Newcastle four-piece alternative indie outfit The Avelons return with their brand new single, ‘Blondie’. Lee Allcock caught up with the band to discuss what they’ve described as their most furious release to date.
Tell me a bit about ‘Blondie’ and what listeners can expect both sonically and lyrically…
‘Blondie’ is a story of two friends turned foe, through their own greed and angst in their entwined search for the gold. It’s heavily inspired by a few classic spaghetti westerns. We’ve created these two characters and really tried to get into their heads, aiming to capture the anger and tell their story. It’s a new direction for us lyrically and sonically. All the passion and emotion pouring out of the narrative is captured in three minutes of pounding drums and pulsing bass. We really tried to push for this exciting dynamic and it all feels like it could fall apart at any second, in the best way possible. You can really feel the anger pouring out of it. Vocally, we left it all in there – Jack couldn’t speak for days after.
You’ve previously described the release as your most furious to date…
It’s nothing like anything we’ve released before. I’d (Jack) been knocking the chords and guitar riff around for quite a while as I was just never happy with the dynamic. In all honesty, I wasn’t over keen on showing the lads but it came out in a rehearsal session. What I played and what we left the room with are too completely different tunes. It was like: “This is dark, this is moody – I love it! Can we get this darker and moodier?!” It’s great to feel like we are doing something different, something with an edge, and putting something out there that isn’t safe. I can’t begin to tell you what it’s like singing it live – it feels like therapy. Like I said, these are two pretty angry characters we are dealing with so it’s spilled into three minutes of thunderous music. It’s a good job James and Dylan were so riled up that day.
And it’s your first single from your upcoming, currently unnamed EP. Tell me a bit more about the EP…
‘Blondie’ immediately felt like the beginning of a new era for us. The song itself has since inspired prequels, sequels, ‘spin-offs’ and all sorts. An EP to tell this story feels like the right thing to do. It’s virtually written and half recorded. As a band, we are in a really good place at the moment creatively and creating the EP feels natural and organic. We’ve always believed if we were going to do something like this we cannot force it, as nothing of any substance ever comes from forcing it. It just needs a name. We have a few ideas but we’d also be open to suggestions.
Who are you influenced by?
We think you can hear the darker side of Foals in there or an edge of Nothing But Thieves. It’s still got the rawness of all our punk influences. There is a splatter of local band FEVA in there somewhere too. Lyrically, it’s all come from a love of Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns.
And finally, tell me an interesting fact/story about the band…
Our sexy drummer Dylan can’t turn left, all our guitar parts come to our Aaron in his sleep and James still needs his armbands when he swims.
You can listen to ‘Blondie’ now on all major streaming platforms.
