Le Blorr (also known as BLORR or Bastard
Lovechild Of Rock ‘N’ Roll) embodies the difference between a successful band
and an unsuccessful band. Oftentimes, talent is secondary to whether a band
oozes "cool" — but luckily, Le Blorr more than satisfy both
departments on their musical application. You may be surprised to learn that
this superhuman outfit spawned from the sass of divas past and the acid trips
of rock ‘n’ roll ghosts includes only two members, who boast fabulous
drag-queen nicknames: Chris “Cookie SugarHips” Hess and Adam “Hot Damn Sweet
Huckleberry” Winn. These two swashbuckling gents dress like glam rock superstars,
switch instruments on command, and have been known to claim that they’re “a
double-edged musical sword with a velvet grip.”
But Le Blorr isn’t all theatrical gimmicks.
Anyone who’s seen the band perform knows this is a band without unnecessary
agendas or over-thought approaches to pleasing their fans. Instead, their plan
of attack consists of simply working as hard as possible to please everyone
around them, introducing themselves to fans to create a friendly presence that
complements their intense sound and supercharged energy, while also knowing
enough to play the music industry image game the best way a band can. Whether
they’re on home turf in Central Florida, their second-level stomping grounds of
North Florida, their adopted crash pad of New York City, Southern California,
Japan, or any other random dive between here and Antananarivo, Le Blorr will
wow you with their bluesy, glammy, bossa nova-y sound.
Cookie and Hot Damn have graced EasternSurf.com with multiple in-person
and e-mail interviews, several large cups filled to overflowing with straight
Crown Royal, and enough sweaty nights of hip-swaying, crotch-grinding,
hair-swooping fun to fill a few lifetimes. So we only felt it fair to finally
share their mysterious brand of musical magic with you the reader. This is by
no means the definitive Le Blorr story — but we like to think it’s at
least close.
ESM: Give us the basic
BLORR rundown.
Chris
Hess: The band came about from me recording songs by myself while still in
college at UNF. Adam still lived in Melbourne and I would sometimes send him
the songs to listen to. Eventually I started playing shows live, and I asked
Adam if he could learn all the songs in a week and play a show on
Friday; he did, and performed them wonderfully. Adam was working for Nike
at this time, and eventually they would become very generous to us, letting us
use the van on tours, God bless their swooshy hearts. Now we’re working on
music full-time.
ESM: If music weren’t to
work out, how would you spend your days?
CH: Music can’t be a
part of it? Well, I’d be single for sure and I’ll be wearing mainly open-breasted
shirts with a lot of chest hair busting out. I’ll probably drive a Miata… Honestly,
I don’t see a future where I won’t be trying my hardest in some sort of a way,
to the point where I’d probably join a local covers band. I would get one of
those headset microphones that wraps around from your ears and I would have a
wireless guitar so I could run around the bar playing next to all the local
yunks.
Adam Winn: I would be managing that
whole thing for him and staying out of the spotlight [laughs]. I really don’t
know what I’d be doing — probably something sad for sure.
CH: We’d probably have seven kids by
that point… we’ll definitely both be on the run from child support payments.
ESM: You guys mix glam
rock, blues, synth-pop… pretty much everything under the sun. How did this grab
bag of influences come about?
CH: I grew up listening
to Michael Jackson and ‘90s jams like Keith Sweat, INOJ, or anything they
played at New York South or Teen Zone. My dad definitely has great taste in
music and got me into Dire Straits and The Beatles. As I’ve gotten older, I've
leaned more towards grittier stuff — rock n' roll with sass, dreamy pop,
old blues like Son House, T. Rex, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Fleetwood Mac… I’m
more and more into world music these days, and am currently in love with Cuban
jazz at the moment.
AW: Growing up I would
go fishing with my dad quite often and he would always listen to classic rock
or country music, so a lot of Zeppelin, Steve Earle, Jimi Hendrix, Hank
Williams, Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, etc. But lately I find myself drawn to
more psychedelic music like The Black Angels or Tame Impala.
ESM: How did your outrageous
names come about?
