01/07/’11
I was walking around the venue all the time looking for Blonk, because I would interview them before the show, but I just could not find them. After annoying Matze (previous frontman of Disposed to Mirth) with the claim I thought he was Blonk’s singer, I gave up and decided just to wait for them to show up suddenly. Sitting in the backstage at the time Blonk should be on the stage, I could hear drums and guitars being done soundchecking and starting with the real work. While grabbing my photographers sleeve I started to run downstairs. I cleared myself a way through the crowd, to see for myself who could possibly be on stage if this was not Blonk. I arrived at the front and when Nils gave me a recognizable smile, I knew they finally arrived to play just in time.
How was the show tonight?
Dave (guitar): We drove for five hours because of traffic jam and we arrived here five minutes before we had to play. We quickly set up everything, played the show, which was short but very cool. Then we build off everything again and now we’re going back home, bye! (laughs)
Nico (guitar): the show was really cool and lots of fun, but there was some stress because we were so late. We can start to relax right now.
Blonk exists for seven years now, if you compare the band which it is now to the band you started. What could you conclude? Has there been an evolution?
Nico: The only difference is that now we have beards that we didn’t have back then. We started the band when we were about sixteen when we were still little kids. Now we are older and are better musicians. But there is no big difference between now and then.
Nils (vocals): We started as a school/garage band. We played lots of pop-rock and songs we knew from the radio. After that we started to write our own songs and now we only play our own music. And we try to get better at it every day. That’s pretty much the whole story about us.
Max (drums): Dave, Nils, Nico and me are the the ones who started to the band. Noobi joined us about a year ago. Dave and Nils are the real starters of Blonk, then Niko and me joined. And last year Nooobi joined the band.
Dave: we try to find our own sound. We started with some kind of punk or rock songs and then we started to play metal. But every record still has the Blonk style. That is the important thing, it doesn’t matter what music we are making, we just want to keep our own sound.
You shared the stage with bands such as Bring me the Horizon, Shai hulud, Hoods and many others. But if you have the choice, what band would YOU guys like to tour with?
Blonk all together: Blink 182!
Nico: That is the reason why we are named Blonk.
Nils: We made some jokes about Blink 182 and we thought Blonk would be a good name for our band. Two years later we were at a point we really started to get on with the band and we decided we wanted to keep the name.
You released an album last September and you’re already recording new material.
Nils: actually, we wrote three new songs. We have plans to record a new demo in November and a new album next year. Maybe we will have the luck to have the album released by a record label, but nothing is certain about this. For now we just stick to writing songs, touring and having fun.
Could you tell something about the last album?
Niko: It sounds like Blonk plus Robot’s vocals.
Nils: You definitely hear Robot in this album. He helped us out because we didn’t have a singer at that moment. Our old singer left and we already paid for the recording sessions. Robot jumped in for a while, we recorded the album with him, he stayed with us for two months for touring and then he left again. Robot wrote lots of lyrics for this record, so he had pretty much a big influence on the record. We did everything we wanted to do with the music. We made it fast, melodic and honest. That is the music we wanted to create.
But then where were you?
Nils: I was playing the bass. In our early days I also screamed, but I thought it would be better if I would focus on the bass only. We tried two singers, but it didn’t work out for both of them. In the end we decided I would get to the microphone again and we would look for someone else to play the bass. That is when we found Noobi.
Noobi (bass): I joined Blonk last year in December, but I used to play guitar and do vocals in a nu-metal band before.
Nico: We wanted to keep the Blonk style by having Nils as frontman again and looking for another bass-player.
Describe your music in only three words.
Nico: Heavy, melodic,…
Blonk?
Nico: Yes! Heavy, hard, melodic, Blonk.
Nils: Fast, dirty and sexy. (the band agrees laughing)
On Facebook, there is this picture of Blonk where you all look like farmers and the one in the middle looks like… Well, his clothes are ripped and he might look like someone who just got raped. What is picture this about?
Nico: Oh, the ripped shirt! We thought let’s show some skin and let’s do it for the girls. He was not raped, he was just dressed sexy.
Oh it was you?! (pointing at Max)
Max: Do you think it’s sexy?
Well, not really, you look as if you just got raped…
Nils: We try to look sexy in every way!
Which is your favourite album at the moment?
Nils: We have this new album in our van which are five albums mixed up. Albums from Yellowcard, Silverstein, Alexisonfire, City and Colour and Heroes for Hire. We’ve been listening to it all the time while driving to Münster.
How do you see Blonk in a few years? Future plans?
Nils: We make plans within a year, we do not look any further when it comes to concrete plans. The plans for next year are releasing our new album and play shows with bigger bands. We also would like to get further with Blonk, do more interviews and of course we just want to have lots of fun.
Let's get nasty: 2 girls one cup or one guy one horse?
Max: hard to say… I haven’t seen those videos. I am a Christian…
I’m kidding. The horse sounds funnier. Does the horse look like a girl? I imagine this horse with a very big penis with the man exploding in the end.
(band discusses what they would prefer)
Okay, just raise your hands: who wants the horse?
(everybody raises hands)
Alriiight!
Last question for today: Xbox or PS?
Nico: Xbox 360 because it is not so expensive. I don’t care about the exclusive games on ps. I think Xbox looks better and it tastes better. Assasins Creed is an awesome game. GTA and Red Dead Redemption are also very nice games. Max and I do play Xbox a lot. And the rest of the band just plays games in their pants.
Do you want to say anything to people reading this?
Niko: We want to say hi to our friends from ‘As Enemies Arise’.
Nils: And to ‘Campus’ because they are from Belgium!
Dave: And hi to all people in Belgium that know us! Come on Noobi, these are our last words, say something.
Noobi: (thinks) No.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/blonkmusic?ref=ts#!/blonkmusic?sk=app_178091127385
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/blonkvshometown
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten