Neu An Blonds: ‘The Owls, They Are Not What They Seem’

It’s all well and good making waves on the internet, but the real action happens in the grimy venues, the recording studios of our favourite musical cities, where talk becomes action. Manchester’s An Blonds are in the middle of introducing their online hype to a more physical reality, with a new, beautifully-designed cassette out now on Twisted Tape Recordings, the label responsible for early Deap Vally and Drop Out Venus releases. Neu spoke to the pair, Ryan and Nathan, about their early days as an online hype act, and the challenge being faced in getting out there, playing live shows, and becoming a fully-fledged band.

When you started out, all of your songs could be found alongside Twin Peaks fan art. Why do you think so many bands flock to David Lynch as an inspiration? Is he simply a master of his craft or are there a lot of people jumping on a bandwagon?
Nathan: I think Angelo Badalamenti’s soundtracks play a big part in why so many musicians are influenced by David Lynch’s work. But I think his imagery and visuals are just very inspiring on their own. They set a certain tone that we thought fit with the sound we were making. They’re instantly quite classic and beautiful, but also have dark and mysterious undertones, and we felt that that was very similar to what we wanted to do with our music; pop songs with deeper, darker meanings.

Which Twin Peaks character do you associate yourself with the most, and why?
Ryan: The Owls, they are not what they seem.

You use samples in your songs but only sparingly, whereas a lot of acts rely on them. Has there always been an awareness within An Blonds to avoid falling into that trap?
N: We tend to use samples to add certain little…flourishes (can’t think of the right word!) at the end of the writing process. For the most part, I think we get the most enjoyment out of coming up with our own chord progressions and melodies. To rely on big chunks of other people’s music to create these elements of your songs would, for us, take away a lot of the excitement of writing.

Is anonymity something you’ve always sought to maintain or is it just coincidence that you began as this big enigmatic act?
R: Anonymity can be fun, but also there isn’t really any need to say much when you make music. I don’t think we felt much of a need to tell a life story, we were just making songs.

I spoke to a lot of people when you started out as a band and everything talked about how many offers you must have been getting from A&Rs, promoters, etc. - but was that really the case?
N: Initially, after we had put up the first 2 songs on soundcloud, there was a lot of labels, management, etc. just getting in touch saying they liked the songs and whatnot. In reality, we don’t even have a manager yet. But part of that is our own doing. We want to do things at our own pace and have as much control over our music, style, live show, etc. before we make any big decisions.

‘El Mudo’ sounds to me like your most fleshed out, accessible & complete track to date. Do you see it as a benchmark for how you’d like future material to sound?
R: I think there’s some merits to all of our songs, as well as flaws, so I’m not sure we’ve set one song as a benchmark song. We’ll just continue to try and write songs we like and find interesting.
N: Everyone seems to have different favourites. I think it just depends on the person’s taste/mood. We’d like to think that each song can serve a different purpose depending on what sort of mood the listener is in.



You played your debut show in Manchester last month with Michael A Grammar and Chateaux. Was it a nervy experience or was it just refreshing to be able to play your tracks to a real audience?
N: A bit of both really. You can never really judge whether the recordings translate well in the live performance until you get out there and play to an audience and see their reaction, so that’s always a nervy experience. Luckily for us, the reaction from the crowd at our show was great and that helped us to just relax and enjoy playing the songs.

Is the internet an essential platform for new bands to make a name for themselves? How would you envisage being in a band if things like Soundcloud and blogs didn’t exist?
R: We probably wouldn’t be able to exist in all honesty. That’s not because of any kind of market or industry issues, but just because we made recordings before being a live band. Our musicmaking process relies on technology, and the ease and availability of quality recording software, as well as the internet, makes that possible. With the internet and the quality and availability of home recording software you can finish a song and then have it heard by masses of people within minutes. Providing you get the attention of the right people of course.

What are your plans for next year? Is the primary aim to perfect your live show, above everything else?
N: The primary aim for now is to keep writing and yes, perfect the live show. There’s quite a lot of new ideas we want to try out and it’s very much still a work in progress, so it’ll be interesting to see how it develops. As for next year, hopefully we’ll be able to do some touring, play some festivals, release some singles, maybe even an album…I think we just have to see how we develop and what sort of offers come our way. There’s no point having a plan that’s too specific, because something will always come up and change everything anyways. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

What will An Blonds be doing in five years’ time?
R: I rarely know what I will be doing in 5 minutes time, so 5 years seems a literal lifetime away.
N: Married with children.