| Corporation:Blend hail from Bournemouth and live in Punk City. Robert and Andy met at school and started writing together. First drummer, Charlie met Robert at a
club in Bournemouth that they all frequented called The Villa. Dexy saw
their advert for a bassist in a record shop and a new musical gang were born. Andy
liked the word Corporation, and Robert liked Blend, they put
them together and it stuck.  The fact that
they all have massively varied music tastes pulls their sound around in different
directions. There are no particular major influences running through their stuff so they
can avoid that dreary "The
New (fill in blank)" tag that is common
to lazy journalism. It's hard to put a finger on Corporation:Blend when
seeing them live and a multitude of comparisons will only confirm that. "We're told that there's elements of
stuff like Magazine and Blur in there and although we're into both those bands, it's never
a really concious thing" say the band.
Their songs come together loosely.
"Sometimes someone (usually Robert or Andy) comes in with a song structure and we all
put ideas in and work at it until we're really happy with it. Other times it can happen
almost by accident, someone'll play something and we'll jam around with it".
They agree that there seems to be a lull at the
moment with regards to the British scene. "Everyone's desperately searching for the next big thing and grabbing at
anything that shows the slightest potentinal, hyping them up to a level that they can
never match. No one really know where it's going to come from. There is good music around
but it tends to be from already established artists or from the R&B scene with stuff
like Destiny's Child. Maybe the media should look at their attitude to new bands and work
out where there aren't a great deal of original British bands breaking rhrought at the
moment. I'd like to see less coverage of the US underground scene. It's getting tiresome
now".
Corporation:Blend themselves count Mo Solid Gold and Ex-Rental among acts whose
gigs and records they recommend spending money on. Radio DJs like Claire Sturgess, Steve
Lamacq, Mark & Lard and John Peel get the thumbs up for supporting original bands.
As part of the UK underground scene, Corporation:Blend are making their mark. Since moving to London they have
experienced positive reactions to their sound already. "We supported Mo Solid Gold at The 100 Club which was
amazing. It was one of our best gigs and we're MSG fans anyway. They were really decent
people. We've had a couple of dodgy gigs, but that's all experience". One of the dodgy gigs they had was at a talent competition
where the friends and families of the local bands booed their set - yet it was Corporation:Blend that won the night!
In the short time they have been around they have
started courting attention and exposure. They have a good relationship with fanzines with
which they have had a couple of reviews and interviews, have been played on Claire
Sturgess' show on XFM and had a live review in NME.
Corporation:Blend are currently at the unsigned, in crap jobs, stage of their career but manage to keep moving on and agree that it's
definitely worth it. "It
does get really tight, but as long as you're into what you do, you'll put up with
it." Things are starting to fall into
place.
What now for C:B? "The next step is to hopefully get a
record deal. Other than that, we're writing, rehearsing, gigging and recording. We've done
far more in a short space of time that we thought we could, but we're ambitious and
there's loads more we want to do. We're starting to build up a fanbase, which is really
great. We're getting more and more people at every gig. We have a website and mailing list
to keep people up to date"
It's obvious that they are huge music fans. With so
much going on right now, do they get the chance to check out many bands? Dexy admits that
they "don't really get
the chance to, at the moment, although I went to see the Manics and they were
excellent". It's obvious that corporation:blend are enjoying the experience very much - that in itself is
infectious. Check out their website for news, release information, band profiles, MP3s,
mailing list, lyrics, the works! - and catch live, up real close, at a gig
near you when you can.
Thanks to C:B for their time.
Their message for Rocklands? "Peace
And Love" -
Website: http://www.corporationblend.com
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