Blazin Squad - By Mark Forrer
I was so happy when I heard Blazin Squad were making a comeback, back in the good old days when I was trying to be cool, there was nothing I liked more than Flip reversing, and meeting people at the Crossroads!
But now the boys are all grown up (and have cut their number in half) and are ready to unleash their new single Let’s Start Again on the British public… horray! So we caught up with the five fitties to find out what’s happening with them at the moment…
Hello there pretties, how are things going in your lovely world?
Kenzie: I’m good thank you! I’ve been busy promoting the band! Getting the love back! We’ve been out gigging, doing interviews, putting our video all over the TV! It’s really taken off so we’ve been working hard at it and spending time in the studio. It’s going really well you know, I’m happy.
We are proper 100% loving your super hot new single, Let‘s Start Again…tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it…
Kenzie: Well the new single…. Well, me and the boys were all right individually; Marcel and James have their own studio so we were up there writing and then us five came together and wrote this track. Obviously it’s based on a relationship, but it fits in well with the comeback so we think it works well there and we wanted to keep in with the urban poppy thing because it’s doing really well and we think we were kind of ambassadors of that back in the day so we feel like we’re picking up where we left of but a bit more maturely.
Aww, that’s awesome, we can’t wait!
Oh, thank you so much!
It’s quite alright, so you’ve had a couple of line-up changes, is it easier now it’s just the five of you?
Kenzie: yeah, well obviously it was the 10 of us and it made it a lot more difficult because we were all friends but now it’s totally about the music and we’ve worked really hard since we split up to establish whatever we were doing; whether that be solo projects or something else.
We thought we would work better as a five some since the split, I just feels right this time, it’s a lot easier with five.
And would you say you sound different now than when you first started?
Kenzie: Yeah, it’s more of a mature vibe now, I mean you can look at artists at 15 and 16 years old and there’s noone making mature music at that age, but we have no regrets, we thought we did really well for the position we were in and it was experience for us, we’ve been doing this for 10 years and it’s just all experience and we know what we’re doing now.
Everyone grows up you know, and we are aware that we’re going to be judged on the name of the single, but we just hope that when people hear it, and see the video, they’ll realise we’ve matured in more ways than one.
If you were going to give us just one song of yours to listen to so that you would become our new favourite band, what would it be?
Kenzie: For one song from Blazin Squad I’d have to say the new single; Let’s Start Again. Think it completely defines what we’re doing at the moment and shows the maturity and hopefully it will be our stepping stone to being very successful.
If you could cover another band’s song, what would it be?
Marcel: That’s a hard question, I don’t really want to cover anyone else’s music, I just like making my own.
And can you sum up your good selves in just five words?
Marcel: Mature, Epic, Semi-Urban pop music.
What makes you stand out from the crowd?
Marcel: There is a lot of competition in the music industry at the moment but we’re five men in a band, and I think the key things that make us stand out is that we write and produce all of our own music so our album will basically be written, produced and distributed by ourselves; we’re running it through an independent label so it’s all basically us; from the video to what singles get released, we are the ones who make the choices.
You know we’re having a bit of an economic crisis here at the moment, if people wanted to spend their last £10 on a cd this weekend, why should they buy yours?
Marcel: I think people should spent their hard-earned cash on our music because it’s great music!
What three bands would you have to headline your dream festival?
Lee: Ooh, good question. The first one would be Kasabian, secondly Red Hot Chili Peppers and the third band would be Blazin Squad [FF: Not the kind of bands I’d imagine you to say!] I know, haha, a bit of a mix.
What has been your favourite musical memory to date?
Lee: I’d say one of them, for me, has to be performing at Wembly on the last day of our tour, that was a great show and probably my favourite one.
If there was a huge fire and all the members of Blazin Squad were stuck in there and you could only save one of them, who would you save?
Lee: Haha! That’s harsh! Kenzie has super strength so he’d have to carry us all! To be honest, I’d just carry myself and leave them all! Haha, I wouldn’t be able to pick any one of them up! Don’t get me wrong, I’d try to carry them all, but I’d probably end up hurting my back and getting stuck there myself.
Who do you think is the greatest artist around at the moment?
James: I’m a massive fan of a French dance group called Justice. I’m really feeling everything they’re doing at the moment so I’m going to go with them.
If you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life, what would it be?
James: Ooh, one CD for the rest of my life! That is hard! I’d go for a really good compilation album or I’d listen to The Best Of The Smiths; that would be my desert island album.
Tell me about the most terrifying experience of your life…
James: I went white water rafting in Wales and I’m not really into this white knuckle adventure things, and my mate gave me a kick up the arse and I fell into the water and I went straight under the raft and was stuck there for about five seconds, but it seemed like forever!
