Off the Record

Speaker 1 0:32
Lovely work we saw she talked to me lately I'd be like he looks to me nothing really feels that Agra toxin broken down further every evening all the while little machine and you

Unknown Speaker 1:05
my nose wants to be around me love when he was alive I love the exercise there's nothing there's nothing in this world there's nothing in this

Unknown Speaker 1:42
lazy Lilo

Unknown Speaker 1:49
you

Speaker 1 1:56
going to be your black wire

Unknown Speaker 2:23
world the world

Sam 3:05
this is the we can

Tyler Farnes 3:06
see it a point one FM a shoe on early you listen to Off the record a podcast series here at WKNC where all types of musical artists are interviewed. I am your host elope. And I'm here with a blank state coming all the way down from Charlotte. How are y'all doing?

Sam 3:21
Doing? Good. We're great. Great. Happy to be here.

Tyler Farnes 3:23
Thank you all so much for coming down and stopping by WKNC I'm glad that I was able to catch you guys. You're having a local show at school kids, right? Yeah, sir. Yeah. And that's with the Weymouth movie boxes and

Seth 3:37
hassle and one which is a really cool emo band from Alabama. Yeah, cool. Cool.

Tyler Farnes 3:41
So yeah, again, thank you so much for coming into the studio. Glad to have you guys here. Introduce yourself. You know, what's your names? You know, what, what instruments do you play? What's your role? Yeah. All right.

Sam 3:51
I'm Sam, I play bass and I do all the recording mixing and mastering for the band. I also play since sometime, but basically my main thing

Jacob 4:03
I'm Jacob I do the guitars, the vocals I do most of our songwriting. And I'm and I move around a lot.

Seth 4:12
I'm Seth I play drums and I do all of our booking and I'm kind of like the contact person.

Tyler Farnes 4:18
Cool. Yeah, cool. Cool. Cool. I I love local bands. Especially ones that just sort of just like do all their own stuff like between their members like all the booking all the all that makes all type of stuff. It definitely gets that sort of five dislike very, not actually DIY light, like the genre, but just sort of just like you're just kind of trying to make it out there. Oh, for sure. So So how long has a blank state been around? Your first thing was from 2021. Has it been around before then? Have you guys been together making music before then like, like, what's your history as musicians together?

Jacob 4:53
Yeah. So blank state has existed for six years probably. We formed when We're all like, really young, we're probably like middle school age. I think middle school or like early high school. Yeah. And we started off just playing, playing a bunch of different covers just because we didn't know how to play our instruments and we wanted to figure it out. Yeah, there's a lot of Weezer

Tyler Farnes 5:15
Yeah, I was gonna say that the station as always your posting, you signed it. And you guys mentioned that that's,

Jacob 5:22
and then as we as we got better, because I was always like writing music, but it wasn't very good. And I was like, you know, I maybe maybe I could get I could practice this. And eventually it got all right. And that was about 2020. We were like this stuff is good weed. People should hear this.

Tyler Farnes 5:39
So okay, so So what does that serve? Serve just like you looking at your guys's self and the music that you've created and you just sort of like you felt more confident about it, you're just like, Okay, we want to try to make this official we kind of just want to put pull this together or is that how you all sort of generally felt or is it just kind of like a time coming 100% I

Seth 5:58
think when we were playing covers for a few years we were always the goal was to start playing original music we were like We don't want to just go out and play everybody else's music all the time. And so once we got a group of songs that we were like, okay, we can put this out we started recording and recordings a whole different game because we had only played live so that was a whole different thing learning recording and writing and all that but the first I think we waited long enough that our first thing that we put out our EP was pretty decent for a first release

Tyler Farnes 6:29
oh yeah it's great

Jacob 6:30
nobody's ever gonna hear this stuff that was before that

Tyler Farnes 6:33
nobody's gonna hear all the covers auto show they guys did a Weezer

Jacob 6:37
you'll still hear Weezer covers so Okay, new one at our last like when we played at amo Southland in Charlotte. Yeah, bullied us into playing state and so.

Tyler Farnes 6:47
So gosh, that's like, oh, yeah, that's our worst song to like, cover to personally. Just cover something from Pinkerton get that sort of like weird stuff. To cover. Oh.

Sam 7:02
The songs already bad.

Tyler Farnes 7:04
Yeah.

Sam 7:06
I feel like you can play it well. But.

Tyler Farnes 7:09
So what was your cover band name? Was it still blank state or? Okay. Okay. It

Sam 7:15
was it was two words, though. Okay. It

Tyler Farnes 7:18
was just your words. Okay. Cool. Um, so I guess, more philosophically thinking about this sort of just in general. What is blank state to you guys? Is it sort of like an expression of your emotions? Like altogether miss, like, like, what is it to you?

