Hi, everyone! Last week, I got to catch up with the Charleston, SC-based band Current Blue. Though the band came together in January of this year, the three members have been friends since their high school days. Led by 19-year old music prodigy Stephan Looney, he, Austin Klintworth (bass), and Yuki Tillis (drums) have been taking the internet by storm in recent months. Each of the three singles the band has released has amassed over 1,000,000 in record time. In fact, their hit songs "Six Speed" and "Daytrip" have been featured on some of the largest playlists on Spotify including "Bedroom Pop" and "Ultimate Indie". I've been a huge fan of their music for a few months now, and I was super hyped to sit down and talk with the guys about their newfound fame.
bazzreviews: Which artists or albums inspired you to start a music career in the first place?
Stephan Looney: Before the bedroom pop era, I grew up listening to a lot of lo-fi alternative bands like Modest Mouse. They have really contributed to the way we make music as a band.
Austin Klintworth: We also really like a lot of jazz, guys like Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass are some of our all-time heroes.
br: If you weren’t doing music right now, what do you think you would be doing?
Yuki Tillis: I would definitely be back in school.
S.L.: Real estate.
A.K.: Delivering pizzas.
br: You guys have only been making music for a few months now, but what would you say has been the best and worst part about being musicians.
S.L..: I would say the best part has been becoming friends with people you might not have always been friends with. I think being able to connect with people is an amazing thing. When I was in college, I would walk around on campus and people would come up to me to say they saw my name on a Spotify playlist they liked.
A.K.: I’d definitely have to pick a moment from one of our live shows we did a few months ago. It was a house show, but the energy there was unreal. Our playing made everyone’s night, and that gave us some really strong energy, too. You don’t get that type of bond at a lot of venues.
br: How did you guys all end up meeting each other
A.K.: We all met in high school, I actually had a piano class with Stephan. I was kind of a d--k, though.
S.L.: At first, we didn’t really like each other. I thought he was pretty annoying as a freshman, but he became more tolerable as time went on. Austin and I were also in guitar club together, so we both kind of grew on each other and became friends.
br: What is the significance behind the band’s name?
Y.T.: I don’t really have too deep of an explanation to give. I think it just formed as a result of a lot of our music being pretty melancholy, and the vibe is very downtempo as well.
br: I’ve heard you’re known for some pretty awesome live shows- would you say that you prefer performing live or working in the studio?
S.L.: I got started through working in digital music making, I started doing rap beats for a lot of different people. Being in the studio is pretty natural for me, it’s almost like I’m at home. Any given day, I’ll be there making beats, or working on stuff for me or the band.
Y.T.: I’m definitely the opposite, I have a lot more experience playing live.
A.K.: I think that playing live is my favorite, too. I grew up going to a lot of concerts, so it’s always been a part of me. Now that I’m playing live with the band, it feels like all of this was meant to happen.
br: Can you describe your process for making songs?
S.L.: I’ll typically start out with a beat. Whenever I’m in the studio, I’ll just start messing around with a drum solo. I’ll then write some chords and then let Yuki jump in and throw down a solo. We’re working on some new stuff now with Austin shredding it on bass and adding some chords of his own. In the past, it was usually me working on all the songs. When I was in college, I would work on our song “Six Speed” out of the back of my car. The song was always changing, I wrote it over the course of five months. I was always coming up with new stuff, whether I was in the studio, the back of my car or a Starbucks. It doesn’t matter where I am, that song was my pride and joy. It’s a song that I’m definitely super proud of. With newer songs, we are definitely starting to collaborate more as a band, though. For “Daytrip”, Austin came in with the idea and we completed the song in about a day.
br: What’s more important to you- lyricism, or production value and instrumentation?
S.L.: Production value, all day long. That’s pretty obvious with our songs. The came from me being more of a selfish producer that didn’t give a s--t about the artist I was making a beat for. I would just go crazy on every beat I would make because I can figure out the vocals and lyrics last after I finish making it.
