some are good, some are middling, and some are frankly rather poor. Very rare is the occasion that something comes in and within seconds of listening to the first track, you know you are already in love.
Come in Give Blood. Now while the name may lead you to believe this may be some rather loud, rather gory even, punky, metally type band, it would in fact be as far from what this London-based duo sound like as...well, as far from the the earth is from the moon. On the first aural rush of 'Pearls' with its combination of drum beat sampling and slithering synth and lyric lines "Touch my hand just like you know me / Run my fingers through your black curls / Break my teeth on your pearls / I'm addicted to you", we were well and truly hooked.
After bombarding synth man Jonny in the early hours of the morning with emails - such was our enthusiasm - we finally got him to take the question challenge: So, who are Give Blood?
Well, Give Blood is me, Will and Jonny - two former art students from London. We met at secondary school and have been in numerous bands together since. We were previously known as Rhythm, but as Give Blood since early 2012. We have only started playing live in this past year.
Just the two of you...do you take on other members for live outings?
As Give Blood, we've only played a few shows and aways as just the two of us. I don't really think of us as a duo, we are more of a band because we each have so much to do! If we found the right bass/synth player we probably would, but we've not met them yet... or if we have we're still to realise it!
I ask because some tracks sound very full, like there are more than just two of you. And one - 'Horror Express'? - sounds almost like you have a zither or some other type of instrumentation on it, but it would appear that this is all done electronically, is that right?
Ha – I wish we had a zither. We do seem to have everything else including a prized vintage Woolworths reed organ! There's all sorts of hidden sound sources on the EP. For example on Sliding Doors the percussion is made up of digital drums, our own cymbal samples, and other homemade recordings like bike wheels and keys.
Where do your influences as Give Blood come from, musically?
Like most people our influences are quite diverse - hence we don't cohesively seem to fit it any genre. I suppose the best way to sum it up is we love the moodiness and driving beats of HTRK and the bright pop melodies of Hissing Fauna are you the Destroyer. We both grew up with Turn on the Bright Lights on repeat – so I am sure that will always print on our music somehow.
Tell us a little about 'Cuboid', the EP you have just released.
This EP is our debut, the proper release date was September 11th; we've just been giving out a few free mp3s as we make them up to this point. We've got a 7" record coming out in 4-6 weeks too. That's for 'Sliding Doors', the first track on the EP. It's all just self released, we're kinda into the whole DIY ethos – record & produce our songs ourselves, promote & release them, make our own music videos/websites etc.
What was the idea behind the changing artwork and can you explain this format a little?
The artwork just fell into place really. The idea was to have something fluid – with the way music is made these days, you can release music without ever printing a physical copy so I don't see why you still have a static cover.
We wanted people to get some sort of artwork with the music when they download, and we thought people might enjoy it if every time you download it's a bit different. Plus the technical side was a bit of a challenge, we had never seen dynamic artwork being embedded into mp3s on demand – so we wanted to see if it was possible. Turns out it is!
'Sliding Doors' is to be the single? Talk us through this.
'Sliding Doors' is probably the track we are most proud of. We're just excited at the prospect of holding our own 7" really! We're doing it as a split with our good friend RRYRRY, it should be coming out in a month or two, we've just confirmed a launch gig at the Royal Sovereign in Clapton that we're promoting / arranging all ourselves, which should be really fun.
We also handed all of the stems to a DJ who has done a brilliant remix that we can't wait to share. I think it is really important to collaborate with people so I am always looking for new ways to do so, for example Fives off the record is actually a cover of one of RRYRRYs old tracks, and he has done a great version of Horror Express, which will be on his side of the split 7".
Any videos forthcoming?
There is a video in the pipeline but it will be a low budget affair unless someone comes with a pot of gold or tons of good equipment. We try and come up with a unique concept for everything we do, hence the moving artwork – maybe we'll have a printed video.
What other plans do you have?
The EP has been a little time in the writing - it has taken time to find a sound we are happy with. Then after all that we recorded the whole thing in two days in a home studio... and I [Will] spent the next three months mixing it in every spare minute I had. Overall the plan is to play some shows to promote it and see how people respond. We're going to keep writing and hopefully get another short EP recorded in the new year.
Give Blood next play The George Tavern, Stepney, London on November 7, with more dates to be added later.
Give Blood are: William Bembridge (Vocals, Bass, Guitar), Jonny Garrill (Synths, Electronics)
WEBSITE
Pearls
Sliding Doors
Horror Express
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