Jacob 7:39
I feel like it's, it's a bunch of different facets like in songwriting. For me, at least it's it's kind of, I've used it especially, like on the EP, I think it was just trying to write something that I thought sounded good. And then when we got to like, our full length album, it was a lot of, like, more expression and like, trying to be more honest through music when I couldn't do that, like in person. Yeah, I was like, Okay, if I can't, like, speak what I'm thinking at least I can put it in a song and then it's somewhere. But in terms of that's like, songwriting in terms of everything else, I feel like I just think of it as like, hanging out with my friends. Okay. Yeah, I was gonna say like, when it comes to like, the name or like the concept of the band, I don't think that we've really set anything in place for it to be like, what we mean as a whole. But I think that the people that like come to our shows and like they like meet each other and have like, fun in the audience that mic, like, genuinely, we've, like, accidentally brought like, a bunch of people together, to like, all hang out with each other. And now like, all of the regulars that come to our shows are all friends with each other. So I feel like they kind of made what, like stay is without us. And when we kind of just watched it and we're like that's, that's we caused someone's first kiss. Oh, really? Well, yeah.

Tyler Farnes 9:00
That's awesome. First kiss had I blinks blink stage show? During Jasper never cries, oh my gosh, the perfect song to be so funny. It's so really

Seth 9:11
fast. Like, I don't know why.

Tyler Farnes 9:16
I mean, like, you know, kind of kind of catch a moment of serenity. Just sort of like come into it. I don't know.

Sam 9:24
thing to happen, I'm sure other interesting things happened. I don't know about. I'd like to hear some stories. Yeah.

Tyler Farnes 9:31
You mentioned that like, doesn't mean anything. I think you mentioned that doesn't mean anything, right. Just kind of like just a kindness like it really

Sam 9:39
like mean too much. But I've always thought in my head that it's kind of funny to think of it as a shortened or blanket statement, but that's not true. Yeah, I just yeah, it's not true statement. We were just trying to come up with things in it. It ended up just being kind of like a filler name. And then I think at some point, we were trying to figure out a way to kind of change it up a little bit or make it look a little bit better. And that's why we ended up putting it together and adding the period at the end. I feel like that gave a lot more like life name. We had to compete with the other blank state from New Hampshire. Yeah,

Tyler Farnes 10:16
there's also one from Denver to Oh, no, there is one from Denver that that was looking up every time we look up blank state. website or like Bandcamp. There's always one that comes up from November from Denver. Sorry, we had no

Sam 10:29
real documentation of how long we've had the name. I think that we outlast the one from Missouri,

New Hampshire. I think they're already done that. Yeah.

Seth 10:42
All the other blank states out of business. Yeah.

Sam 10:45
That we were we have outlasted and outperformed any other blank state?

Tyler Farnes 10:53
Seniority and at that point,

Jacob 10:54
I DM them and they didn't respond. Let's see.

Tyler Farnes 10:57
How long have you guys been playing your your your respective instruments? You said it's been since middle school. Right? How long has it been?

Seth 11:05
Okay, so I've been playing drums kind of off and on for like, a really long time. I got a drum set when I was eight. And I was eight. So I didn't, I didn't. I didn't like care about it at all. And I kind of forgot about it for a few years. And so I started playing for real when I was like 11. So I've been playing for like seven years.

Sam 11:25
Okay, I don't have a year count. I just know it was like probably the same year, or a year before we started the band. Probably like six or seven years. Six years. I started learning bass. I learned bass for a talent show that we were playing because we needed it. But before then I played like other instruments. I think bass was spent probably about six. Yeah. Just around when we started. We just realized that because I played piano before, mainly so and we realized, like, that's not a good third instrument to have.

Tyler Farnes 12:04
I mean, yeah, I mean, you got the sense which you have written any music have I've ever heard, obviously, so you got that right. Yeah, I

Sam 12:12
never played those on stage, though. But yeah, I do. I do some synth stuff in the background.

Tyler Farnes 12:20
It's funny, they mentioned bass. Learning for a total charge. I actually learned bass myself from from a senior project I had to do from my, from my from my high school. So it's kind of like you said that I kind of unlocked something my brain like, oh my gosh, that's when I actually learned it when I was like, 1617 Oh my gosh. So funny. But yeah, that's cool. Moving on to your music. How would you define your own music? I feel it is very sort of like, it fits into emo slash any conscious, like, sort of just like in the wind, I guess is the feelings that I have is sort of more of a slower drive. How do you guys sort of find your music individually and sort of collectively?

Jacob 13:08
Really all over the place? Yeah, I yeah, I would say a lot of it's super, super different. super interesting. Our general umbrella term is usually just indie or indie rock. Yeah. If people ask, yeah, but, like, everything. I don't know. We try to bring some different like, energies to a lot of the stuff we do.

Seth 13:31
I think one thing that's interesting is if you listened to all the music that we have out right now, I'd kind of just call it end or indie rock. But if you come see us live, we we oh, I don't know. We, we perform so hard. Like we just have such a good time like going crazy on stage. That every time we're done with a show everybody's like, Yo, you're my new favorite emo band or something.

