Interview: We’re All Clones With Blair Gun
Interview by Lindsey V. Britt / Photos by Gilbert Soto
With the release of their sophomore album, There Are No Rival Clones Here, out on June 7th, San Diego’s rising punk band Blair Gun is about to hit the road this week for their upcoming Clones Across America tour.
Firstly, your new song “Don’t Think” just came out, what’s the story behind that song?
Joedin: We wrote this one probably years ago, just kind of about this feeling of you’re stuck in a rut, or you feel like you’re doing the same things over and over and like you’re not making any progress to make it out of your situation. I mean, we wrote this one like three years ago, even before the first record came out and just kind of been kicking around and iterating on it for a long time
The new album is called There Are No Rival Clones Here, how did you come up with that title?
Zach: Lots of deliberation amongst all of us, we have a lot of phrases we jot down that we hear or think of or adapt into something else that we think might come in handy later or might represent something later, and this was taken from one of those phrases, and we had this sort of theme of monotony and repetition across the record. Every song deals in some way with somebody going through some sort of expectation affected by something that is pretty ubiquitous, that a lot of people experience. So, the clones were sort of in an effort to unite us all, as like we’re all clones.
Joedin: Yeah, I guess the idea is like we’re all clones and like there are no rivals here, kind of a safe space for all these people that are exactly the same, is the idea.
Zach: Like all these things that we feel are probably isolating are pretty common and exist in most of our lives.
Now I have to ask, do you believe in Clones like Dolly The Sheep, Bigfoot, Aliens, and all those creatures?
Alyson: Yes!
Zach: Aliens exist!
Joedin: They literally exist dude, they walk among us.
Zach: Ahh, that’s getting deeper.
Joedin: Umm, I don’t know if I believe in Bigfoot honesty, that seems pretty out there. But I guess the forest of the Pacific Northwest are pretty deep so who knows what’s out there.
Zach: Less glamorous creatures, maybe. I think the celebrity of Bigfoot is a red flag, I think it gives it away.
Your upcoming album There Are No Rival Clones Here is out June 7th, how excited are you for fans to hear the new album?
Joedin: We’re pumped! We’ve been working on this for a long time, mulling over these songs for two years, they’ve been recorded for months. I think we’re all anxious and excited to just get it out and get it in everyone’s ears.
Zach: Really exciting, cause it just coincides with our huge summer plans of touring, and it’ll be the first time really sharing these songs outside of our state California. It’s difficult to get people routed to your Spotify or whatever but it’s maybe a little more easier to get them from out of state when you’re playing directly to them. We’re extremely excited to do that and connect with new people.
What was the difference between making this album and your debut album Blaspheme Queen last year?
Alyson: Well, I wasn’t in the band when the guys did Blaspheme Queen I joined more for this album cycle so it’s definitely more of a collaborate type, like Zach and Joedin will come with some guitar parts and then the four of us will sit down and flesh it out and come up with the rest of the song, kind of just bring it all together. So definitely more of a collaboration on all four of our parts, where I feel like the last one they had a lot of the songs written already. Definitely before I was in the band and before their other two members were in the band. It’s exciting cause this one is really a showcase of all of our talent I feel like.
Joedin: This one’s pretty much entirely live tracks, so a lot of what you’re hearing is the four of us playing together in a room and recorded, versus the last one was kind of multi-tracked, everything recorded separately, as beautiful as possible. We’re hoping this one maybe sounds a little more raw and raucous and is maybe a little more reflective of how we sound live onto a record.
Zach: And I think it’s a good reflection of how we’ve steered more towards maximalism, I like really dense mixes and lots of crazy bits and pieces flying around. The first record we were very much interested in that, I believe we’re inching closer to that and we’re even closer to that goal on this record, a more realized sound in my opinion.
Usually, it takes bands at least two or three years to release their next album, how did you do it so quickly in just a little over a year?
Joedin: It didn’t feel that fast to me, but it depends, I guess it’s not that bad a little over a year. I mean it definitely helps the four of us are always writing and we have a pretty big back catalog of songs to kind of reference back to and puzzling different riffs together from the years that we’ve been writing. Also just staying really active in the writing room, trying to stay inspired by listening to lots of different music, reading different kinds of literature, watching strange movies. And just trying to find inspiration from all these different places and try to give yourself time to really let your mind wander and explore it.
