Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: How would you describe yourself or your band as an artist?
BLOTTER: Musically, we’re a group of individuals that really like to dive into the lore and myths of rock n’ roll, and music in general. Things like learning what made your favorite guitar player pick up a guitar are what really interests us, and brings us new inspiration. Aside from music we’re just of few hardworking guys from modest families that try to put everything we have into whatever we decide to put our minds to.
PD: Can you tell us briefly about your background – i.e. where you’re from, how you came to make music, etc.
BLOTTER: BLOTTER hails from Newport and Manteo, North Carolina in the United States. We consist of three core members: Timmy Pollock, on lead and rhythm guitar. Trey Bennett, on lead and rhythm guitar. And Jimbo Wainwright, on bass guitar. Between the three of us we all share lead and backup vocal duties. BLOTTER is actually a family affair because we’re all cousins, and have known each other our whole lives! Timmy and Jimbo have been playing together for over 15 years with Trey joining a little over 10 years ago following the departure of our last rhythm guitar player. Initially we began as a cover band playing songs that we grew up hearing and loved. Eventually we began writing our own tunes, and learned to record them ourselves.
PD: Who and what inspires you to make music, both in terms of musical and other influences? What do you like to write about in your songs?
BLOTTER: All of us really take inspiration from bands like KISS, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Dio, and many others. Not just from the way they approach music, but how they present themselves in their live shows, and business sense. The work ethic of those types of musicians is really something to learn from and emulate. Watching how these bands operate, interact with fans, and give it their all is absolutely amazing. Internally, we also inspire each other by pushing each other to do better. Call it constructive criticism. As far as what we like to write about, we couldn’t call ourselves a rock n’ roll band if we didn’t write songs about sex, drugs, and alcohol right?! But aside from that we really just write about whatever we’re going through in life. Anytime we have something personal going on whether its happy, sad, etc its always a great source for material.
PD: What are your aspirations as an artist?
BLOTTER: Taking a page out of KISS’s book, we said for years the dream has always been to play a sold out show at Madison Square Garden! That’s been the main goal since day one. However, writing our own material, making records, and really enjoying ourselves doing what we love to do is a close second.
PD: What is the proudest moment in your music career so far?
BLOTTER: There have been a few that we were really proud of, but the most recent was opening a show for The Midnight Devils and Enuff Z’ Nuff this past January. We had an absolute blast and even got to hang out with Chip Z’Nuff!
PD: Promoting one’s music is such a challenge these days, especially with so many new artists emerging from bedrooms
in the day of the home studio. How is that going?
BLOTTER: It’s probably just as challenging for us as it is for everyone else. Because we all have families, we can’t always spend money to rent out a fancy studio. Being what it is we have our own studio where we write, record, produce, mix and master everything on our own. Gotta do what you can with what you have!
PD: And how do you book and promote your live shows and tours? Any performances coming up?
BLOTTER: We are 100% a DIY band! We book and promote everything ourselves unless we’re able to get some help with the venues or other bands on the bill. It can be challenging at times, but we’ve learned a lot about the business side of music doing so. We actually have spent the last few months finishing our new album which is due out in March 2023, and have begun booking shows for the summer. Any updates can be found on our social media pages.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online? What about streaming sites like Spotify?
BLOTTER: As lovers of music and the musicians that write it we always support buying physical or digital copies of music. 95% of the time that money goes directly to promotion, recording costs, guitar strings, drum heads, gas to make it to the next gig, etc. Streaming services are great for getting your music out there to millions of different people, and that’s awesome. But they don’t give the support that really helps them to continue to make the music you enjoy.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
BLOTTER: There’s definitely more than one we wish we’d have written! For the sake of legendary status it would have to be FREE BIRD. There’s never been a show any band has ever played anywhere that you didn’t have someone in the audience yell “FREE BIRD!” We’re also huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fans, and after finding out Allen Collins wrote that song including the solo when he was 15 is absolutely mind blowing!
PD: Is there anything you don’t like about the music industry, which you would change if you could?
BLOTTER: We as fans would really like to change the price of tickets to see shows. Since times can be tough and money 
tight, its hard to be able to get the funds together to see your favorite bands or artists. Understandably that stems from the rise of downloading music and streaming services, and the fall of physical album sales. So its more of a two-part change than just a single thing.
PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?
BLOTTER: We just recently finished up recording sessions for our next record due out in March 2023! Our future projects include an acoustic EP (which we are absolutely stoked to begin working on!) and our next album which we hope to begin working on later this year.
PD: Where can we learn more about you and buy your music/merch online?
BLOTTER: You can find us on all the social media sites like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Spotify, Reverbnation, and Soundcloud! We’re currently working on setting up a band website with an online merch store, but for now you can email us or DM us for anything merch related.
BLOTTER links:
Band/Artist location – North Carolina
Facebook – You Tube – Soundcloud – Reverbnation –
Twitter – Instagram – Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer – Last Fm
Check our page for Blotter
They rock