The BLNDRS, a Central Virginia-based four-piece, have been playing jam rock around Virginia and North Carolina since 2015. They’ve built a strong regional following around their energetic live shows, featuring their unique blend of psychedelia and groove rock and their characteristic improvisation. The BLNDRS released their debut self-titled EP in 2017 and dropped a new single on April 12, 2019, with an album on the way. 

Zack Holden sat down with Alice Clair, Tommy Proutt, Ben Smith, and Nate Smith, the group’s four songwriters, multi-instrumentalists, and vocalists, before their show at Crozet’s Pro Re Nata Brewery to talk about songwriting and recording, favorite venues, their Pretenders cover band called the Chain Gang, and everything in between.

Zack Holden: I saw that you guys are four songwriters and vocalists and guitarists, so how does that influence your songwriting process and composition?

Tommy Proutt: We do a lot of collaboration; a lot of the collaboration is spontaneous. We don’t get together with the intent of writing something. That being said, we are all individual songwriters, and so we do bring our own songs to the table. So, it is a good mix.

Alice Clair: Yeah, last night Ben took out a piece of paper and we were just trading verses and stuff. We also all talk a lot, too.

Ben Smith: It’s a fun exercise ‘cause it’s kinda like pass the piece of paper around. We’ve done like long car rides where we pass the piece of paper around and it’s like, “Okay, everyone does a line.”

Tommy: [laughing] And it’s like “Okay, who wrote this.”

Nate Smith: For me personally speaking, I think the less we think about it the better it turns out. Try not to overthink what you’re writing about.

Alice: Try not to think at all.

Nate: A lot of our original songs, it’s like one of us wrote it down and then brought it to the band and then it didn’t turn out necessarily as the same song, but it progressed from there. Somebody had the idea and everybody else made it what it is.

ZH: So, you’re known for your improv on stage. How do you ensure that this hallmark of your live shows comes through when you’re recording in the studio?

Alice: Something cool about when we recently recorded an entire album (and it’s currently in the process of being mixed and everything) – TBD on release – but, one thing that a lot of bands do is they’ll track it. They’ll do a click track kinda thing and piece it together. Or parts will be recorded live and other things go in later. But, we went ahead and did all the rhythm sections completely live; a lot of the leads are live.

Nate: Yeah, and in the room we were playing like we were at a show but without singing.

Ben: [Even though we’re] not playing to people and having the audience interaction, we try to approach it as a live show. But yeah, doesn’t work that way. It’s tough to do that.

Alice: Yeah, we have to go back and do vocals again. Just because if you’re micing live guitars in the room, you’ve gotta go back and do the vocals. But generally we just played it as if it was a show. Except for you’re repeating a couple songs. [laughing]

Nate: Yeah, and going back and seeing how much you dislike certain things you did. While at the show it was like, “Well, that wasn’t so cool, but I can’t do anything about it. Hopefully they forget it.” [laughing]

Tommy: It’s there for your ears and you can’t grasp it, but it was there for that one moment.

Nate: We’ll do like scratch vocals and stuff, just so we don’t get too lost.

ZH: You guys have played like some pretty notable venues around Charlottesville and Northern/Central Virginia like the Southern, the Camel, and Epicure. Which one of these is your favorite venue and why?

Alice: You might have four different answers on that one.

Nate: I plead the fifth. I like them all.

Ben: I like playing at Basic City Brewery out in Waynesboro.

Nate: Yeah, that’s a fun spot.

Ben: They set up a huge stage that they forklift in every Saturday. The sound engineer and light man is named Brain Painter. He’s pretty funny. So, it’s cool to work with funny people.

Alice: A good sound engineer is like half the battle at a certain point. Or even just having a sound engineer.

Nate: We haven’t gone out and bought monitors yet, so running your own sound is a little difficult when you’re just hearing what’s coming out of the back end of your speakers.

Alice: I would say just off the top of my head you mentioned the Southern. That’s a comfortable spot for us. We’ve played it many times now, and it’s a big stage and yet it’s also a really intimate venue. I feel like something good about that is that we as the BLNDRS have had good sound consistently there.

Ben: It’s all about confident sound man.

Alice: Yeah, exactly. I feel like the Southern … we play good shows there ‘cause people come out. They’re stoked to come out to the Southern and see us play. That’s definitely a venue that I appreciate a lot. But, like Nate I like ‘em all to an extent. What about you Tommy?

Tommy: One notable one was Gaffer’s Pub in Ocracoke. And they have in-house sound, but we supplied our own sound man. And so our friends Jack and Clayton ran sound for us. Since they know us so intimately, they really tuned in and it was great. And of course, we were on vacation camping for a week, and threw a gig in the middle.

