Blonde Otter Is Not Just a Rock Band
Since their inception in the Bronx in 2017, Blonde Otter has worked to make one thing clear: Blonde Otter is a rock band. It’s plastered over their merch koozies and stickers — and it’s more than evident from their track record. Since playing backyard shows at their alma mater Fordham University, the group has quickly elevated to selling out premiere New York venues like Bowery Electric and the Gramercy Theatre.
Now, four years and three EPs later, Blonde Otter’s debut album arrives to clear something up: Blonde Otter isn’t just a rock band. Recorded at the Red Convertible Recording studio in Brooklyn, the self-titled record is a tribute, more than anything, to the band’s maturity — and the events that forced them to grow. “I feel like the overarching theme of this whole thing is kind of like, there’s so many serious things that, if they didn’t happen, we wouldn’t have the songs in the first place,” says co-songwriter and bassist Rob Falcone. The album actively works to create peace with the past through purpose, leaning into moments of loss and allowing them to redirect the band’s path ahead.
Both musically and lyrically, this growth is apparent — as the band has stepped outside of its signature Strokes and Beach Boys influences to explore new terrains. “The stuff that we used to do is still here,” Rob says, “And then there’s other parts of it where it’s pushing the envelope.” What has come of this challenge is an all-new Blonde Otter as fans know them, with a vulnerability that invites longtime listeners to grow alongside them.
To give an even more personal perspective on their album, band members* Rob Falcone, leader singer and co-songwriter Mike Guariglia, rhythm guitarist Stephen Malichek, and drummer Matt Falcone sat down with me to give a track-by-track inside look behind Blonde Otter.
*Lead guitarist Dan Wines was absent due to reasons that Mike Guariglia clarified as, “He has a dog, so.”
- Useful Now
Mike Guariglia: I remember there was an event that happened early in the summer of 2019 … I was between jobs, and so I just remember this one event that sparked this … It was a party, and there was a lot of dance music and it was a fun night that a lot of validation happened for me … So, I think that is where [the introspective lyrics] comes from. Like “Let’s just have fun, but also, this is how I feel underneath all those dancing moments.”
2. …But Craig!
MG: My old roommate had a Lichtenstein print that she got in I think Germany or Paris maybe. And it just hung by my bathroom. And she also had a second print that said “Craig,” just “Craig.” So I just kind of piece the two together and tried to create a story around that … I kinda liked the idea of what the art expresses, in the sense that it’s this person who is clearly heartbroken by someone that she may have to hurt. But then she’s like, “But I’m kind of a bad-ass and I need to go live my life and there’s other hot boys out there that I can switch to.”
3. Dear John
Rob Falcone: I think the funny thing about [“…But Craig!”] is the character is just like, “I’m going to go live my life.” Like, “I’m going to kind of put feelings aside and just kind of embrace, you know, whatever.” And then “Dear John,” basically is like, “Well, that kind of actually happened to me” … I don’t even know how much I should go into this.
Matt Falcone: It was a bad break up.
RF: Yeah. But it, like, wasn’t at the same time. It basically got to that point where the girl that I was seeing was just like, “I’m going to see this other person.” And and then basically the theme behind the song “Dear John,” itself, was basically saying, “Yeah, it was painful at first, but then as more time has gone on I’ve realized … this was definitely for the best for all parties involved.” I’m, like, literally thanking the guy … I honestly remember the scene in Dumb and Dumber where Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are talking about how one of them got sent a John Deere letter … And then it just kind of made me think like, “Okay, I’ll write a song that’s basically a letter to this guy who literally did the best thing for me and everyone else involved.”
4. Man Overnight
RF: That title was inspired by something my uncle said to me after my dad passed away. And I think sonically … it’s kinda like the conflict is we’re moving forward, but, it’s a retro song at the same time where you’re trying to hold on to that past, I guess. So, I guess that’s how I approached the song it’s kind of just reconciling with having to move forward, but sometimes you’re fighting to preserve what you used to do or what you used to have.
MF: I think that’s why we put it fourth, too … The first three songs on the album are pretty different than what we had put out before. So, that’s why it felt like “Man Overnight” probably could make sense at four because it was the callback [to Blonde Otter’s previous sound].
RF: It was the one track on the album where it’s just kind of doing it the classic Blonde Otter way that we used to do, but also saying goodbye to those days at the same time.
5. Walk the Walk
MG: The song doesn’t really make much sense, but it’s supposed to not, like in the sense that it’s a bunch of non sequiturs about staying accountable for your words and your actions, I guess. I think that at that time … personally I just was going through some weird stuff about hypocrisy and generally in society and maybe I was listening to too much politics and getting too cynical or whatever. I don’t know. But it was kind of just directed at everybody and everything.
RF: The way that [“Walk the Walk”] speaks to me, when you put [“Man Overnight” and “Walk the Walk”] together, it’s like you’re kind of resisting growing up, and then “Walk the Walk” is basically a song that’s just like, “Well, you’re here and you have to do it. So just go tackle it.”
