Meet Blair Gun, Your Next Favorite Band
Courtesy of Ryan Gomez
Enter Blair Gun. Or, if you wanna know them personally, met Joedin, Zach, Alyson, and Jake—your next favorite band. In the latest for In Search Of Magazine, the band discussed their upcoming album, There Are No Rival Clones Here, arriving on June 7, their challenges during the recording process, and their tour dates. Additionally, Blair Gun talk about their musical influences and their goals for the future. They express their desire to amass a strong cult following and continue making music on their own terms. Welcome to the next era of DIY Rock.
Note: this conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.
In Search Of Magazine: So, now that we have everybody's name, how did you all meet?
Joedin: So, Zach and I met maybe, I don't know, four years ago now. Just kind of through some mutual friends and we started jamming and just writing music together, recording stuff just in my garage all through COVID and that's when we really ... We kind of met right before all the COVID stuff started happening and then once quarantine happened, there was just not a lot going on so we were just hanging out in the garage recording music, writing stuff and that's where a lot of the songs off the first album came from.
In Search Of Magazine: And now, did you guys have, I don't know, separately or maybe together, did you have a collective goal of becoming established recording artists? Was it something that you guys came up with on the fly or did you guys individually have those goals?
Zach: I think when it was just me and Joedin together and we've had a couple other drummers early on, they were very eager to get out and play right away, I think. And I was the one holding us back. I'm just like a chronic preparation kind of person so I really wanted to make sure we had some good material and record some stuff and just to hone our sound, figure out what we want to sound like before we just jump out there. So, it took about a good year of us playing together and recording and releasing some music before we played our first show. And now, we're trying to just really juggle both be recording artists and performers consistently around SoCal.
In Search Of Magazine: Wow. And Alyson for you, how did your life change the moment you were introduced into this band?
Alyson: Yeah. I had been playing in bands and playing music for years before I met these guys in Blair Gun. But it definitely kind of pushed me to be a better musician and I kind of definitely had this feeling like, "Oh, this band's really good, this could go somewhere." Because I had been playing in bands for years and everyone wants to make it, but this band I was definitely like, because I was a huge fan of them, just being friends with them before I joined and I was like, "If anyone's going to make this work, these guys could." And so, now I feel very honored to actually be a part of it and recording and stuff like that, it's been fun.
Courtesy of Blair Gun
In Search Of Magazine: I have to ask, how do you guys juggle your band life with your regular life?
Zach: It's an everyday struggle. Right now, especially as we're preparing for an album rollout and a tour, a lot of our free time it's just what can we be doing to advance the cause to make sure we have all our ducks in a row. We all work jobs, we've all gone to school, Jake and Alyson are finishing up. I already graduated so it's a little bit more free time but we're also, Joedin and I both work at the same venues, two live music venues in San Diego so it's usually work, off day, doing something for the band. Occasionally, we sneak in a day to just have fun and do our hobbies, other things besides those.
In Search Of Magazine: So, does San Diego have an established local sound that you guys are trying to push forward, or do you foresee yourselves trying to make your own unique sound?
Alyson: I can talk about it, yeah. I feel like the San Diego scene definitely has a sound. A lot you go see a local show and every band definitely sounds pretty similar, it's this kind of surf rocky sound, which is it's San Diego, it makes sense. I definitely feel like we kind of have something different to that, a little bit more unique and it blends a lot of different genres together, which I think makes us a little bit stand out a little bit.
Joedin: Yeah. I mean, I think I feel really inspired by maybe kind of the San Diego sound as it was in the 's and early s from bands like some of the more experimental noise rock bands that were around back then, like Rocket from the Crypt and Drive Like Jehu and some of the Rob Crow projects, I feel like is maybe the kind of San Diego sound that inspires us. But less so nowadays. I feel there's a lot of surf rock, though there are also different niches. However, I feel like we've found our crowd and our people around town.
In Search Of Magazine: My wife and I honestly assumed you guys were from New York, I don't know why. I heard it and I'm like, "Whoa, this sounds like a New York sort of garage band, this is sick." And then, I read the press release and I was like, "Oh, I'm wrong." Do you guys get that a lot?
