Ugly Blondes

Interview with Ugly Blondes

March 3, 2016

Describe your band, telling a little about it.

We are called Ugly Blondes.  We started playing together about 3 years ago, but in some form or another, we've been playing together long before that with other members just as a cover band.  We  have recorded two albums within the past two years and hope to record again this year.

What are your names? / Who plays what?

Nate Cross - lead vocals/ guitar

Justin Cross lead guitar/ backup vocals

Nick Chesko - bass/ backup vocals

Gareth Blyth - drums/percussion

Have members played with any other bands?

Quite a few actually.  Justin and I (Nate) played in a band called Citizens of San Fierro together since I was about 13 and he was about 16 and that officially ended only about 4 years ago.  Gareth played drums in a band called the Blyth Brothers Band, and Nick and myself played together in a band called The Gentlmans Game in high school for about a year or two.

Do you write your own music or perform covers? Has it always been this way?   

Now we only play our own music but when we started and didn't have many of our own songs, we did a ton of covers. Too many.

What year did the band form?  

We were officially all together in 2013.

Where is bands home?  

Justin, Nick and Myself are all from the south hills of Pittsburgh, Gareth is originally from Ellwood city but now lives close to the rest of us.

What's your style or genre?  It's definitely hard rock or alternative rock but there's definitely elements of prog and punk and pychedelic rock that we throw in there. We try to make our songs as strange and hard to pin down as possible.

What inspires your music?  I think just the idea of being as different as we can.  We don't wanna be the typical rock band.  When we think of something really fresh and weird and cool, we get really excited. I think that excitement is pretty much the reason we write music.

How often do you rehearse?  Probably about once or twice a week.

What gear do you guys use?   

I use Gibson SG's with a Blackstar combo amp, along with a fuzz and phase pedal.  Justin uses Gibson les Pauls also with a Blackstar combo, with a wah-wah, a phase and some other cool pedals.  Nick uses a fender jazz bass and a fender amp, I believe.  Gareth has pearl kit with pretty much every tom and cymbal there is to have.

Do you utilize a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that?   No, we book all our own shows and it's more fun that way.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that?  I wouldn't say we're looking, but i think if a label came up to and said "you guys wanna be signed" we would absolutely do it. But right now we're having fun to just being independent.

What are your songs about?

A lot of things I think. Relationships, good and bad. Moving on from things you used to do. Following your dreams vs. getting a stable job. Religion sometimes. Really just a lot of stuff people usually think about before they fall asleep.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics?

We all do the composing of the music.  Someone comes in with a song idea and well work with it to the point where it sounds like us.  And then I write the lyrics.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics?

Definitely music.

Do you compose in a certain enviroment?

Yeah we do pretty much everything in my parents garage. They got a nice big garage.

Have you done any covers live?  Yeah, Joker and the Thief by Wolfmother will sometimes make it in the set.  And sometimes Rebel Yell by Billy Idol.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs?  The least could have actually been 0. Maybe 4. But that was when we just started. Now we'll get around 50 or so.

What ages are most of your concert attendants?

Early to mid 20's I'd say.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary?  We have like a set of go to songs to play, but if we're feelin saucy sometimes we'll play a song or two that we wrote, recorded, and forgot all about.

Do you have a regular place you play live often?

Not particularly.  We play at Smiling Moose, Bloomfield Bridge Tavern and Club Cafe the most.

What was your first gig like?  Bad. We had our first show in the summer of 2013 at an outside bar. and it seemed like it was gonna be awesome cause a bunch of our friends came, but the bar was so big that everyone kind of sat in the back and drank margaritas to get away from how loud and not good we were.  I even think an old lady even asked us to stop playing.

What was your latest gig?

We played at the Hard Rock Cafe in station square for the semi finals of 105.9 the X's winter rock showcase battle of the bands competition.  We won so we get to play in the finals.

Have you had to cancel a gig?

We never had to but venues have before. One time the venue found out that the band we were opening for played while they were half naked. So they cancelled the show.

Where have you played live this year?

That hard rock gig was the first of this year.

Where do you plan to gig the coming year?

We have the hard rock again, then Bloomfield Bridge Tavern on March 18, then Club Cafe once in April 8th with our good friends Turnpike Gardens and There You Are (check them out) and another time in June 4th with our other good friends Blackbird Bullet (also check out).  Also we've entered to play at the Layer Cake and Deutschtown music festivals for the summer so hopefully we'll do those too.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale?  We started right after we recorded our first CD.  So we have our first and second albums for sale and we have shirts for the second album as well.  First album's shirts are gone.

Where can people buy your merchandise?  The albums are on Amazon and iTunes but the shirts, ya gotta come to a show to get your hands on one.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?

It's terrible to illegally download a record from a band that your a fan of, and not support them by buying it. But on the other hand, streaming services are pretty cool too. That's how you can easily gain fans, they start listening to you for free, they start coming to your shows, then they will feel like they should support and buy your stuff.

Do you have any role models or idols?

I think there's too many to name for us.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today?  I think it's both. We all grew up listening to the classics but I think all of the bands we listen to on a daily basis are newer.

What have been your biggest obstacles?

Getting people to come to shows. Dealing with entertainment companies. Finding parking spots at the venue your playing at. For real.

What advice would you give other bands or artists?

Network.  Become friends with other bands.  It's the only way to do it.

How do you get psyched for a gig?

Joke around a lot in the car ride there and forget you have a gig. I don't know why but that's just always been the way.

Do you have any new material?

Yes, we are working on a third record. We have 3 songs completely written and then probably a hundred recorded demos on either a computer or an iPad.

What are your web sites?

www.facebook.com/uglyblondes

www.bandcamp.com.uglyblondes1

How can people reach you? 

Facebook messenger is the best way.

Other social media addresses?

@uglyblondes on Twitter.

What are your plans for the future?

Play as many shows as we can.  Write as many songs as we can.  Have the best year we can.  We're pumped to just really get to the grind.

What do you think of my work?

Love what your doing.  Local bands need recognized and your doing them a great service.

How do you think that this interview could help you in the local music scene and beyond?

If anyone sees this and is intrigued by what we have to say, they'll look us up and that's all we want. we just want people to listen to us so this is a huge help to get our name out there.

What is one thing even your biggest fans don't know about the band?  Our song Juneux was named after Nick's dog. RIP Juneux.