Jacob 13:57
seventh chords for half an hour. Play like soft indie songs as hard as we can. Yeah. Which is super, it's super fun. I do kind of like I'm playing softer songs hard, then probably harder songs. We've heard we played a show last night in Charlotte at the visual aid theatre. And after after the show, someone told me that I get I like getting more off the ground vertically than most people do.

Tyler Farnes 14:32
Just like physically, you just like jumping around jump just some type of scar scar stuff or something or you just like pick it up. So So would you say that um, I guess more so like yourself. Self opinion, is music genres and sort of music in general, more based off just like the sort of theory behind it or is it more just sort of like the the emotions and the purpose and the intent behind it? Like when you're fitting into different genres, because personally, that's how I see it. That's why I sort of classified you guys as emo because a lot of EMO songs I have those to put me in. And that's tight, a very, like emotional vulnerability and just for very generally just sort of being more open and sort of flowing. That's how I sort of define email just more or less is that how you guys sort of see music just personally in your own personal lives? Or

Sam 15:21
is that, like, genre wise, it feels like, it feels like the, the the presence of genres has been so like, viewed, I feel like you can call yourself whatever and do whatever at this point, which is kind of fun. Um, I don't exactly think that I, when we're making music, we try to fit it into a specific thing. But I guess I think the genre is more about just how you feel about the music because some people would like wouldn't agree with the artists on what they're actually called, are people that go like, they delve into like the, like, the very technical genre terms. I think that it I would say it's mostly based on emotion in the songwriter. Okay.

Jacob 16:07
Yeah, I feel like I'm, I'm a big fan of just people being like, I don't care how we sound we are this genre. Yeah, like, that. Is like because then it just adds to so much like diversity within genres. Like all the new like, emo music coming out right now is no different. And I like on the fifth wave you want to start with maybe it was my favorite job.

Tyler Farnes 16:29
There are so many memes like in WKNC itself on fifth way. VO It's just so hilarious. Like, it's all good. But like, it's like, you know, it's so much it's it's such a meme. Oh, boy, I feel so miserable.

Jacob 16:42
Because it's all over the place. Yeah. Like, none of it sounds remotely the same. But I that's what I love about it.

Seth 16:49
Yeah, I would say I would say genre is definitely based on feel, I think you can kind of I think genres are kind of based on the people that listen to them. And the people that crowd around a certain type of music. So I feel like you could make any type of music. And then, like, if all the indie kids are gravitating towards it, you're kind of just like an indie band at that.

Tyler Farnes 17:10
I think. Yeah, okay.

Seth 17:11
i Yeah, I think genres are a social construct.

Tyler Farnes 17:16
Yeah, that's right. That's how I feel about it, too. Yeah. Um, do you have any sort of like, favorite, like, inspirations or like bands you like to draw from the any sort of, like daily rotators that you're like, Yeah, I want to like, either sound like that, or I want to take this from that, or yadda, yadda yadda. Just kind of just whatever.

Jacob 17:39
As long like, especially lately that we've been like touring and like playing with a lot of bands. It's honestly, like, so much of it is shows like, I'll, I'll we'll play a show with a band. And I'll be like, that looks so fun. Like, whatever they're doing. looks so fun. I want to do that. And I feel like that always has has a lot of influence on what I write. But also like, I don't know, like I said, I've been listening to a lot of Fifth Wave emo and stuff. Like my like, favorite bands are now like Home is where your arms, my cocoon, like that stuff. And that's, that's been influencing me a lot, mainly to just get better at playing guitar. And I don't know, that's where a lot of the influence comes from. Yeah. I think Joker does most of the writing style. Yeah, one. Okay. Yeah.

Tyler Farnes 18:30
Um, okay. So, um, your first EP, let's, let's, let's go on to the specifics. I guess. Your first EP alone in the end, right? Yeah. It is almost at its two year anniversary. May 2 2021 was released at the way close.

Sam 18:49
Yeah, to do something for that. We will.

Tyler Farnes 18:54
Not i i was trying to find dates for like when I actually release and tested like, specifically say on Spotify, so I went to Amazon music and yeah, it was May 2 2021. Yeah. So um, I guess retrospectively? How do you feel about it? Overall, it's your first EP is your first serve, I guess like official sort of like, I guess, official quote, unquote, sort of like your own sound as a blank state. How do you feel about

