E I G H T Y :
theblueband
Liked by xavier_hollander, julianballou and 12,017 others
theblueband Just one more month until our album is out, we hope you're excited! We've also got something else to say... Over the last few months we teamed up with findiemusic to create four exclusive interviews, they call it a takeover, so for the next four weeks on Wednesday's a magazine with our faces will be available. We are forever grateful for the opportunities we get but this topped it all, we've all been a fan since we were knee high, it's down to you guys, we love you thank you so much!
- Alex, Charlie, Joe and Oak 🖤
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alexx_jeong
Liked by oak_rivers, zoieghim and 2,717 others
alexx_jeong Wednesday 28th October.
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charlie.hughh
Liked by sam_fender, ajcalaso and 2,516 others
charlie.hughh Wednesday 4th November.
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joeseph.marrow
Liked by daisyhepworth, araywhyte and 2,472 others
joeseph.marrow Wednesday 11th November.
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oak_rivers
Liked by harrisonstiles, harper_daviesnok1 and 2,289 others
oak_rivers wednesday 18th november.
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ALEX
It was weird for him to be doing an interview, especially on his own. He wasn't entirely sure how to act, the music magazine the band were working with were the one that all four of them purchased every week without a second thought in their teens. They managed to find some incredible small bands through that magazine and now, they, they were taking it over for a month--it was insane.
"What's your favourite song on the record?" The interviewer, Mark Hanson, to be precise asked the Korean man, who was trying not to freak out too much about the fact that the Mark Hanson was the one asking him questions.
Alex pondered on the mans question, it was a tough one because he was immensely proud of what the four had done with the full of it "I wouldn't say I have a favourite because I'm proud of them all but I really like the lightness of our fourth song on the album, Butterfly Sanctuary. I just think it's got a beautiful context," He smiled fondly at the thought of the song. It'd been one of his favourites for a while purely because of how sweet it was, he didn't know why he loved it so much in all honesty.
The man had been told by the company to answer in as much detail as possible because it made it a lot more entertaining "What's the song about then? The title is intriguing," Mark's Scottish accent prominent in what he said.
"It's about love really," He answered truthfully, scrunching his lips to the side ready to add more detail "Not just about it but like the feeling of it, it's in the point of view of love itself, we wanted to try something different when writing about the topic so we tried to channel our inner cupids," He chuckled lightly at the end, Mark doing the same. He found it very interesting.
"And how'd it work out?" He asked again, smiling.
"I'd like to say well but I guess it's up to whoever listens to decide if we'll get hired for Valentines next year," He joked, scratching the back of his head nervously. He was trying his best to be as confident as he could but Mark Hanson was a legend in Indie music, it was mind blowing for him to be within his presence.
The greying Scots man reverted his attention to the device in front of him "What's the overall vibe of the album?" He questioned. The whole purpose of this takeover was to get different perspectives from each member, to delve deep into the bands meaning and how they connected with their audience.
"The vibe?" Alex repeated the question "Well, I'd like to say it experiments in different vibes, we have moshy songs then with have songs to sway to but it's kind of punky I guess," He chuckled nervously again. Mark was as lovely as he always seemed, the full crew were so sweet and made him feel comfortable.
There was one thing for sure, he would never forget this day.
——— ••• ———
CHARLIE
This was the coolest fucking thing in the world. Francesca Katz was asking him questions about him. The world had gone wacky.
God, his heart was beating so rapidly, he was so nervous for no reason. The staff at Findie were so sweet and had made all four of them feel so comfortable and made them feel stress free, he was just nervous because this was a big deal.
"What made you guys think of the album title?" Fran asked the man in front of her with a bright smile on her face. He felt so inadequate compared to her, her voice was as smooth as a bowling ball . Charlie felt like he could barely think straight. This was the craziest thing to happen this year and a lot had happened that would fall under that category.
