Artist Interview: Blueshift
Blueshift is an upcoming Progressive Metalcore band from the North Alabama area who you absolutely NEED to know. We caught up with the guys to talk more about the formation of Blueshift, future plans for the band, and find out some of their hobbies and interests outside of music.
Artist: Blueshift
Genre: Metal/Prog/Djent
Label: Unsigned
Members:
Josh Nunn - vocals, lyrics (Former vocalist from Stand Alone Complex)
David Clinard - guitar, drum programming, lyrics (Formerly of Annabel Lee)
Cody Riggins - guitar, vocals, sampling (Formerly of Annabel Lee)
Dakota Gomez - bass, gear aficionado, meme officer
Interview (by Nic Beardsley and Andrew Sanders):
Dear Untitled: Being new to the scene as "Blueshift" we have to ask the cliche 'about you' questions as you probably can imagine. How did everyone meet?
David Clinard: Cody (Riggins) and I met during Community College. He had recently moved from out of state and I didn’t have many friends at the time. He walked into an American History class wearing an Underoath jacket and I instantly knew a potential friendship was in the making.
Dear Untitled: Were there any projects prior to Blueshift?
David: At the time (2011ish) I had posted some guitar covers on Facebook and he (Cody) saw them and reached out to me asking if I wanted to start a band. We hit it off great and started meeting up to practice and write together (before we had Guitar Pro or smartphones). Writing together, for us, came extremely natural. It was always fun and there was never any tension or weird vibes during the process. It was the early stages of what is now one of the closest friendships I have. These early sessions of Cody and I writing together quickly turned into a band, Annabel Lee. We played several small shows and enjoyed moderate success for our scene. We were able to record with Brian Hood on two different occasions and played with bands like This Or the Apocalypse, Inhale/Exhale, Gwen Stacy, and My Children My Bride. After a couple of years, our bassist took an internship with NASA, our vocalist moved to New Orleans, and our drummer was still in high school.
Cody Riggins: This was about 2011 - David and I had conflicting life directions and were completing college pretty far apart.. We hung out when we could but we pretty much just played NCAA 14’ and writing and playing music seemed like something from our “glory days.” After finishing college and getting married we started throwing around some old files on Guitar Pro for fun. At this point, we were writing really techy, heavy stuff (some of it we may reincarnate in the near future for Blueshift) and it was purely composing. We wanted to have the best possible music. We didn’t care who didn’t like it. We didn’t care if anybody would be at a show. For the first time, we just wanted to make music that we loved and were proud to put our name on.
Dear Untitled: Those are some crazy names to be on tour with for a beginning band - Inhale/Exhale and My Children My Bride. Dang! So from Annabel Lee, how did Blueshift come about?
Cody: The more we (David and Cody) wrote, the better we got and then we had a moment on my front porch where we became determined that we wouldn’t let our youth slip away not doing what we wanted to. We considered recording it instrumentally and doing the vocals ourselves, but we decided it needed a high-caliber dude. So I texted Josh (Nunn), who we knew from playing shows with Stand Alone Complex (if you haven’t ever listened to the stuff they did, you absolutely must- those guys killed it). He agreed and the rest is history.
Dakota Gomez: David and Cody had been writing and creating ever since their involvement with their last band (Annabel Lee). One day, after they reached out to Josh (Nunn), who I am good friends with, we all went to see a show in Nashville and the car ride there really solidified the friendship as we quickly discovered how much we all got along.
Dear Untitled: So what initially got you guys into music? What inspires your music and what drew you to the heavier genre?
David: No one in my family is musically inclined but they were very supportive of my guitar playing. I got my first guitar at sixteen. I started out learning my favorites at the time that included a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, and Eagles. I slowly got into Metallica’s early releases, Kill Em’ All and Ride the Lightning, but without a doubt my first “heavy” CD and gateway into the genre was The Human Abstract’s Nocturne album.
Cody: My parents for sure. I have a fairly musical family. My grandpa played drums with Steve Miller. I grew up listening to my dad play a lot of acoustic guitar - Mississippi John Hurts and the delta blues crowd. He bought me my first guitar when I was six or so. I didn’t actually start playing it until middle school. It was my mom that got me into heavy music though - I started learning her old favorites from Scorpions, Dokken, Yngwie Malmsteen, Rush, Whitesnake, etc. That led me into heavier stuff, but in high school, I absolutely fell in love with Saosin. Their melodies and progressions combined with my heavier roots naturally set me on the path to progressive metalcore.
Dear Untitled: We know you guys have the 2 single releases in 2018, are there any others we missed?
Josh Nunn: A while back, we actually tracked a second single with Alan Rigdon at his studio in Alabama. You may have noticed that David posted a teaser for the solo on our Facebook. After the song was completely tracked, we ended up not as happy with it as we expected. It is currently being reworked. We aren’t yet sure when that will be released.