Why go to the top of a tall building, only to put money in binoculars and look at things on the ground?
Mus: I think it must be because there aren’t as many places that you can see as far.
We ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview, and Louis Malloy wants to know, have you ever downloaded music illegally?
Mus: I don’t support it, but I’m not going to lie, I did it when I was younger but when you start realising how it affects people’s lives and business that it is sad that it’s such a common thing.
At the end of the day, people spend a lot of money putting stuff out and people can just go on their computers and get it for free when we have put a lot of effort into making it and making enough money to put the material out there.
It’s sad that we can never really change it, but hopefully there are still people out there who would buy records and films from the shops.
And can you come up with a question for the next person I interview please?
Have you heard the new Blazin Squad single?
Haha, great, I love it!
But just to be 100% certain they were ready to take on the mature world, we gave the lads a makeover to take them from Street to Chic… get out all the shenanigans from our Blazin Squad makeover here and watch the video below
And the Blazin Squad pictures here.
Plus, read our Blazin Squad - Let's Start Again Review here
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Video & photos by Mark Forrer
I was so happy when I heard Blazin Squad were making a comeback, back in the good old days when I was trying to be cool, there was nothing I liked more than Flip reversing, and meeting people at the Crossroads!
But now the boys are all grown up (and have cut their number in half) and are ready to unleash their new single Let’s Start Again on the British public… horray! So we caught up with the five fitties to find out what’s happening with them at the moment…
Hello there pretties, how are things going in your lovely world?
Kenzie: I’m good thank you! I’ve been busy promoting the band! Getting the love back! We’ve been out gigging, doing interviews, putting our video all over the TV! It’s really taken off so we’ve been working hard at it and spending time in the studio. It’s going really well you know, I’m happy.
We are proper 100% loving your super hot new single, Let‘s Start Again…tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it…
Kenzie: Well the new single…. Well, me and the boys were all right individually; Marcel and James have their own studio so we were up there writing and then us five came together and wrote this track. Obviously it’s based on a relationship, but it fits in well with the comeback so we think it works well there and we wanted to keep in with the urban poppy thing because it’s doing really well and we think we were kind of ambassadors of that back in the day so we feel like we’re picking up where we left of but a bit more maturely.
Aww, that’s awesome, we can’t wait!
Oh, thank you so much!
It’s quite alright, so you’ve had a couple of line-up changes, is it easier now it’s just the five of you?
Kenzie: yeah, well obviously it was the 10 of us and it made it a lot more difficult because we were all friends but now it’s totally about the music and we’ve worked really hard since we split up to establish whatever we were doing; whether that be solo projects or something else.
We thought we would work better as a five some since the split, I just feels right this time, it’s a lot easier with five.
And would you say you sound different now than when you first started?
Kenzie: Yeah, it’s more of a mature vibe now, I mean you can look at artists at 15 and 16 years old and there’s noone making mature music at that age, but we have no regrets, we thought we did really well for the position we were in and it was experience for us, we’ve been doing this for 10 years and it’s just all experience and we know what we’re doing now.
Everyone grows up you know, and we are aware that we’re going to be judged on the name of the single, but we just hope that when people hear it, and see the video, they’ll realise we’ve matured in more ways than one.
If you were going to give us just one song of yours to listen to so that you would become our new favourite band, what would it be?
Kenzie: For one song from Blazin Squad I’d have to say the new single; Let’s Start Again. Think it completely defines what we’re doing at the moment and shows the maturity and hopefully it will be our stepping stone to being very successful.
If you could cover another band’s song, what would it be?
Marcel: That’s a hard question, I don’t really want to cover anyone else’s music, I just like making my own.
And can you sum up your good selves in just five words?
Marcel: Mature, Epic, Semi-Urban pop music.
What makes you stand out from the crowd?
Marcel: There is a lot of competition in the music industry at the moment but we’re five men in a band, and I think the key things that make us stand out is that we write and produce all of our own music so our album will basically be written, produced and distributed by ourselves; we’re running it through an independent label so it’s all basically us; from the video to what singles get released, we are the ones who make the choices.
You know we’re having a bit of an economic crisis here at the moment, if people wanted to spend their last £10 on a cd this weekend, why should they buy yours?
Marcel: I think people should spent their hard-earned cash on our music because it’s great music!
What three bands would you have to headline your dream festival?
Lee: Ooh, good question. The first one would be Kasabian, secondly Red Hot Chili Peppers and the third band would be Blazin Squad [FF: Not the kind of bands I’d imagine you to say!] I know, haha, a bit of a mix.