By: Kathleen De Vere

Going on a cross country
tour is hard work, and it’s
filled with a lot more lethal sit-
uations that you would
expect, or at least it is when
you’re Blend. Comprised of
singer Jessica Damen, gui-
tarist Mike McKyse, drummer
Rob Carvell and bass player
Paudy, Blend are working
their way across Canada
from their hometown of
London, Ontario, and when
you spend that much time on
the road, a lot of interesting
things can happen to you.

Blend met each other at
Fanshawe College in
London, Ontario. They were
all. attending the Music
Industry Arts program, and all
had the ambition to become
successful recording artists.
Matt and Paudy had already

been playing in a cover band,
performing at clubs in and
around the London area.
Mike was also playing in a
cover band, while Jessica
was doing freelance session
work. Both bands were
achieving moderate success,
but felt unfulfilled playing
other people’s music. They
wanted to begin creating their
own music, and consequent-
ly, the bands dissolved.
Jessica, who had been writ-
ing her own lyrics and
melodies for quite some time,
also felt the desire to join a
band and perform.

All of the members of Blend
already knew each other, and
had discussed the possibility
of forming a band writing orig-
inal material, as well as per-
forming popular cover songs.
Thus Blend came together.

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Quickly gaining popularity in
their hometown, they decided
to record an album and pro-
mote it, with their first single
Without You gaining populari-
ty on radio nationwide, a tour
was in order which brings
them here, after facing con-
siderable on-the-road hard-
ships...

Like their van catching on
fire.

After driving all night to get
to Winnipeg, “suddenly the
van started loosing power.”
Mike the guitarist says as he
recalls Blend’s best tour
story. “So Paudy and | look
out the windows, and smoke
is billowing out of the engine!”

After a quick check under
the hood revealed roaring
flames where the engine
should have been, the band
searched desperately to find
something to put the fire out
before their whole van went
up in flames. “Then Mike got
the great idea to use our bot-
tle of windshield washer fluid
to douse the flames,” Jessica
adds quickly, “you know the

co

kind with alcohol based
antifreeze in it?”

“BOOM! The whole thing
went up like a fancy dessert!”
laughs Mike in retrospect
about his brush with death.

Not all tour stories are bad
though; Blend have discov-
ered some great culinary
secrets on their trip. “Paudy
makes great food,” Jessica
laughs, “he made something
from Mr. Noodles, carrot,
onion and hot dog.”

“Moo Go Guy Dog.” Paudy
adds showing off his cuisine
naming prowess.

As far as musical influ-
ences go, Blend is a pretty
varied bunch. Jessica gets
her influences from more
classic Jazz and _ blues
sources like Ella Fitzgerald
and Janis Joplin, while Paudy
cites the polka stylings Walter
Ostanek as a big influence on
his bass playing. (With some
groove thrown in for good
measure.) Drummer Rob is
into everything from Glam
bands like Quiet Riot and Iron
Maiden to Radiohead and

ge:

Blend: Embarking on a Fiery Cross-Canada Tour

Tool. Mike, Blend’s guitarist,
listens to a lot of guitar music,
everything from stuff like
Eddie Van Halen to Devin
Townsend.

So if you throw all these
bands together, what sort of
blend do you get? Blend’s
first CD Symbiotic is a catchy,
riff driven, funky rock trip that
lures the listener in, but
keeps them on their toes. But
why is it called Symbiotic?

“A lot of the lyrics Jessica
wrote were about relation-
ships, and we wanted a
theme based on the idea of
mutual need in a relation-
ship,” Mike explains, “symbi-
otic works on so many levels:
romantic, personal even busi-
ness relationships. We want-
ed to show that we can’t sur-
vive without other people...
we're all in this together.”

If you want to hear more of
Blend, their single Without
You is being played on 94X
FM and their CD is available
through their website at
www.blendmusic.com.

Mckyse (guitar) Jessica Damen (vocals) and

Blend: Clockwise from top, Paudy (bass) Mik
Rob Carvell (drummer)