New York band Blonde Redhead have survived the many changes in the music industry
Blonde Redhead have survived two decades in the industry by striving to do better with each album, says drummer Simone Pace
There hasn't been another band quite like Blonde Redhead to come out of New York in the past two decades.
The story has it that Kazu Makino (vocals, rhythm guitar), who was an art student at the time, met twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace (the band's drummer and lead guitarist/vocalist respectively) at an Italian restaurant. They formed a band and took their name from a song by DNA, a short-lived but influential no wave outfit from New York.
Since that chance meeting, Blonde Redhead have released eight full-length albums and amassed a diehard fan base. On each record, Makino's vocals float in an otherworldly fashion over the precise playing by the Pace brothers. Live, this translates to a hypnotic experience; it's impossible to take your eyes off the band, as their local followers will discover when they play here. The songs undergo a pleasing sort of metamorphosis that only the very best bands can deliver.
Blonde Redhead's most recent album, (2010), fused the band's punk rock spirit with electronic instrumentation, creating a dreamy sound that feels almost languorous — skirting dangerously close to easy listening — when compared with earlier albums.
Over the past two decades, many of their contemporaries have stopped making music, pursued solo careers, or embarked on (unsatisfactory) reunion tours. The industry has seen the rise and fall of grunge; several generations of boy bands and divas have come and gone; and hip hop has become a caricature of what it once was. Through it all, Blonde Redhead have delivered surprising albums that still hold up; the songs have not dated or faded despite the passage of time.
"This is a really important part of our lives," Simone Pace says over the telephone from New York when asked why the band continues to stay together and make music as Blonde Redhead. "A lot of bands don't make it through a record or two or three, but we decided that this was what we want to keep doing, and always try to do something different and perhaps better than the last.
