The Blizzards are back and in full control creatively

 

After a six-year hiatus, The Blizzards have returned with an infectious a new single, Drop Down The Anchor, and a string of dates lined up for Scotland locations, including Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh’s Electric Circus, before returning for Cork’s Indiependence on July 30 and a whole host of other festivals yet to be announced.

And their first time to step on stage together as a band again was at Michael D’s garden party in Áras an Uachtaráin at the weekend.

It’s a rainy afternoon in Mullingar when I meet with The Blizzards frontman Bressie, and drummer Dec Murphy. In fact it’s a torrential downpour leading Bressie to wonder aloud if it’s possible to get struck by lightning while driving, while Dec reminisces about the last time The Blizzards performed together.

Dec begins by telling me his son was born on the night of the band’s second last gig on December 28, and that Ben is now six and a half.
So what made them decide that now was the right time to re-form?

“The fame and fortune,” jokes Bressie, before Dec clarifies: “It was a general conversation over the last two and half years.”

“We were never a two-album band,” Bressie adds more seriously. “Not that we had unfinished business. We felt at the time we had stopped progressing. We weren’t moving forward and that was fundamentally what we were trying to achieve.

“And we weren’t enjoying it as much as we should,” he admits. “I think that’s the reason we were able to remain friends. We didn’t make some bullshit excuse – it just wasn’t any fun any more.”

The five-piece regularly check they’re gaining ground creatively.

“We got stagnant in the end,” says Dec. “We weren’t going to go out and do gigs just for the sake of doing gigs, for the sake of being The Blizzards... Gigging is not our top priority. If we start gigging and gigging hard, we won’t write, we won’t go into studio, because we don’t all have unlimited time here. We have to be really clever with the time that we do have.”

The biggest change is their producer - from Michael Beinhorn (renowned for firing drummers, and who produced their first two albums A Public Display of Affection and Domino Effect), to Phil Magee – who has worked with Kodaline, Miles Kane and The Script.

That, and the fact that they’re not tied to a label. The Blizzards are in control of their own destiny this time around.

“There’s days you go in and it’s just a brainfart,” says Bressie. You’ve no ability to be creative or write songs. There’s no one saying to us 'Where’s the album?’, or 'Play Fantasy five times!’. No one’s putting a gun to our heads.”

And they are enjoying the steady progress Drop Down The Anchor has had to date. They want their music to grow organically.

“With the first single, we just want people to know that we’re back,” says Bressie. “The next single after that has to grow, and so on. Drop Down The Anchor, as our first single, wouldn’t have been our quintessential Blizzards sound. It was a bit more modern contemporary. We’ve the absolute right to develop the sound we want to develop. One thing we’ve learned is you can’t keep being defined by how other people want you to be, want you to sound. I think with the second single it’s a little bit more Blizzards-y.”

They’ve realised that key to the “Blizzards sound” is the drums, which lie roughly around 160bpm (beats per minute).

“So like, what we’re trying to do when we play gigs is for Dec to literally be bolloxed by the end of it!”

Priorities
“I said to the lads right at the beginning, top of the list, it’s not record labels, not money, not anything – but fun,” Bressie continues. “And that was it. We brought Phil in, and apart from being one of the most likeable men you could meet, lo and behold we enjoyed the (studio) process – everybody did.”
Dec: “I think, sonically he just sees it. Drop Down The Anchor, there’s great energy, and I always thought the albums lacked that live energy that Phil has managed to achieve here. But a lot of what I’ve learned, I’ve learned from Beinhorn, he’s instilled that in me.”

Bressie: “The thing is we have no expectations. Which sounds like we don’t care, but when you set severe expectations on yourself, especially in a creative industry, it taints everything. We’ve removed that ceiling. The thing about this industry is the radio stations hold the power. And as soon as you start writing music to fit in with radio, it becomes suffocating.”

While they commit to six hours in the studio together each week, Bressie continues to be the main songwriter.

“Some bands love sitting in a house out on an island, staring at the Atlantic... Eff that! Let’s go in together, play together, and see what feels right in a rehearsal room,” he says of the writing process. “I’m not one of these lads that need to stare off into the horizon and feel in the right place (to write). If it hits you... most of my ideas hit me on M4 driving down from Dublin. I’ll send something on to the lads, and unless there’s an immediate reaction, it doesn’t get used,” he says.

Whelan’s
Their first major gig is Whelan’s on Friday July 1 and it’s already a sell-out.
“Whelan’s is a huge milestone for us,” says Dec. “In Dublin you take steps, I don’t know if you do any more but when we were there, you’d get in and get on the Friday night of Eamonn Doran’s on a 12-act bill. And then that promoter would bring you to the Voodoo Lounge, and then you’d headline Whelan’s. We were told that we’d be struggling. Little did they know that Slevins had six buses and it was jammed! That’s a gig we’ll never forget.”

Bressie: “The people of Mullingar won’t support it unless they enjoy it. I’ll find it massively emotive to get up on stage there again. It’s just a dirty gig, it’s sweaty, it’s intense. You’re two feet from the people in front of you. I’d have a nightmare if our first gig was a festival where you’re 12 feet up and you’re 25 feet from the crowd.

“In my head that’s our first gig back and we need the people of Whelan’s to help us find that connection again. I think with the new songs, until we start playing them live and feeling the response off them, that’s when we’ll really know whether it works.”

The Blizzards’ second single is due out in August and a new album is heralded for early next year.