So, Julienne, tell us a little bit about how the Blemishes project came about and how you approached music
The project Blemishes came from the ashes of an older industrial project Pneumatic Heart from when i was a teen, while i do adore the sounds and experimentations of that genre, I felt less interested in going down strictly an industrial rock sound, and I didn’t want the baggage of carrying the name Pneumatic Heart so I decided to rename it and form as Blemishes from a much more ambitious angle.
In what sense did you not want “the baggage of carrying the name Pneumatic Heart”?
Around 2017, when I was 14 years old I created an industrial project with my then best friend Madison, which we would experiment in Audacity and just made noise/soundscapes, it was a very rudimentary project which tried to aspire to be the the next Crystal Castles but ended up being a worse 70s Throbbing Gristle haha, after a few releases I decided to record a cover album at the age of 16, which ended up being horrible and I just decided to start a whole new band instead. There’s a lot of emotional and creative baggage that I don’t have much interest in returning on for that project, We were dumb kids.
The name Blemishes refers to the semantic field of what is not perfect. How did you come to choose this name? I guess there is a deep meaning behind it, maybe even existential...
I chose the name Blemishes becuase no one enjoys having blemishes on your face, but i always found the word itself to sound very pretty. It was catchy and i liked that dichotomy, not much else to it
The title of your album is also very interesting: “Ambivert,” in fact, indicates a personality suspended between introversion and extroversion. Would you like to tell us more about that?
Ambivert as an album was based entirely of the concept of extreme opposites, noise vs ambience, electric vs acoustic, natural sounds vs artifiical sounds. I felt like the term Ambivert fit the tone perfectly for what I was going for. I don’t really consider myself either an introvert or extrovert so Ambivert felt natural to me
As a Texan, how do you relate to the glorious scene, especially noise-rock and psychedelic, of your land? As a Houston native, for example, is Mayo Thompson, leader of the legendary Red Crayola…
I never felt too much of a connection from my local scene in a traditional way, a good chunk of the houston rock scene currently is either shoegaze or hardcore DIY punk, both i respect and admire, but from a distance. I don’t really go to shows or anything because I generally don’t have time. A lot of the local influences come from much older and defunct bands/artists like Jandek, DJ Screw, Culturcide, Pain Teens, Geto Boys, etc.
What Texas rock records (name at least 10 of them) would you recommend to an alien who would like to get a feel for the music of your land?
I’m going to be stretching my limits here because ironically enough, I don’t really listen to a bunch of Texas musicians, I honestly take more influence from other states or even other countries haha But i’ll give you 10 I can say defines Texas as a weird, fucked place
1. "Locust Abortion Technician" by The Butthole Surfers: An incredible noisefest mixing psychedlia, tape experiments, and punk into a package of what modern standards would regard as a total shitpost
2. "Tacky Souvenirs Of Pre-Revolutionary America" by Culturcide: A totally dated satirical album based upon pop songs from that era sang and dubbed over with someone who can hardly sing, it’s wonderful and a big influence on me in an indescribable way
3. "Hi, How Are You" by Daniel Johnston: There’s been many things that have been said about Daniel Johnston but i’ll give you the most obvious one; He was extremely talented. Give it a listen if you haven’t. It’s someone just trying to make some quality music with the means he had on hand.
4. "Relationship Of Command" by At The Drive In: One notable influence that slipped through time and time again on Ambivert, more notably the more psychy and delay ridden guitar tones that burst throughout the album, it’s a powerful and unrelenting release
5. "Goat" by The Jesus Lizard: 30 Minutes of anxious post hardcore and esoteric lyrics, pretty unhinged work
6. "The Psychedelic Sounds Of..." by The 13th Floor Elavators: Of course psych-rock started in Austin
7. "Heroin Man" by Cherubs: A dark angry album that doesn’t concern itself with good production and instead focuses on atmosphere instead
8. "Spred Luv LP" by B L A C K I E: This album was way ahead of its time in so many ways, B L A C K I E overall is an incredibly underrated musician that paved the way for blaringly loud hip hop to shine during the 2010s, totally reccommend this record
9. "Tres Hombres" by ZZ Top: ZZ Top are one of those bands that you WILL hear somewhere in Houston, just a few guys playing some really catchy riffs and melodies, it’s like comfort food
10. "The Power Of Failing" by Mineral: I’m always surprised Mineral isn’t brough up more in conversations of Houston Bands, I always guess it’s the fact they’re so left field of everything Houston usually has to offer in the way rock music is made here, but I always respect them for doing their own thing.