Jacob 19:18
it? I think it's really fun. I liked I think we were so focused on like, one thing that I remember we talked about, we were writing it was like, this is a short EP, it's five songs. Yeah. Everything on here has to feel like it has its own bot and has to feel like there's no like there's no lows in it. So we wanted everything to be like the most like energetic stuff we could make. Okay. And I think it worked out well. I think they're still really fun to play. I think people like him. Yeah, I don't know it has like a I don't know that. The EP just kind of makes me happy. Like, the songs that are that are on there. I feel like I I just like thinking about how, like, well it was received with like our friends and like other things is like, once you go to a full length album, like, are almost 12 songs like everyone has a song that they don't like on it or like something like that, but I feel like with EP, we didn't really it was it was like two shorter songs to have like really any negative response. So it just felt like we were making something that all our friends really like. Felt like really cool. Yeah,

Seth 20:26
yeah, I like that up because it's like a sign of the times, I guess. Because like, back then, like, that was our first attempt at being like a band, like going from covers to playing like, we're like, okay, we're a real band. Now we play our own music. So it's so like, I know that in that headspace, at least I wasn't taking drum seriously, I had been playing off and on for a few years. But like, if I go back and listen to that up like my drums on it super basic. But like, we were doing our best. And I think it turned out it aged well. And I think one thing that's fun is that we play songs from the EP now and we kind of make them our own now, like I play a lot of the songs from the EP differently than I did on the EP just Yeah. For fun,

Jacob 21:12
I guess. Yeah, yeah, I like to I like to change, change lyrics and stuff. No one, like, I'll add lyrics. I don't usually change them. Because I'm like, people know the song as is, if I could, like, completely change the lyrics of one song for a show. Just to throw everyone off. I would rewrite the entirety of level one and just do what happens.

Tyler Farnes 21:31
Ah, yeah, well, that or that, or I guess that's one that most people recognize your family like, seemed like, that's your most popular one. That was assuming Spotify charts.

Jacob 21:40
Yeah, that is our most popular song. And it does usually get a lot of people singing along. Yeah. But like, you know, it's like that thing when you like, write a song about like, a person or about something. You're like, oh, I don't really care about the situation anymore. Yeah. So I'm like, it'd be fun to just like, rewrite it and just be like, I don't know. It's a very like, song. Like, that seems like I'm like, I care a lot about this person. It's like, at this point, I just don't even want to, like, you know, okay,

Tyler Farnes 22:05
so I'm just kind of whatever. Yeah, I'm

Jacob 22:06
like, I could I could I could turn into a distract or something.

Tyler Farnes 22:12
Everyone distract a little bit lonely one. Yeah. I'm not and I want to talk about lovely one now. Oh. Okay. So it's, you said that it was like more about just like, somebody and just sort of like, I'm not gonna ask you like, who specifically it was, but right now? Um, so I guess, how is it like, performing that live? Do you have, you don't have as much of an emotional connection to it as you did? Do you ever have like something about it like emotionally about it just sort of, or it's just something where it's kind of like, because what the general album, I feel that it is really more structured and reserved, but you're still kind of like, you're, you're yelling out into the void and hoping that something comes back or you just kind of just like, you're just yelling out in there, you know? So is that how is that how you feel about most songs certainly answered like a lovely one about it in the EP. Like, as far as like, emotional connection, we

Jacob 23:19
play it love, we want to stuff. It's mainly like a connection with the audience at that point, like, Okay, I whenever I play that song, it puts me in a good mood, because I love how people react to like, we play town shows and people know that song. I'm like, This is so fun. Like we made this, especially because that was a song that I wrote, like, back in our cover era, like, Okay, on and then I just saved it. And I wasn't sure at the time, I was like, I don't know if this is good. And then we put it on the EP and it it was like a fan favorite. So that's a fun connection there. I'd say there are some the only songs that ever make me emotional when we play them. Like, really that like actually gave me or like some stuff from the from the album. Yeah. We've only played a It's like my favorite song on the album is a Ninetales companion slash Ninetales. We've only played it once. But that was like one of the most like emotionally draining performances I've ever done. Yeah, and then open a lot of sometimes when we play open, there's something about it that just hits me and I'm like, I have about a cry in the middle of Yeah. Especially with the chorus. I think you really nailed it on the head when you said like, it feels like you're just yelling out in the void. And just hoping something responds back. Because with that chorus, the exact type of thing I was going for it was like, You are just like the only line in the chorus is I'm open. I'm open, I'm open, just repeating it. And I was really just, it felt like an affirmation of just being like, this is what I want to be. And I'm just gonna stay it until it's true. And so that sometimes when I hit that chorus, I'm like, Hey, now's not the time. I

Tyler Farnes 24:55
got stuff to do. Yeah. Oh, man.

Jacob 24:58
You guys have any emotional All connections are no.

Tyler Farnes 25:03
Stone Cold Stone Cold, Steve Austin are here.

