By Rob Putnam
Photo by describe the fauna
Date Signed: August 2012
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Band Members: Erica Driscoll, vocals, guitar, keyboards; Bruce Driscoll, vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums.
Type of Music: Electro-pop
Management: David Bason / The MGMT Company, 818-760-7657
Booking: Andrew Simon and Kyle Wilensky / CAA, 424-288-2000
Legal: David Jacobs / Mark Music & Media Law, P.C., 646-274-3699
Publicity: Kate Cafaro / Warner Bros. Records, [email protected], 818-953-3257
Web: http://blondfire.com
A&R: Jeff Sosnow, Adam Herzog
Blondfire’s signing saga is very much one born of the Internet. Landing the video for the song “Where the Kids Are” on a few blogs less than a year ago attracted a wave of interest. It wasn’t long until satellite and local radio came to call. So did management. Soon after, a deal with Warner Bros. was inked.
“We had a friend do a music video and it came out really cool,” recalls Erica Driscoll, half of the brother-and-sister duo. “We didn’t have a publicist or anything so I hit up a couple of blogs. Once it went online, it took off; other blogs started to pick it up. It was surprising because I didn’t know if anyone would read an email from me, since it wasn’t from a proper publicist.”
Radio airplay followed soon after––both satellite and terrestrial. “The main thing that made us break through was getting picked up by [Sirius Satellite Radio's] Alt Nation channel,” Driscoll observes. “We got placed into regular rotation. People noticed that we were getting played next to bands like Foster the People. We also got picked up by [Los Angeles station] KROQ. Kat Corbett from [KROQ show] Locals Only has been very supportive.”
The airplay drew the attention of label execs. But it wasn’t Warner Bros. that found the band, initially. It was Brooklyn-based Warner affiliate Modern Art Records. “Ben [Collins] at Modern Art really wanted to sign us, but it progressed up the chain to Warner,” Driscoll explains. “When we met with them, they got our music, as opposed to other labels we’d met with. Warner thought that we already had our sound. Other labels loved our songwriting, but seemed like they wanted to toy with our music more.”
Young Heart is being mixed by Wally Gagel and is expected to be released sometime in the New Year. A California tour is being planned and Blondfire is looking to join forces on the road with another more established band.