I am very interested in your definition of Texas as “a weird, fucked place.” From a distance, I've always had a very similar kind of perception to that definition of yours, but I'd still like you to elaborate on it a bit
It’s rather hard to explain. Texas is an extremely large area that encompasses almost every idealogy you can think of, and it’s to the point that a surprising amount of people genuinely think Texas should be it’s own country. There are large cities like Houston where you can live your entire life and still find new places to see and visit, and there are even larger open areas of land and fields you’ll never see anyone encounter. There was this one time I was travelling an hour away from Houston, and I was with my close friend, we were driving and we came across a small town straight out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, just old rundown trucks, an even more rundown “Gift Shop” and just sketchy small buildings all around us. I decided since my friend was a VERY white looking girl, and I was a very hispanic looking person i didn’t want to take any chances, so we got out of dodge as soon as we could. There are just places you cannot take chances on.
Your music does not belong to a specific genre and in fact among the genres listed on your Bandcamp page are several (electronic, art punk, art rock, experimental, neo-psychedelia, noisecore, post-rock, sound collage, tape music , etc.). Is this because you are still searching for your “voice” or do you feel that you necessarily have to open yourself up to complexity?
Ween is one of my favourite bands ever, so when I’m able to create music that I personally enjoy that’s the music i end up creating.
In some tracks, you can also hear echoes of grindcore, which is not exactly a genre that the average rock fan likes. Are you a fan of it?
I love grindcore, especially noisecore. I’ve recently gotten into Today Is The Day and they’re wonderful. When I was a young teen grindcore was almost exclusively what i listened to asides from 70s Throbbing Gristle type firstwave industrial music.
Today Is The Day! One of my favorite bands ever! Have you listened to the mammoth double album “Sadness Will Prevail” yet? As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the best records of the last 30 years...
That’s actually the album I found most appealing to me! I really admire the ambition of the album, especially with the production techniques and experimentation in the arrangement, it hardly feels its runtime, and is a blast to listen to despite the circumstances the album was made under. I’m looking forward to listenin to the rest of their discography
The most abstract track is definitely “I Want To Be Water.” In what sense do you “want to be water” and how should we interpret this escape into abstraction and mystery?
The idea of being water is something I deeply resonate with, especially in deep seeded bouts of gender dysphoria I get time and time again (I’m transfemme), It’s kind of a mantra that everything is formless and that I’m not entirely tied to one single identity or way of being, much like water you can be in many shapes and dynamics, and you can be as calm or as violent as you are, you’re still you.
Which albums have most inspired your music and which ones do you love the most?
I have way too many influences to count but a deep influence that was directly the reason i made Ambivert were 3
1. "Low" by David Bowie
2. "Vision Creation Newsun" by Boredoms
3. "Faust IV" by Faust
All three albums were blueprints for the emotion and production direction I was trying to strive for, especially for when I was barely in early high school just dreaming of sounds and ideas I would eventually create.
It really fascinates me when you say that “all three albums were blueprints for the emotion and production direction I was trying to strive for.” Would you like to elaborate on this talk of “blueprints” and the rest?
I’m going to go ahead and do this in order as to make te most sense
“Low” by David Bowie was created in a time of personal crisis to a degree as many fans of that record would know, there was a time where i listened to that album constantly, I was just out of a breakup with an ex and a lot of the sobering loneliness that’s felt all over the album, the constant alienation in the lyricism is apparent all over, and even without the lyrics like on the track Warszawa which is all just made up words is deeply cutting, and made me realize I didn’t need to focus on lyrics in order to make music i would like, thought at points in hindsight I still feel like i unfortunately held back.
“Vision Creation Newsun” by Boredoms really opened the floodgates for me to focusing on neo psychadelic production, and not focusing entirely on guitar riffs than layers upon layers of effects and noise. The deep rhythms of that album felt something so raw and unfiltered, just tracks that could genuinely go on forever
“Faust IV” by Faust is probably the most influential of all the influences, I admire just the ambitious experimentation with arrangements and ideas they were pushing, all throughout Faust’s initial calibar of albums, Faust IV is most appealing because it’s the most “obvious” rock album of the few, some tracks off the album sound like straightup shoegaze, and that blew my mind the first time i heard it, and I wanted to capture that sorta “hazey” feel the entire album has, but filtered with my influences and inspirations.
Tell me a curiosity: where did the cover photo of “Ambivert” come from?
The album cover is my mother and her biological dad, that was one of the last times she saw him and not to get too personal but I always saw parallels with them and my own biological father so I decided to give a small tribute towards her in that way.
What should we expect from your next album?
Blemishes is going to be an everchanging project with sounds I’ll never visit the same way twice, We’re going to make something more akin to Daft Punk than Black Midi, more Fleetwood Mac than Sonic Youth and more LCD Soundsystem than Chrome. I think you’ll be pleased with what we have to offer.
