Matt (vocals, guitar) gigged around Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston with the indie rock bands Dead by Friday, Mouse, and Jackass Punch. His songwriting is the foundation of Blether. He's desperate to write a song with two chords and no chorus that is still worth listening to. So far he has failed. In his next life he would like to be Bjork -- cute, short, Icelandic, and an amazing singer.
Steve (lead guitar) has never heard of half the bands the younger guys in the group cut their teeth on and has no idea what "indie rock" means. He thinks true rock-and-roll lies somewhere between Ziggy Stardust and the Cars' eponymous first album. He might be right. And he can play the guitar solo from half the rock songs from the seventies note for note.
Pat (bass) spends his days as an eco-friendly pest management specialist. He brings tasteful bass melodies, an infectious enthusiasm and wealth of gnarly rock-and-roll facial expressions to the band, not to mention the requisite monster bottom end.
Nick (drums) studied percussion at Ithaca College and gigs with upstate New York orchestras when he's not playing with Blether. He knows fancy things like rudiments and how to play with mallets. Despite these credentials, he's failed to make the band respectable. And he lives in a yurt -- no kidding.
Influences
Bowie, early Cars, Wilco, Radiohead, Jane's Addiction, Stereolab, Elliott Smith, Cat Power, Bjork, early Liz Phair, The Police, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Squeeze, Queens of the Stone Age, Slayer, Nirvana, Beatles, Rolling Stones -- anything with energy and melody.
Sounds Like
At a friend’s wedding in 2006, Matt (vocals, guitar) and Steve (lead guitar) played The Beatles’ "I Will" during the bride’s procession. At the reception, they hatched a plan: Why not form a rock band? They shanghaied Rob (drums), the unofficial sound technician and DJ of the wedding, and Blether was born.
The band began to rehearse in the "Jam Shack," a beaten-down trailer on Steve’s property in the woods outside of Ithaca. Before each practice, they had to maneuver past Steve’s ornery, crooked-backed dog, Scout, without getting bitten. “Just act like you’ve known her all your life,” Steve would invariably say. “You’ll be just fine.” No one believed him, and for good reason.
After a slew of unsuccessful auditions for a bass player, the band discovered Pat, who, as it turns out, was under their noses the whole time as the bassist in Steve’s other project, Ithaca stalwarts Rottweiler Nation.
Rob departed the band for a lucrative academic day job in July 2007 (loser!). Without missing a beat, Nick stepped in to fill his place. The songs have taken on a cool new vibe with the unique character of his drumming.
The Name:
Blether (rhymes with "leather") is a Scottish term for "one who chatters incessantly." Matt's mother, a native of Scotland, used to call him that in her Groundskeeper Willy brogue. The other band members express their ambivalence about the name with their forced smiles and pained expressions. But Matt dialed up the MySpace site before they could protest, and now they are stuck with it.
Blether is an Ithaca-based power pop quartet who combine a love of high energy guitar riffs with ear-candy melodies and occasional bursts of dissonance. Inspired by the likes of the Beatles, Bowie, Radiohead, and Wilco, Blether aspires to create thoughtful, textured arrangements around songs you could sing with only an acoustic guitar. The band is currently in the studio recording an EP for release in fall 2008.
Sweeeet! Matt- looks like you did some booking since our last conversation. I've decided that "Blether" is actually a contraction of "Buried In Leather", so we'll be expecting our royalty check sometime soon (alternatively, a round of pool will do nicely). Also, I've noticed the glaring omission of "Mourningside" from your influence list...