CH: I just wanted
something ridiculous — hence Bastard Lovechild Of Rock ‘N’ Roll. To be
honest, we kind of loathe the acronym BLORR — it kind of sounds like a
hardcore band. But hey, I think it’s sweet when people chant, “BLORR, BLORR” at
shows. My nickname before the band was Bronco, so when we created the stage
name I thought having a more diva-esque name would be a good contrast. I thought
Cookie sounded like a Golden Girl, and I like to shake my hips when I dance, so
obviously SugarHips was necessary. And people used to call Adam “Huckleberry”
Winn, so I thought Adam could be pushed phonetically to sound like “Hot Damn.” And
that’s what he makes me say when he’s pounding away on those skins. To be
honest, Cookie is way more of a badass than Chris… Cookie doesn’t get anxiety
playing in front of people that don’t like to dance, and Cookie just wants to
dance himself, so it doesn’t really matter.
ESM: Clearly the
exaggerated performance aspects of the band are important.
CH: That's one passion
Adam and I definitely share. But I think our stage presence used to be way
more over the top. We’re getting used to playing music in front of people, and in
a way I think bands will do crazier shit before they have any eyes on them,
because they want to be noticed. But as we’ve grown to care more about the
music side of our show the theatrics have tamed a little bit. We play folk
songs in our set now, and I can only feel so comfortable playing a sentimental
folk song in a sequined onesie with BLORR sewn on the crotch — not to say
I won’t wear that again someday. I’m just waiting for the right show, really.
Ashley Bobb actually sewed that bad boy for me and I thank her dearly for it.
ESM: You guys have
played an ungodly amount of crazy diverse shows. How do you shift from surf
video premiere to big stage deal to dive-bar performance to runway fashion
shoot?
CH: Playing in different places
is great; it teaches you to be ready for all types of crowds. I feel a strong
suit of ours now is that we can vary our setup, because we have quite a few
different kinds of styles. We’ve had shows in New York and Los Angeles where people
do dance, and we’ve had shows where people sit and stare and barely even clap.
Japan was amazing; big ups to Mikey DeTemple for makin’ that happen. I don’t think
pretension exists there. Every show we have smiling faces and waist wigglers.
Florida gets such a bad rap from music people, but we obviously love playing at
home. We have such a great group of friends, fans, and family — my mom,
dad, sister, and uncle come to almost every show at home.
We have two
kinds of shows that we have gotten in the routine of doing — bigger shows
and party shows. One is usually to better our career at more legit venues with
a wide array of people there, and the other is good to make money at and
support ourselves so that we can choose our next shows and venues. Those are
obviously the shows with everyone dancing in a place where the sound is
terrible, but there are a lot of neat-looking girls dancing so you just bear with
it.
ESM: So sound is also a big
deal for you guys?
CH: Sometimes you’ll get really good sound and
that’s great, where it doesn’t matter how many people are there because for us
on stage it feels so good. And then there’s mediocre sound, and that’s fine
because you’re not going to get good sound everywhere. But every once in a
while you’re going to run into just terrible sound or no equipment, and it
might take us three hours to get things right. Monitors will become speakers
for the crowd, and then we’re playing a guessing game because we can’t hear
ourselves, so it’s all just muscle memory at that point and you hope you’re not
three bars out of key. But it is still a performance, and we want everyone to
have a great time, so we work with what we have. There are just some times when
it creates a problem, where we have to stop between songs. And that shit is
embarrassing because there is a need to portray a professional image no matter
where you are.
ESM: Are you guys tied into the surf
industry by choice, coincidence, or association?
AW: We both grew up surfing, and we
both have worked in the surf industry, so having friends in the industry that
know your stuff is what brings us into it. It’s pretty inevitable that we would
be part of it with our music. Right now we’re using Alek Parker’s house as a
practice space, and in turn he uses our songs in his movies. And then Mikey DeTemple
has used some of our music, so it’s getting interchanged in that circle. We
have spent a lot of time in Southern California, but we don’t necessarily play
the Southern California surf rock genre. We’re not looking to play just that,
but we have no problem being involved in it. We had a blast playing at Surf
Expo in January even though it’s completely surf oriented, because we have so
many friends in that arena and we love it.
