There’s nothing we love more at the Gold Coast Music Network than discovering new talent coming out of the Gold Coast, and when Blind Corners hit the stage at the semi finals of the Garage Deluxe Youth Band Comp at Mo’s last month, we knew we’d be seeing a lot more of these talented new-comers.
Made up of four young mates from Tamborine Mountain, Blind Corners are an exceptional live act, evidenced by the fact they beat more than 15 other local bands to be crowned winners of the Garage Deluxe youth battle of the bands, hosted by Expressive Ground and Mo’s Desert Clubhouse.
Check out their winning performance:
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A kaleidoscope soundscape of grooves, dreamy nostalgic vocals and indie-inspired surf rock guitar riffs underpin Blind Corners’ energetic and charismatic live performances.
2024 has already been a busy year for these local lads – opening for Paul Kelly and Glass Beams, and being named finalists in the Bluesfest Busking Competition. They’re quickly gathering a loyal and growing audience within the Gold Coast music scene.
And they’ve released their first EP, “Mud” with four brand new tracks to wrap your ears around.
“Mud” was featured as Release of the Month in our September Talent On Tap new music roundup, with GCMN co-founder and music reviewer, Samantha Morris, saying the EP “gives us an early taste of Blind Corners’ versatility… an opportunity to take a slower listen at how their songs are crafted and to ponder where they might go next. Which is definitely places.”
Ahead of Mud‘s release on September 21, we caught up with the crew from Blind Corners to find out more about their first EP, the creative process… and their most chaotic gig ever.
HAVE 5 WITH BLIND CORNERS:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW EP
“Mud” was written in our home rehearsal space on Tamborine Mountain, so it was a given that most of the songs emerged from jamming and playing around with ideas in a live space. We wanted to keep the energy by tracking the song live, and recording in Rocking Horse Studios with Producer, Engineer and Mixer George Carpenter allowed us to do so.
‘My Mountain’, ‘Mud’, ‘Against The Wall’ and ‘Blackout’ are songs that traverse a diverse range of sounds and genres within the EP, yet they share many similar concepts and stories of home, family, a yearning for more and a call to the wild.
“Mud” is a warm and bold introduction to us as a band. We all have very different relationships with the songs and what they mean to us individually, so we’d encourage you to listen to them and find what “Mud” means to you.
WHAT’S YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS FOR MAKING A NEW SONG?
We love to experiment with the creative process which helps keep our sounds fresh and new.
With each new song our writing processes are always changing, adapting and evolving. Writing together is very fluid so we have always found that playing live and getting feedback from a live audience is a really fulfilling and fun way to keep developing the songs. It also brings our audience into our process in a real way.
Having said that, sometimes we find the songs benefit the most by being stripped back to just an acoustic guitar, pen and some paper. We have very different tastes and backgrounds which makes it a really fun and collaborative process. We are always very open to experimenting and tend to always find ways to modify the songs right up until the day of the recording.
WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN?
A close friend of ours, Russell Smith, told us in the early stages of the band to “play as many gigs as possible and make as many mistakes as you can” which sounded quite simple at the time, however after playing together for almost 3 years, it has been crucial in helping us grow together and hone our craft.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE
Our audience has a great party vibe! They’ve essentially grown from our own circle of friends and family to include our local community and are growing each time we play. They’re a diverse range of ages, but are all lovers of music and are up for a good time. We really love our audience. They’re an awesome energy and we feed off each other.
“For us, that live exchange through music is what it’s all about and is what drives us.”
WHAT’S YOUR WORST GIG – AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THE EXPERIENCE?
I’m not sure we’ve ever really had a ‘worst gig’, but the most chaotic and wild one was a few years ago when we were just starting out and had been asked to play for a friend’s birthday on a property in the bush. Marty (our drummer) had food poisoning and couldn’t walk, so didn’t make the starting line up, but luckily our sound engineer was also a drummer and stepped in to fill the gap.
By the end of the set, the crowd was starting to loosen up and the party was really kicking off with a growing bonfire becoming a centerpiece of the ‘dance floor’. As the final songs were playing out, the party host, without our knowledge, decided to soak a stack of toilet paper rolls in a tub of diesel and shower the stage with a ‘bootleg pyrotechnics’ display. It all got pretty loose to be honest but thankfully none of our equipment was harmed in the process, and next time we plan to check on what the final light show includes.
Blind Corners’ new EP ‘Mud’ is out now on all listening platforms with 4 tracks to dig in to – My Mountain, Mud, Against the Wall and Blackout. Give it a listen on Spotify and follow the band on Instagram to stay up to date on what they have planned next.