www.facebook.com/BLOTTER-319941208037327
From: Newport, NC
Sounds like: Hard Rock
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Blotter” and is there any meaning behind it?
BLOTTER is the combination of 16 years of hard work, development, and trial and error. In the beginning around 2001, Lead Guitarist, Timmy, and drummer, Leroy, played together as kids for about 6 years with various bass guitar and rhythm guitar players until bass guitarist, Jimbo, joined the band around 2007. The trio played together for about 5 years as, The Rock Grommets, until 2012 when rhythm guitarist, Trey, joined the band. Since then, we have had the same line-up, so we’ve played together for 5 years. Shortly before Trey joined we had changed the name to BLOTTER. “BLOTTER” was chosen as the band name in a group decision between both band members and childhood friends who had supported the band since the beginning. During the discussion we threw around a bunch of names like: Fly ’69, Hot Monkey Sex, Bad Wolf, 747, and many other ridiculous names. Finally, Timmy suggested out of the blue, “What about, BLOTTER? Because when you see us and then listen to our music, we change your perspective.” We discussed the name amongst ourselves, and we all agreed that it was the best name to describe us.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
When someone walks away from one of our shows, we want them to think, “Damn, that’s it?! I wanna hear more! Where are they goin’ next?! When are they comin’ back?!” We want them to feel like we would want to feel after seeing an amazing concert. Because at the end of the day the four of us are fans too.
3. What can people expect from your live show?
We’ve been known to do some wild things on stage. Real theatrical stuff, given the correct amount of space. Straight jackets, blood, breaking guitars, smoke bombs, we even hung Timmy in a straight jacket from a noose one time(all fake of course), and had him sing a song hanging. But moving away from theatrics, we try to be a high energy band showing how much we love music. We’re big on crowd interaction. We really enjoy making new fans and meeting people who enjoy our music as much as we like to play it! Hanging out with fans after shows is one way we try to show how much we appreciate them.
4. What's your favorite track to play live?
Well we really can’t pick one song we like to play because we’re all different. But personally our favorite songs are: Timmy-"Reflections", Leroy-"Sad N’ Lonely", Jimbo-"Jailbait", Trey-"Big Gun".
5. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
If we’re talking about heroes we can all collectively agree we’d want to tour with KISS, Alice Cooper, or Iron Maiden. But more modern-speaking probably bands like Theory of a Deadman, Buckcherry, or Red Sun Rising. We gel more with those kind of bands with our sound.
6. Any crazy show stories?
Yeah we’ve had a bunch of crazy things happen during shows. During the show when we hung Timmy with a noose, Jimbo began spitting up theatrical blood, and a few people thought they were dead and called an ambulance. Fire department had been called too because we had set off some smoke bombs during a guitar solo. Another time, Timmy passed out during a song and knocked 2 of his teeth out with his guitar. We finished the show though! We also recored a music video at one of our shows once, and a drunk guy fell over in front of the band and was rolling around on the ground trying to get up and knocked a whole bunch of other people down. The crowd looked like dominos, it was crazy. There’s many more but for the sake of time we’ll end it there.
7. What’s your take on the current state of Rock?
Rock is definitely not dead because there are lots of bands out there with an amazing sound and great followings. With so many sub genres of rock, it’s hard to really say there aren’t people out there that still look for that next awesome band.
8. What’s the current music scene like there in North Carolina both locally and state wide?
Our local scene is dominated by beach music, cover bands, reggae, and country music. Not much rock n’ roll in this part of the country. As far as statewide, there are definitely music scenes in the bigger cities of North Carolina, but not much love for touring bands that aren’t nationally known.
9. What’s your take on legal/illegal music downloading?
Legally downloaded music helps musicians make money off of their livelihood, so we definitely support legally downloaded music.
10. What’s next for Blotter?
Next up for BLOTTER is touring the country and possibly internationally. We are beginning to break into new places, and we’re excited to really begin to build a career out of our love of music.
11. Any shoutouts?
We definitely want to thank you guys at From the Depths Entertainment for helping us out. Also we want to give a shout out to our boy Seth, who found us a tour bus, many thanks brother! Timmy’s Dad/Jimbo’s Uncle, Buddy, who always believed in us and helped us get better at what we do. And also our dedicated roadie, Rusty, we appreciate his hard work. Last but most definitely not least, our fans. We appreciate all of you for continuing to support us in everything that we do.