Zach: Well, New York has just had that rich cultural history of pumping out extremely artistic and groundbreaking bands and those are some of our favorites. So yeah, New York is a massive influence on us, just the bands that have come out from there like, "Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Talking Heads, lots of the late 's artsy punk bands like Television and Richard Hell are some of our favorites. But I feel like even in San Diego, like Joedin touched on with the history of the 's bands that used to jam around town, I think every town has that underground below even the underground there, The Voiders, it's still a lot of people who come out for these experimental and kind of abrasive bands sometimes, so I think that answers your question.
In Search Of Magazine: Yeah, it does. Anybody else? I saw somebody else talking or no?
Joedin: Oh, I mean, I was going to say the same. I think we're definitely into a lot of New York bands, that's probably why it's coming through. Pretty much what I was going to say, the same thing Zach said.
Courtesy of Blair Gun
In Search Of Magazine: But it's fire, maybe you guys do know that, I don't know, but it's fire. I'm like, "Yo, this is so ill." In April, you guys dropped "The Thief," a fantastic song. I don't know which of you guys is responsible for writing that, but it's fantastic.
Joedin: I mean, since we've gotten the four of us together in this lineup, I feel like we're doing a lot of writing together where we'll just kind of bring an idea and combine some different riffs and just jam stuff out and just iterate on it a lot. As a group, I feel like it wouldn't have been what it was without any members' contributions for sure.
Zach: Group effort, absolutely. I think "The Thief" is a song we wrote before Alyson was officially in the band. So, the rest of us, me, Jake and Joedin are really present in the songwriting, but there's other tracks on the record that Alyson made it in time to be part of the writing process there.
In Search Of Magazine: Well, so talk to me about the inspiration behind "The Thief." I feel like you guys kind of offer something that the genre, humbly speaking, desperately needs. So, talk to me about the creation of that song and the inspiration behind those lyrics and even the composition.
Joedin: I mean, I remember the exact day that we kind of came up with the main verse riff and we wrote a lot of the lyrics. I was over at Zach's house and we were playing on acoustic guitars and Zach had been reading this book called The White Album by Joan Didion, have you heard of it?
In Search Of Magazine: I have.
Joedin: And there's this passage in it where she talks a lot about James Albert Pike, who was this kind of early televangelist, one of the first people to take preaching and really kind of like popify it and put it on TV and be this big kind of influencer.
Zach: There's a lot of absurd stories surrounding him.
Joedin: And Zach was like, "You should read this section." And he was playing acoustic guitar and I read through the six or seven pages that were about James Albert Pike and I was like, "Wow, this is really fucked up, his life was crazy." And that was kind of the inspiration for a bunch of those early verses where we're talking about televangelists and religion and stuff, some of the more negative sides of those things, I think.
Zach: Yeah. I think the history goes back even further. There's an old demo, which we use the title for, and the kind of rhythm, the cadence of the verse vocals. Even the first line I think like, "Do you feel out of alignment? I've got poison on my lips," was taken from this old demo we had where you can sense a similar structure to the song but it's an entirely new key, different chords underneath it, different tempo. So, it's come a long way since that. And that's a demo that we put out ourselves before even our first record, which we've since removed because we knew we wanted to spruce the song up a little bit.
And then for me, coming up with some chord parts, some progressions, I was at the time listening to some David Bowie and some stuff of Ziggy Stardust that has this descending chord progression like the chorus features, which I kind of learned from some of his songs playing, as well as a couple of really fast-paced two-chord songs that The Damned and the Pixies have and also like Parquet Court's Wide Awake was another inspiration. We liked those short, punchy post-punk songs so just an amalgamation of all that. We like to just jam a lot of things together, a lot of influences.
In Search Of Magazine: That's so sick. And Alyson, how did you bring that Alyson flair to this song?
Alyson: I mean, this song, I remember when I joined and it was just me, Zach and Joedin they were showing me the different songs and jamming out. And this one didn't have a solid bass line, it was mostly root notes. And I definitely stick to that in the recording but there's little flares there. But this one's definitely one of my favorite ones to play live because to me it has that classic punk feel where it's short, it's two minutes long and it just fucking rocks and the crowd loves it and it's definitely just one of my favorite ones to play and to just jam out on.