Sam 25:07
No. So the only there are a few songs that just like kind of make me emotional. They're like nice sounding or like they're just nice songs. The only one that I have specific, like personal connection to is say it back, which is on the end, that was the one song that I wrote. It's similar to love the one in the way that I don't care about the person it was about anymore. It was this person I was like, interested in and I was like, I thought we kind of had like a mutual like, feelings for each other. And it ended up being that I was just like, making it up or something because I like I had feelings, but the other person didn't. And so I was like, I'm gonna write a song about this. And then I realized like, that wasn't the, I don't know, like some people. It's like, I'm glad that the song happened and stuff, but some people don't need a song. Yeah, okay. But another thing is, that's interesting is the person that I wrote that song about got married six months. Which is crazy. But I think at that point, I was already with my current girlfriend. Yeah.

Tyler Farnes 26:16
So um, say it back. Um, most popular fame, at least, apart from that is the Minecraft Oof. Which is, which is, which is like when I heard it, I was like, This is funny. This is great. But also sort of like, going back to Tom to how you feel about it. It definitely does seem like you're sort of confessing just the sort of love and just sort of hoping to get something back and and you're kind of know that it's not going to come to to fruition, I hope that it doesn't affect you too much. Is that sort of like a good read of it? Or is it just kind of just

Sam 26:55
pretty much the song is just like, here's how I feel. I want you to tell me that you feel the same, but I don't want to hear it if you don't. Okay. Okay. Okay. There's a specific lyric, you know which one it is? It's things in the chorus in the because I don't really know if I could take it. No, I don't really is it's just kind of like, like, I really want you to just tell me, but like, don't tell me something I don't want to hear. Yeah. But yeah, that's that's mostly what that song is about. I think my favorite lyrics in that song are one of my favorite lyrics. And that song is in the bridge. And he says, when it comes to, will you let me down? He's

Tyler Farnes 27:34
gonna let me down. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sam 27:38
And I guess that I guess it's sort of like was evolving throughout the song because it's, at least in that part, you're kind of accepting it. But we were writing this part is supposed to be an instrumental, I was like, I feels like there's a lyric that has to go over this. And that, like, that's just like, what popped in my head. And it kind of just worked out like that. And that's that final kind of just like sort of letting it go. But just like, when it goes the way that I don't want it to at least don't make me feel too bad about it. So like, at the time, I had a crazy emotional attachment to the song, but probably by even by the time it came out, I was like, I use it as a form of closure. It's like if there's something that I feel like, isn't wrapped up neatly in my brain, like I get to write something about it, close it up, and then and then I can look at it as a song I can't I don't have to look at it as this thing that was occurring or something. The really interesting part about songs that are like that, is that people will then connect with what they're feeling in their situation to the song even though technically, it's about a situation that like I experienced with Jacob experience, but especially say it back. People tell me very often that that song means like a lot to them. And it's funny, because it's like, these people are actively going through what I wrote the song about. But at this point, I've already moved on to it. And I hope that that song helped someone move on from a situation like that. But it's very interesting hearing that, and like people that are just like really attached to some of the songs that we write. Because it it just resonates with them. So it's cool to like, I guess it's not cool if they're going through something that sucks. But yeah, it's it's cool to think that we're relating with people and they're kind of like understanding like, in like, what the principle of our music is relating it to their own life.

Tyler Farnes 29:33
This album, in general, it gets me really anxious. I feel a lot of anxiety and sort of like emotions, but it's just sort of like coming out coming into it.

Jacob 29:47
So the general the general vibe of the album, I tried to keep it a loose thread of I'm just trying to be more open and honest. And it seemed like The like, being, like, trapped in like a spot where you're like, I don't want to, you know, like, talk about what I'm going through. But seeing that like not doing it is like, you know, not doing me great. Because like, trying to like desperately be like you're here, here's everything that's inside of me take it or send it off, you know, which I think is like, kind of represented in like the, the the album cover with like the island all the little guys. Yeah, were there. They are eternally waiting. We mean the artists, we had like a bunch of lore behind it. Yeah, so eternally waiting, because they're like, they're in that spot where it's like, you know, they're the equivalent of being in that spot where, like, I want to get, be open and be honest, but I'm just waiting for something to get me there. And they're waiting for somebody to pick them up. But it's probably not going to happen. Okay. I think one thing is that I don't remember who said this, or if it was one of us, but um, the the, in comparison to the EPA, the EPA was kind of like, it was telling us about certain like, emotions, and kind of like dances around them. And like, people can draw their own conclusions. I feel like the album, just kind of like, makes you feel it. Yeah, it like you directly through the emotions. And it's like, it's like in the EP, we're talking about things that are happening. And when you listen to the album, at least when I listen to the album, it feels like I'm feeling exactly what the song is about. And to the point where like, there's a song on there that we talked about a little bit earlier companion slash nine tails. That is about the loss of Jacob's

Tyler Farnes 31:56
well that's that that's when your foot length on Yeah.

