It’s amazing to look at some of the bands that get signed in the music industry while others keep pounding the pavement waiting for their break. I’m a firm believer in things happen for a reason and when they are supposed to. I look at a band like Blameshift and I can’t help but to scratch my head and wonder why a label hasn’t snatched them up yet. Their reputation as a live band alone should get them the attention of executives everywhere. Yet, they keep grinding it out on the road, up to 250 live dates in a given year, while solidifying their ever growing fan base. And that right there is only the tip of the ice-berg for the many reasons why Blameshift is our RockRevolt Indie Band of the Week!
The band, lead by dynamic and determined Jenny Mann, just released a brand new album entitled Secrets. You can read our review of that outstanding album here! The band has been living on the road for the last six months and is taking a little time off to promote the album via the internet. I was fortunate enough to catch their “always on the go” dynamo of a lead singer in a rare moment of not moving to learn some interesting nuggets of info about the band as well as their new album.
Let’s talk a little bit or a whole lot if you’d like to about your brand new album Secrets. You worked with Erik Ron as a producer for this release and I was wondering if there’s a story behind why you went with him?
We actually hooked up with him a few years back through an old manager who also managed him at the time. We were looking for someone to produce the album and record with we were told to check him out. He had done engineering on albums by The Used, Panic at the Disco and Good Charlotte and he was now going out on his own. We decided that we loved his work and we thought it would be a good fit because he was young and excited and he really liked what we were doing. So, we did our EP The Black Rose with him and 
now we’ve done a whole album with him and now he’s kind of like our fifth band member.
I know what I am seeing and reading, but what kind of feed-back are you getting on your end on the new album?
We’re seeing really positive stuff. Everyone really seems to be enjoying the progression of the band and where we went with this album. It’s been a long time coming and we’ve been waiting to release it for quite some time. It took us about a year to record the whole thing and we were really anxious to get it out. I think that we really couldn’t wait for people to hear some of the new songs. They’ve been giving us such good feedback and spreading it around. We did a huge pre-order campaign which was really awesome and successful as well, so things are going really well right now.
Are the fans gravitating towards any particular songs?
Well, our first release off of it was “Let Go” and our second release is “Secrets” and we shot a music video for that one, so people are automatically gravitating towards those two songs because they are kind of familiar with them. “The Enemy You Need” is another top one that people seem to like at this point. A song called “Destroy Your Masquerade” which features Paul McCoy of 12 Stones has been a very popular one and the slow jam on the album called “Wherever It Goes” has also been a popular one that I have been getting feedback on as well.
That’s so funny because, so far, you’ve mentioned all of my favorite songs off of the album.
(laughs) That’s awesome!
So, how did you end up doing a duet with Paul McCoy?
We did a tour opening for 12 Stones in the summer of 2013 for almost two months and it was an amazing tour with us, them, Throwing Gravity and Digital Summer. We became really good friends with the 12 Stones guys and Paul took me under his wing. He became like a mentor to me. We had talked about doing a song together and we didn’t know if it would be one of his songs or one of ours. He ended up coming to New York and we wrote the song together. I went to record my part in LA with Erik (Ron) and he recorded his part in Virginia. I think it turned out really awesome. I’m proud of it and he’s proud of it as well.
You should be proud of it because it’s an amazing song. I think the ballad “Wherever It Goes” is also pretty amazing. I’ll be honest with you, true confession time here: As I was listening to the album, I was getting into to it and everything and I loved the energy throughout the album, but I was really wishing that you would slow the pace down. I was waiting to hear you belt out a powerful, emotional ballad and that brought me to the last track on the album. Have you recorded many ballads before?
On our last EP The Black Rose, we did a song called “One Chance” which I would consider ballady or balladesque and that was a slower jam, but this song kind of took on a life of its own. Eric and I came together and wrote this song and we actually recorded it as a demo. We went out to LA to record a few songs as demos to see what we liked and didn’t like and this was one of them. We used the demo version on the album because it was so special. It was so special that we didn’t want to mess it up by attempting to re-record it. I sang it through one time with no harmonies and it’s just a very raw vocal and we chose to go with it for the album. We felt like it was one of those things that you just can’t recreate. It’s one of my favorite songs that we’ve ever recorded and I’m pretty proud of it.