Dear Untitled: Who are your favorite artists and who do you currently look up to in the music industry? Are there any artists you recommend for people to check out?
David: As far as my writing goes, I’d point to Invent Animate, After the Burial, and Balance and Composure. Also Broccoli Rob. Most of my listening lately has consisted of Balance and Composure’s The Things We Think We’re Missing album.
Cody: As far as musical influences go, it’s probably pretty obvious. Northlane, Architects, Erra, and Invent Animate are the big ones. I’ve been listening to a lot of David Maxim Micic and Covet lately. The guys in Silent Planet are so insanely talented. They’ve got to be my favorite heavy band at the moment. My all-time favorite group is Fleetwood Mac, but I’ve always felt that Here Comes Treble is highly underrated.
Dear Untitled: Your music is solid from what we have heard so far - with that said, where do you see yourselves at, or hope to be as a band, in 5 years, ?
Dakota: Maybe doing a show. We are pretty laid back, we just like being able to produce this kind of music to put out there for people, and be proud of it in a manner that is less focused on satisfying everyone else and more focused on whether or not we enjoy it.
David: I will be content if we have a quality full length with no filler tracks released. Whether it happens or not, the writing won’t stop as it’s life giving to me and also an integral part of my friendships with the guys.
Cody: Our immediate goals are to compile a year’s worth of singles into a full-length and to shoot a music video. We definitely plan to release a new single every month or two. I love the writing aspect so much that I’ll be happy no matter what.
Dear Untitled: Have you guys been on any shows yet? Where can people plan to look for you in the future?
Josh: We haven’t played a show yet (as Blueshift), but if we ever do, it would most likely be in the Huntsville or Nashville area.
Dear Untitled: Any merch, music, or anything you want us to endorse? Side projects? Personal media, etc?
Josh: Shawn Barnes at Brick Barn Studios and Kevin Langley at All In Recordings. Alan Rigdon at Study Sound Recordings was pivotal in recording Disconnect.
Dear Untitled: We can say from the reception your music has gotten on the r/metalcore subreddit and our metalcore JQBX room which we practically live in, your music is very much on par with current big name artists. We take turns throwing up new bands in between artists that Cody mentioned earlier and when "Disconnect" was played the first time, somebody asked if it was an offshoot of Erra! Your stuff is that good and we are really looking forward to hearing more in the future for sure.
Dear Untitled: So to wrap the interview we have a few fun personal questions for you guys - first one: Any other cool hobbies together outside of music? (Essentially, Andrew wants to know if you play Fortnite because he needs new teammates)
David: Hit me and Cody up if you wanna get wrecked in NCAA Football 14’.
Cody: David and I do watch a lot of college football together. We all love to watch wonderfully terrible movies.
Dakota: Dakota plays Fortnite only when forced to because he sucks so much.
Dear Untitled: Welcome to Nic's boat, Dakota . . . he just can't grasp it, YET.
Alright, next: is a hotdog a sandwich? Does pineapple belong on pizza? (We ask the REAL questions now.)
Dakota: A hotdog is a long sandwich with round meat.
Cody: I worked at Mellow Mushroom for a while so I come from the school of thought that if it’s edible, it can go on a pizza.
David: Josh lays down huge dogs when he’s tracking vocals.
Dear Untitled: Drink of choice? (soda, adult beverage, water, Monster, Gatorade, etc)
Josh: Perhaps a carbonated soda?
David: Milk
Cody: I have been known to bring along an espresso machine.
Dakota: Much like Spongebob and Patrick, I am an avid fan of water.
Dear Untitled: Ok, so we are starting to see that Nic and Dakota might be the same human. Got it. How about this: Favorite TV show and favorite quote from that show?
David: Spongebob/Kung Pow/Troll 2
Cody: My life is pretty much just regurgitating barely-in-context quotes from The Office. Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way.
Dear Untitled: Oh we fully relate to that state of existence - big Office fans ourselves!
Dakota: Spongebob, favorite quotation: literally everything, The Office, Kung Pow, Birdemic
Dear Untitled: Yeahh.....we are 95% sure Dakota and Nic are the same human at this point. Spongebob, The Office, Water, and a fantastic taste in film? That's awesome.
Dear Untitled: Anything else you may want us to mention or know? Fun fact / Favorite Food? Hottest Celeb? Something random to close us out?
Cody: There is research that in prehistoric times, birds did attack cavemen. They used to claw at their eyes and skull.They’d either leave them for dead or then come back because their injuries were so bad and finally finish of the kill.
Please watch Birdemic.*
*DU is not sorry for endorsing such a high quality film recommendation*
Dear Untitled: Well we seriously appreciate you guys taking the time to talk with us. You seem like a bunch of chill dudes with a really positive outlook for the future of the band and life, which is epic! Your music has impacted us so far and our hope is that this chat can get the word out about Blueshift! Keep in touch, and thanks again!