Track-by-Track: Blackpool Shoegaze Band blanket Dissect Their New ‘Blue Eyes’ EP

I first crossed paths with Blackpool shoegaze chaps Blanket when they supported Zeal & Ardour at a small venue in Leeds. I remember early on in their set, thinking this band would absolutely nail a Radiohead cover when, lo and behold, they dropped a jaw-slackening cover of “No Surprises.”

It’s been over four years since that gig, the band dropped their equally stunning Modern Escapism album and are now back with a new EP. Featuring original tracks and some interesting covers, we sat down with the band and got them to talk us through each of the five tracks on Blue Eyes.

1. “Blue Eyes”

“With ‘Blue Eyes’ we wanted to create a track that would transition from the crushing sounds of Modern Escapism to the less metal-inspired shoegaze sound we had found ourselves writting. We took influence from a lot of ’90s music such as Smashing Pumpkins, Failure and Hum, as well as our love for ’90s indie and britpop. We combined all of this with some of the rhythmic elements/feels of what makes up modern escapism and what we seem to end up implementing into a Blanket record ‘Blue Eyes’ sound and style is what fans can expect from us in the near future.”

2. “I fall apart” (Post Malone Cover)

“We were jamming round at Simon’s house one night for an acoustic show we had coming up. We tried ‘friends’ by Bon Iver and this older Post Malone track, and found that ‘I fall apart’ had such a vibe to it. We tracked it all live at City Studios in Manchester.”

3. “Climbing up the walls” (Radiohead Cover)

“We collaborated with Palm Reader to cover one of our favourite Radiohead songs, ‘exit music,’ to celebrate 25 years since the release of Ok Computer – we obviously loved covering one of our favourite artists, so we decided to do another. Rather than cover one of the more obvious tracks from Ok Computer, we chose ‘Climbing up the walls,’ as we all believe the song is majorly underrated and isn’t spoken about enough.”

4. “In the house, in a heartbeat” (28 Days Later)

“We always wanted to cover this track, and as Halloween was approaching, we thought, why not? We tracked it all in one night at Bobby’s house and shot the video the next day. We didn’t realize that when we tracked this, our then manager Megan Burns, actually played a main role in the movie and the music video actually features the red dress worn in the movie by her character. 28 Days Later was one of the first big movies we saw that was shot and edited digitally, and while the look hasn’t aged well, it was a big stepping stone for low-budget filmmakers.”

blanket ‘Blue Eyes’ EP Artwork

5. “Ghost Note”

“‘Ghost Note’ is a full band track we’d been playing with for a while; we decided to strip back what we had and do a piano-led version with our friend Stuart for this EP. It shows a much lighter side to the band with higher/clearer vocals, vocal harmonies and lots of piano. We may even release the heavier version of the track in the future if the opportunity arose.”

blanket released Blue Eyes on September 1st through Church Road Records. To pick up a copy or to find out more about the band, head over to their official website.