Blair is a singer-songwriter born and raised in New Orleans. She is currently-based out of Brooklyn New York. Her debut album, “Die Young,” drops January 26th on Autumn Tone Records. She is playing One Eyed Jack’s on March 12th.
InvadeNOLA: Your new album is “Die Young.” How did the recording process go?
Blair: It was kind of a mix. I had some songs that I had written. I released an EP, and I had some songs that I didn’t record for the EP. In the two years after the EP, I had some songs floating around. So, basically had three years of songs floating around. Basically, those songs that were floating around are half the record, and then the other half I wrote in about one month when I was out in California for a little while. It’s kind of a mix of building up a library of songs, and inspiration striking and writing a bunch more. That’s how the songs came about. I demoed them on Garageband, and worked them out over the years. I got to learn different things with different players and I went to New Orleans, I had Keith Ferguson and my band-mate, Adam. We were kind of like a creative triangle, and bounced off each other as far as the production went. I recorded it almost two years ago in New Orleans.
IN: You’re living in Brooklyn now. Do you miss the scene in New Orleans?
B: Yeah. I miss New Orleans definitely living-wise, because Brooklyn is probably the complete opposite. It’s super crowded, everything is super fast. People don’t have time to look you in the eye, much less strike up a conversation. New Orleans is very different. I miss the venues. I miss playing the Circle Bar, the Saturn Bar, and all my friends would come to the show. I definitely miss that, and the weather. I miss all that stuff.
IN: Do you feel that New Orleans has a different sort of community than Brooklyn in terms of the scene?
B: I guess, there are so many more people in Brooklyn. There’s so many bands. Take as many bands as there are in New Orleans and multiply it by five hundred. I liked playing with Rotary Downs a lot, and the World Leader Pretend guys are my friends. I guess you could consider that the scene in New Orleans. I felt, with those two bands, there’s some camaraderie there. I’ve almost been here a year. I can say that I have some bands that I like, we’re friends, but it’s more competitive here. People are really competing, whereas New Orleans, you feel like you have just a bunch of friends playing. I like some things about both of them.
IN: Did you record this album completely in NOLA?
B: Yeah, I did. Like I said, I demoed it just myself, just with a computer, out in California. I came back, and it was the summer of ’08. I rented some gear, and got Keith and Adam involved. We’d set up gear in different apartments. Sometimes, the gear would fail, and we’d have to move apartments. It was very DIY, and it was recorded in the span of two-and-a-half months. Some of it was done in my manager’s house in Mid-City, and some of it was done out in the Bywater, near Vaughan’s.
IN: Do you remember your first gig in NOLA?
B: Yeah. My first real gig, I was in high school, and I played an open mic at the Neutral Ground coffeehouse, over in the Garden District.
IN: What do you feel is the biggest misconception about the scene in New Orleans?
B: What I found when I was playing there, there’s a value for jazz and funk, which I think is important, because it’s part of the history of New Orleans. I think there’s a lot of other kinds of music there too, whether it be rock and pop, or other stuff that I don’t listen to, but I know it’s there. People are actively working and trying to let something natural happen. It doesn’t have to have a label. It doesn’t have to be indie, it doesn’t have to be rock, it doesn’t have to be pop. It doesn’t have to be so packaged. I think eventually, stuff like that will leak out. If the New Orleans press can give at least half the press that they give to the older names, that have already had 60 year careers, then that would be a good thing.
IN: It does seem that, especially nationally, people don’t know about the indie scene that’s going on in New Orleans.
B: Yeah. I think the more that people play and do original shit. Also, just work to reach outside of New Orleans and get people interested in you, then New Orleans itself will have to value all the talent it has in the new genres I’m talking about.
IN: You’ve really been able to make a name for yourself by going out of NOLA and trying new stuff.
B: Yeah, that’s the path I took. It also fit naturally. New Orleans is my hometown, so I was also at a point where I wanted to see other things too. My music is the most important thing to me. Where I moved coincided with being a good place to play pop music. When I got press for that EP, I got the most press in New York and L.A. I might have gotten one article in New Orleans. I was just looking at it like, I should go play where people are going to talk about it. That’s what I did.
IN: You went to where you thought a good audience would be for your sound?
B: Yeah, exactly. Geographical scenes are diminishing a little bit because now scenes are online. There’s scenes on blogs. It’s almost like the city and state is not as relevant as they used to be. When I play in other cities, there’s more of a reaction, not fan wise, I think New Orleans is my favorite place to play. The Saturn Bar is one of my favorite places to play ever. As far as feeling some kind of momentum, I definitely felt it in L.A. and here in Brooklyn more.
IN: I love your first two EPs, and I think this album is going to be big. Do you feel that sort of momentum behind it?
B: I’m really proud of it. I know it’s the best thing I could have written at the time I wrote it. It’s the best thing that I could put out there. It has pieces of myself. It does feel special. I just want to quit my day job. That’s the first thing, that happens and it’s all been worth it.
For more info on Blair, please check out http://www.myspace.com/musicblair
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