"Our song 'Look, A Rainbow' was the prime inspiration behind the title but then it was a genuine question. I mean, I don't think anybody actually knows what's at the end of it, is it never ending? Is it nothing? Is it just clouds? Or is it actually a pot of gold? It sounds stupid but we were kind of just curious and because rainbows are beautiful, we wanted to have the beauty portrayed in the record," He answered in depth, probably too much but he like talking about his and his friends' work, he was full with pride every time someone asked about it, why not give them everything?
"That's a really good question, I reckon its a pot of gold otherwise I'll be severely disappointed," Francesca joked with a smile on her face, Charlie laughed at her response. Fran didn't really think too much about it but now her mind was racing with the question, sure, it wasn't that deep but it was a good question. "What's your favourite song on it?" She asked again, she was interested to hear this answer because she'd seen the track list and there were some very interesting titles.
The man raised his head in the air and sucked his teeth, that was a tough one. "Can I say them all?" He joked with a light laugh. Charlie couldn't honestly pick just one because they'd all worked so hard on them that it'd be unfair to single just one out when all of them, in his opinion, were masterpieces.
"You can say whatever you please," Fran smiled again. Findie had been tracking The Blue for a while now, catching up on all of their releases and each time they were not disappointed in what they heard, so in all honesty Francesca didn't blame the man for saying he liked all of their songs, so did she. Well, the ones she'd heard.
"Then, yeah, I love them all," He nodded with a smile, he wished he didn't sound so egotistical but he was telling nothing but the truth. "We've been working towards this point in our lives since I can remember. There's songs on the record that were written when we were fourteen--we obviously, re-vamped them a little but the album has been a work in progress since then, really. It'd be bad to say I didn't love them all when so much work went into each and every one of them, individually," He added, going into great detail. He wasn't even sure that what he said made any sense but he was beyond proud of his band.
Francesca just nodded in awe by how much he had to say, he was so passionate and that was the greatest thing. There wasn't one point in meeting this band that Francesca hadn't enjoyed, they were all so articulate and humble, it was quite rare in some young artists.
"I heard that all of you produce your own songs, which was the hardest?" She questioned him, they were very talented. They did everything themselves, according to sources they even designed all of their merchandise themselves and gave the company who printed the designs fifty percent of the earnings all the while keeping the fabrics one hundred percent recyclable and environmentally friendly.
"Production wise I'd say Give You My Ardour was the hardest, it's quite a happy song--shocking I know," He started raising his hands out jokingly "But nothing sounded right for what we wanted to portray so it ended up taking us like five months to fully perfect it. It took so long because we left it at the side for a while and tried to focus more on the songs we knew the proper vibe to. We weren't actually gonna add it because it was annoying us so much but by the end of it we decided that all the work put in needed to be added, " He answered her truthfully with a light laugh, that song was a pain in their arse.
——— ••• ———
JOE
The blonde sat there his hands intertwined in his lap, gosh he was so nervous. It wasn't everyday you got to say you were questioned by Amber Achempon. Hell, it wasn't everyday you go to say you were getting interviewed.
His mind was also occupied by what else his friends were up to and what their interviewers were asking them, it was so strange. Findie was the biggest magazine company within the UK to get small musicians great publicity, this was huge for them.
"First things first, who was your biggest inspiration for your drumming?" The woman kick started her questioning.
Joe nodded and then a dozen names came to mind "I mean there are many great drummers out there but growing up I was heavily influenced by Stewart Copeland, Phillip Selway, John Bonham and Nick Mason--to be honest, I could go on forever but they're the main ones, I'd say," He answered pondering on her question, it was a good one, not many people asked the drummers that.
"So you've always been a rocker?" She joked, making him nervously laugh and scratch his hand.
"I guess," He replied with his nervous voice and an equally as nervous laugh.
"It's a standard question but what is your favourite song from the album?" Amber asked her second question. She was enjoying speaking to him even though his nerves were through the roof. It was weird for Joe to feel this anxious about something like this, he was usually the most confident one. He couldn't tell if it was because of how nationwide this would be or if it was because he hadn't had enough sleep.
