Blessing Force, the collective of Oxford-based musicians and artists, are stepping up their public activity levels over the coming weeks, with an event at Modern Art Oxford and their first record release. Blessing Force’s main man conspirator Andrew Mears filled us in with what to expect, and what comes next.
Blessing Force 4 takes place on 10 September at Modern Art Oxford, between 3.00 pm and 2.00 am. It’s a multimedia takeover of the location, including exhibitions, musical performances and more, which aims to present the collective’s output, and particularly their visual art, in an inspiring format. Musicians involved will include Friendship, Chad Valley, Pet Moon, Sisterland, Ute, King Of Cats, Solid Gold Dragons, Maraschino, Lee Riley, ODC Drumline and Coloureds; there will be art and spoken word from Tinhead, Valeska Hykel, Sebastian Thomas, Amy Honour, Charlotte Freeston, Lisa Curtis, Robert Prouse, Gemma Pharo, Chris Taylor, Charles Hykel and Andrew Mears. As Mears says: “There will be an emphasis on the artists’ individual work, as opposed to what’s ostensibly been set design in the past. That’s been the main concern this time. It’s easy for the bands we’re involved with the find credible forums for their work, but it’s harder for the visual artists. The opportunity that MAO has given us is one we hadn’t anticipated, and the type of space they’ve provided affords us the opportunity to realise shit we could never do in conventional music venues. What this means is that no one form is standing on the shoulders of another at this show. It’s going to be the best event we’ve organised so far. We’re looking at it as a one day festival, there are ten artists exhibiting, as well as ten music acts across two stages. ODC Drumline are doing a drum workshop, some of the installation pieces are interactive, there’s spoken word, there will be stalls selling work by Oxford artists, writers, labels and musicians; and to cap it all off the guys at Oxfork are catering the whole day.” Tickets for Blessing Force 4 are £8 and available from the Modern Art Oxford website.
The first record released by Blessing Force will be out on 17 October. It’s an EP by Trophy Wife, ‘Bruxism’, featuring tracks produced by Plaid, James Yuill and Foals’ Yannis Philippakis. Only 250 copies will be available, on 10″ vinyl. Pre-orders are being taken here. There’s another recent release from Dovecote Records, a split 7″ featuring Jonquil’s ‘Mexico’ and Solid Gold Dragons ‘Serious Lover’. Blessing Force have more releases in the pipeline, including a 12″ compilation and a Pet Moon EP.
In response to being asked about his writing as well as future plans for Blessing Force, Mears told us: “I’ll have one book for sale at the MAO event entitled Kettledrum, it’s a collection of poetry, so it’s not going to be up everyone’s street. Having said that, it’s not like it’s whimsical or sweet. I’ve been putting them together myself at the screen printing studio that Valeska and I have set up (Double Suns), located in the warehouse where Charlotte Freeston and Foals both have their studios, and where a few more of us are moving into. It feels pretty good have everyone working around you, plus you only have to own one of everything. Charlotte will also be selling her new book keep one eye open which accompanies her installation piece. It’s looking pretty sick. My other book is still in the making.”
And the future? “We have more multimedia shows lined up over Christmas, and a long exhibition in February. Details to follow on those. Other than that, we’re still just taking each day as it comes; we’re beginning to establish a routine which at the moment is working for us. Certainly the idea is to carry on with, and improve, the shows, as well as the label and our publishing arm. We do have some pretty big plans for 2013, but that’s for another time…
Intriguing! Keep up to date at the Blessing Force Tumblr page.