Riding the Storm with.. THE BLINDERS

I'd seen The Blinders live before, it was a life altering experience. An energy that screams "This. Means. War." and makes you forget the world of shit-politics and watered down rock 'n' roll remedies and actually look up upon a stage, and see a hero. A hero of three entities that not only play and sing like a saviour, but looks every bit the part of your new pin up. A bastard love child from an orgy of Jim Morrison, Johnny Lydon and Allen Ginsberg dressed in Apocalypse Now face paint.

So, naturally, walking into the dressing room of the Camden Assembly, we enter a room full of the unknown. There's a sense in the air that you're about to be privy to the start of a revolution - like being Guy Fawkes drinking buddy on the 4th of November... Or something. What followed was predictable, pigeon perfect chaos.

Do not feed the birds...

Charlie: "This band is basically all about pigeons and death, do you ever get the feeling pigeons are plotting to kill you?"

Thomas: "We're half expecting on election day for Theresa May to come out, tear off her face mask and inside is just these four giant pigeons.."

Charlie, Tom and Matty. 28th April 2017. Camden Assembly. Prior to supporting The Shimmer Band.

Alrighty then... How did The Blinders come to be?

Thomas: (vocals/guitar) "We met in high school, we were all very good friends because of music. Matt was in a different band, so we poached him away..."

Matt: (drums/backing vocals) "...I got bored of that band, they broke up because I left, because I'm the best." Thomas: "...He is the best drummer in England...

So yeah, we formed the band, we kept at it through sixtth form. University, decided to go to Manchester. And now here we are in London. It's been going on near three years now."

Matt: "Our first gig was the 21st November 2014 at the Vintage Rock bar in Doncaster. Humble beginning.

Why is it important to be in a band?

Charlie: (bass guitar) "It’s important for us to be in a band . It’s like you either play football or play guitar. it’s something we always need to do, it’s just so natural where we’re into music you know."

Thomas: "The moment I knew I wanted to be in a band was hearing Black Sabbath’s paranoid. That was THE moment for me, really. My step dad showed me when I was 10 years old and I went out and brought a guitar because I wanted to be Ozzy Osborne - it was only then I realised that Ozzy didn’t actually play guitar, so then it was like totally futile but...I carried on. I mean I never used to like to sing, I don’t even know why I sing..."

Max: (roadie) "Yes, you did. What about that video you put out of you singing when you were 11?" Thomas: "I was 10 …. it was 9 months after I learned to play guitar. If you look “Tom’s Ozzy tribute” up on YouTube, you’ve got me in a KISS shirt, with a full-length guitar – you’ll see me."

Charlie: "People are slating you in the comments though!"

Thomas: "I know, I was only 10, people commenting “you’re playing that wrong”. I was getting bullied on the internet! It was my first instance of cyber bullying, and I can’t take it down, because it’s not my account. "

Found it...

What influences The Blinders?

Thomas: "Our influences aren’t mainly musical …"

Charlie: "You’re Kerouac really aren’t you?"

Thomas: "Yeah, I’m a huge fan of Kerouac. I love the beat generation in general. I just can’t get into S Burroughs, maybe in a few years. Ginsberg’s Howl – he was the man, that kind of prose inspires us onstage. It’s also the prospective prose that inspires my writing.. you write from what you know, and that’s what I get from Jack (Kerouac). He’s my complete hero."

Charlie: "Inspiration comes from everywhere really, from listening to certain songs but even seeing art."

Thomas: "Art is where you get the unique perspectives that influence you."

Charlie: "Yeah, absolutely, getting that glimpse of someone else’s perspective is hugely inspirational in writing songs. It makes our lyrics a little more… sophisticated, than if we were just listening to bands."

The Blinders and Politics:

Thomas: "Politics are hugely important to us, to everyone really. I’ve spoken to people who say they’re not interested in it, or they want to ignore it – and I’ve said to them, you can’t ignore it – it’s all around. You can’t escape from it, it controls our lives. It influences what we talk about and sing about on stage."

Charlie: "I mean with our writing, I think it comes from everything you know, we write about how we feel at the time, sometimes it just comes from being annoyed, I’m not Bono, trying to change the world. Thomas: I like to think I’m Bono on stage… But I fucking hate Bono."

The Blinders vs. Johnny Dream

Thomas: "We have a philosophy that we’re building as we go along. We call it Johnny Dream. He’s not one person, he’s an entity of all of us – three become one you know? It’s the aberrant disgusting character, a guy that wears face paint, a guy who shoots people with a bass guitar and secretly hopes they all drop dead… It started accidentally, we used to get so caught up in adrenaline that we’d take on this feral nature – but now it’s turned into something.."

Charlie: "It’s a bit out of our hands, call it a Ziggy Stardust thing."

Thomas: "It’s something that’s becoming more and more conscious, now we’re talking about writing from that perspective, from this animal that lives on stage. It'll be difficult."

Charlie: "If you watch him (Thomas) on stage you can see this moment in his eyes where he sort of becomes possessed, just switches on. "

Thomas: "I think if you walk off that stage, the same person as when you walked on - you're doing it wrong. You've got to switch it off, because I wouldn't want to be friends with Johnny, I fucking hate Johnny. . . I'd hate to be the person I was on stage. "

Charlie: "I think it also depends on the crowd, I mean sometimes it helps the show to create that antagonism, it makes it more electric for everyone involved."

Nasty Man Creations: The Blinders as Johnny Dream & His Codeine Dream in the five minute motion picture, 'Ramona Flowers' by Sam Crowston

What's Next?

Thomas: "We're in the studio at the moment, then we're touring with the View. We're really looking forward to touring in October. An album is way, way off, but we've got a single coming out in the summer. We may even have a little treat in the autumn."

Charlie: "if The Donald doesn't blow us all up by then. "