Exclusive Interview: Blight Town talk self titled EP!

How have you found the reaction to singles “Jejunum” and “Argument Bargument“?  A collective almost 17k of Spotify streams is impressive for first singles! “Thank you! To be honest we were pretty confident that the songs were good but yeah we weren’t expecting such a good reaction straight out of the park! People have been really complimentary and although we do try and write as originally as we can, some of the comparisons to artists we love have been really flattering!”

What has been the highlight of your career so far? What have you enjoyed the most? “It sounds really simple and minor, but the first time we played a show and people knew the words and were getting involved, that felt really good. To be honest just getting to play music with your best friends is a gift we’re all thankful for every day and to be playing music that’s a sound of our own making is enormously fulfilling”

In an interview with Pins & Knuckles merch you mentioned the band was alive in some way shape or form for eight years prior to the first single release with an endless drummer search! So what does it take to be a drummer in Blight Town? How different would the band have been had you released any material earlier than your 2019 first single? “Haha yeah, in a way I guess the band has been going for nearly a decade.. Sam and I are brothers so we’d always jammed together and we’ve been best friends with Will and Scott since school, so it is actually really strange that we’d constantly be recording demos and messing about with guitars in our shed but never actually end up with a working project. Personally I blame the fact that none of our friends chose drums an instrument haha. I guess we’d be on album 4 or a greatest hits thing by now haha! But in all seriousness, I think the band just had to happen at the right time in our lives. And I think we’d had not so great experiences in other bands and were ready to just do something together. And when we found Joe, he was a perfect fit so it all just seemed to come together at the right time as our other bands were dissolving”

We’ve likened your sound to the new music from Unprocessed, CHON and the much missed Napoleon in our review of your self titled EP, but who would you say your biggest influences were and why? “Those are some very flattering comparisons so thank you! We are definitely influenced by all of those bands, we basically wanted to write pop music for guitar nerds. So some big ones would be bands like Dance Gavin Dance, Hail the Sun and At The Drive In, but we’re also really big on Deftones who certainly influence us when it comes to things like dynamics and atmosphere. Tbh all of us like different stuff but we all love to show off and play techy stuff but equally we’re big on melody and catchy songwriting, the latter I think will be a big surprise for people when we start to release material from our next release”

Where do you see yourself in the next few years? Are you ready to appear at Tech-Fest or Radar Festival or both? “We’d love to play some festivals for sure, Arctangent or 2000 trees would be unreal! I guess we’re going to see how this release is received and get out there with some new music ASAP and see what happens! As for the festivals you mentioned, we can’t say anything yet, but keep your ears to the ground!”

What’s next for Blight Town? “Covid has been a set back to say the least but at the same time it’s given us a chance to bond and get more done without getting to distracted by the fun parts of being in a band. Although we miss playing shows like crazy, it’s given us a chance to strategize and write and we’re aiming to get material out in a much more timely fashion after this release. We’re going to tour as soon as it’s feasible and you’ll hopefully be seeing a lot more of us! Thanks so much for talking to us, it really means a lot”