The bass line's fairly simple, it just kind of follows what the guitars are doing. There's a little bit of fun octave stuff in the chorus but not much. But I think that kind serves the song stick with the tight drum beat. And then, I feel like I just miss a lot of those old school punk songs that are just fast and just hit you in the face. We don't get many of those anymore so it's nice to be able to play that whenever we can.
In Search Of Magazine: And then, you guys also have There Are No Rival Clones Here the album, coming out June 7th. The album is, I feel like I've been praising too much and it's a little weird, but it is really good. Did you guys listen to that record and go, "Fuck, I think we got something." Or was it like, "Yeah, this will do," because you have those punk sensibilities or how did you sort of react to it? Because I reacted very visceral, if you will, I'm like, "Wow, bro, this sh*t is fire. We need this."
Zach: I think we're all a little too anxious to put something out that is like, "That'll work."
Alyson: For sure.
Zach: Yeah, we workshopped for a long time I think on a lot of these songs. I don't know. Sorry, I had a pop-up on my laptop. I think this time around we all sort of just looked at each other and really felt that there was something more brewing there than our first record, which we still really love and we love playing those songs. There's a new confidence I feel like present in the group with this batch of songs and we've seen some pretty good responses while we're playing it live so it helps to build even more confidence going into album release.
In Search Of Magazine: And what were some of the most, challenging songs on the album to either record, write or work through for you guys?
Zach: What was the one?
Alyson: "Up Down," so rough.
Zach: I think we all could have different answers because we were live tracking and then certain songs might be a little more difficult for one person than the other.
Joedin: So, we were in the studio; most of what you hear is pretty much us playing live; it's the four of us all playing together at the same time. And so, some of them, there'd be one hard drum part like on Up Down, there's some really tough drum stuff and so the whole band ended up playing that song times together just back to back over and over.
In Search Of Magazine: Oh my God.
Joedin: And then, that also had a, it's like where the vocals are so simple, but I just kept f**king it up over and over, and then it was just like, I don't know. I think for Jake and I, “Up Down” was such a bi**h to record, it came out, but it ate up like a whole fucking day. I was just like—
Alyson: Yeah, it was fun, though; it was so worth it. That's one of my favorite songs, if not my favorite song on the record.
In Search Of Magazine: Mine too. I was so shocked when you were like "Up Down." It sounds so effortless!
Alyson: Oh, thank you!
Zach: I think for me, I would probably pick a different song. I think the theme song was the most anxiety-inducing one for me 'cause it's, again, live-tracked, and these guys get to play like four chords, and I'm playing a really-
Alyson: Yeah, the guitar chords are hard.
Zach: I'm playing a really intricate lead there and I get it the majority of the time, it's just when you're in that environment, the pressure is on, not to screw it up and ruin everybody else's take. Because I know, Jake has some pretty intricate parts there, too, and then there's a speed-up, and it's just all very tight, tight, tight, that we all have to lock in. So, I felt a lot of pressure to get that one down.
Joedin: It's like if you mess up one thing, you're letting the whole band down because the whole band needs to fucking restart and you're like, "Ah, I don't want to make everyone play this song again."
Alyson: I know.
Joedin: The pressure is real because this is our first time live-tracking pretty much anything like the whole last record was all multi-tracked.
In Search Of Magazine: Does the pressure—I'm not sure if you guys have ever played Rock Band or Guitar Hero?
Joedin: Yeah, dude, it's just like that.
In Search Of Magazine: Oh my, that pressure when you're getting booed on stage and the meter is hitting like, "Oh, my God."
Joedin: It's literally just like that, dude (laughs).
In Search Of Magazine: That's insane. Okay. I can say, "Oh yeah, I know how that feels," that's crazy.
Alyson: Yeah (laughs), it is crazy.
In Search Of Magazine: So, is there a collective of albums or maybe bands or artists that you guys listened to throughout the album's creation process?
