Waves Vienna: Three boys with a story to tell – A talk with Blaenavon

Some things are beautiful precisely because they embody two opposite ideas. The three (sorry) wunderkids of Blaenavon have just attained full age but sound as if they would make music since two lifetimes – not least because of the amazing singing voice of Harris McMillan. Just „three boys with a story to tell“, that‘s all they actually are, they modestly say in their succinct online bio. Nevertheless, with their debut EP „KOSO“ – released last October – the Hampshire-based trio instantly received critical acclaim becoming a precious insiders‘ tip and newcomer-darling of various blogs as well as the NME. Fusing together ingenious lyrics with mellow guitar riffs and simplistic yet commanding percussion sections, there‘s no doubt Blaenavon have an extremely bright future ahead of them. „Blaenavon is where the heart is, baby“, is written on their facebook page. We agree and can‘t wait to see them perform live at the Vienna Waves Festival on October the 2nd. Be there and/or check out their music and our talk with the band below.

Can you tell us a little bit about you? How did Blaenavon start out?

It’s a common tale really; we all met at school and played together for a little bit before deciding to reinvent ourselves as the Blaeners boys. Ben and Harris met Frank and bass and everything worked out nicely.

What would you cite as a main influence, musically and otherwise?

Back then the influence was trying to look cool in front of our mates in school meeting when we played. Nowadays the soothing voice of Glen Campbell keeps us on the straight and narrow.

Does the city you‘re living in, Hampshire, influence you artistically? Are you in touch with many other bands there?

A little bit, we’ve all grown up here since we were little babies. Crepe and The Radiation Frühstücks are the best bands in our area and provide some healthy guitar battles.

Where do you draw inspiration from for your lyrics?

Girls and stuff.

Have you always considered music as a future plan for yourselves?

It’s always been an appealing option but we’re open to other choices. We’ll probably study something else at some point even if we hit the big time. We’re not quitting still we’ve performed a gig in a balloon.

What is your day-to-day routine? How do or did you balance this with other commitments like school etc?

That depends what we’re doing, if we’re at home much of the time is spent idly. If we’re playing shows then we spend most of the day travelling and then having a great time in the evening with beers and hanging out on stage. At the moment we are recording so lots of our time is spent in the hot tub. It was only occasionally a problem balancing it with school work but now we don’t have to worry about that.

You were touring with Warpaint the last few months. How was that?

It was a very small tour of two dates. They were among our favourite shows to play because the crowds watched attentively and we met loads of sweet people afterwards as well. We’ve had a taste of perfect shows now though, which might be hard to find again. Warpaint were great too.

How often have you read the term „wunderkind“ referred to you (and not the track) lately? And does it bother you?

Not that often, hopefully people don’t think the track name is about us. We’d happily be called that by our mothers though.

You’re currently working on your debut album. How’s that going? Have you figured a title out yet?

It’s going really well. We spent a lot of time thinking carefully about what we want the album to be rather than being content with what we were accustomed to doing. We’re doing it all ourselves so it’s nice to be isolated from any distractions whilst we work things out. The perfect name still eludes us but maybe we’ll find one soon.

www.blaenavon.com

Interview by Katja Schifferegger
Photo by Owen Richards