Zach: I think we all believe in never giving up on a song and never just dumping an idea to the side, we are always revisiting a lot of old ideas, even when it seems like a dead end it can just click and that happened on a few occasions this time around, so when it does just click, just this sudden moment of inspiration you have. I know a couple of songs kind of one after the other, then suddenly you have like a handful of songs and you’re even one step closer to an album. That was definitely an element of it this time around. Also, the last album took almost a year to come out so give us some time, we’ve bought us some time to figure this out.
Joedin: We recorded Blaspheme Queen over two years ago now, so we’ve had a little over two years to be cooking on these songs.
You mentioned watching strange movies, like what kind of strange movies?
Joedin: Zach’s the guy, Zach what are some movies?
Alyson: You’ve got some weird ones!
Zach: I’m a little hungry right now so I’ll probably say a movie Tampopo, it’s this Japanese film, and it’s like a food porn video except it’s not… you know how people use that term, a lot of food is featured in it and it’s a very strange movie. I love a lot of John Waters films. He’s the absurdity of surrealism of his style is so inspiring to me, I love weird people, I love weird concepts. Joedin, we’ve seen some together.
Joedin: Yeah, we watched The Holy Mountain together, that was such a visually interesting and inspiring movie, I love watching some of these and they’ll just be some interesting phrase or dialogue usually that you can kind of steal to reference later on in a song. I know a couple of band practices ago Zach threw on Pink Flamingos on the TV while we were practicing. I didn’t get to fully watch that one, but it seemed pretty strange.
Zach: Had to turn it off, it gets a bit graphic at times, a bit distracting, haha. I like to bring a VHS tape, we have one of those old CRT TV’s, and just throw on a VHS while we’re playing, I’ve got some good ones cooking up. I also really love a lot of Jim Jarmusch films - It’s what I’ve been watching with my girlfriend lately, it’s also another like surreal concept, surreal world that he creates set on this really mundane dull backdrop, it’s a really cool juxtaposition. At least for me it’s an inspection and it’s kind of how we present ourselves, like we wannabe this artsy experimental project but also we like to maybe dress up on stage. I like to just wear my Polos or a button up shirt, looking very proper and nerdy.
I listened to the song “AC/DC” off the new album, I really liked it, now I’m curious if you are fans of the band AC/DC?
Joedin: I do not like the band AC/DC.
Zach: I do like the band AC/DC.
Alyson: I’m neutral.
Joedin: The song title, obviously we know there’s a band called AC/DC. But the song title itself is a reference to alternating current and direct current which plays into the theme of the song where there’s this character that’s like stuck inside and on his computer living in a completely insulated digital world.
Zach: And we thought it would be funny to just use their name as our song title, maybe fish from their pool of millions of streams, some people might accidentally stumble upon us, haha!
Joedin: I remember one time back before we even recorded this song, we were playing it live and we had somebody tell us that they listen to every single AC/DC song trying to find the one AC/DC song that we had covered. And I was like no dude, the song’s called “AC/DC” it’s not actuality an AC/DC song.
Zach: Our drummer who’s not here Jake Richter, he did grow up on some AC/DC. I don’t think he’s like a super fan nowadays, but he’ll put a little throwback on every once in a while.
You have a very retro and modern sound, how would you describe your fan base with such a unique vibe?
Joedin: I feel like our crowds probably tilt younger just cause of the scene that we’re coming up in, I mean the underground scene, the world of local shows is a lot of high schoolers, a lot of college students. I feel like older people just tend to not come to house parties and random local shows as much.
Zach: The ones they do come to, we play The Casbah often in San Diego, it’s a 21 and up club and it has a really historian history since the 80’s, like our CBGB’s. And it seems like a bit of the younger generation is maybe just learning about it, figuring it out, or just don’t know about it, a lot of older people will come through randomly to check out a show even if it’s a young band. So we’ve been able to connect with a bit of an older audience that way, while it’s always a fun time still, they’ll buy us drinks sometimes so that’s nice.