Sam 32:00
And I've heard from multiple people that that song is so sad that they can't even listen to it yet. It's one of the lower streamed ones on it. And I think it's because of that song to the feeling of like, loss and like, it's, it's such like a sad song that I don't even think people like to listen to it, which, to a certain extent is like, I think at that point, it's it just served its purpose exactly how it was supposed to. Because it was just meant to display the actual feeling. It doesn't exactly need to be like, a popular song or like, it doesn't have to be like catchy or like, I mean, I think the songs are pretty catchy. But that wasn't the focus to make like a song that people like, want to hear all the time, but just the thought of just putting them through the emotion. And that song is the only song where I cried writing it, tried recording it and almost, I did cry a little bit playing it the only time we played it, yeah. But to go to just bounce off what you said really quickly about putting people through the the emotion. I think that was a big step that I took in my own writing process between the EP and the album is when I was writing when we were all working on the EP I was I had the mindset of like, Okay, write about like the emotion you want to but keep it a little bit vague. So it's still relatable. Yeah, like you don't need to put that much of yourself into it. You can keep distance people relate to it. But when I wrote the, the album, specifically when the first song I wrote for the album, like when once we knew we were working on the album, The first song I wrote was Jasper never cries. And I am I came from it from a place of if I write about exactly and very specifically what I'm going through, people will connect to it if they do and if they do connect to it, it's going to be way stronger than if they vaguely relate to something kind of like it

Tyler Farnes 33:57
so so I guess that's a good transition to the to your full length album. The world is not kind to these things. I love the album cover super cute I love our little dinosaurs and like the beach on tower stuff your your merch is also a great by the way who does all your art for all your stuff.

Jacob 34:17
So we try to source it in different different places. So the the album art was from like one of my very best friends Jordan eldritch Jordan so she did Yeah, she did all the all the album artwork, which turned out really really well and I'm really pleased with it. But all of our other merch is sourced from a bunch of different places. Cool. We've got a Gilly Gilly art ghost gills that are our classic blank state suck 30 which sells

Tyler Farnes 34:51
Yeah, it's awesome.

Sam 34:55
Yeah, we've had we had a bunch of different artists do our stuff. We like to source different local people. Cool, cool, cool,

Tyler Farnes 35:01
full length album. I feel like a lot of bands, or at least a lot of local bands don't really try to do full length albums they try always try to put out singles or EPS I know. You know, this a full length like total song album. How long do they guys? How long did it take for you guys to write it? I think I think, Sam, you hit it out earlier where he kind of like you all sort of you make your own music as well, like individually like you kind of write your own songs. How? How was the whole? How was the whole process of it? Like how many songs are, you know, it was just very collaborative, very, like singular, where somebody would come and be like, Hey, I got something for for a new song. I'll try expound upon this. Like, like, like, what was it like?

Jacob 35:50
So for the I'll start us off and I'll pass it off. Yeah, yeah. So for the as far as the album goes, songwriting wise, I wrote all the songs for the album is like, very much like I was like, in my head, like, locked myself in in a room. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah, actually, like myself in room. But yeah, I was like, you know, I would just, you know, try to be very alone with with the, with the music. And I started reading a lot of poetry. So, okay. It, that whole process kind of, like elevated my love for songwriting so much that I just wrote the full 12. Okay, um, but that's you want to talk about how long that took us? Oh, yeah, you're

Seth 36:31
good. Now you're killing I

Tyler Farnes 36:32
guess, if you do the mixing and stuff, right, or Sam, sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Seth 36:37
No, you're good. Sam does the production. So I think it took like a year, it was a year and a half between our EP and our album, which is a really long time, I just realized that. I think technically, if you're talking about getting more streams, getting more followers, releasing singles and EPS, like a lot of local bands do is way smarter, like, okay, like with Spotify, like there's a thing where you can like pitch your songs to be put on playlists and stuff before you release them. And that does a lot for your fan base. And if you really single as you can pitch each song, but if you release a full album, then like, you can only pick one song from it, for example. So it's, it's probably not the most like, smart thing for promotion to do like a full length album right off the bat like that. But I think we were just, we just wanted to put out something that was really cohesive, and really, its own body of work. That was all work together. So I think that was a cool thing to do.

Sam 37:37
Yeah. I think that that that was more or less commercially, I don't think that we really have ever tried to make something commercially successful. Yeah, like, beyond the point that we're like, do we think people will like this, because we go with that. So I think that like, if we wanted to focus more on like that, we probably wouldn't have done an album that soon. But I think that we just focus more on making it as like a art form and then just trying to please the people that are supportive of us that our shows. Cool. So we just wanted to have, we also another thing that we wanted to do was have enough or an hour set without having to play any covers. Yeah. So that was, that was no wizard coverage, you probably had to have two to three EPS to fill an hour without having like, too many slow songs with like, other things like that. So the album worked out for us and just gave us enough like fast, upbeat songs play at our shows, and a few like, ones for a little section in the middle. It kind of gives people a little bit of a break for the end.

