Blondfire is an American

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

band from

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California, United States. It started as a duo of brother and sister

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

and Erica Driscoll, under the name Astaire, and since 2015 has been a solo act with Erica Driscoll.

Early life

Erica Driscoll was born and raised in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

, United States to an American father and a

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian mother. She spent many summers in northern Brazil, and is a citizen of both countries. Erica and her brother and founding member

Bruce Driscoll Bruce Driscoll is an American record producer, songwriter, guitarist, film composer, and vocalist. He is one-half of French & American indie pop, Folk music, folk duo Freedom Fry and co-founder of Alternative rock band Blondfire. His other writi ...

cite

Antonio Carlos Jobim Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular ...

Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicália, which encompas ...

, and

Astrud Gilberto Astrud Gilberto (; born Astrud Evangelina Weinert; March 29, 1940 – June 5, 2023) was a Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer and songwriter. She gained international attention in the mid-1960s following her recording of the song " The Girl f ...

as musicians that they listened to often while growing up. In high school, Erica and her older sister Monica formed the band Nectar, along with Arland Nicewander, Ryan Butts, and Jason Drost. The band eschewed classes to tour nationally. In addition to that, their song In The Shadows was chosen to be used in WGRD Radioactiv 4 compilation series, which also includes

Mustard Plug Mustard Plug is an American ska punk band from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, consisting of Dave Kirchgessner (vocals), Brandon Jenison (trumpet), Jim Hofer (trombone), Nate Cohn (drums), Colin Clive (guitar/vocals), Mark Petz ...

and

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

recording artists Papa Vegas and Getaway Cruiser.

History

Astaire

Erica and

formed Astaire and toured locally behind songs recorded in the basement of their parents' home. During this time, the siblings were featured in many music and fashion publications, such as ''z!nk'', ''America'', ''YRB'', ''

College Music Journal CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

'', and ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

''. The Driscolls relocated to New York City and recorded "Weightless" with

Ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern ...

Andy Chase Andy Chase is an American musician, record producer, and label owner. He formed the band Ivy with Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and Dominique Durand, now his wife. Chase owns Unfiltered Records and co-owned Stratosphere Sound studio with ...

. They released their first EP, ''Don't Whisper Lies'', on their own record label, Wax Divine. The EP's single, "L-L-Love" became an

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Free Single of the Week and the band embarked on a national tour with

Robbers on High Street Robbers on High Street were an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, which formed in 2002. The band released three studio albums across their ten years together. History Robbers on High Street began performing publicly during the summer o ...

, and

Stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...

Change to Blondfire, ''My Someday''

In the middle of the tour, the Driscolls were contacted by the representatives of the estate of

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...

, asking the band to stop using the name immediately. Facing expensive legal fees, the siblings changed the band's name to Blondfire. They announced the name change with the release of a new

-exclusive acoustic live EP. It featured "L-L-Love" and three new songs, "Paper Doll", "Running Back", and "Fade to Pale". In October 2006, Blondfire signed a record deal with EMI Records UK. Their debut album, ''My Someday'', was released in 2008. Among the people thanked in the album liner notes was Fred Astaire. In a May 2008 interview,

stated that the band had parted ways with the label.

''Young Heart''

In November 2011, Blondfire released the single and accompanying video for "Where The Kids Are" to much critical acclaim. In August 2012, Blondfire signed with

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

and Primary Wave Music. In February 2013, Blondfire released a new music video for their song "Where the Kids Are". The track featured heavily in the 2012

Honda Civic The is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1972. , the Civic is positioned between the Honda Fit/Honda City, City and Honda Accord in Honda's global passenger car line-up. The first-generation Civic was introduced in July 1972 ...

television spots. On 11 February 2014, Blondfire's second album, ''Young Heart'', was released. It produced two singles, "Where the Kids Are" and "Waves".

Split, ''True Confessions''

In 2015,

left the band as a full-time member to focus on his band

Freedom Fry Freedom Fry is a Los Angeles, California based indie band, composed of Parisian-born Marie Seyrat and American Bruce Driscoll. Career 2011–2014 The duo first met in April 2011 when Seyrat was the stylist on a video for Driscoll's other ba ...

. He continues to collaborate with Erica as a songwriter and on other creative projects.

Live show

Blondfire's live lineup consists of Erica singing and playing guitar backed by a group of hand-picked musicians.

Discography

Albums

* '' My Someday'' (2008, Tender Tender Rush) * ''Young Heart'' (2014, Tender Tender Rush) * ''True Confessions EP'' (2016, WAX LTD)

Singles

* "Don't Whisper Lies" (2004, Tender Tender Rush) * "Pretty Young Thing" (2008, Tender Tender Rush) * "Where The Kids Are" (2011, Tender Tender Rush) * "Waves" (2013, Tender Tender Rush) * "Young Heart" (2014, Tender Tender Rush) * "Pleasure" (2015, Tender Tender Rush) * "True Confessions" (2016, WAX LTD) * "Here And Now" (2017, WAX LTD) * "Black Hole Sun" (2017, WAX LTD) * "Climb" (2020, Bliss Productions) * "Marigold" (2020, Bliss Productions) * "Fearless (The Spark)" (2020, UPM-US) * "Starboy" (2020, Bliss Productions) * "Age of Innocence" (2023, Bliss Productions) * "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (Cover)" (2023, Bliss Productions) * "Elated" (2023, Bliss Productions) * "Foolish" (2024, Bliss Productions) * "Dirty Fingers" (2024, Bliss Productions) * "A Million Miles" (2024, Bliss Productions)

Other appearances

* "Liar Liar", from the album ''

True True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality. True may also refer to: Places * True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States * True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States * ...

'' (2013) by

Avicii Tim Bergling (8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii, was a Swedish DJ, remixer, and record producer. At age 16, he began posting his remixes on electronic music forums, which led to his first record deal. He rose ...

* "Glorious", from the album '' Glorious'' (2015) by Arty * "Something About You", from the album ''Something About You'' (2016) by Paris Blohm * "Golden (feat. Blondfire)" (SpinninRecords, 2021) by

Sander van Doorn Sander Ketelaars (; born 28 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sander van Doorn () or the initials SvD, is a Dutch electro house DJ and record producer from Eindhoven. Background Sander van Doorn began his recording career in 20 ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Indie pop groups from Los Angeles Musical groups established in 2004 American people of Brazilian descent