As said earlier, we have a few new cumbers into the West Side family. One of them are Blue Eyed Blondes from Gothenburg, who will release their debut, a five track EP, next week, both as physical and digital. And since I don´t know so much about them, and probably neither do you, we asked them a few questions;
Who are these Blue Eyed Blondes, and why did you end up starting a band?
Blue Eyed Blondes is Kristoffer Emanuelsson and Lina Lönnberg. We both grew up in so called ”one horse towns”, which made us develop a milder form of restlessness and a longing for attention at an early age. It also made us long for the city, but when we finally got there it didn’t take long before we started romanticizing the country life we left behind. Blue Eyed Blondes seem to be doomed to the cruel destiny of longing for the country side when living in the city, and for the city when back in the woods.
About ten years ago, we met on a cliff in Kungälv and immediately became great friends with no sexual attraction to each other whatsoever, conveniently enough. But what we DID become attracted to at that time was the concept of country music, more often than not the more folky part of the genre. Mabye the dream of creating a country duo started right there and then.
In any case, Blue Eyed Blondes was formed in the summer of 2007 in Gothenburg, and we still do our outmost to spread the word as far and wide as we can about the music we both love: Country, folk, old time, blues and gospel. Our repertoire consists of traditional as well as modern songs, mixed with our own material.
And what about the name, why do you call yourself Blue Eyed Blondes, what is the story behind the name?
In choosing a name for the duo we wanted something that would describe us truthfully and at the same time be easy to remember. Mabye its hard to believe if you look at our most recent photos, but both of us are actually blue eyed AND have blonde hair. We blame the long winter for our current darker tones, and promises to be “blonder” again as soon as possible. Our blue eyes on the other hand, are as clear blue as ever.
Last, do you have any heroes/ role models musically or otherwise that you would like to mention?
Blue Eyed Blondes are always searching for treasures in the rich soil of traditional american music, but we also have lots of heroes that influence our music and performances. Not in the sense that we´re trying to sound like somebody else, but we get our inspiration from a wide spectra of great artists, both living and long gone. Hank Williams (the father of country music) and The Carter Family (country musics First family) almost goes without saying. Duos like The Louvin Brothers, Skaggs & Rice, Darrell Scott & Tim O’Brien and Gillian Welch & David Rawlings also serves as role models with their stunning harmonic singing and also with their great abilities to tell stories. These stories span from themes like hope, religion and love, to sex, murder and violence. All of them favourite themes of Blue Eyed Blondes. Some of them more than others.