Blues Pills Interview

Hello André (drummer)! I want to welcome you to our small music world named Full Throttle (Radio Show). It’s a great honor for us to have you here for our first interview of 2015. First of all, where are you at the moment?

Thank you for the invite. Right now I am at my apartment in Sweden. Hanging out, not doing much.

How was the winter vacation for you?

Yeah, we have some time off. We did our last show on 27th of December in Switzerland and now we have 2 weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s Eve to celebrate and recover a little bit.

Now let’s take things from the beginning, back in 2011. How did the Blues Pills band start?

I wasn’t there in the beginning. I think that when Elin lost her job in Sweden, she got over to California, America, met up with Cory Berry, the former drummer, and Zack Anderson, and started to jam to write songs together. I think they felt that they had something going, so, before they even started to talk with Dorian, our guitarist, they booked a tour in Sweden and Portugal. When the tour was booked, they realized that they needed a guitar player and that is the point when they got in contact with Dorian, who joined for the tour in Portugal and continued to play together ever since. Finally, I joined the band last February and we started to tour together.

If someone hasn’t heard your music, how would you describe it and which bands would you use as references?

I suppose it’s mixed Blues with some psychedelic and classic Rock elements. It’s hard to say which bands we are related to. I think some of the big classics as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin and some soul music bands, as well, of course.

In summer of 2014 you released your self-titled album via Nuclear Blast Records and till then you have toured heavily across Europe and Australia, without even having an album out. How was that possible? I mean, isn’t it usual for a band to do an album first and then tour like that?

The fact is that our bass player sent a video to our label, Nuclear Blast, who really liked it so they contacted us. They did a really good job pushing the band to do things and become more well-known. And I believe that was a really good start for the band to be known before the album came out and made it easier for us to tour more and take part in bigger festivals.

So, now that 2014 has ended how was the overall year for Blues Pills?

It’s been amazing. The summer was really crazy, we did around 24 festivals and that was really cool. And then, we started a great touring in fall with the Vintage Caravan. We had an amazing time with them; they are an awesome band and really cool guys. It was fun to do a European tour and then go to the UK together. And of course, supporting Rival Sons was an incredible experience, we did 8 shows together.

What are you plans for 2015?

After our time off we gonna go to Gothenburg, to record our second album and then start our first show of the year that will be in Greece and then do a little more touring. Then we will go back in the studio to finish our second album.

From our side, we are waiting for your 2 gigs in Greece. The first one in Thessaloniki, on 23 Jan in Principal Club Theater, and the second one on 24 Jan, in Gagarin 205 in Athens. How do you feel about that? And which are your expectations from the Greek audience?

We are excited from the Greek support so far. I think the shows will be super and I hope that the people will come and enjoy them. Greece is a really nice country. The first thing you think when you come to Greece is the sun and islands; it’s really good to be able to go to the capital and spend some time on the beach, I guess. We are really looking forward to come to Greece.

May I ask you a bit more private question? How is the feeling to tour so much with a girl?

It’s like touring with guy. It isn’t that different, actually. Elin is an awesome friend and an incredible singer and, honestly, it isn’t so much different.

The last section is our famous “Free Mode” section, where you can say whatever you want to finish this interview. From our side, we wanna wish you all the best for 2015 for you and Blues Pills, and we look forward to your gig in Athens. 

Thank you very much; we are so excited to come to Greece. And see you guys in our shows in Thessaloniki and Athens.