Do you have a fandom name?
Joedin: No.
Alyson: Not yet.
Joedin: The Blair Goons?
Zach: We’re still brainstorming that one.
Joedin: We’re cooking one up.
I heard you’re going on tour in June, how excited are you to be out on the road this summer?
Zach: Two thumbs up!
Alyson: it’s gonna be great!
Joedin: We’re going to a lot of cities that I’ve never even been to in my life, and I think it’s such an interesting reflection of a city and just a really interesting way to travel, go and meet bands, and hear local music, and going to venues, I just feel like you get a really condensed version of the culture in a given city, so I’m really excited to kind of experience all these new places in that way.
What city are you most excited to be stopping at this tour?
Joedin: Definitely Nashville!
Alyson: That’s what I was going to say.
Joedin: I’ve never been to Nashville, I’m really excited about the show that we’re playing there.
Zach: I’m really excited for two specifically, in Austin, because it’s the San Francisco of Texas, and I really want to see what that culture clash is like there, that little pocket, the people’s republic of Austin is like. And then the other one is Louisville, we recorded our first record there, and we’ve got some roots there with friends and our label out there that we’re super excited to connect with in person again, and we have a couple of days break to be there, it’s a beautiful city, tiny, but it feels a very metropolitan big city and it’s downtown and there’s a great arts scene as well, great food, so I can’t wait to decompress and reconvene back in Louisville.
Alyson: I’m definitely really excited to go to Nashville, I’ve always wanted to go there, I’ve never really traveled at all in my life, I’ve been to Iowa so this is going to be pretty crazy, I’m excited to see other states and stuff.
I noticed you have different openers in each city, do you enjoy helping support local acts?
Joedin: Yeah, they support us as much as we support them, I think of playing a tour as a band this small and kind of D.I.Y. is connecting with other local bands that can help make the show a success and connect us with the right people in a given town.
Zach: Bands of our size in our specific scene, that’s like our lifeline is relying on each other, we’ve gone like a handful of places that have extended the offer of their house for us to stay in, so it helps save money, it’s a cool way to just meet new people as well.
Joedin: I’m always amazed just the sense of community and how kind other bands and artists are all across the country, I feel like everybody supports each other and supports touring bands, it’s really great to see.
Since you’re going on tour, I’m wondering what the last concert you attended as a fan was?
Alyson: The last concert I went to as a fan was Paramore, I had been wanting to see them for years, they’re like my favorite band ever, I’m really excited to go to Nashville because I’m just hoping by the grace of God that we run into any of the Paramore people. But yeah, that’s the last band I saw, I think.
Zach: Joedin and I just went to see Swans, one of our holy grail bands at Highland Park L.A. in the Lodge Room it was incredible, they did two nights, one of the best noise rock experimental post-rock bands, just a huge inspiration for us, Michael Gira is a crazy guy and he signed some stuff for us!
Joedin: Probably the weirdest show I’ve ever been to in my life that Swans concert, it was awesome, I was here for it!
My last question is, do you have a recommendation? It can be anything you want, from advice to a place to visit, your favorite meal, anything.
Zach: I recommend our good Santa Cruz friends Ladders, they’re an alt, jazz, avant, punk, rock, in the likes of like King Crimson and black midi, old band, new band reference, they just put out a new song it’s really cool, you should check them out, they’re our great friends.
Alyson: There’s this artists I’ve really been listening to lately, it’s Indigo De Souza, hard name to spell, but she released an album last year, and she’s a huge vocal inspiration for me.
Joedin: I’ll say our good friend and label mate Eric Schroeder, just dropped a new album and it’s really fucking good! Singer-songwriter, folk, acoustic stuff, that’s just super timeless, really hits, really emotional, it’s really good.
Alyson: I change my answer to him.
Joedin: I was also going to recommend Ladders but Zach stole mine.
Make sure to check out There Are No Rival Clones Here on June 7th along with the rest of Blair Gun’s awesome discography on your favorite streaming platform and catch them out on the road this summer!