Tyler Farnes 38:56
Did um, so this album, we do you guys seem a lot more confident individually with your instruments with your sort of music, how you guys sort of flow together earliest, sort of making your own stuff. I feel like every instrument but in in, in most songs has really a time to shine and just sort of like he could because I personally love songs where I can listen to what instrument during what one played through and just like kind of just like focus on that and like completely go through it. And that could do it for another one. And I could do it for all the all these other different parts I get to afford for together earthtones I really like earthtone because I feel like it's definitely that sort of song for me. Were you guys a lot more confident and sort of like putting stuff together where you guys were more just sort of like flowing sort of easily was sort of like making your own music like well, like you guys feel that way

about it.

Seth 39:56
I really like earthtones instrumentally too, I think That's one of the more interesting sounding songs, a lot of our songs kind of like, they don't sound the same, but they have like a like, another similar and like a way that like, it's a cohesive sound. And then when we play earthtones live, we can always see people kind of like, wake up a little bit. Okay, what's going on here?

Tyler Farnes 40:18
Yeah,

Seth 40:19
I do like a Latin dance group and that song.

Tyler Farnes 40:23
I don't know why, but I rise, we have like, sort of a very jazzy just very dislike, like, smoothly going along with sort of, like everybody just sort of like, not doing their own thing, having their own improv sections. Like, it's pretty much some Latin thing, because I can sort of, like, just remind me of it, but I don't know.

Sam 40:40
It's, it's weird. Sometimes the kinds of parts that we add into songs is like, instrumentally. Like, if you if you think about, like, um, like, lovely one, which is like, it's like, yeah, we're in an indie band. And like, the vocals are similar to that. But we're just singing that over a dance beat. Like that, like the drums are like a dance be it sounds like we're like, it's, it's just like a very funny thing to just throw random just, like styles into into songs that don't necessarily you wouldn't normally think of it, of like doing of that working. But I think that it's funny to throw things in, and then just have them work out like that.

Jacob 41:27
And I think, specifically earthtones was such a good example of like, US writing. Like, I think it's one of our best examples of us writing parts, that all just like, clicked together. Yeah, like every instrument, just locked in with like each other. Especially because when I wrote that song, it was way slower. And I was like, Yeah, I don't know, this might be a little like, little like, kinda like groovy sort of thing I don't know, might be kind of on the softer. And, um, and then, when I brought it to do Seth and salmon, I was like, Okay, here's the song. I don't know, it's kind of might be a little bit slower. Whatever. We, I think the first thing that happened was was set, put the drums over and I was like, this has to be much faster than it is right now. Yeah. And we sped it up with like, this sounds really cool. And like, the way that they like, tied together is really, really cool. And then Sam wrote a bass part that I would have never thought to write. They're like ties, like I was so like, dude, that sounds so like, clean with it. And it all just meshed together. And as soon as I heard everything I was like, This is how the song is like, nice. I remember when like, we were like, in our like, practice space, like playing the song to try to figure it out. And once we got that, like that run that just locked everything together. I was like, That is like exactly what we need. You didn't have the bridge though. Like the end part. Like the overruns aren't friends. We didn't have that whole instrumental section. For like, a really long time. We just didn't know what was gonna go there were like, something will happen. Put a pin in it. And then one day I was like, because I was trying to write something that was equally as like, complex on like, my on like guitar and stuff. I was like, what if i What if we just wail on it for like, the whole rest of the song? Yeah, just two chords just over and over again. Just keep going. Yeah, that's that's, like the most emo we've gotten. Like, really? It's been a fun time. Um,

Tyler Farnes 43:23
so also, I guess we didn't mentioned it earlier. Jasper never cries. You mentioned that. It's a it makes a lot of people and your shows like feel really crying and sort of just like, get into it. Right. It was I want to

Jacob 43:41
Yeah, roast people in that song. It mainly that sounds really like energetic. Yeah, it makes people Oh, yeah. Yes. Sorry. Yeah. It gets people it gets people going though. Yeah, I will say it is one of the best like, route like response songs. Like people people get going during that song. Especially. Like, when we play like hometown shows. That is the one where like, even like we'd like in years and stuff. We'll play it like when we played at amo Southend. I could hear people sing it back to me. And I was like, this is like, one of the weirdest things I've ever like, witnessed. Yeah, I I

Tyler Farnes 44:19
don't know like at the section I pretend to pretend it's okay. Yeah. It's like it's just it all kind of gets into into it's very catchy. He also that's when you have a music video for two years. Right? How was it like, shooting that music video How was like playing playing that song and sort of like creating it like

Jacob 44:41
I was. It was one drive to Raleigh, the planning session. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So if you want to talk about playing it that that we live streamed that no after?

