Today we’d like to introduce you to Breathless .
Hi Breathless, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Believe it or not, we actually all met online! Over the course of a few months we all found each other through group chats and connected over our desire to start a band. After sending song ideas back and forth for a while, we all met up and worked on our first two songs Loose Ends and Rooney. From there we decided to write an EP with the goal of playing it live before the end of the summer. We ended up playing our first show at the end of June to a packed house at Uncle Lous, and we haven’t stopped writing and booking shows since.
Earlier this month we actually had the opportunity to record some of these songs live, all of which are out now on Bandcamp!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Managing demand can be really challenging as a new band. There’s a delicate balance demanded to strike between sharing the work and taking a step back. Finding that sweet spot has been our biggest hurdle to date. While it can be really tempting to play a ton of shows and post new content every day, by doing so can desensitize the audience to one’s brand. What may have once seemed like a cool and unique event worth getting excited over has now become a daily occurrence to them. It’s important to give people a chance to breathe and trust that they’ll come back for more.
For smaller bands such as ourselves, this can be an especially tricky issue to work out, as we rely primarily on shows to bring in new fans. Our solution so far has been mixing up where we play and presenting ourselves on social media. Branching out into new markets, such as Lakeland or Tampa, has allowed us to keep playing shows and getting our name out there while leaving some space for our hometown shows to feel fresh and exciting.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
On a musical basis, our goal from day one has been to present old ideas in new ways. Growing up, we all loved bands like Alice in Chains, Tool, Filter, Hum, and Smashing Pumpkins. We wanted to take our favorite elements from those bands and fuse them with more modern influences, drawing from shoegaze, post hardcore and 5th wave emo. By incorporating the heavy, catchy riffs of 90’s alt, along with synthesized textures and a wall-of-sound aspect, we feel that we’ve created a really cool blend that feels both familiar and fresh. But above all else, I hope we’re remembered for our role in the community. From the beginning, we’ve aimed to put together unique lineups that expose our audience to new artists they might have not found otherwise. Some of our local favorites, like Memory Well, Cold Subject, Preying Mantease, and Magi, have since become roster regulars and personal friends; we look forward to working with other awesome local bands in Orlando and the rest of Florida.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
It seems like in the last few years, singles and playlists have slowly phased out the traditional album. Mood and atmosphere have become the primary interest as opposed to listening to one artist’s body of work. In the realm of live music, this means the floodgates have opened for tours that might not have found an audience in years prior. Seeing heavier artists such as “Knocked Loose” find success on tours with mainstream acts like SuicideBoys is a super positive sign for our scene as it means our outreach is broader than it has been in decades. So if you’ve ever thought about giving music a shot, now’s the time!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: breathlessfl
- Other: https://linktr.ee/breathlessfl
Image Credits
Cheyenne Runner
