Blood work
Old Blood haven't been a band for long, but for the short time they have been together, they've gotten the circulation pumping. The Halifax hard-rocking four-piece is officially releasing its first album on April 11, after releasing it on Bandcamp and iTunes December 21. "It's been just about a year in the process," says Josh White, bassist. "We recorded and produced it ourselves. Halfway through the process I was thinking, 'Shouldn't we be further along? Don't most people record an EP in their basement in a few days?' And that works for some bands, if you're a garage rock lo-fi fuzz band, you can do that, but we were going for a different aesthetic.
"Part of it is our genre---heavy rock, alternative rock, hard rock---whatever you wanted to call it, you can't really do that in a three-day session."
What they came up with was Ruins--- self-recorded, but managing to transcend the usual home recording sound. The melodic, clean-sounding album is the product of self-proclaimed perfectionists. They did double duty while making the album, Trevor DeSouza (guitar, vocals) would track while drummer Cory Leach recorded, and vice versa.
"We recorded the album for ourselves," says White. "We kept re-recording and changing the tracks until they were where we wanted them, if other people like it, that's a great bonus, but we really like the songs and we're confident about the product we're putting out."
Old Blood's slight grunge sound has a lot to do with the band members' coming of age. "We all grew up with the grunge movement: Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots," says White. "We all grew up at the perfect moment to be influenced by grunge. I was 10 when Nevermind came out."
Lyrically, the album is story-based--- the songs are dramatic and suit the music well, dealing with Hitchcock movie plots, a video game storyline, the Halifax explosion, a jailbreak.
"I feel like the theme is stories," says White. "When Trevor is writing, it's a bit like an act to a play. The music wouldn't lend itself to super-cheerful, happy lyrics, not that we're not a down and depressed band but there's a certain weight musically, they require a certain weight lyrically as well."
Old Blood w/Shelter With Thieves, Stone Mary, Wednesday, April 11 at The Seahorse, 1665 Argyle
