Staring Blind is an alternative/hard rock Central Fl band that formed nearly a year and a half ago with Matt Carver as lead vocalist, Willie Carrasco on bass, Brandon Carrasco on lead guitar, and Tim Andujar on drums. Based out of Melbourne they have been playing all over Central Florida, even featured on WJRR’s Native Noise with their song ‘Black Arm’ which was written for a friend of the band who is currently commuting back & forth to Miami for filming as a contestant on the next season of Ink Masters on Spike TV. Most recently the band was selected by the Leesburg Bikefest as 2013 New Artist which the guy’s wrote and performed the original song ‘Four Stroke Heart’ exclusively for the event and was recorded at Evermore Sound in Orlando.
Check out our Interview as I spoke with lead singer Matt Carver about their sound, style and definition.
1. Can you introduce the band to our reader’s
Matt Carver – Lead Vocals, Brandon Carrasco – Guitar/Backing Vocals, Willie Carrasco – Bass, & Tim “Timmy Guns” Andujar – Drums/Backing Vocals
2. How long have you been playing together?
Staring Blind was formed a year & ½ ago with the current line-up with the exception of our drummer. Originally our percussionist was Dalton Smith but about 6 months ago he moved out of the area to attend college in Gainsville FL & Timmy stepped in to fill the void.
3. I noticed that all of you have been involved in past musical projects/bands, how has that past experience helped in defining your rock sound in Staring Blind?
Our past projects have mainly served to refine our style and help us realize what it is that we want to create. We all come from bands that fell into basically the same genre that we enjoy working in so they can be somewhat viewed as the research and development stages of our musical growth. The more you create the more chances you’re willing to take and you begin to understand what works & what doesn’t When you’re just starting out you may feel confident about the quality of half of what you’re writing. Fortunately, at this point we feel as though we all mesh very well and have worked out most of the kinks so it’s easy to feel proud of everything that pours out.
4. In two words how would you define your musical style?
Powerfully Evocative
5. Staring Blind, what exactly does that stand for?
Brandon actually came up with the name and though it sounds like an oxymoron we like to think of it as being similar to the thousand yard stare. It’s being lost inside your mind and though your eyes are open you are actually blind to the world around you.
6. Do you have one central lyricist or is it a collaborative effort?
Everyone in the band is responsible for writing their own parts in our originals so yes, Matt is our lyricist. Our process typically involves Brandon writing the rhythm and working out a general arrangement and then he will send it to Matt and together they compose the song from there. Matt will then write the lyrics and vocal melodies. Once the song is near completion the rest of the band will add their parts and flesh the song out even further until is complete. Many times the tune will evolve quite a bit from its initial version to the one we finally end up playing out and recording.
7. What would you like to say to all the OrlandoBand’s reader’s?
I think most of all we just want to thank everyone for all the support they’ve given us and for those who haven’t yet, please check us out on facebook or www.staringblind.com. We’re steadily booking more and more shows over in the Orlando area so we hope to see all the OrlandoBand’s readers soon!
Thank’s for the Interview Matt!
