There Are No Rival Clones Here

Behind the Scenes Photographs By Ryan Gomez

Southern California band Blair Gun open up about getting trapped in an elevator while on tour, recognizing universal experiences in their latest album, and devolving into corporate stooges for their music video, “Beat Happened”.

Southern California, USA

What is the Blair Gun origin story?

We, Zach and Joedin, had been recording and playing our first shows around town when Joedin met Jake in a recording arts class at college. Jake asked us to open for his band Lucid Dream at the Happy Battle surf shop. That’s where we first met Alyson as well, and we were blown away by their set. We all kept in touch and not long after that we landed on the lineup that we have now.

What have been some of your proudest moments and achievements as a band?

Our proudest moment is definitely recording this newest record. We’ve all been working on this album for over two years, and finally getting these songs to a place where we are all happy with them has been a journey. The tour we are currently on is also on that list. We planned it mostly on our own, and being able to do what we have all always dreamed of— seeing the country and playing some great shows— has been one of our proudest achievements.

What are some interesting facts about every member?

Alyson works for a hairless cat breeder, Jake’s great grandfather was the first person in America to build a theater that played movies in color, Zach has a vinyl addiction with over 600 records, and Joedin has been to every national park in California.

You recently released your sophomore album, "There Are No Rival Clones Here". What is this album about?

Rival clones paints stories of different disaffected and ostracized characters, navigating a complex urban landscape. However, a lot of these isolating experiences lose their power when we recognize their universality in everyone’s lives.

How does the album show your growth and evolution as a band?

We’ve hopefully created a more adventurous and chaotic experience this time around. We did a lot of experimenting with drum machines, old radios, and samples. It was also partially self produced and entirely live tracked.

You are sharing the music video for "Beat Happened". What is the song about and how does the music video represent the song?

We wanted to do a classic concept of a performance video against a colorful backdrop— sort of a reference to some well known MTV $2 bill performances. The song and video call back to these iconic scenes that are so idolized by us and everyone else. It was written partially about ourselves and our feelings of the “post”-genre era although we know many musicians struggle with the idea of circumventing expectations when a lot of ground in the rock world has already been discovered.

How did the video come to life?

The idea began with Alyssa Kuhl who has directed videos for us in the past. The band wanted to keep this video centered around a performance, so she came up with the concept of the band playing along as we devolve into corporate stooges. Our producer, Ethan Spotts carried the production to the finish line as we were busy touring. Brandon Dougherty was our cinematographer and brought the vision out and onto the screen in beautiful 4K. Robert DeBoucher edited the video, adding his frenetic style and archival footage.

What were some fun moments and challenges you faced while filming the video?

This was the last task for us after a 3 day weekend during which we ran up the coast to play in Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo. Many hours behind the wheel, couch surfing, and Monday morning LA traffic really drained every last drop of energy from us. We were dead tired filming this, which might have actually steered us toward focusing up on set and getting this done quickly.

You are currently on tour around the United States. What has been the experience like (any interesting stories)?

We are currently on our way to Denver where we’ll play just north in Fort Collins. For starters, summer tours through the south are disgustingly hot and humid. Fall or spring tour next time. We’ve experienced a number of crazy things on the road so far. Getting trapped in an Albuquerque elevator, ripping down San Marcos, Texas waterslides, getting tickets to a Kim Gordon show at Headliners Music Hall, receiving offers to buy our van from gas station strangers in Dallas, meeting REO Speedwagon in Kansas City, seeing 1800 year old Roman Catholic Priest skeletons at 1am in Louisville— these are just some of the things we’ve come across on the road.

What have been some of your favorite cities?

Louisville is like a second home to us. We recorded our first record out there at La La Land studios, and so returning was like coming home in a way. We got to see many of our friends who live out there, perform in an old repurposed chapel, tour the Louisville Slugger factory, and bar hop around their wonderful downtown. It is a city that we will always return to.

Nashville Broadway was an experience…

Lubbock was a surprise for us because it’s a sleepy town, but has a lot of young people who really come out for local shows and support. Lastly, Dallas was a much needed time for recovery after running through the desert and playing four shows in a row. The college towns around DFW are hot spots for so much upcoming talent.

What's next for Blair Gun?

Our year of rest and relaxation… In reality, we have many more plans for trips to cities near our hometown. We plan on returning to SLO, Phoenix, and visiting new towns for the first time while always playing around LA and San Diego. We have our biggest show yet coming up on October 22nd supporting Nada Surf at the Teragram Ballroom. And as if we haven’t learned our lesson yet, we’ll start working on record #3 very soon.