Wow, now I love it even more after hearing that story about it; that’s pretty impressive. A question or so back you mentioned the video for “Secrets”. I wanted to mention that it’s a very cool video, but I also wanted to know how it all came together.
We met John King, the director, and he had done a video for our friends Throwing Gravity, so we knew we liked his work. We knew we wanted the creepy house and we kind of had a storyline of what we wanted to see, so we kept going back and forth with him. The girl who is in the video is a fan of ours and when I envisioned the girl that I wanted in the video, she was the girl I saw. She lives in Illinois and she’s not even an actress and I contacted her and asked if she would be interested in coming to Kentucky to be the lead in our music video.
Blameshift: Secrets [Official Video]
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No way, are you serious? Now, how many fans of a band get an opportunity like that?
I know, right? The director originally wanted me to play the part, but I did the acting thing in our last video for “Ghost” and I just wanted to do something different this time. So, of course she said yes and we got permission to use this really cool house in Kentucky which is on the Bourbon Trail and I think it all came together really well because we’re really happy with the video.
Now, the band has a reputation for being road warriors, so I have to ask if there’s a plan to hit the road to promote the album?
We’ve actually been on the road since June. We decided that this time of year is pretty cold to be touring, so we decided to come home for a little bit and be with our families through the holidays. Then, come January, we’re going to hit it pretty hard with something really big. We’re just going to enjoy some time off and promote the album online in different ways.
True confession time again: Ok, I do like female fronted bands, but they have to have some substance to them to keep my interest. A hot chick with a microphone and her boobs hanging out is not going to make me buy a CD or a ticket to a show. I have a lot of respect for you for not playing up the sex card.
Well, thank you for saying that. From the very beginning of the band, everyone from agents to managers to PR people have been telling me that I needed to sex it up because sex sells. To me, I’ve never wanted to do that; it’s just not me. There was a point when the band first started out that I wore jeans, a t-shirt and a hat because that’s what I wanted to wear. People were telling me that I needed to put on a skirt and show a little more cleavage. I know that kind of stuff impacts people, but is that how I want them to see me? No, I want them to respect me as a real rock artist just as they would respect any guy fronting a band. I really appreciate you acknowledging that and I think it’s really cool. I’ve heard it a few times, but it’s still really cool to hear.
It’s a shame that many still use a female fronting their band as a gimmick because I am sure it makes it tougher on bands like yours.
People seem to think that since we get some sort of special perks because I am in the band or that it’s the reason that we are ahead of them or doing better. I mean, it’s the furthest thing from the truth. We’re ahead because of our work ethic and how hard we work at what we do. Female fronted bands do get a bad reputation because they do just what you said and they are out there flaunting what they have and they think that’s what is going to get them where they want to be and the respect that they want. They might get it temporarily or from the wrong type of people. I don’t want someone at my show that is going to gawk at me. I want someone who will look a little deeper into our music.
So, you’re home now and hopefully enjoying some down time. After being used to being on-stage so much over the last six months, what kind of things do all of you do with your down time?
We enjoy being with our family and friends that we haven’t seen in a while. I like to go to the gym; I froze my membership the last six months and I’m going to start that back again. We also like to get caught up on all of our T.V. such as Breaking Bad, which we’re all caught up on now and it’s over now and that’s pretty sad because we all loved that show. Now, we’re catching up on The Walking Dead and Law and Order SVU. I do watch a few things that my band mates may be embarrassed that I am telling you about such as The Bachelorette (laughs).
Well, I hope you all enjoy your down time and the up-coming holidays. It’ll be 2014 before you know it and time to get back out on the road.
Thank you so much for talking to us. We hope that everyone will check out the new music video and hopefully buy our new album and spread the word. That’s how independent bands like us survive and it may seem inconsequential to people, but a like on Facebook and buying our songs on iTunes is what us and all of our friends in bands going.
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