This four piece from Calgary knows a thing or two about being independent, a note from the bio - 'Blind Army strives to ride on their own self made road.' Blind Army is made up of Pete Fooks as lead vox, Warren Bauman on bass, Robin Hill as guitar and Leo Vandenbrun behind the kit. They were the very first band to hook up with Cyclone Records, and since then they've been on two label comps, re-recorded their track What's Left a few times, and they're now in the studio working on their as yet untitled album at Music Center Canada's Calgary studio. Warren did an email interview with me in mid-April.
What strikes me as interesting and refreshing about this band is that though they are steadfast about not bowing to the will of another, they are able to be objective about where their strengths lie and don't just blindly choose to take on everything themselves when there may be someone better suited to do the job. Case in point, I asked Warren how important it is for the band to be hands on about some of the non-musical aspects of Blind Army, 'to be honest,' says Warren, 'it's not that important at all. We prefer other people to input their ideas and we can select from there. We are all musicians and that's it. We save artwork for artists, pictures for photographers, ect. It's better to have that outside influence to keep things fresh. So if anybody out there has any ideas feel free to send them our way!!!'
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Blind Army
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The hookup with Cyclone came about nicely for these guys, 'Actually,' says Warren, 'Brad found us. He sent us an email asking if we were interested in being on his compilation CD. We jumped at the chance and the rest is history. We were one of the first bands to respond.' Recording for the Cyclone comp was just as easy because it was already done! Warren explains, 'we had already recorded the two songs and they were on our website. Brad said they would be great for the CD, so he mastered them and included them.'
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Blind Army on Cyclone
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'Actually, Brad found us. He sent us an email asking if we were interested in being on his compilation CD. We jumped at the chance and the rest is history. We were one of the first bands to respond.'
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One of the songs that made it to the Cyclone On the Verge comp is called What's Left, it's been re-recorded three times with three sperate drummers. 'What's Left has been in our song catalogue for a long time time now,' begins Warren and even with the changes in drummers and the slight differences that come with re-recording a song he explains, 'our vision of it hasn't changed. It was originally written with our first drummer and has now evolved into what it is today. We released the current version in 2005.' The evolution of the song itself is partly the reason it was re-recorded to being with, 'the previous versions were all recorded by ourselves and were never done in the studio,' says Warren. 'Also we liked how Leo drummed on it compared to our previous sticksman, so we needed to get him in on it. The guitar and vocal parts have been the same since day one.' Dead Ringer is the other track that made it's way onto that first Cyclone comp, Warren on the song, 'as with What's Left, Dead Ringer was recorded at Music Centre Canada here in Calgary. We have recorded a handful of tunes there and will most likely be finishing our CD with them as well.' You can listen to both What's Left and Dead Ringer on the band's MySpace page here but you've already listened to What's Left when you downloaded it from the link up there ^ right?
Promo plans for this upcoming release are centered around online promotion with a bigger emphasis on their live show. And that's the key to what keeps them engaging to their fans and passionate about what they do. When asked about what it is that keeps Blind Army going, after joking that they're in it for the money (quickly followed by a 'yeah right') Warren replied, 'the chance to create your own music and play it for people is a rare gift that not everyone can do. When you have great company in your band that push each other to create something better than the last time, it makes it all worth while.'
Blind Army are releasing their upcoming CD sometime this year (we all hope so anyway) and they'll continue to play shows to spread the sound. Check them out June 3rd at Diezels' in Claresholm, Alberta.
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The Playlist
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Warren's Playlist
Disturbed's latest CD, Ten Thousand Fists
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