Texas-based alternative rock quintet Saint Blonde is set to make waves at this year’s SXSW, marking a major milestone in their journey. The band, made up of Hunter Fitch (Vocals), Tre Rollins (Guitar), Alexander Hernandez (Guitar), Tyler Lee Cooper (Drums), and Kyle Cade (Bass), has steadily built a name for themselves with their dynamic sound and electric live performances. Now, fresh off signing with Pale Chord/Rise Records and armed with their fiery single “Trendsetter,” they’re ready to bring their energy to one of the most prestigious showcases for rising talent with shows on March 9, 13 and 14. We caught up with Hunter and Tre ahead of their SXSW debut to talk about their excitement for the festival, their sonic evolution, and what’s next for the band.
JG: SXSW is a dream or bucket list gig for many artists—how does it feel to finally be part of the festival, especially as a Texas-based band?
Saint Blonde: It’s pretty cool. We’ve always kind of had FOMO about it just because we’re only a couple hours up the road, and we’ve all gone in some capacity just as music fans to see bands that we like and stuff. It feels like one of those natural progression or checklist moments. It’s cool to finally be playing a couple of the showcases. It’s gonna be a fun week.
JG: Your sound has evolved significantly since your early days. What inspired the shift from your indie bedroom pop roots to the more angular and rocking sound we hear now?
Saint Blonde: There’s still some of the indie stuff in what we’re working on, like. We like to write in both lanes, just to fulfill the things that we wanna set out to do as songwriters. But the more rock-based stuff is born out of the live aspect. It feels a lot more fun to play some of the guitar-heavy stuff live and to let loose versus a lot of the more synth-based songs and a lot of the songs that are super heavily produced. They’re more reliant on synths and tracks, and they sound really cool live but aren’t as performative.
Does that make sense? We can get into it a little bit more and just be more loud and energetic with some of the new stuff, and I think that scratches an itch. But, we’ve been trying to tow the line. We have a handful of songs that we’ve been working on that are more of an indie-pop vibe. We just wanted to be a little more expressive live, and I think it just started naturally coming out in the songwriting process.
JG: Are there any particular artists or bands that you’ve drawn influence from for the new music?
Saint Blonde: I think big ones for us are The Clash and The Kinks. They live in that kinda guitar lane, like punk-adjacent pop songs. And they stand the test of time so well.
All of us have different influences. I know that we draw inspiration from a lot of different places, but just in terms of branding, how we present ourselves and the way we wanna approach a full record, the bands from that era are the ones we look to for their solid and earnest artistic approach. A lot of the current landscape of alt-pop isn’t taking risks with their sound. Just like with any genre, one band has a sound, and then everyone takes inspiration from that based on either success or just the sound of it. Stuff starts becoming a little homogeneous. We wanted to carve our lane instead of sounding like another band.
We wanted to do what came naturally to us.
JG: It’s funny that you mentioned The Clash and The Kinks. I was listening to “Trendsetter” and “Prowl,” and you can definitely hear some of those garage-rock and punk-adjacent influences in those songs. Is that what listeners can expect from the new music you’re working on?
Saint Blonde: There’s a little bit of everything. There’s a West Coast-like surf riff record. We still have some more glistening pop and pop-adjacent tracks that we’ve compiled because that’s at the core of what we do. Even if we’re getting kind of gnarlier with the guitar work, Tre and I (Hunter) both focus on the hooks and melody. Trying to marry those two positions together is just what the new music has turned into.
There’s a lot of punk and ’90s alt influence on some of the new songs. While we were working on the record, there was a pocket of time where we were jamming like Alanis Morissette, Blind Melon, Savage Garden, and ‘90s stuff like that. ‘90s radio rock, but the stuff that was a little bit dirtier sounding and less polished.
JG: Something to look forward to! I know you guys signed with Pale Chord/Rise Records last year. What was that experience like? And how has that impacted where Saint Blonde is headed?