Nate: I think we can all agree that Rapunzel’s Coffee and Books is pretty much a home for us.

Alice: The most legendary. That was our first show at Rapunzel’s out in Lovingston. And I’ve been playing there growing up. And so, it was just like before we knew each other (of course, subtract like almost five years), but we all played and ever since then we’ve been back there. This whole past year we were there every two months.

Ben: We’ve got New Year’s coming up there at Rapunzel’s. Mark your calendars.

ZH: I saw that you guys recently started a side project called the Chain Gang where you play as a Pretenders cover band. So, I’m curious how you like that versus doing your own original music and what made you decide to start doing that?

Nate: It’s fun to wear costumes and play their songs. We started doing that at Mockstars, which is held at the Southern. And then we got a call: “Hey, do you want to play this gig and open up for a Tom Petty Tribute Band?” We were all like, “Sure.” Turns out it was at the Jefferson Theatre.

Alice: We were all like, “Oh, shit. Okay.”

Nate: It’s a lot of fun …

Alice: But we’re all original folks.

Nate: It’s a lotta fun, but it’s kinda limited to what you can do.

Ben: You can kinda put your own twist on it, but …

Tommy: It’s a good musical exercise, though, to pick out five or six songs from one band and learn them as best you can. It’s different from what we play.

Ben: I would not like to go on the road as a tribute band, though. I will say that.

Alice: You know, the interesting thing about it is... I don’t know, there’s a lot. But like for us, being that all of a sudden I am a front man, when in our band [the BLNDRS] that’s not how it works. We’re all equal parts, you know what I mean? And like Chrissie Hynde has gotta be one thing, so you’re almost just like playing pretend publicly. Which is fun in some regards, but there are also more expectations put upon you in some regard.

Nate: We didn’t realize how many people love the Pretenders. We were like, “Oh, we’ll be the Pretenders, and it’ll be cool.” All of our parents love the Pretenders.

Ben: It’s like a Halloween costume almost on stage.

Alice: Except it continued past Halloween.

Tommy: Halloween hangover.

Alice: It’s a lot of fun. We have good friends in a band called Cartoon Graveyard, and what they do is play Graceland (the album) in its entirety. And we shared one of our Pretenders shows with them, and they love that. So, a lot has to be said to those who play in tribute bands and purely cover and cover an entire album or an entire band expertly. As Tommy said, it has definitely been a great exercise for us.

ZH: One final question: since you guys started in 2015, you’ve been at it for a little while now. So, how far have you come as a band since then, and where do you see yourselves going in the future?

Nate: Aw, man. There were some places where we played just to the bartender. Now, at least we’ll go to a new spot, and there’ll be more than just the bartender there usually. Hopefully we get a good turn out tonight. We haven’t played in a couple weeks, and I think a lot of our friends and fans are excited because we had a couple weeks off. Over time, we’ve met new people through music and made friends and fans just through live shows. We definitely have a nice little group of peeps that like to come out.

Alice: We’ve always had our friends come out, and just as we’ve grown a little bit older, we have more friends.

Ben: I think the music has gotten better.

Alice: [laughing] Oh yeah, the music. That’s right.

Ben: There’s a lot more original material, a lot of covers.

Alice: Well, we released our EP [The Blndrs] in 2017, so all of a sudden, we had a digital presence. And you know, we’ve slowly grown. I mean, when we began, I was in high school – I guess you guys [Ben and Nate] were just out. We’ve all just changed a lot, but all together. And I’d say it’s all been wonderful: I think we’re in a wonderful spot right now, and we’re really looking forward to this album coming out. In the first little while, when there’s preorders and we’re getting everything together, there’s gonna be growth. When the album’s out, though, that’ll really determine how a year might go by, if we’ll go on a tour. We’ll look at how many people are listening to it and who’s listening to it. We’re interested to see, but we’re also not pushing each other. We’re not in a rush to do anything. We’re mostly here to have fun.

Ben: It’s a dream. We’ll never stop playing music, I’ll tell you that.

Nate: Even if we’re just playing to the bartender.

Alice: There’s a song that Nate wrote, and … the line goes, “How did we come so far to be so close?” So, we sing that question almost every show.

Tommy: But it’s also like a wave that never crashes. We’re just still going–

Alice: Still riding that wave.

Tommy: However it turns out is what we’re doing.

Be sure to check out the BLNDR’s discography (as well as Alice Clair’s latest solo project Loop) on all available streaming services. Stay tuned for updates on their new album coming soon.