Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Blaenavon have been on the tip of everyone’s tongue (at least after they’ve figured how to prounounce the band name.) Indie’s new kids on the block have already spent months of touring with acts like Two Door Cinema Club, Sundara Karma and The Hunna but with their debut album release in early April, headline tours are beginning to become all theirs…
Hey Blaenavon! We’re super excited to have you here, can you give us any hints about the show or the album?
Hello Bodega. For the first time the live show and the album are getting married in public. It’s really quite exciting because we get to exhibit songs that we’ve been dying to play live since we were little children. We’re hot and fresh off some massive shows supporting Two Door Cinema Club in Europe and we are on the top of our game. We missed our crowd out there on the continent though, we can’t wait to see everyone.
This isn’t your first time in Nottingham, do you have any memories of playing in the city before?
We’ve been several times. The Bodega, Rescue Rooms and their surrounding pubs feel like second homes. Second homes in a city of the future that always brings to mind a film set in some perfect world, what with all the trams and constant sunshine.
You’ve spent time supporting Two Door Cinema Club, Sundara Karma, The Hunna and The Sherlocks, how does your approach to a headline show differ to a support?
Well it’s amazing to be playing with those guys of course, but we’re keen to get back to our own shows. We are a very ‘interactive’ band in a way. Whilst people could see what we were about with those support shows and appreciate the songs, our set feels most genuine and alive when we have our own crowd that knows the songs inside out. There is an exciting feed going on and we often end the shows full of energy. We can be more confident in our craft when we know people have come to see it for us and we play off of that.
Your debut album That’s Your Lot feels incredibly eclectic, you clearly had a huge range of musical and personal influences. Did your vision of the album change much over the 5 years you were making it?
I’m glad that you’ve noticed. It’s something we were worried about when we started mapping ‘That’s Your Lot’ out. At that time we were enjoying a lot of albums that had a clear line of vision and sound running through it and started to panic that we wouldn’t be taken seriously or people would think that we were throwing everything at the sticky wall. After a while we realised that it would be the only honest way to make our record. It’s a collection of the most important times in our little lives and they have been full of variety so far. Jim Abbiss our producer made sure the sounds held our diverse visions together and so it feels like a nice way to present those years.
We’re loving what we’ve heard from the album so far, particularly Orthodox Man, which song from That’s Your Lot are you most excited to play?
Swans, but don’t tell anyone it’s a secret. We all have fond memories of accidentally creating a 7 minute leviathan when we were 15 and working in Frank’s sister’s bedroom. It transformed into something quite special in the studio and it’s a very expressive song to play. Some people have been asking us to bring it out of the woodwork since we started the band.
After most blogs and magazines tipped you for 2017, this Summer is bound to be a big one for you! Anything you’re particularly excited about before the end of the year?
The kind of relief that occurs when the chicks leave the nest. We have put a lot of ourselves into this record and it is beyond our control from the 7th April. We will have a small glass of champagne. We have done everything in our power to make it brilliant and honest. Also very excited to see the reactions people have to the other sides of us which is found deep in the record’s journey.
Thanks for speaking to us, see you in April!
Bye for now.
Blaenavon will be playing at The Bodega in Nottingham on 6th April – TICKETS HERE
The debut album ‘That’s Your Lot’ is released on 7th April – listen to ‘Orthodox Man’ here