Saint Blonde: It was awesome to finally spend some time in LA. It’s a nice relationship because our management and our label are baked together, like it’s all tightly knit. There are not a lot of people throwing stuff into the soup. Do you know how there can be too many cooks in the kitchen?
They’ve been cool with letting us explore what we wanted to do with the songs. That was the coolest part about it. They’re just like, “these songs are sick. You guys just do what you think is right, and we’ll listen to everything when it’s done.” And so that’s helped us get to where we are with the new songs, but they’ve also been a great help with some of the other stuff. We feel like we’re an old-school band trapped in a new-school marketing approach. That relationship with the label has been super helpful because, if it was up to us, we wouldn’t do the whole social media game or try to play an algorithmic approach to gaining fans. Our management and label both have a pretty old-school approach to us developing as artists. That’s a super important alignment instead of just trying to milk TikTok content out of us.
JG: It sounds like it’s a great fit. I guess we shouldn’t expect any Saint Blonde TikTok dances anytime soon.
Saint Blonde: We won’t say that because it makes or breaks artists. If something like that earnestly came about, obviously, we would be stoked. Even virality has become formulaic. You put the text over the lowest quality video and lip-sync the song, etc. There’s a formula that a lot of artists are having to slide into to carve out a chunk of relevancy.
It always felt really weird. Like, you’re almost having to beg for attention and do whatever you can, instead of just making music and making videos and doing the things you want creatively, hoping it connects with people and building it slowly and intentionally. It feels like there’s more staying power when you grow organically than when you take the quick-hit approach. But if someone wanted to make a TikTok dance for Saint Blonde, you know, that’d be cool. It’s just not gonna be us, probably.
JG: How do you balance artistic growth while maintaining the essence of what makes Saint Blonde unique and what devoted fans have fallen in love with?
Saint Blonde: Well, that’s a good question. There are almost two seasons of the band. We were doing singles for a long time that people liked, just as an Internet band in our small town for streams. COVID-19 affected a lot of that. The way we’ve approached the new stuff feels like season two for the band.
We almost look at all of the signals and stuff we put out in the first portion of the band as album one, just released in tiny pieces. The goal is to be in front of new people. All the stuff is new to someone who’s never heard of us. The people who have been listening to us for a long time are the easiest to please. Our core listenership has always been really cool with everything we put out and super supportive and rocking with what we’re doing, so that wasn’t really much of a concern. It was more about how we can evolve and feel fresh for our first impression with new people. Because we’re not that big of a band. You want to make the best first impression with the stuff you put out.
JG: Totally. Yeah. Speaking of making that first impression with new listeners, what can people at SXSW expect from seeing Saint Blonde for the first time?
Saint Blonde: Probably some of the more rocking songs because of the nature of the festival. Just because of the frenetic nature of the way the festival’s set up. We have to adjust how we normally play shows, like with our live sound. So we’re gonna be taking a different approach than what our normal set list would be. And it’s probably gonna be more of the newer rock stuff that makes up the bulk of what we play next week.
JG: That makes sense. Bringing that energy to the stage.
Saint Blonde: Stage volume is our big push for the week.
JG: That’s awesome. Lastly, what’s next for the band after SXSW? More touring, new music?
Saint Blonde: Hopefully. We’re working on a nice group of songs. And then hopefully touring. That’s kind of our goal with these shows at SXSW. To start branching out and playing in more cities. People hit us up online all the time to come to their city, and we’ve never really had an opportunity to play outside of Texas with this band. That’s a big thing we want to do this year. And a ton of songs are coming out, maybe some videos. Stay tuned.
You can catch Saint Blonde playing at SXSW:
3/9 – 4 pm – Gorton’s Shrimp & Cocktail Event at SXSW – The Parlor Room, 88 Rainey St
3/14 – 12 am – BMG’s Frontline Label Showcase – Parish, 501 Brushy St (showcase begins 3/13)
3/15 – 11 pm – SXSW Official Showcase – The Velveeta Room, 521 E 6th St
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