Finishing a tour with Mother, Mother and AWOLNATION and then heading out on another tour with Foals and Surfer Blood, Blondfire is keeping busy this spring. Having recently signed to Warner Brothers Records after their single, “Where The Kids Are,” quickly rose on the charts, siblings and Michigan natives, Erica and Bruce Driscoll, are having the time of their lives. The debut album is finished and a release date will be announced soon, but in the meantime, catch them on tour and check out my interview with Erica below.
Arin: How did the band become what it is now?
Erica: Well it’s a really long story, but the beginning is basically [that] my mom really is the reason that we got involved in music at a very young age. She got all of us to play piano, and I took violin, and my brother started on drums and then moved to guitar, and even our older sister [played]. I mean when we were really young, we used to all play together. So we’ve been doing this since we were really little, and just started writing songs together and making up songs and eventually got some really basic recording gear and made a little studio in my parents basement and started writing and recording and kept going from there and just didn’t stop. We just kept doing it and kept progressing, and eventually we moved to New York first and self-released an EP – and we got a lot of press off that which is amazing – and kept going with it; but most recently we got signed and got all this attention from [‘Where The Kids Are’]. We released our single for ‘Where The Kids Are’ on our own and also did a music video, and I took it upon myself to be the publicist for the band and it paid off. And people really started… all these blogs started posting it and it eventually got the attention of labels and publishers and they started coming around wanting to meet with us. Then, Alt-Nation (Sirius XM) picked up our song into regular rotation before we were signed and that made a big difference because we started charting next to big bands like Fun. and went to number one with ‘Where The Kids Are’ on there, and then eventually signed to Warner Brothers.
A: ‘Where The Kids Are’ is placed on some of the Honda ads, so what was it like to get that song placement?
E: It’s such a cool thing for a band to get a placement like that. I mean, it just exposes you to a new audience that might not hear your music otherwise. We’ve definitely seen a lot of people talking about it on YouTube and everything. It’s very funny because when it was airing, I had people I hadn’t talked to in years hitting me up asking if they just heard me on TV. It’s cool; it’s one of those things that you hope happens and it actually came true.
A: You are out on the road at the moment, so what’s it been like and have you had a favorite city?
E: I don’t know if I I’ve had a favorite. They’ve all been really cool. I feel like in general it’s been fun because we’ve had fans at the shows and some people have been singing the lyrics back to me which is always a cool feeling – that people are there to see you. It’s really fun, it’s been a fun tour. The other two bands, AWOLNATION and Mother, Mother, they’re all great people and great musicians and fun to hang out with, so being able to watch them side stage every night and hanging with them after the show, it’s been fun. It’s been a really good tour so far.
A: Social media is obviously huge for any band now, so who is the most into social media?
E: Oh that’s definitely me. I mean, I’m always on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter. It helps because we always have so much time where we’re driving in the van, so I’m always taking photos and posting things. I actually really love taking photos and messing with all the photo apps on my phone. It’s like entertainment for me, but it’s fun. I’ve seen the effect it’s been having with more people following me, but I’m like seriously attached to my phone.
Links:
Twitter | Facebook | Official | Instagram
Tour Dates:
April 18, 2013
Knitting Factory
Reno, NV (Supporting AWOLNATION)
April 25, 2013
Fitzgerald’s
Houston, TX (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
April 26, 2013
House of Blues
Dallas, TX (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
April 27, 2013
Emo’s East
Austin, TX (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
April 28, 2013
House of Blues
New Orleans, LA (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
April 30, 2013
The Goat Farm
Atlanta, GA (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 1, 2013
Neighborhood Theatre
Charlotte, NC (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 3, 2013
Terminal 5
New York, NY (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 4, 2013
Electric Factory
Philadelphia, PA (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 5, 2013
9:30 Club
Washington, DC (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 6, 2013
Upstate Concert Hall
Albany, NY (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 8, 2013
The Met
Providence, RI (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 9, 2013
House of Blues
Boston, MA (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 10, 2013
SOLD OUT Club Soda
Montreal, QC (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 11, 2013
Koolhaus
Toronto, ON (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 13, 2013
House of Blues
Cleveland, OH (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 14, 2013
Bogart’s
Cincinnati, OH (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 15, 2013
Newport Music Hall
Columbus, OH (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 17, 2013
Deluxe
Indianapolis, IN (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 18, 2013
Vic Theatre
Chicago, IL (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 19, 2013
Turner Hall
Milwaukee, WI (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 20, 2013
First Avenue
Minneapolis, MN (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 29, 2013
Crystal Ballroom
Portland, OR (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 30, 2013
Commodore Ballroom
Vancouver, BC (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
May 31, 2013
SOLD OUT Neptune Theatre
Seattle, WA (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
June 1, 2013
2nd SHOW ADDED Neptune Theatre
Seattle, WA (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
June 3, 2013
The Depot
Salt Lake City, UT (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
June 4, 2013
Ogden Theatre
Denver, CO (w/Foals)
June 5, 2013
Granada
Lawrence, KS (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
June 7, 2013
The Pageant
St. Louis, MO (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
June 9, 2013
Stage AE
Pittsburgh, PA (w/Silversun Pickups, Foals and Surfer Blood)
June 10, 2013
Rams Head Live
Baltimore, MD (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
June 12, 2013
Orange Peel
Asheville, NC (w/Foals and Surfer Blood)
August 3, 2013
Lollapalooza
Chicago, IL – Grant Park