A.K.: That’s becoming more of a trend in today’s music, that’s not necessarily a good or a bad thing, though. Like Stephan was touching on, it’s happening especially in rap. So much more emphasis is being put on the beat rather than the artist.
Y.T.: I think that the production almost tells more of a story. We’re not saying we don’t care about lyrics, we just spend way more time on the production aspect of things.
br: In your songs, I’ve seen themes of failed love and romance. Is the music you write a reflection of your own life?
S.L.: 100%. My love life is either really good or really bad, nowhere in between. I write about love and romance exclusively. When I was writing “Six Speed”, there were definitely a lot of back and forth emotions. It’s reflective of the final product, whether it was me writing about being in a good place in my relationship or the complete opposite.
br: What were your reactions to your music being featured on massive Spotify playlists like “Ultimate Indie” and “Bedroom Pop”?
A.K.: I remember the day it happened. I was sitting in my biology class, and I left to call so many of my close friends to tell them. I couldn’t even believe it.
S.L.: It was super surreal, no doubt. I was checking my email that morning, and I got a message from the curation team. I clicked on the playlist to see our name on there. Not even lying here, I was screaming. I told Austin to get out of class and we were both going insane on the phone. We are incredibly appreciative and could not be more thankful to the people at Spotify.
Y.T.: When we put out “Six Speed”, we were racking up Spotify plays at a rate of thousands per hour. We were on our way to a show watching the stream counter, and it was unreal seeing how many people were listening to our song.
br: I know Stephan just released a solo album a few weeks back, but does the band have any upcoming projects in the works right now?
S.L.: I would say it’s not going to be a full-length record, but probably an EP. We want to keep it short and sweet. We would rather do that than pack a bunch of filler content into an album. With the rise of the digital music industry now, EPs are becoming a much popular way to absorb music.
br: Can you tell me a little bit more about what it’s got in store?
S.L.: There’s one song that we’re working on right now, but we’re not sure if we’re going to release it or not. If people have been to our shows, they know which one we’re talking about. It’s the magnum opus of Current Blue, the one we love to play the most. They’ll be over the moon when they find out. That’s all I’m saying for now.
br: What music goals do you have for the future?
A.K.: We want to go on tour. We just did a show recently with this band called Bay Faction, and just to see that level of professionalism was really inspiring. It really made us want to reach for so much more. We’ve had so much success online, but not in the real world. We want to keep building a local presence here in Charleston, then maybe we’ll be ready to move on to playing in bigger cities and bigger venues.
LIGHTNING ROUND:
What was the first record you ever bought?
Stephan: Little Richard’s debut record
Austin: El Ten Eleven by El Ten Eleven
Yuki: “PASS”
List one album that you find overrated and underrated.
Stephan: Overrated- Apricot Princess by Rex Orange County; Underrated- This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About by Modest Mouse
Austin: Underrated- Keep It Like A Secret by Built to Spill
Yuki: Overrated- Beerbongs and Bentleys by Post Malone
If you could collaborate with one musician- living or dead- who would it be?
Stephan: Beck
Austin: Questlove
Yuki: “PASS”
Who are your non-musical heroes?
Stephan: Guillermo del Toro or Quentin Tarantino
Austin: “PASS”
Yuki: “PASS”
Where is one place in the world that you want to do a live show?
Stephan: Japan
Austin: I'd say Japan, too
Yuki: Mongolia
I'd like to thank the guys from Current Blue for giving me their time to talk, I had a really great time getting to learn more about them. For those of you who haven't checked out the band's music- I highly recommend you do. I guarantee you that they are going to become the next big thing in the bedroom pop wave. As for all my readers, thanks so much for checking this out! More awesome bazzreviews stuff is coming your way soon!
To hear some of Current Blue's songs, head over to https://open.spotify.com/artist/6wW4D3fGgRABc3cAotb0RS
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