Getting to Know… Blotter | Interview 🎤

In the 346^th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from three-piece rock band, Blotter.

“For us as a band, we like to focus a lot on back-up vocals and harmonies more than anything.” Awesome, 🎙 Blotter! Please, tell us more: “Think about those killer back-ups that made Van Halen sound so amazing! That’s certainly one thing that sets us apart from most bands.” Like our many other Getting to Know Q&As, we get the inside scoop on the collective’s genesis, goals, musical influences, and of course, current, and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… Blotter: Interview No. 346!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Blotter distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

For us as a band, we like to focus a lot on back-up vocals and harmonies more than anything; as well as, focusing on what makes a song sound good rather than being flashy and just trying to show off. In the age of auto-tuning we try to be more true to the actual talent of singing because all our band members share the load when it comes to vocal duties. Think about those killer back-ups that made Van Halen sound so amazing! That’s certainly one thing that sets us apart from most bands.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Blotter form and what were some of the goals or visions you had early on?

We’re actually all cousins, so we’ve known each other our whole lives and began jamming together over 15 years ago. We initially began as a cover band that played songs we loved and listened to growing up. Eventually we learned how to write our own music and began recording them. Since then, we’ve been flying the BLOTTER flag! KISS is a big influence for us, and their goal starting out was to play Madison Square Garden, so that’s been one of our goals since the very beginning!

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

In the very beginning our goals were pretty much every cliche of rock stars you could think of. Sex, drugs, rock n’ roll, selling millions of records, and being millionaires. That was the idea of “making it.” When we really started getting serious we came to understand this is a business, and you have to operate with that in mind. “Making it” to us now is being able to make new music, tour, and sell enough merchandise that we can make a decent living. But, as we said before the number one goal since the beginning is to play Madison Square Garden, so that one hasn’t changed a bit.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Collectively we’re all huge fans of bands like KISS, Alice Cooper, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Ghost, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Judas Priest, etc. The guys (and gals) of bands like that have an amazing sense of professionalism. For example, KISS gives it 100% every night no matter where they go. The way they perform, interact with fans and the crowd, and how they conduct themselves is really something to emulate. There’s a reason bands like that last as long as they do. We work really hard to make sure we play to our best ability every time we take the stage. Just like our heroes do.

 Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Shewww we have some stories for sure! One of the craziest was how we almost died driving through West Virginia. We had been traveling in an RV for a tour and were coming home from playing a tremendous show at the Empty Glass in Charleston, WV. A belt broke in the engine, and we lost power to basically everything in the RV while driving down a mountain. Our guitar player Trey was driving, and he was basically standing on the brake pedal trying to slow us down. Power steering wasn’t working, horn wasn’t working, and the brakes were hardly slowing us down. The RV came inches from rolling right off the mountain! Somehow, we managed to get to level ground, but we pretty much all shit our pants all the way down. Looking back, we love to laugh and joke about it, but we came very close to dying that day!

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

To date, the song that means the most to us is a song we wrote called 🎵 “Reflections.” It really opened us up to song writing. We learned how to add components like vocal harmonies, meaningful lyrics, breakdowns, and dual guitar solos into a song to really make it pop and flow.

 Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

BLOTTER consists of three core members: 🎙 Timmy Pollock, lead and rhythm guitar. 🎙 Trey Bennett, lead and rhythm guitar. And 🎙 Jimbo Wainwright, bass guitar. Between the three of us we all share lead and back-vocal duties. BLOTTER is a family affair because we’re all actually related! It’s hard to put into words, but we all have a kind of connection where we can all interpret what each other is thinking. It becomes really apparent when we play live. A glance, a certain movement, or how one of us holds their guitar, and we automatically know what to do next.

 Closing out, what is Blotter currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

We just released our second studio album, 💿 New Horizon, on March 1st! It’s the first album we’ve done with all members contributing to the songwriting. We had an amazing time recording it together, and it’s on any streaming service if you’d like to listen! Next up for us, we’re about to begin recording sessions for an acoustic album we’ve been dying to do for years, and another album we plan on beginning later this year. There were a few songs that didn’t make it onto New Horizon, so some of the material is ready to go. Other than recording we’ve began booking shows for the summer and are working on a new band website. Lots on the agenda for us this year!

Getting to Know…Blotter: Interview No. 346 [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Blotter, Loud Street Media; Tumisu via Pixabay]