Review Fix Exclusive: Blandlord Talks “Sun Explorers” And More

Review Fix chats with the band Landlord to find out about their signature sound and goals for the future.

Review Fix: How did the band get together? 

Blandlord: We (Jon and Greg) met at a recording studio, where I (Jon) was engineering Greg’s old band The Gladly Fools EP and then his solo EP. At a mutual friends album release party we jammed a faithful lengthy rendition of Velvet Undergrounds “Sister Ray”, and we have been inseparable ever since.  Our first band The Great Machine was lining up to release our second EP, when our drummer bailed on us. Luckily stars aligned and a good friend of mine introduced us to Caleb. That was going on 6 years ago, but just this year we gave birth to Blandlord, to really focus our sound and attention. 

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music? 

Blandlord: Caleb has been playing music since the age of 3.  It chose him. I picked up guitar in gr. 9, after I spent all summer before high school pilfering my dads record collection and digging into classic rock, first year of college I started engineering at local now defunct recording studio where things really started taking off. Greg started playing because of Hendrix, but mostly because a bunch of my friends older siblings were players and it always fascinated him.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?  

Blandlord: We are very influenced by current personal events, and generally write about either things like that or fictional stories that represent the follies of man.  We like the DYI approach and try to record and produce as much as we can in our creative place/studio, “Rock Out Farm”.  Our credo is to not to dwell on things too long and record as much as we can live off the floor with minimal overdubs.  We like to sound like us playing live, and not sound like it has been overly manicured, just honest recordings, keeps it fresh. 

Review Fix: What makes Sun Explorers special?  

Blandlord: Sun Explorers is special because it is a very good representation of us sonically, and it nails our personality. We are generally pretty easy going fun guys, but we don’t like to mince words and how we feel about certain issues. The last few years it seems like the human race has been running backwards at an incredible speed. Sun Explorers is about trying to find hope, but knowing that humans are usually their own worse enemies, and inevitable will trip over their own feet !… fate? 

Review Fix: What are your goals for it?  

Blandlord: We would love to get the track out to new audiences and to people that will honestly listen to it and give feedback.  Trying to organically grow our audience with every audience, hopefully that people will appreciate the hard work, blood, sweat and beer we put into the tune.

Review Fix: What inspires you?  

Blandlord: Most things.  Funny things.  People.  Current events.  Beer. A lot of our songs seem to come late at night, and very spontaneously. It is probably the reason why we like to keep that energy or mojo when we go to hit record, just let the song/idea be itselves.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you? 

Blandlord: It’s always hard to throw a label on yourself without sounding too pretentious or pigeonholing yourself into a corner. But….. We are LOUD, ENERGETIC, & FEROCIOUS at least on this tune.

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work? 

Blandlord: Usually we are on a stage or playing in front of an audience har har har.  Vocals/guitar solos sometimes are overdubbed. Live we usually a have lights and a sound guy.  Both are sweaty, Both are loud, we don’t hold back in either situation. We try to keep it pretty transparent, not to many studio magic curveballs that we can’t recreate when we are on stage. 

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2019?  

Blandlord: To keep releasing content that matters. Music videos.  More singles released.  Start & Finish recording a new EP. Start recording an LP end of year into 2020.  We plan on playing more more shows in Southern Ontario and start planning some small tours to broaden our fan base.

Review Fix: What’s next? 

Blandlord: We are filming a new music video in the next few weeks. 

This weekend we are starting to record a new EP. We have a couple shows in the works for September, keep yer eyes, but more importantly your ears open to us. 

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?  

Blandlord: Please listen to our new single Sun Explorers as much as and as LOUD as humanly possible.