ESM: You put out your
debut EP, “Bim Bom,” this past winter. Would you consider that your biggest
break so far?
CH: To be honest I
don't think we've really had a big break. We’ve sort of stepped our way up
slowly to the point we’re at now. Obviously opening for bigger bands is
probably the best thing for us, and we’ve played plenty of great shows that
really helped build our family. One of the coolest things recently happened: a
French blog called La Choix de Mlle Eddie gave our EP an amazing review and
called it the Best EP of the Year, so we’re somehow hoping that everyone in the
world will read that and be swayed in our direction. Other than that, it’s just
work work work until we get our first break.
ESM: But you guys have
already been around wowing crowds for several years now. What took so long for
the EP? Were you holding out for some sort of label support?
CH: I’m happy we waited so long. I feel like we really found ourselves
musically and found the right person to take on the project with us. Anthony
Fata was incredibly patient and really wanted to make it as good as we wanted
it. He got exactly what we were going for, too — bless his heart a
hundred times. We have never been too crazy bout getting with a label. We’re
not against it, but we’re happy to do the things we have done ourselves, and
hopefully that will show a label how independent we are.
ESM: The nine-song album
has a sweet back-story, too: characters named Cookie and Delisa giving birth to
the Bastard Lovechild Of Rock ‘N’ Roll. Please explain.
CH: We were really
disillusioned with the idea of putting out five or six songs that would wholly
define us. Because it took so long to find the right place to record, I
started to toy with the idea of setting a theme to the EP and recording some of
the bossa nova songs that I play on my own. Then came the story of Cookie and
his muse Delisa…
ESM: Which doesn’t
mirror you and Hot Damn’s relationship at all, I’m sure. Where are you two
lovers heading next?
CH: Our plan is to keep
working hard, and hopefully find help with booking and management — whatever
will put us in a place to play for more people and eventually record a
full-length. All while reminding each other that 24-hour car stints, staying
out until 5 a.m. to "network," booty-shaking shows from Miami to
Brooklyn, acoustic performances at Tony Soland’s amazing boutique Standard
Collective, washing dishes so dirty it makes you gag so you don't feel like
you’re wearing out your welcome on a friend’s couch or freezing our faces off
sleeping in the van (so cold in fact that sex with Hot Damn to stay warm is not
only considered but suggested and of course shut down), eating fun chocolaty
things that make you dance around and see fun things, and kissing, hugging, and
dry-humping friends and strangers are all part of the journey.
ESM: Any parting words
guys?
AW: Being
an asshole is not cool… No, Chris and I were talking the other day about how
refreshing it is to meet nice people, and how it’s kind of rare. For some odd
reason it seems as though being a pretentious asshole became cool, and I
disagree.
CH: Le Blorr is a
beautifully incestual and loving family. We’d be tickled if you’d like to join.
Woot woot for wock ‘n’ woll!
UPCOMING
LE BLORR TOUR DATES:
3/25 Crowbar
w/ Casiokids………………………………… Tampa, FL
3/26 Back
Booth w/ Casiokids…………………………….. Orlando, FL
3/27 Total
Bummer Fest @ The Farside…………………. Tallahassee, FL
4/1 Sports
Page…………………………………………… Satellite Beach, FL
4/2 Surprise
Show………………………………………… TBA
4/7 Florida
Room………………………………………….. Miami, FL
4/8 The
Atlantic…………………………………………… Jacksonville Beach, FL
4/9 The
Drop Show @ Push Push……………………… St. Augustine, FL
4/10 Bilt
Surf………………………………………………… Cocoa Beach, FL
4/16 The
House…………………………………………….. Columbia, SC
4/18 The
Garage…………………………………………… Winston-Salem, NC
4/19 Local
506……………………………………………… Chapel Hill, NC
4/20 Southland
Ballroom………………………………….. Raleigh, NC
4/21 Cameo………………………………………………….
Brooklyn, NY
4/22 El
N’ Gee………………………………………………. New London, CT
For
all things Le Blorr, visit www.BLORRMusic.com and www.LeBlorr.tumblr.com