"Hands down A Hurricane in my favourite, we tried something slightly different with our sound with that song, it's probably the edgiest one on the record in terms of sound but then again there are a lot of 'edgy' songs," He started using his fingers as quotations for the word edgy, they got called that quite often and he didn't have an issue with it but he wasn't entirely sure that was the word they were hoping for when they started out but it worked. "I like the meaning behind it too, to be honest, it's kind of about the world and how us as humans we are the prime reason for natural disasters increasing and we're shouting at governments," He chuckled lightly at the end of his sentence "I don't know if it makes any sense to be honest but, yeah," He finalised feeling like he'd dragged it on for far too long.
"I'm excited to hear you guys shouting at the governments," She whispered her reply with a bright smile and a small laugh. She liked how they didn't shy away from writing about what they wanted to write about, they did what they wanted because they could.
"Who was the first person you ever saw live?" Her next question was a random one but the interviewers often asked questions so the audiences could get to know the band better.
"Hmm. . ." He hummed, he'd been to a lot of concerts and he reckoned the very first one was rather embarrassing and nothing like how his taste was now. "I think it was The Whistling Horn," He answered as truthfully as he could remember "Yep, it was them, I was only like eleven and in all honesty they still slap," He laughed again. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, they were actually a pretty good band but were very different to what he was used to now.
——— ••• ———
OAK
Was she having a heart attack? Was she about to have one? It was beating pretty fast like extraordinarily fast. No, she was just shitting bricks. The Francis Ariyanuntaka was sat across from her in all of his beautiful glory.
That man had introduced her to some incredible musicians over the years, she was very grateful. She felt like she was dreaming and no doubt the other three did as well, this was beyond surreal. Findie really did bring out all of the legends to interview them, saying that, everyone who worked here was a legend.
"Right," He clapped his hands together excitedly making the girl jump, which made him laugh, of course. "If you were to be able to write any album in musical history who's album would you have wrote?" Francis questioned and boy was it a good one.
Oak nodded her head, impressed by the question but then she was stuck at what to say "It's a tricky first question," She started, sucking her breath into her teeth to emphasise how difficult she was finding it "You know, I'd probably go for Amnesiac by Radiohead, it's one of my favourites but then again. . . It'd be great to have wrote something like what The Police did with Reggatta De Blanc so probably one of those," She answered him. Those two albums were just top notch, if she'd done something like that she'd rightfully wear a crown.
"Ah, great choices," He approved highly, he knew that The Blue had good taste, he could just tell "What are your favourite tracks from both of those albums?" He asked her a follow up question that didn't really have relevance but he was intrigued.
She let out a puffy sigh, her cheeks inflating as she did so, were all of his questions going to be this difficult for her to answer? "For Amnesiac I'd say Hunting Bears and then for Reggatta De Blanc I'd say Contact, their both absolute tunes," She replied, it was hard for her to decide when those two bands were some of her all time favourites.
Francis nodded in agreement, good songs choices too. "What's your favourite part of the whole album production?" The second question came firing out of his mouth, again, it was a very good question.
"When it's over," She joked, luckily Francis found it funny. She was only messing about but then again she was being serious, it was a very stressful process writing and constructing a record "No, but in all seriousness it's great when you start to feel everything piecing together, it's like a massive weight's been lifted off of your shoulders when you can just sit there and say you've done. Don't get me wrong, I love writing songs and producing them with the lads but it gets very heavy sometimes especially when you're aiming for a certain sound but then on that specific day you just can't get it," She explained in as much detail as she could, trying not to speak too fast, which she did sometimes when she got a bit nervous.
"A very basic question coming next but what would you say your favourite song is from the album?" He asked the question that he knew all of them were being asked, it was a question that they all wanted to know.
"I think to be honest they're all so different in their own ways so it's difficult to single them out but the moshyness of Tell Your Kids We Won't Live and My Kitchen Is On Fire probably come to the very top of my list but then again I'll probably fully puffed out after performing both of those," She told him in as much truth as she could, it was hard to tell which songs she liked the most because they all had slightly different vibes, the record was very mood changing and the band couldn't wait until people got to hear it.
bit of a different one but hope u liked it :)
wrote; tuesday 4th august 2020
(partially) edited; sunday 27th december 2020
published; sunday 27th december 2020