Rock n’ Recipes: Blood
If you haven’t been following our site over the last few months, you might have missed all the great singles that Blood dropped before releasing their excellent Loving You Backwards LP this past Friday. We’re big fans, and were bummed when they left our city to venture off to greener pastures, but it seems to have worked out well for the music. We reached out Tim to ask a few questions and get a quick little recipe for a delicious peanut-butter and pickle sammy! Check out our talk with Tim and the recipe below. And stream the LP right now. And hopefully my horseradish pickles are in the mail!
ATH: When the band left Austin, the intent was to write and record around the clock, and just dive into the whole process of being a band. But, upon the completion of Loving You Backwards, it seems like lineup changes came about. Without dredging up drama or blame, was the move successful in its attempt, or would it have been different had the creature comforts of Austin been present.
Tim: Woah, you’re looking for trouble aren’t you. Just kidding; its a fair question. Austin was a beautiful audience for us and we would not be the band we are today, without the music scene who embraced us quickly and gave us so much encouragement to be ourselves and evolve however we wanted to. That being said, in 2020, myself and many others in the band were beginning to feel more culturally connected to the northeast. Also, creature comforts of Austin were becoming more and more challenged by rising costs of living because of people who think breakfast tacos are an aesthetic.
Yeah, I think the move was successful because it forced us into an intimate living situation where we became extremely close as friends and collaborators. We were able to create focused and intentional music that was undisturbed by any external familiarity. Everyone from the original lineup are all friends with each other still and we are all proud of the record. Living together in one house definitely challenged friendships, but members moved on to different things because they outgrew the collective and wanted to explore different artistic aspirations, which is fucking sick. Everyone has to follow the muse and move on when the time is right. Just glad we were able to make this record with the original crew.
ATH: What’s the one thing you miss about the Austin scene that hasn’t come through in the Philly scene? Are there things that one scene has that the other doesn’t?
Tim: The after show hang in Austin was unbeatable. Gravity in Austin pulls you to a bar or backyard where you’re going to see like 15 of your best friends, like 5 nights a week. The green belt, the pace of life, the porches, the big sky, the space, the sense that time has stopped. I loved that aspect of Austin. I think there was a feeling that the music scene bubbled over into the rest of life in Austin that was unique to the city and spoke to a universal appreciation for musics role in the city. Philly by contrast is friendly but tough as nails. They love music here and gave birth to Gamble and Huff but day to day, the city can feel unforgiving and doesn’t necessarily have time for you or give a fuck about your band, which is good. I think you’re forced to do it for yourself more here.
ATH: There’s a lot of variance on the record, which is great. So you get a bit of the band’s origins, but songs like “Where Ya” and “Oh Forget” illustrate a softer influence creeping into the sound. Was it a conscious decision to kind of branch into new realms…sort of the old adage “been there done that,” so let’s move on? Or, having holed up in a house together, did those moves come naturally as a collective?
Tim: Yeah, I think the more we turned inward, the more that we realized we have a widely varied taste in music and wanted to allow anything to come through. We were listening to a lot of Cocteau Twins at the time. I think Oh Forget and Where Ya feel like they’re trying to paint a dreamscape way more, whereas Blood up to that point was more about rousing people to a stark reality. I think we enjoy taking hard turns from the past stylistically and are always ready to shed last years skin.
ATH: Along those same lines…was the tracklisting tough to come by, in terms of order, balancing some of the more brash moments with the softer underbelly that lurks in the record? Were there any tracks that didn’t make the final cut that you’d go back and revisit if you could?
Tim: Yeah, the tracklisting definitely took a lot of nudging and deliberation but once we settled on the current order, we knew we had it. We definitely had some tracks that we thought were going to make the final cut right up until the end, but we just werent as jazzed about them or they didn’t fit. Funny enough, Loving You Backwards was a song at the end of the record originally but we cut it. It will be released soon and we will probably put it on the deluxe, which we have to figure out soon because our first pressing is almost sold out.
ATH: What were ya’ll listening to (I know it’s probably been a minute) when writing…you know late at night, amidst hangs. How does that figure into the sound itself? And specific musical references you made?
Tim: We were listening to a lot of Cocteau Twins, Guided by Voices, and our new friends in Philly Florry who were awe inspiring right from the start. They had a sense of lightheartedness and innate soul that made us all want to dig deeper in the work that we were doing. Im sure that listeners can hear clear influences but we are pretty hard-lined about never going for specific references in the writing room or studio. We really want to make our own strange brew and get inspired by our own world.
ATH: Looking back…is there one song where you look back and think “yes, this is the way..” What song would that be? Or in other words…where does Blood go from here, and what song is that foundational standing block.
Tim: I remember feeling proud of One Dimensional Man because it felt like the sharpening of a mood and groove that we had been working towards for a while. However, I don’t think we see this as being the north star moving forward and if anything, I think we are most propelled by doing something that we haven’t done before.
ATH: The move had you all living together and working on the album…how did food creep into that situation? Communal meals or sort of everyone fends for themselves? Was there one sort of traditional family meal ya’ll made?
Tim: Oh we were doing family meals like every night for a while. We had a chore wheel and a different duo would be responsible for making dinner every night. Tyler and Zach are extraordinary chefs so a lot of the time, we were eating like kings and trying to impress each other. My favorite night by far was deep fry night. I am a psycho and need to be locked up so I was throwing everything in the pot. Blueberries, oreos, PB&Js, secrets. Lock me up.
ATH: You’re handing us a recipe of your own…is there a story behind the recipe or just a go to meal for whatever mood? Gives us the story behind it.
Tim: I am a pickle boy up here now. It is one of the most spiritually fulfilling and laid back gigs I’ve ever had and will probably keep doing after Ive made my first million, just to feel alive. As for recipe; heres what you gotta do.
Come to my stand and get horseradish pickle chips, toast some sourdough, spread on chunky peanut butter, add fresh sliced strawberries, and then put on the horseradish pickle chips. Then eat that thing. It is a salty flavor town PB&J that’ll make your head spin. Eat it while you listen to Loving You Backwards and come to our show at Sagebrush in October. We cant wait to be reunited with ya’ll.
Recipe Ingredients:
Sourdough Bread
Horseradish Pickle Chips
Chunky Peanut Butter
Strawberry Slices
Step One: Combine all Ingredients!