Blankslate

We catch up with the trio after their Pleasantville Music Festival performance on July 9, 2022.

Blankslate was founded in Denver, Colorado in 2018 by college roommates Emma, Tess and Rylee. We know them from our PBJ Live Sessions with Pamnation in 2019. Blankslate has been developing their sound over the past 4 years. Through these times of uncertainty, heartache, heartbreak, heart, joy, love, compassion, sickness and rebirth for ourselves and for the world, Blankslate has focused on the music and it shows. In both their studio recordings and their live performances. We caught up with Emma, Tess and Rylee to hear about their first music festival experience, the music scene in Denver, their upcoming album and where their sights are set for the rest of 2022. - Kuz 8/1/22

Tell us about your experience playing your first festival?

It was incredibly stimulating, and I felt connected to so many people at one time. It also felt very much like it was a huge wave of energy that we were part of carrying forward, which was cool. – Emma

There’s something so unique about playing a festival because it’s an all-day event and you get to enjoy the festival as audience members too. Its so huge people don’t necessarily recognize you as a band anyways. It was cool to experience it as an attendee and a band. – Tess

It was a dream come true! Everyone from the staff to the artists to the fans were so unbelievably sweet and supportive. – Rylee

Walk us through the day, any special moments from getting there, sound checking, performing, hanging after? 

Getting familiar with the amazing volunteer staff and other bands was super cool. -- Tess

After a very long day of being on the festival grounds, it felt like an entirely separate world that we were all apart of together. Time goes away. I didn’t even know it was a day besides the fact that the day was planned out beforehand. -- Emma

It was an amazing day. We took a train in the night before, headed to the festival in the morning, and basically just hung out and took it all in throughout the day. Getting to hang with The Breaks, Illiterate Light, Black Joe Lewis and some of the other acts was awesome, and we were super honored when people asked us to play at the after party at Lucy’s. – Rylee

What’s your biggest take away from playing the festival, as a band, as individuals? 

As a band, we’re used to playing nighttime bars, so the ability to play a set outside at 2 PM with the sun overhead was a cool setting change and its cool to walk away and know we can hold our own in that space. -- Tess

There’s instant community in music. You can meet new people and know so much about them because of their relationship to music.  – Emma

It was incredible to be so connected with each other and also so many other people, all at once. – Rylee

Tell us about the music scene in Denver.

There’s a surprising reliance on barbeque joints. There’s a lot of comradery rather than competition among the bands. – Emma

It’s a cool city because you don’t get as many touring bands as other cities, but Denver’s almost like its own bubble in a sense, but not in a way that makes you feel trapped, more so in a way that makes you feel part of a community. – Tess

I genuinely love so many of the bands we’ve played with over the years, and some of the venues have started to feel like home, which gives performing at those places a whole different level of confidence. As a songwriter, being surrounded by so many talented musicians has always inspired me a lot. I think it’s a hidden gem of a scene in a lot of ways. – Rylee

You’ll be releasing your first album, tell us about the songs, the recording and the whole package?  

We wrote and recorded the 12 songs on the album over the course of the past year. Having the foundation that we have — we’ve been a band and best friends for over three years — made the album writing process really cool, because it’s pretty autobiographical, but the events contained in some of the songs were things we went through or experienced together. It gives the songs all these different kinds of dimensions and meanings and I’m so into that. Honestly, this album has surpassed all of my expectations for it, in the best possible way. I can’t wait to release it. – Rylee

What are some of your goals for 2022? 

Release our album! We’re looking forward to an album release show, in the short term. Long term, potentially doing a short tour in spring or summer. – Tess

Establishing some sort of visual representation of our sound through album art and completing liner notes and things like that. – Emma

Definitely want to get the album out and see what happens. We’re stoked to be playing with Illiterate Light when they come to town in November — we met them at PMF and really dig everything about them. I love playing shows and would be thrilled to put something together in California at some point, which is my home state. It feels very apropos since a lot of our songs are named after places in Northern California. But pretty much just want to keep enjoying what we do and being in a band together. We really just love playing music and love each other — that’s kind of the crux of it.  – Rylee