Q&A: Six Foot Blonde Release New Album ‘Hummingbird’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY MEGAN EPPOLITO ☆
COLLABORATIVE CREATION AND BRINGING IMPRACTICAL DREAMS TO LIFE — is what the six-piece indie-rock band Six Foot Blonde focuses on every day. What started as a group of friends playing covers turned into writing original music and touring their sophomore album, Hummingbird.
Close-knit friends Julia Rusyniak ( vocals), Zach Patrick (guitar), Elliot Obermaier (guitar), John Alex Rusyniak (keys and sax), Dom Heyob (bass and vocals) and Brian Healey (drums), who knew each other from high school and college at Indiana University, started making music as a cover band, performing any song that would heighten the energy and make the crowd dance. Through college, they met in the music club, deepening their friendship. Their shared love for creating music grew into writing original songs and moving the needle on bringing their dreams into a career.
What felt like a necessary step in transitioning from covers to original work drove the group to pursue their dream. The band originally started with nine members. When three members went in other directions with their careers, the group talked about their dreams and taking the band seriously. Six Foot Blonde realized that their dedication and longevity in creating music solidified their feelings about the band.
With the release of their sophomore album, the band is at a high point in their careers where they can travel to shows and connect with their fan base. The music they create documents their memories, milestones and experiences together. They take inspiration from different places but collaborate to bring a piece of their individuality together to build their project. Hummingbird is a project that feels cohesive sonically and brings energy to the musicians and crowd.
Read below to learn more about Six Foot Blonde.
LUNA: What was the experience like forming a band performing covers?
JOHN: More than anything, we all had a lot more fun writing our own music and playing it than we did playing covers. So as soon as we sort of opened that book, it became difficult to close it. Pandora’s box, in a way.
LUNA: What type of songs would you perform?
JOHN: Anything that would make people cheer.
ELLIOT: Before we really started integrating our originals, we did a lot of stuff that we wanted to do as well. We did, like, the Star Wars fantasy.
LUNA: What was the moment when you decided that you wanted to start writing your own music?
JULIA: It was l something that felt almost necessary. We started as a nine-piece band, which is obviously very different, and we had three members who ended up leaving because of graduation. That's when it became the six of us; and we wanted to write stuff that was like a scrapbook of our years together. I think after the EP Tito’s Place came out, which was the nine of us, we were like, “Actually, there are six of us still here; let’s keep playing music.” Then all of a sudden, an EP and two albums later, and some new singles, we were just obsessed with the writing and being a collective group of writers together. It felt like it was necessary, like we needed something other than other people’s music to sum up the experiences that we’ve had together to write our own songs about our own lives.
LUNA: That sounds really cool. I think it’s cool how you all came together and you’re all friends who have that background, but then you all have that musical talent, where not all of you are just all drummers; you all have your own piece to the puzzle to come together. This seems very natural.
ELLIOT: During COVID, John, Brian and I were kind of working together, and it’s also, like, you know, looking for stuff to pass the time. It’s like, “oh, drums, keys, guitars and a singer.”
LUNA: Did you have the same band name back when you were doing covers, or did you come up with it later on?
JULIA: Same. We do have, occasionally, some people who really saw us when we were doing covers. We were seniors when we were first starting, and they went off to do something else, and they're like, “Whoa, you make your own music?” We occasionally get a little of that just because we did use the same name, which has its great benefits, but sometimes it’s not great.
DOM: The nice thing is that I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the end of something like that being, “I really wish you guys sort of played more covers.” It’s always like, “Oh, I didn’t know you guys wrote your own music. That’s awesome.” It’s easy to convert those people.
LUNA: What was the moment you realized that you could do this as a career, that you can grow and take this on the road? The moment you knew it was getting serious and your dreams were coming alive?
DOM: There was a moment that I marked in my brain when it really hit. There was a moment when Elliot was going to move away, John was going to move away, and Brian was thinking about moving away. Zach, Julia and I met at a coffee shop, and they’re like, “Let’s figure out how we’re gonna keep this band going and have a good time, then graduate.: People started to like the songs as they were coming out, and they were hearing about logistical things and things not panning out. You know, life changes. Everyone ended up sticking around, and we all just said, “This is kind of working; this is a rare opportunity; let’s see where it goes.” That moment for me was like the commitment of, like, “All right, I’m going to make some changes in my life where I graduate and pursue this.”
LUNA: Has what you studied in the past shaped you with your music in any way or stuck with you in any way? Is that passion still there?
JULIA: Yeah, definitely. I feel like, for all of us, what we studied, we see it as something that we want to sacrifice when we choose music. One of the big sacrifices for all of us—because we have other interests—was choosing a career outside of what we originally had in mind. That is also a sacrifice turned into a blessing. We all have our dreams, but they were all practical dreams. This—making music and getting to live life as a musician—is an impractical dream for so many people. The fact that it’s become something practical for us is a true dream. It outweighs any other practical dreams we had in mind for ourselves.
Our majors do come into everything we do. I ended up switching to art because it was something that worked really well with creating music. I was working on my thesis at the same time. Writing a thesis is the same thing as writing an album; it’s like, “How can I bring many pieces together to make one message?” There are moments when we need merch; I get to help design it or work on the website.