Emma Carey: Was that screaming at the end in the background?
MG: Yeah, that was me.
6. Signs
RF: [“Signs” is] actually technically the oldest song because it’s based on the first original piece of guitar music that I’ve ever written. I think I’ve had it since I was 13 … And I didn’t want to waste it cause it felt so special to me that I just held onto it. And, eventually, it just hit me where I just thought, “If I’m going to finish this song and flesh out this guitar riff, it would be a nice tribute to the guy who made me start playing in the first place and got me into music.” So it feels good to actually put it to something that’s very meaningful.
MF: I can add to that. I remember through the quarantine I used to hear [Rob] build out all these songs and … I would check in and just be like, “Oh yeah, that’s cool. Oh, maybe I don’t like this” … But that song in particular … I was like, “This is really slow.” And like, “I don’t know what people are gonna do to this.” I remember [Rob] said, “It’s actually the same tempo as ‘Caroline, No’ off Pet Sounds,” which changed my whole perspective on us as a band and the album in general. It was like, “Oh wow, this thing’s really taking shape. We’re not really just a rock band, this is a piece of work” … That was a big moment for me, personally. That’s how I knew the song was going to be pretty special.
7. Too Much to Ask
RF: I guess, thematically, I don’t really believe in signs too much — from beyond the grave kind of thing. But you do come across a lot of weird things in life, where you feel like things are almost scripted. And so, “Signs” is kind of like, “I’m a believer in that kind of stuff.” Whereas, on the flip side, “Too Much to Ask” is a lot of doubting and thinking everything’s just kind of stupid coincidence.
MG: It’s like, does serendipity actually exist?
RF: The other cool fact that I want to mention is that me and Mike wrote “Too Much to Ask” in a period from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM. [The birds chirping in the background of the song] is kind of a mix of an inside joke with Steve’s friends from home, paired with the fact that since it was five in the morning, we actually did hear birds chirping by the time we finished working on this song in a marathon session.
Stephen Malichek: It’s just like, if you’re out too late, you realize you’re out too late when you hear that the birds are chirping.
8. Space Cadet
MG: The idea of being a space cadet for me, personally, was always kind of a spaced out type of person. But I think that the imagery at the end is actually intergalactic … That’s kind of the idea of me thinking about introspective moments, those moments of reflection where maybe it seems like a monkey going on in my head, but it’s actually not. It’s sometimes really meaningful. And that’s kind of like the imagery at the end — where it’s like, “Just wait for me. I’ll be back, I’m blasting off to space, I’m spacing out, but don’t worry. I promise I’ll be back.”
9. ily (tm)
RF: [The vocal effect] was pretty much inspired by 808s and Heartbreak, a Kanye West type of thing that I was going for there. Put the auto tune on it a little bit. Because, I think it was probably in a Pitchfork review, or someone talking about that album and just how the autotune almost gives you the sense of a person that’s basically so hurt that they’re devoid of emotion … In any kind of relationship — whether it’s familial, romantic or platonic — the more you care about someone, the more it hurts when they’re gone. So, I guess it’s kind of basically just about when you’re toeing that line, where you’re afraid to develop a strong relationship with anyone, because you know, inevitably, it’s going to end at some point.
SM: I don’t think this was intentional, but, like [Rob] said, the vocals are kind of Kanye, 808s and Heartbreak. I always thought that that guitar solo, the first guitar phrase, is very Mike Dean — who does all the guitar solos and the Kanye West albums.
RF: I definitely did not consciously think of that, but I definitely hear it now. So that’s, that’s pretty cool.
SM: Thank you, Kanye.
RF: Very cool.
10. Expectations
MF: I think it’s a shameless Beach Boys rip-off.
RF: I guess a lot of the themes that [the Beach Boys] talked about on their later work, where it’s more spiritual and finding purpose — kind of similar to “Man Overnight,” like, trying to run away from inevitable problems that you’re going to face … It definitely was a love letter to the Beach Boys for sure. Because any time I’m having personal strife I put Pet Sounds on, and it kind of takes me out of it for a little bit … It felt like a great penultimate song cause it’s a big orchestrated [track].
11. Back Home
RF: I think “Back Home” is a great epilogue track.
MG: [The song was about] me going out of the city to go to New Jersey [due to the pandemic], not thinking much of it … and then that turned into a while. And I stopped back into the apartment for the first time in a while. And bread was still in the cupboard … Like I remember walking into the smell, it was like, “Oh wow. Things are definitely, like, rotting in here” … It was intense kinda. It was basically like a cleanup for me. It was getting all that shit. And then I remember feeling all these things, and I just remember thinking, “I should just put this down, put a little work into this.” So it was just those feelings … It’s kind of comforting, the fact that things change, but, you know, the Empire State Building is still there. And when you look off your balcony, you can still see the same beauty that you did — even through those those things, despite those things.
