Blinker The Star:
Jordon Zadorozny (vocals, guitar, piano), Kellii Scott (drums), Pete Frolander (bass), Pete (guitar), Paul (keyboard)
November 22nd, 1999
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Blinker the Star (BS): (Jordon Zadorozny - JZ): We moved to Los Angeles for one thing, and that takes time. And we had a lot of time to write the music because our record company at that time didn't really have any plans for us, so they just let us go...so we wrote fifty or sixty songs in the time that we had. That's the real benefit of three years, we could write so much and then choose what we wanted for this album. If any moron can write fifty songs, then at least twelve of them will be good.
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BS: (JZ): A little bit. I wasn't angry or anything like that. It's just the way the business goes. (Pete Frolander - PF): It was the year of, "Write a single now. Write a single now." (JZ): They just kept telling us to write more songs, and at the time it was frustrating, but ultimately it was a good thing because we had so many songs to choose from for this record. So it was easy when we went into the studio... (Kellii Scott - KS): Their lack of faith gave us a great record.
VV: How did you get hooked up with Dreamworks?
BS: (JZ): A friend of a friend of a friend... We had already finished the record for our old label. But as soon as we finished it, the whole label merger thing happened. (KS): Dreamworks was looking for bands who were getting left outside due to all those mergers. (JZ): There were a lot of bands just floating around at that time, and our record was already done. We were pretty low maintenance and they really loved the record. So we shifted over to Dreamworks very easily with no growing pains.
VV: And is the music relationship with Dreamworks any different?
BS: (KS): Way better, a huge difference. You feel like you're seeing eye to eye with people. (JZ): The biggest thing is that there's actually a dialogue now. On our old label, because we weren't a priority, there was really no dialogue. I never talked to anyone at that company besides my A&R guy there. With Dreamworks, they're more actively involved about our day to day life, especially touring. A lot of Dreamworks people come out and help us and we meet them all. It seems like they just care a lot more. And the people they've hired there are real music people: people who've been involved with music for a long time, who understand the nature of touring and recording.
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BS: (JZ): I got some golden pipes... It was the result of having two and a half years to mess around. When we went back and looked at all the songs that we had finished and demoed and written we found a wide variety in the songs. It could have been a Human League record, or a Judas Priest record if we had picked certain songs. But it ended up being this record because we thought there are a substantial number of these melodic, interestingly put together kind of songs. So we said, "Let's make That record." (PF): I think we wrote it differently than before as well. We wrote a lot of it without the confines of a three piece band, which is what we were before. We used to write for guitar, bass, and drums because that was who really played. (JZ): The songwriting before was limited because I was writing for that three-piece-rock-band format. But we threw that out the window. It was mostly Pete and I at first, then Kellii came hopping up. None of our new songs were written with that rock trio limit. (KS): Things weren't written for a record either. It was just songs (spreads his hands wide) . (JZ): And after we had all of this material, then we chose our record.
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BS: (JZ): I've moved past it. (KS): We'll be coming back. (JZ): Kellii is more of an advocate of the older stuff than I am. There's one or two songs off of each record that I don't think are too bad. Our live show is all about this new record, a couple of even newer songs, and one old song. We get a lot of comments at shows because we don't play our old songs but... I think we should move on to our new stuff.
VV: So it's still open for debate whether Blinker continues this melodic texture or includes the harder rock songs?
BS: (everyone nods) (PF): There will be more. (JZ): Yeah... (KS): I think we need to look at that older material for when we play those three hour concerts, like at Wembeley Stadium.
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BS: (KS): I don't think it's a cultural thing. I think they (Canada) have as many bad bands as we (U.S.) do. (JZ): There's really no argument because in Canada, we're just inundated with American entertainment. Plus we have our own Canadian thing. Whereas in the States, there's no little extra pod of people. The States don't get Sloan, or The Tragically Hip or the Rio Statics. (Paul): There's a whole slew of good bands from Canada and I never knew they were from Canada. Hanging out with these guys, I've been exposed to a lot more Canadian bands. (KS): They all look the same, when you get down to it though. (JZ): We're a little more British. (Pete): It's difficult moving to the States after Canada. Some bands that are small at home are really big in the U.S. and vice-versa. The U.S. is a difficult market to break into; for instance The Tragically Hip can play stadiums in Canada, but play small clubs here in the States. (JZ): Of course the Canadian bands would love to be huge in the States, but not everyone really commits to it, considering they already have big audiences in Canada.
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BS: (JZ): For me personally, I couldn't get a record deal in Canada. Canada was too conservative. I made my first record, we shopped it around Canada and were told, "No, it's too weird." So we brought it to the States and got a deal.
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BS: (JZ): They can be really great. Ours was really easy to make, it was fun. The concept was: performance video, no story line, and the visuals are copied from Norman McClaren, a Canadian film maker. He was a pioneering animator from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. The video director {Tony Pantages} and I are both admirers of his work so we decided to steal some of the visual techniques of his {McClaren's} short films. Shooting the video was pretty nuts and bolts. Standing on a wheel that turned around, and around while performing - in slow motion and fast. The song was chosen because many people thought it was the strongest song, or maybe the most representative of the album. (Paul): Most music videos just look like commercials now. (Pete): We just watched all of the Sloan videos and they're great. The videos really represent them. It's not like they just threw a bunch of money into making bad videos, like some groups. (Paul): It seems like there's some current mode of making directors videos. So the music video just becomes a vehicle for the way the director sees the world that may have nothing to do with the song or the band. (KS): The music videos that capture the band personality, low budget or big money, those are the best ones. Where you can tell that the band really had a voice and input to the video.
Other Blinker The Star links:
Official Band Site
Dreamworks Records
Interviewer: Catherine Lee
Camera & Photos: Rodwin Pabello
Transcription & Editing: Catherine Lee
© 1999, 2000 Evans Media Group, Inc.