With Dom and journalism, he’s able to write things for the press, write bios; and things like that really help us find a way to put what we are into words, which is sometimes difficult. John was in computer science at first in college, coding and things like that; he’s able to help with the website. Then econ; he’s able to help with marketing. We like to joke that Bryan studied maps, but he also does so much for advancing venues and things like that. Zach is an accountant, but he’s also able to handle our finances. Elliot studied anthropology; we’re all people, so that’s great. He’s our people person. Our practical dreams ended up making something that felt like an impractical dream: music, practical.
LUNA: What bands inspire you when you’re writing music? The kind that inspires you to make the music you guys make?
DOM: I think we all unite under a flag of a myriad of different post-rock, modern indie-rock and alternative-rock bands. Broken Social Scene, Geese, audio inspiration from newer bands like Westside Cowboys; we’re constantly finding artists as they’re coming out. It’s really drawing inspiration. Modest Mouse and Come Together—classic bands—we realize that’s kind of been the engine behind this project. Prior to that, we all knew that we liked and looked at so many kinds of music; we tried to fit it all. I think now, we find these styles are kind of like our driver.
LUNA: I like how you all collaborate, and all agree on everything. You come together as a team, and I think that’s what makes bands strong and last long. You all are able to have a vision.
ELLIOT: Once Julia gets a vision of where the song is going, she says, “Think about it in your style, like this is where I’m hearing the song going.” A lot of times, example bands are very good communicators. [The other band members would say] “Hey, can you write something in your voice that also kind of speaks to that?”
DOM: All of our songs on this project are very cohesive, and we kind of understand that rock-focused compositional perspective, but then you can still pull off something like a JB Hoger slide right in the middle of an indie-rock song. That’s a perfect example of having our own personal style.
LUNA: What’s been your favorite place to travel on tour? A favorite place you’re excited to visit.
JOHN: Last night was pretty awesome; Austin is cool. [Hotel Vegas] was a good bar.
JULIA: I will always shout out Wisconsin. It’s just like our home away from home. I feel like a lot of our big fans all live in Wisconsin, and it’s just a state and place full of music supporters and a bunch of people, and we always have such a fun time. I don’t think I’ve ever left a show in Wisconsin and thought, “Darn.” It always just puts a pep in my step. I always leave thinking, “This is why I do [music].” Our home, Chicago, and Indianapolis are great too.
LUNA: What is your dream venue or dream collab that you want to work with, or someone you want to open for?
JULIA: I have a dream: I really want to play at the Kilby Block Party, the festival. Mostly because I love every single artist that ends up playing there. We’re playing Kilby Court, the venue, in November, but Kilby Block Party would be awesome. I’m sad because she just announced a hiatus for a while, but CMAT. I’m obsessed with CMAT right now, and I think that would be such a cool pairing because her energy is just unbelievable, and that would be really fun. I would love to eventually do a tour with our friends Post Sex Nachos because they’re so nice. They’re so fun, so awesome, so that’s a dream tour. We’ve opened for them before, but I think that would be really fun.
LUNA: What are your goals for the future musically or as a band? What do you see yourself doing?
ZACK: We’re in a really good spot putting out our newest record, so we’re at this fun point of getting to start the process all over again: taking what we learned from this project and the previous projects, and applying it to something new and continuing to create [and] share music everywhere. It’s a broad answer, but I think it’s open-ended at this point; I obviously want to create more and write more.
JOHN: Just keep it going. I think it’s the best time right after you release something; it’s [as] open-ended as you can be as a band. No song’s anchoring the next project. You don’t know exactly if the next album is going to be a little bit different or more the same or in between. We don’t really know, and that’s really exciting. We don’t know what’s coming up next and we can just truly follow our gut. On this last record or recording, something we’re like, “Yeah, we like this.” It probably doesn’t fit with what we’re currently writing, so we can try and shape it towards everything else we have, or we can just put it aside and maybe revisit it later. We don’t even do that right now, and that’s kind of fun.
ELLIOT: Keeping up the atmosphere and the environment of the crowds that we currently have. Like how friendly they are, very caring, respectful and considerate of each other, and you can tell they all just want to have a really fun night. It can be an escape or the best night of their week, month or the year. I want to keep that space as we grow at other venues too. That’s something that, in the cities where we have started our fan bases and started growing more, let’s not lose that, you know? Creating and putting out music, I do really want to continue doing that. We’ve been lucky to play to some larger crowds and still have that atmosphere.
ZACK: It’s really cool to continue to cultivate that in different parts of the country, all over the place. This is the identity of the audience in our show. It’s a common thread.
JULIA: I think, no matter what level we’re at or step in our journey, I think if we’re creating joy and inspiring people, we’ll be doing what we’re doing without hesitation or doubt; it’s like a knowing that it's the right thing for us to do, and we will know when it feels like a room full of joyful people together.
LUNA: What’s been your favorite song to perform, or that you’re excited to perform off the new album?
DOM: We have one together, “Painted Ladies.” It’s the fifth track on the record.
JULIA: That one is letting yourself feel, just feel it for a second. I also love the beginning of “Hummingbird;” the crowds are always just like jumping and having so much fun. It’s also the first time in our live show that a saxophone was introduced too, so then you see John pull out the sax and people are just dancing, and it’s so fun. Anything that inspires movement, I’m happy with, but those two are very fun for us.
