featuring Justin Sarica
Let’s start this interview the same way you guys typically start a show: by mentioning New York’s Hudson Valley. Can you describe what that area is like for people that have never been to that part of the state?
We all grew up in different sections of the valley but for people who don’t know, I honestly think it's one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. There's a lot of history, there's a lot of nature and it's pretty large. It takes up all of Dutchess County. The music and the hardcore scene is pretty tight knit too.
I think people underestimate how gigantic New York state is, aside from the city itself. Are there any parts of the grittiness or the fact paced NYC lifestyle that bleeds over into that area?
I think it's the proper mix of New York City and upstate New York, which is a completely different beast. There's a lot of people who come up and down. It’s very suburban and there’s a lot of residential stuff. Our biggest city is Poughkeepsie and it's not crazy fast paced like New York is; it’s a little bit more laid back and family oriented.
Other cities are still a little gritty though. We all met basically going to shows at this complex called The Chance when we were like 14. Once that closed, hardcore shows kind of left and hopped around to a few different cutty spots. One spot was this really shitty pizza place that was doing shows in the dining room for forever. I saw some of the sickest shows ever there.
Sounds about right.
You guys aren’t far from the whole North East PA Hardcore scene, in and around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. It seems like things are pretty spread out, but still very much active.
Yep, everyone kind of comes from outside to these two spots and that's where everyone meets up and stuff. Very similar.
If you make them happen, people will find their way to the shows.
Speaking of which, you guys started this year with a pretty stacked run of dates in the UK with Superheaven and Balance and Composure? How did that go?
That was one of my favorite tours we've done so far. Obviously the pairing of those three bands was a perfect match.
Totally. That flyer was basically what my Spotify Wrapped looked like last year.
It's so cool because Superheaven’s “Jar” was a hugely influential record to the creation of what Soul Blind became. Same thing with Balance and Composure, we’ve definitely been influenced by them growing up. To have that tour come together was a pretty full circle moment.
We kind of ate shit the last time we were in Europe too. We did a six week long tour with Stick to Your Guns and Knocked Loose and it was awesome. Honestly it was some of the biggest rooms that we might ever play, but it was our first time over there so no one really knew us and definitely didn't care. They were just looking at us like, “where's the breakdown?”
That was in 2022 so now four years later, we went back and it was unbelievable; probably the best opening slot we'll ever do. We're really close with Superheaven and some of the Balance guys so it was just a really good time. It was quick though. It was only five shows so we were there for about a week.
Short, sweet and to the point.
It was real quick but the shows were awesome. Everybody showed us love. It just feels surreal to go to a different country and have people excited to see your band.
Certain shows always feel more special when there’s just two or three bands that you really care about on the bill.
It was cool. As an opener, you expect people to be walking in during your set but it really seemed like people cared from the time the doors opened until it ended. It looked packed for our set every single night so I couldn't be more grateful for that.
The first time I saw you guys was for that ‘Feel It All Around’ record release at TV Eye in Ridgewood and it was definitely packed in there. Do you think a lot of people really started to take notice of you guys during that era?
Definitely for New York and the tri-state area. We were touring the states pretty hard around that record and I think we were just starting to get a little buzz from the EP we released prior to the full length. We did our first full US tour right before that with Drug Church and One Step Closer. That did really well and then then we put out our first full length. It was the first proper label release and you’re right, those record release shows were some of the best we've ever played. I think that's around the time we were solidifying ourselves as a proper touring band and something that we were doing a bit more professionally than we were before.
With the release our second LP, we've been touring really hard as well and I think it’s starting to show. We still have a ways to go but it's slowly starting to grow.
That makes sense. I read a different interview where you guys talked about taking a good couple of years to conceptualize the songs on that first record. Having that as a blueprint must have made it a bit easier the second time around.
Some of those songs had been written like four years prior. One of our top tracks, ‘Stuck In a Loop’ was written in 2018. We had self-released a couple of EPs and demos but we just held on to it because we knew it was something special.
For that record it seemed like a longtime collection of songs that we wrote but I think that really helped because it gave us time to structure those songs and get them exactly where we wanted them to be. At the same time, it was also a hindrance because your music taste and your writing style grows and changes. In a way, I think it just took too long whereas with this newer record, I think we wrote the whole thing in under eight months. It felt a bit more concise and like we wanted it to sound like rather than having years of influence sprawled out. We're really proud of that aspect.
I think that’s the case for anything you release creatively. Prior to doing this magazine I wrote a book that took almost three years. Now, it feels so much more liberating to publish a zine every couple of months rather than obsessing over a project for that long.
Exactly, because you’re your own biggest critic. You always think it could be better but the more you mull over it, the more you pick apart things that don't need to be.
