Blinded exploring new directions with Seconds

Who:

Blinded

Where:

Boot Pub

When:

Jan. 6

They remove the blinders in their words and music.

"Inside you always have this self-destructive feeling that says you can’t do something, but when you go out as, say, a snowboarder and push yourself you can get past that," says vocalist Craig ‘Smitty’ Smith of the band Blinded.

Blinded features Brett Cheek on lead guitar, ‘Spud’ on bass, Sean Vickers on drums with brother Brooks Vickers on back-up vocals and rhythm guitar. Before their Whistler show at the Boot this Sunday, the band played the Brickyard, Studebakers Cabaret in Burnaby, and the Cobalt in Vancouver this past week.

The subjects Blinded explores in their songs, like chord cadences, vary. "The band focuses a lot on the lyrics," says band manager Tom Fox. "And not the usual themes of getting drunk and getting laid, but also themes like fighting against internal angst."

The song titled Why explores the thoughts of someone contemplating suicide.

Other songs dabble in more political lyrics common to punk and ska, a style highlighted by the rhythm of the guitar chords.

" Picking Up the Pieces , our current album, is pretty straightforward, but the next album ( Seconds From Reality ) will include half time rhythm changes, which adds a lot more grooviness to the music, and the albums," says Smith.

Seconds From Reality

is set to be recorded next month at Small World Studios in Kamloops.

"The title name refers to our dream of playing music for a living, which could happen at any moment. It could be that, but seconds from reality could also refer to something like extreme mountain bikers who takes risks," says Smith.

He considers the band’s music to have more of a melodic vocal blend, akin to the West Coast punk scene in the U.S.

These extremes are used in different formats, including the soundtracks of various sports films. Blinded’s music was featured on a Japanese tour segment of PedalFile, featuring a World Cup downhill mountain biking competition, the punk compilation Drunk in Public II, and on the soundtrack for the film Circus, which features both wakeboarding and snowboarding athletes in action.

In terms of audiences, the band receives airplay on college stations in every Canadian province. They also organize all ages shows for the under-legal-age crowd to enjoy music outside of the bar scene.

Their upcoming Interior B.C. tour, kicking off Jan. 15, includes stops in Kitimat, Prince George, and Logan Lake. It will be followed by a tour of Alberta.