A Clear Blurr (www.fuel.tv/pacsun.- VOTE EVERYDAY)

On the surface the story sounds familiar: A group of friends start a band in high school, graduate from blink-182 covers to original songs during basement practices, start playing those songs live and suddenly become one of the next up-and-coming buzz bands. But the tale of pop rock band A Clear Blurr is anything but the same old same old. Sure the four members, who’ve been friends for years, started the band freshman year of high school, but their buzz band status isn’t sudden. Over the past four years A Clear Blurr has said no thanks to the typical model of music business and broken the mold of what a band is supposed to be, looking forward with smart vision and wisdom beyond their teenage years.
The band recorded their first EP in the summer of 2007, collecting five songs they’d written, and burning them onto a thousand blank CDs, which were handed out in malls, at music festivals, on street corners and, of course, in the hallways of their high school (“I think everyone at our school has a copy of our EP somewhere,” Tom notes). The EP helped the foursome gain a following and begin booking shows around New Jersey. In October of 2007, A Clear Blurr returned to the studio and laid down six more songs, which they combined with EP’s five tracks to create their debut full-length, Drop Everything. Rather than waste time searching for a record label, the band members elected to do it themselves, eventually getting the album in Hot Topic and on SmartPunk for release on November 1, 2008.
“You don’t need a label anymore because of the Internet,” Tom says. “You can do everything yourself and get your music to everyone yourself. You just need someone to help you record it. We all work really hard and we’ve had lots of jobs. Right now we work at an after school program for kids. We don’t spend money on anything else except the band.”
After the release of Drop Everything, A Clear Blurr caught the attention of John Collura, former guitarist for the Ataris. Even though they’d just released their first album, the band felt that their songwriting and playing had grown and matured so much in a few years since writing that debut that they were ready to work on a second record. The band spent a few months writing new material between school, sports practices, after school jobs and shows in New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia.
Finally they went into the studio with John to record twelve new tracks in the spring of 2009, using their time after school and on the weekends to work on the record. The resulting album, Trigonometry, is hook-laden collection of twelve songs that are easy to sing along with. “Drive Me Crazy” is a jumpy pop-punk number that opens the record while the propulsive “Being Around You” draws the listener in with catchy guitar riffs and relatable lyrics about having a crush on someone. The band offers their introspective side on “Never Sing Again,” a largely acoustic number that is thoughtful and hushed. Together, the songs showcase a band that’s grown up and learned since their first release.
“Our first album was really poppy,” Tom says. “All the songs were about girls. This one is heavier. It has more complex harmonies. It’s more mature than the first album. We wrote the first one when we were fifteen and sixteen, and now we’re all eighteen and graduating from high school. This one is still fun and poppy, but it’s got deeper lyrics and more thought. John helped us so much. He helped us know what to do and what not to do. He helped with arrangements, how to cut down songs, how to lengthen songs, helped with solos and harmonies.” Hey could you paste this into an about us section. Thanks
A Clear Blurr doesn’t just stand out because of their memorable, engaging songs, and the fact that they’ve played over one hundred shows with bands like Patent Pending, Bedlight For Blue Eyes, Person L, Just Surrender and Revolution Mother, and appeared on New York’s Fearless TV, however. All four members are involved in their school and their community, landing on the honor roll and presenting themselves as genuine, relatable role models for their fans. In November 2008 the Edison Town Council publicly recognized the band for their dedicated community service, marking the first time the town has ever honored a rock band. The band also recently helped raise money for a scholarship fund set up to honor a close friend who passed away in April 2009 by organizing what will become an annual music festival in Edison.
“We’re just regular kids,” Tom says. “We don’t look like the kind of kids that would be in a band. We’re the normal kids you see in high school. I play golf. Kevin has a 4.0 GPA. We can talk to everybody and everybody can relate to our music. Even my dad likes it so that means it appeals to a lot of people.”
The more you know about A Clear Blurr, the less familiar the story seems. And that’s before you’ve even heard the new record.