Interview with Blame the Youth: Winner of the 2nd Annual Battle of the Bands

For this interview, Renier Fee chatted with fellow colleague, Amber Daniel, member of Blame the Youth- the winner of the second annual Battle of the Bands. In addition to spending her time with Blame the Youth, Amber is also the senior sales associate at Music & Arts in Concord, North Carolina. Sponsored by Music & Arts and Woodwind & Brasswind, the competition was held on July 21st and featured nine bands from across the country representing a variety of genres.

This is your first interview, right?

Haha, technically yes. Its always nice to have new conversation with cool people.

Welcome to The Vault!  Let’s talk about how you and your bandmates first met.  What brought you together?

Phoebe (lead singer) and Kynadi (drummer) have been dating for a few years. They are the ones who started the band. Their guitar teacher linked them up with Alexa (lead guitarist) who also went to school with Kynadi coincidentally. Fast forward one year. Kyn and I were both working for Music & Arts when they found me.

When I listen to your music, I wouldn’t guess you were from Charlotte, North Carolina. What is the music scene like there?  Who are you influences?

The Charlotte scene is very diverse. You can’t narrow the city down to one sound. There’s a lot of opportunity to grow, especially in surrounding areas. The city is growing and so is the music made here. Our influences are very diverse. We all have extremely different tastes. We’ve got some metal, some jazz, a little hip-hop, some pop, and definitely a lot R&B/Soul. Honestly we’re all over the place haha

What was it like to be selected as a finalist and later win the Music & Arts “Battle of the Bands” 2016?

It was lit! Its honestly difficult to put into words how the whole situation felt. To be picked as a finalist was amazing, but then to know that people liked us enough to crown us the winners was absolutely surreal. The support we had and gained was amazing.

Your band took home some amazing guitar prizes.  How are you liking the Fender Stratocaster & Jazzmaster guitars, and Fender Blues Junior amps?

I think I can speak for the entire band when I say that we fell in love with our new guitars and amps. I don’t think we’ve been able to put them down since we’ve won. They’ve definitely helped us to write some new material!

It must be weird to be working in a Music & Arts and see the BOTB spotlight video playing in the background.  What do the other store associates say?

My associates swear that I’m famous now and customers get confused when I’m jumping around on stage on the screen, but also standing right in front of them in the store.

When does the full length album drop and where will we be able to find it?

The estimated drop date for the Super Long Ep is mid-November. It’ll be available on bandcamp for digital download and for streaming on Soundcloud. It will also be available in select stores and on our website.

Any shout outs?

Shouts out to my mama, my biggest supporter, and to all of our BTY Supporters. The journey has been amazing, and we haven’t even started yet!