Interview with... Blisseyes

We caught up with Crosby of Blisseyes to see what they've been up to this year, their plans for the rest of the year and Echo & The Bunnymen.

So you've had a good year so far, some good shows dotted around your home-towns, what was the best show so far you've played this year?

We have actually only played two shows in 2014; we have been a little busy in the studio and have kept rather quiet. We enjoyed playing with Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs in March, they are a really great band and cool chaps. We also played a sold out show up in Norwich which was a fun night. Both of those shows were basically opportunities for us to play new material and see how the new songs were forming live, we actually played 100% previously unheard material at those two gigs. It seemed to go down really well, certainly exciting to perform new songs. 

I hear Blisseyes have some new material in the pipe-line, care to share any juicy details of it?

Yes, we have been busy; and still are. We went into the studio in January, initially for a week, to record three new songs. But, while we were in there we started experimenting and began to uncover a lot of exciting things. Subsequently we re-wrote everything and began writing again from scratch, perusing this new aesthetic we had found. The new material is a lot more true to us and our influences, and certainly a lot more thought out and composed, more mature perhaps. It has been a fascinating journey of exploration and discovery. We are looking to be finished very soon, I cannot really say what we will come out with in terms of quantity or volume of music, but expect to hear some very new sounds from us in the very near future.

Do you have any shows planned for the rest of the year?

We have a couple of small festival announcements in the pipeline and a few low-key shows dotted around over summer but we are hoping to hit the road intensively as soon as we are out of the studio. We miss it. 

What albums/EPs have you been enjoying since the year turned?

I’m really enjoying Connan Mockasin’s record which came out last year, I’m still finding subtleties with every listen, and Klaus Johann Grobe’s new material is also sounding great, they are a groovy Swiss duo. Other than that I’m not certain I have listened to an awful lot of music released this year; we have had a lot of artists like Silver Apples, Shocking Blue, Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, Pulp, and Jacco Gardner on in the studio, alongside composers like Reich, Berlioz, Stockhausen, and Parmegiani — so there is certainly a nice mix of flavours swimming around us at the moment. 

If you could put together a 3 band line-up (including yourselves) who would be on the bill?

I think David Bowie would headline, but as for which era Bowie I would want I could not say . . . I would leave that down to him, I trust his judgement. There is nothing wrong with current-era Bowie though, ‘The Next Day’ was great! July would be next. They are just one of my favourite groups from the 60s; they embody British psychedelic music and have so many fantastic tunes. They are actually reforming at the moment! I guess that leaves us next if we have to be on the bill. But if not, I’d choose Astral Pattern. I saw those guys live recently and was really impressed, I noticed they played a show with Damo Suzuki from Can not too long ago which I’m really disappointed to have missed! 

Also, one last question, The Smiths or Joy Division?

Echo & The Bunnymen.

Thanks to 'Crosby' for the interview, what a charming charmer he is. Expect to see Blisseyes playing a show towards the end of the year, and if you see them play a show near you GO TO IT! But while you wait, check out a few of their songs below.

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