Seth 44:52
Yeah, okay, so we've the first time we played in Raleigh was like an art vendor festival. You can grab market Okay. That shadow geek and shadow geek putting us on Yeah, we love them. But we just like we drove there and they gave us a vendor booth to set up our merch and we played like outside and like this little we got rained on it was a whole thing. But anyway, um, that was like the first time we like traveled for a show, I guess. And so on the way home, we were like, Okay, we have the song and we want to make a music video for as Jasmine ever cries and we were like, let's just spend the whole drive thinking of a music video idea. And we can't stop talking about it until we find one. And then the whole I don't know the if you just think about the idea of the music video. It was like Jacob had like this little character drawing on his phone that was like supposed to symbolize the song in some way. It was like what if I just dress up as this character walk around downtown and then it just got weirder. We were like what if Sam and I were building a bookshelf?

Tyler Farnes 45:55
Yeah, that's what I say like building some IKEA bookshelf for

Seth 45:58
Sam and I were building an Ikea bookshelf and we were like what if the whole music video was Jacob getting closer to us and then at the end he smashes the bookshelf that we just built all of

Sam 46:07
our you haven't seen it? Oh yeah go

Tyler Farnes 46:09
watch it. I mean like if you're on the bus and you just started it's like you're going and getting close am I yeah,

Sam 46:15
I'm on the way you want a little bit more insight into how that was the record we do have a behind the scenes video on the the only thing that that idea just kept getting weirder and weirder. I will say I don't know why we were like yeah, okay, I'm dressed up as the character as Jasper right and I'm going with this axe to go smash them whatever. I don't know where the axe comes from. I just don't have it. Yeah, but for some reason we drew the line after I smashed the show. We drew the line we were like okay, we can't do the getaway go kart we have to cut that idea. Oh

Tyler Farnes 46:46
my gosh.

Get away go kart seems like Mario Kart

Sam 46:50
shouldn't be a getaway go kart but

Seth 46:52
this is too far. No, but all of

Jacob 46:55
that has done with that fire. We just like we were so worried that the fire was going to like spread with that fire at the end.

Seth 47:03
Oh yeah. So there's at the end of the music video there's like we put all the pieces from the bookshelf into a little fire pit and we set it on fire. And if you think about it, it's kind of lame to set a fire but do it in a fire pit. So we so we were like We initially were going to do it in my driveway and we literally poured gasoline and then we were like hold on we could very well cause a really bad fire and burn down my house if we do a gasoline fire that's not contained. So then we'd spent a long time cleaning up our mess and then we put it in the fire pit

Sam 47:37
and we just pretended in the music video that we were burning the pile that was on the driveway

Jacob 47:46
we really didn't need to pour gasoline on the driveway. Yeah All right. Well,

Tyler Farnes 47:50
um thank you all so much a blank blank state I was about to say blank slate but blank state for for for coming down to WKNC it's talking I think it was great. Where can people find you and your music and whatnot?

Jacob 48:05
Yeah, so you can find us or we're most active on Instagram at @blankstate.official. We have all of our other social medias and stuff in our link tree there so you can find us there you have tickets for shows if you want to see any upcoming shows or website or merch if you're in Charlotte and want to see us in May May 18 at the evening news with moving boxes

Seth 48:26
gonna be great.

Tyler Farnes 48:28
Cool Cool. All right, well, um and thank you so much. Those flattered to listening to for listening to Off the record here at WKNC I've been your host a loaf this has been WKNC 80.1 FM HD on Raleigh. Thank you all again so much a blank state for coming down it was great having you guys thank you for having us. All right, and to to uh to get us off of this well coming up I guess we're I'm gonna put on both you are tones and Jasper never cries second for you guys amazing All right. And yeah, so hopefully I'll enjoy thank you so much for all for listening

Seth 49:12
amazing let's go

Speaker 1 49:34
gone colorblind to Earth to 70 things gone green and brown and perfect. Old friends killing their perceptions who.

Unknown Speaker 49:59
Says To find me

Unknown Speaker 50:10
daddy my daddy

Unknown Speaker 50:31
My

Unknown Speaker 50:37
name is it all by me

Unknown Speaker 50:51
daddy was my daddy

Unknown Speaker 51:14
friends there's nothing

Unknown Speaker 51:26
like IV on my arm

Unknown Speaker 51:48
friends

Speaker 1 52:50
gave a we never see eye to eye on anything and Jasper you told me you always seem so many years to find you because I could give anything that I have nothing to hide and I can never talk like he never described Jasmine Jasmine okay overwhelming I was feeling Jasmine Jasmine okay but it's never never never gonna go away just another thing Jane. Just another thing change and if I ever add anything you and I would never be the same you know the my end and call me by my name and you can never you can never talk just got Jasmine Jasmine overwhelming I was dealing with Jasmine Jasmine

Unknown Speaker 54:40
we dead

Unknown Speaker 54:46
Jasmine Jasmine

Unknown Speaker 54:57
Jasmine As

Speaker 1 55:08
well anything as long as it's in your name would weigh me down on my neck and my face and my hairs in my face. If I learn anything as long as this you would see me coming back with me

Transcribed by https://otter.ai