Blair

Blair now lives in Brooklyn, but until recently, gigged in and around the Silver Lake and Echo Park neighborhoods of Los Angeles. But this story doesn’t begin on the west coast, far from it actually. Blair grew up in the Deep South, New Orleans specifically, and in a town as soaked in gin as it is jazz, brass and funk, an adolescent Blair alternately drifted towards the sounds of Neil Young and Bob Dylan drifting out of her mother’s turntable. But she is no folkie. Born in the ‘80s it was inevitable that the pop sounds of ‘90s FM radio would seep into her musical DNA; remember, these were the days when Nirvana and Beck dominated the airwaves. A quick study, Blair taught herself guitar by listening to and learning the tunes on John Frusciante's first solo records and by her late teens was opening for the likes of Cat Power and Bright Eyes. Fast forward to 2007. At 22, Blair self-releases her debut EP, Pluto. At four songs the EP is a quick dash through the past four decades of pop music as filtered by someone who grew up with a healthy collection of Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, Replacements, Velvets and Pavement. Die Young, Blairs first full-length, is a collection of songs written and re-recorded over the span of five years. Half of the record was written in New Orleans, and half while living in California. The songs have turbulent titles: “Kamikaze”, “Murder”, “Rampage”, “Die Young”, etc. It’s a record about violence and daydreaming – it’s the angst of heart, and dreamy escapism, of a 20 something girl all wrapped up in melodies. It’s vague as to which ones are real and which ones are daydreams. Perhaps that is the point. As a kid, Blair repeatedly watched “Die Hard” and listened to her walkman alot -- maybe that explains it. Recorded in New Orleans in the middle of an especially hot summer the album was produced by Keith Ferguson and uses all New Orleans based musicians. It was crafted in studios and in the homes of friends creating vocal booths out of closets with borrowed equipment. Die Young will be released on Autumn Tone Records (Henry Clay People, J. Tillman, Roadside Graves) on January 26, 2010.