"you and me are a miracle / the kind of love that makes a new emotion...."
What this talented duo get right as well is the 80's singing drawl, a combination of a slight British accent with bottom shading and, in fact, listening to Buddy Crime I thought of Tony Hadley and Wyatt, maybe an amalgam of Clark Datcherler and Jim Kerr. This is the thing though, the sound here sounds less like revival rock and more like a pitch perfect homage or a lost tape from that specific time. Wyatt Blair is a consummate multi-instrumentalist and producer and his deep love for this sound likely fueled by his father who was in an 80's band himself seems apparent here.
"For The Thrill of It" is from Wyatt Blair's upcoming EP "For The First Time" dropping December 6th.
From liner notes:
[For The First Time, out December 6th via Lolipop Records, comes on the heels of last December’s Inspirational Strawberries, Blair’s second LP of 2018 that found him indulging his '60s psych, '80s pop, '90s Brit-rock influences in equal measure to stunning effect. Recorded in his home studio in Flagstaff, Arizona, For The First Time was originally conceptualized as a full-length LP before Blair decided to cut it down, with the remaining four tracks stripping away the varnish that coated his 2018 releases in favor of raw, emotionally vulnerable power-pop. “I think maybe I was trying too hard in the studio on my last couple of albums to add more instruments on a track, or cut things up more,” he says. “With For The First Time, I just wanted to write some straight pop-rock tunes.”]
[Much of For The First Time deals with Blair’s struggles with mental health throughout his life, his recent experiences with medication, and how music helps him process his emotions. “Writing music is a compulsion for me -- it’s my outlet,” says Blair. “Everyone has an outlet, some way of combating mental and physical conflict in their life. Music is my creative gym, honestly, it’s the way that I work through my neuroses. It’s a compulsion in the sense that, I need to do this for my health.” The most poignant example comes from the EP’s closing track, “Fear To Fight,” a strutting 80s-pop empowerment anthem that emphasizes the fear of taking the steps to improve mental health. “All these fears, the fear of opening up, fears of dying, fears of upsetting someone, fears of losing control, the fear of talking to a therapist or doctor about your issues… I’m just saying ‘fuck all that’, we’ve all got that fear built in to us, but we’ve just gotta keep fighting the fight of life in order to get somewhere at all.”]
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
Los Angeles’ Wyatt Blair can’t stop. A physical manifestation of inertia, Blair has been a musical object in motion since his father taught him to play the drums at 13 years old. In the years since, he’s spent his time playing in numerous bands, producing bands albums, releasing four self-produced solo albums, and founding the LA-based record label Lolipop Records, through which he helped break a new wave of young garage rockers out of their neighborhoods and into the world. His previous releases garnered praise from Pitchfork, The FADER, Spin, Uproxx & more, and led to support slots alongside acts like The Growlers, Broncho, Screaming Females, Peach Kelli Pop, Cosmonauts and more. Now, after a tumultuous year and relocating from Los Angeles to Flagstaff & back again, Blair is taking some time to help himself the only way he knows how: Channeling his struggles into massive arena rock/power-pop songs on his new EP For The First Time.
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