Joedin: I mean, we definitely, I've heard of people doing that where they're like, "Oh, I don't listen to any other bands while I'm in the studio." But I feel like we're, we like to steal a lot and we like to listen to have really specific references. So, for me, I feel like I get really inspired by listening to lots of other music and a big variety of music. I mean, I'm trying to remember what we were listening to in the studio. Wasn't that Jesus Lizard album I know was like a production reference that we were using for a lot of-
Zach: For that record, yeah.
Joedin: Yeah, just for a lot of our drum tones and guitar, and not necessarily songwriting, but how we wanted to record the record and kind of what we were hoping it would sound like that Jesus-
Zach: And for another pick, I know a new band who just put out a great new record called Geese, New York Band, also helped me and Joedin a lot when songwriting to just be very adventurous and courageous with where a song could go. Their songs are very off the wall, very absurd at times, but then reel back into some classic rock kind of traditions. And it's a really cool middle ground to be in and that's an approach that we were trying to take on this as well.
Joedin: Record D Country by Geese for sure.
Alyson: I mean, I feel like Zach and Joedin have a very differing music taste from Jake and I, there are a lot of things that we overlap on, but I think it just makes the songs a lot more interesting that way. You hear a lot of just different flavors from different genres and we all have very different musical backgrounds. I think the thing I'm the most proud of on the record is the contributions I've made vocally. I just take a lot of inspiration from some more like, I guess pop punky sort of artists and it's been fun to be able to that vocally more often with the band and on this record, I'm really proud of that.
Zach: And to speak a little bit for Jake, I know he's grown up, his roots are a lot of like metalcore and pop punk and just classic punk as well. So, that whole side of the spectrum, which may be a bit of a blind spot for me and Joedin but it's really cool how he pulls from parts that he hears and those kinds of songs like metal and hardcore and adapts them to fit our sound, which on the surface isn't nearly as aggressive but then has that really, really tight driving, almost like Bonham-esque, just going for it kind of drumming behind it.
Joedin: Yeah, Jake likes to call it melodic drumming where he says he likes to play to the vocal melody instead of necessarily playing a really repetitive beat...And you could hear a decent bit of that melodic playing on songs like Bitter Men especially and ...
Alyson: Yeah, "Bitter Men," the bass and the drums are just locked in I feel like.
Joedin: Yeah, I know. Even The Thief, he does some of these crazy blast beats for a quick second in the verse where it seems like all hell is breaking loose, everything's kind of tearing at the seams and it just comes back. It's just a quick second, it's a really cool little detail I've heard in the second verse that I really enjoy and I know that comes from his metal-loving side.
In Search Of Magazine: I know you guys mentioned the word "anxiety." How are you guys feeling right now about this album, the tour coming up, singles, and each other? How are we feeling?
Joedin: How are we feeling gang?
Alyson: I know I'm really excited for the album to come out and for my friends and family to hear it 'cause I'm so proud of it. But we're definitely planning the tour and trying to keep all our ducks in a row, it's been stressful as well as juggling everyday life. Most musicians nowadays have a day job unless you're huge, which doesn't happen as much. And so, it's just about juggling everything. But at the end of the day, it's exciting and it's rewarding. But right now, it's like I feel like the stress.
Joedin: I feel like once we're on tour, once the album's out and we're able to ... Because we have all this time, break time off work and school and then that'll be really fun but it's like this lead up where we're kind of working. Because like working three different jobs, trying to plan, tour and keep your day job and just your regular life and everything in line, I think it's a lot of stress on everybody, but I think we're all really excited to get it out, ?
Alyson: But it's still exciting.
Zach: Yeah. Because it's all very DIY and we're trying to really make sure we get things done in a very timely way. So, it's just about being proactive. I feel like we strive to be really, really proactive so there's kind of just that nagging thing to constantly be thinking of, whether it's new merch, getting art figured out, getting support bands on tour, planning shows locally, even beyond tour further down the line 'cause you have to always be thinking about that months in advance while staying creative and allowing yourself the time to just drift off and let ideas come to you. It's a lot at once. It can be very overwhelming at times, but when you finally see the product, it's so worth it in my opinion.
