Against the Grain Festival is just around the corner and we thought we would introduce some of the bands to each other. We asked FRITZ to interview Blonde Tongues ahead of their sets at the festival. 

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Hey how are you all? I’m a big fan so I’m really keen to see you play at Against The Grain! I saw that this will be your first gig in about three years, why is that?

Hey hey! We’re really excited to play as well! It’ll be such a great time! And three years, yeah, well we took a hiatus when Cal (guitar/vox) moved down to Melbourne, and was soon followed by Barnesy (synth) and Aiden (drums). It just became too difficult to navigate the long distance aspect of the band, so we slowed down, to a halt basically hahaha. Against The Grain is just a great excuse to jump back into it all, big nostalgia trip.

 

The first song I heard of yours was Hey Good Lookin’, I loved it instantly - that song really blew up, was there anything that sparked that?

Thelazylazyme is a YouTube channel run by a girl named Susie from Milan or something I think. She was an early fan and was pretty much on board with that song immediately, and for no reason in particular it just got huge on her channel. We were really lucky for that little break, it pretty much funded everything we’ve done since.

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Do you dress up for Halloween? Only asking because its soon… I think I’m going to dress up as Barney the purple dinosaur, is that a good idea?
That’s a pretty big commitment, I think you should do it for sure. You’ll have to learn some of the songs, “I Love You” is the obvious classic. What a tune! I don’t know if i’ll dress up this year though, no inspiration has hit me for it!

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Do you have a favourite kind of dinosaur?
T-Rex for sure, but anything Marc Bolan called his bands would make me love that dinosaur.

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I’ve never seen you guys play before…in three words how would you describe your live shows?

Hmm, I’d probably be inclined to say: loud, dreamy and loving.
 

Here’s a pretty common question, but I would love to know, who or what inspires your song writing?

There’s a lot that inspires us. Our song “Paula E. Sheppard” is directly inspired by lines in Liquid Sky. Whereas “Hey Good Lookin’” was, lyrically especially, inspired by things like Husker Du, the Smiths, some Felt. Even some of the sound for our track “When You Come Down Blue” was inspired by the fuzzed bass in Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Ghost”. It all kind of comes from a billion places and you just have to put the right stuff together until you know it’s something you can call your own.

 

Bread or toast?

Toast 80% of the time, bread 20%. It’s a mood and meal decision.

Finally, can I please give you all a hug at Against The Grain? I would really love that, if its okay with you all…
Absolutely. We’re big on the hugs :)

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Find out more about Against the Grain Festival here!