Let’s talk a bit more about the new record, ‘Red Sky Morning.’ I also read that you guys tried to put more of an emphasis on making songs that would translate well in a live setting. Do you think you got what you were looking for in that regard?
I feel like we write a lot of songs that could live in a few different areas while under the same umbrella as “Soul Blind.” We have a lighter side to us, but definitely a very heavy side as well. Personally, we’re more into heavier music, especially myself. After being able to tour heavily, we saw what resonated with the crowd. For both the fans and new listeners it seemed like the heavier side was more favorable. We just love playing along with the energy of the crowd.
With you really driving home some of those riffs on lead guitar, does it feel like you’re directing a lot of energy into the room?
Yeah, as you’re playing and watching, you notice things like, “oh, if I hit this part a little harder, people are gonna be like ‘oh shit, that's cool.’” Other songs are just slow and don't translate as well live so you kind of lose attention. As much as we'd like do it for ourselves and only write what we want to write, there's a perfect little line that you try to stay on to please the people that make this possible.
It really felt good to lean into the heavier side and play more of what we naturally listen to and grew up listening to on this new record. I think we really found our home and it’s definitely more metal than it is rock or “shoegaze-adjacent,” which is what people used to say when the band started.
I did want to ask about how people tend to characterize your sound. Do you like when people compare you to someone like Deftones or Alice In Chains or would you rather they not try to put a label on things?
It's very flattering to be compared to some of my personal favorites. It feels good that my top influences are coming through in the riffs and songs that we're writing. I really appreciate those things but I don’t think that we're ever trying to sound like this band or that band. It's more of just what comes out naturally. It could be worse though, we could get compared to a band that I can't stand…
I'm sure playing those shows with folks like Superheaven contribute to that kind of association. Speaking of which, I saw that you also have a whole bunch of dates with Downward and Split Chain coming up.
That’s our first official headlining tour where we got to hand-select the other bands. We pondered on who we wanted to bring and some things didn't work out, but some incredible things really worked out. We decided to go head-on with rock bands that we think live in our lane.
Split Chain are doing so much right now. They’re out in America for a month and then they're immediately hopping onto our run. They're grinding and they are definitely having a moment, which is awesome. I'm glad because it's another band that sounds like us that’s doing well.
Downward from Oklahoma is my favorite band ever. They're the best songwriters, they don’t have a bad song and they’re perfect live. They’re some of the greatest guys in the world so I'm more excited that I get to watch them every night than I am to play this tour.
Good thing you get front row seats the whole way!
I'm so excited. I think I they're probably in my top five on Spotify Wrapped every year.
Dream Fatigue is also an awesome band if you haven't checked them out yet. I think you would really like them.
I think I heard about them after you posted that song ‘Let’s Rock Today’ and that’s what got me hooked.
Dude, it’s so good. Their drummer, Matt Wood used to play drums in Vein and Fleshwater and now he started his own band. I've been lucky enough to play with them a bunch so we're bringing them out as well. Awesome band.
Is there anyone else out there right now that would be on your dream lineup?
I would say that band, Bleed. They’re right up our alley. They’re literally a sister band of Narrow Head, which is the best band doing it right now. They are unbelievable.
I fully agree. Narrow Head and Modern Color have gotta be number one and two in my book.
They are their gold tier. Bleed has some of the members of current Narrow Head and some of the old members that were on ‘Satisfaction’ and they’re doing kind of a nu-metal type band now.
I’m trying to think of who else is in our lane at the moment. Prize Horse is also unreal. We did a tour with Static Dress last year and they played a leg of that as well. That was the first time that we got to do shows with them and I’m positive we’ll do some more in the future. I feel like there's a whole world that lives under this It's like umbrella that’s all pretty well known.
Agreed. We’re hoping to be able to interview all those types of bands sooner or later.
That's amazing. It's cool to see rock music thriving, along with hardcore having maybe the biggest moment of its lifetime so far.
We love to see it!
That being said, what are you aspirations for the band and for playing music in general from here on out?
Personally, I just want to become a better guitar player and a better musician, writing better songs. For Soul Blind, we just want to keep playing. One goal we have is starting to hit the festival circuits with bands that are older than us and don't necessarily tour but live in the same world. There’s a lot of these big rock fests and that’s kind of what we want to enter.
Aside from that, everybody just wants to write cooler songs so it's kind of the same for us. Also continuing to have fun is really the end goal.
If it feels like a privilege to get out there play rather than a chore, then you know you're doing it for the right reasons.
That's what creates longevity in this world. I think it’s an honor to roll around a country for a couple of weeks and get paid to do it. It’s insane.
What more can you ask for?
There's nothing better.
Photos: Anthony Sarcone
Originally published in Issue 8 - October 2026