DJ Interviews: Blackout Orchestra

 Here's my interview with a dou band who hail from Toronto CanadaBlackout Orchestra

How'd you get started in music? 

- I was really into movie scores as a kid, really moved by the music even if the movies weren't that good, and my family had a little Yamaha keyboard. I would just play around trying to figure out the melodies by ear. A was also an avid reader. So when I first heard the sort of alternative music that was coming out at the time, I realized that it mixed both of those things that I found really powerful - words that meant something soundtracked to really powerful sounds and melodies, and I was hooked.

Who are your inspirations or influences? 

-That's really hard to pin down - I love everything from rock and hip hop, dance music, jazz, really avant garde noise rock - it might not be apparent but honestly I cherry pick a little from all of it. I guess if I were to narrow it down to one band that maybe we don't sound like but would look to as a career, it would be The Cure because they've done it all. They can play the most gut wrenching 11 minute dirge of existential pain before launching into the silliest 3 minute pop song and as a listener, you accept the whole spectrum - you still know it's The Cure even if the style is wildly different from song to song. 

What advice would you offer aspiring performers? 

-I would say the biggest mistake I see is deciding "this is the kind of band we are, this the fantasy we want to appeal to". I think the best artists from Bowie to Bjork to Kendrick Lamar create their own worlds and invite you in, and change as they evolve. If you decide "we're going to be a punk rock band", that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for evolution. You can make punk rock records, but don't tie yourself down to " we want to appeal to punk rock fans" because as an artist you want to give yourself room to explore wherever your impulse takes you. The only audience you should be thinking of is "if I weren't in this band, would I be a fan".

How do you set yourselves apart from other bands or singers? 

-it's not a conscious thing, really. We don't set out to be different for the sake of it, we just set out to be as honest as possible about who we are. If you're being fully yourself when you're writing, you're going to stand out just by nature of the fact that everyone is unique. The more it comes from your core the more unique it will be.

Any new gigs or albums in the future?

-Our album Beauty Sleep will be out August 26th, and we're really happy with how it turned out. And we'll be playing in Ontario and Quebec through September. Beyond that, we're just trying to go with the flow. If the pandemic taught us anything it's that no matter how concrete you think your plans are, everything can change at a moment's notice. So for now we're just seeing what opportunities come up and if the excite us in the moment, we say yes and hope for the best.