Alyson: And we're also particular about everything I feel like, which I think in the end it's a good product but can sometimes be difficult 'cause we're all just like [inaudible ] one thing is wrong, but I think it makes it better in the end.
In Search Of Magazine: So, let's look to the future with this band. Where do you all want to be five years from now? I imagine the second coming of The Strokes, you're playing on Jimmy Fallon, it's just a beautiful time—or is there a different vision for Blair Gun?
Joedin: Yes. In a cabin in the woods far away from everyone if I can (laughs).
Zach: On the Conan O'Brien reboot rather than on Jimmy Fallon (laughs). I think nowadays, musicians have been forced to really think of it in a practical way and give themselves realistic goals. With social media being a tool that's directly available and the industry kind of completely changing as a response to that, you don't get paid very much. So, bands that have millions of followers can be struggling still. So, I think we just really hope to amass a strong cult following wherever we go and be able to tour when we feel like it, put records out on our own timescale, however it fits into our lives and be able to support ourselves enough doing that and to live a normal, comfortable life, kind of how I am right now. I don't think anybody here is vying to hit it big like Guns N' Roses, I mean, that'd be awesome. That's always the inevitable, or not inevitable, but hopefully a goal that we can achieve, but I think we have realistic expectations here and just hope to blow this up as big as we possibly can, play bigger and bigger shows. What do you think Joedin?
Joedin: Yeah. I mean, I think it's the age of the working-class musician. Spotify doesn't pay shit, people don't buy as many physical releases. I feel like because of the internet there's a lot less superstars but there's a lot more of these smaller bands that really appeal to their niche and have these cult-like followings online. And that's like the bands we listen to anyways, like Black Midi and Parquet Courts, ? And they're just working class, it's like a blue collar job. You're on the road, it's like being a truck driver.
Alyson: Kind of similar to what they said, it would be awesome to be the next super rock stars but it's just kind of like it's a fun thing to do and whatever we get out of it, we get out of it. And I definitely see a lot of potential in the music and everything so I don't know. I mean, when I was in high school, I would've told you like, "Oh yeah, I'm going to be famous. I'm going to be the next Paramore." But I've grown up a little bit and I've realized like, "Oh, that's not how life works." So, it's just like, I think they described it pretty perfectly, honestly.
Joedin: I'm always surprised 'cause we met, you meet people with millions of listeners or whatever on Spotify or maybe they have a million monthly listeners and they still got a f**king day job and I'm like, "Sh*t."It's crazy. Yeah. The industry's changed a lot for sure but it's still worth it.
Zach: Overall, I just hope to be able to be in a position to continue to make art with these guys.
Alyson: Yeah, exactly.
In Search Of Magazine: Look at Zach, man.
Joedin: I know, that's just cute, right?
Zach: I'm not trying to be sentimental (laughs), but no, it's just to be in a position in life where you don't have to put it on the back burner, which you really love to go to work a full-time job that drives you crazy.
In Search Of Magazine: And for the last question for you, what are you hoping your fans take away from There Are No Rival Clones Here?
Zach: I mean, I want them to listen to the whole record for sure. Did you listen to it front to back and in order? I feel like a lot of the, we made some interludes, some stuff that's more like not meant to be listened to just on itself, I feel like ideally I want our fans or whatever to look at this record and be like, "This is a complete unit, let's do it front to back, buy the vinyl."
In Search Of Magazine: I'll be sure to buy that myself. I was going to ask if you guys are releasing vinyl; I'll be sure to buy one.
Alyson: Hell yeah.
Zach: Mainly I hope to, the bands I really love are very eclectic genre bending, allowing themselves the freedom to pivot in whatever direction they want so I'm just hoping to lay that foundation down for ourselves so there's not this expectation that what needs to be the exact same record next time around so we can have the freedom to pursue what we are really liking in that moment in our lives. Any expectations, Alyson?
Alyson: For me? Well I just hope they listen to it and rock out, that's what I do when I play and that's what I used to do when I went to Blair Gun shows with their first record. I'll listen to The Thief came out and unashamed, I listen to it in my car sometimes. Definitely not after practice, but if we haven't practiced for a week I'll be like, "This is a good f**king song." So, just listen to it and rock out. Have fun.
