DIRECTED BY DOM FOSTER (BLOSSOMS, THE COURTEENERS) IN COLLABORATION WITH JAMES SLATER (SAM FENDER, THE CORAL)
Nottingham’s BLONDES have released the video for MINIMUM WAGE, their highly anticipated second single following the extraordinary success of Coming of Age, which became a viral sensation on TikTok, reaching over 25 million streams and more than 350K video views to date on YouTube alone.
The video was filmed at Camp and Furnace in Liverpool and directed by videographer Dom Foster in collaboration with James Slater. Drawing inspiration from the Talking Heads 1980s concert film Stop Making Sense, with a dash of Wes Anderson’s aesthetic and a little Mary Poppins magic, the band adopt the role of workmen building the set of their own promotional film from a small cardboard box.
Talking about the video for MINIMUM WAGE, guitarist and songwriter Alex Davison says:
“The video for Minimum Wage was great fun to shoot. It was filmed in Liverpool in a large industrial space where we, the band, pull out the elements for the pop-up video from a small, delivery sized, cardboard box. We are the workmen that construct the set for the film in which we then star. The idea came together very quickly, and references Stop Making Sense, Wes Anderson and Mary Poppins. There’s also a nod in there to Andy Warhol’s Factory.”
The MINIMUM WAGE single was recorded at Coastal Sound Studios in Liverpool and produced by Rich Turvey (Blossoms, The Courteeners, Vistas, BLOXX, The Coral) and explores the bittersweet emotions of growing older whilst delivering an intoxicating melody prime for summertime. The track is the second BLONDES single after signing to C3 Records in Austin, Texas with the band’s debut EP scheduled for release later this year.
BLONDES recently announced they will be performing at LIVE AT LEEDS on SATURDAY 16 OCTOBER alongside the likes of Sports Team, The Night Café and The Big Moon, having previously announced they will also be at LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY on SATURDAY 2 OCTOBER. The band have recently been named as one of Tunecore’s Hot 100 Independent Artists to Watch for 20221.
BLONDES began three years ago at Nottingham University, meeting as freshers from widely disparate areas of the UK. The eureka moment for them came in the summer of 2019 whilst watching a set from The Vaccines at Glastonbury Festival, during which they heard an impassioned speech encouraging the audience to start a band and be fearless in chasing their dreams.
BLONDES took this encouragement to finish a song that guitarist Alex Davison had started writing years ago; a song about chasing those dreams that would eventually develop into Coming of Age. With an inherent belief and a handful of great songs, they decided not to return home after finishing university and would instead focus on the band in Nottingham.
It was in October 2020 that social media then helped catapult the band to the next step. Coming of Age became a viral sensation on TikTok as thousands of videos featuring the song suddenly appeared across the platform, racking up millions of views. An official Coming of Age trend was launched on TikTok, resulting in over 3.5 million streams of the song and over 200K monthly listeners on Spotify, and the music industry began to take notice. The video for Coming of Age has since amassed well over 350K views on YouTube alone.
The band are now signed with C3 Records, which was established in 2018 by Charlie Walker and Charles Attal, co-founders of C3 Management and C3 Presents, one of the world’s largest festival producers. BLONDES have since been back in the studio recording their highly anticipated debut EP for the label
BLONDES are:
WILL POTTER | vocals
ALEX DAVISON | guitar
DANIEL STROUD | guitar and drums
TOM HERBERT | bass
FOLLOW BLONDES
FOLLOW ALL MUSIC MAGAZINE
My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago and married my childhood sweetheart and life is good.
