Blue October : iSOUND.COM™

Biography

Blue October isn’t just your average, everyday rock band from Texas. The group was formed in Houston in the late ‘90s by lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Justin Furstenfeld, his brother, drummer Jeremy, multi-instrumentalist Ryan Delahoussaye, later joined by guitarist/vocalist CB Hudson and bassist Matt Noveskey. The group’s epic live shows and exploration of subjects like mental depression, drug use, love, betrayal, forgiveness and cathartic transcendence have helped them amass a strong, loyal following through five albums, three of which have been released by Universal Records.

Blue October released their first album, The Answers, in 1998. The group was signed to Universal for their August 2000 major label debut, Consent to Treatment, but with Rock radio non-responsive, they were soon dropped. The band then signed with Brando Records and released History for Sale in July 2003. When “Calling You,” which was also included on the American Wedding soundtrack, began picking up airplay in Dallas and other Texas cities, Universal offered to re-sign the group. After considering several other major label offers, Blue October decided to return to the very label that dropped them.

“We’re not an easy band to understand,” says Justin about the decision to return to their major label home. “I just felt at Universal, we had a team of people who understood us, and who loved us for all the right reasons. I wasn’t about to walk through life with people who didn’t really know me.”

That Blue October hasn’t followed the ordinary path to success is clear from the first single from Foiled, “Hate Me,” a song that recalls such aching rock anthems as Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” or Jane’s Addiction’s “Jane Says” for songwriter Justin Furstenfeld’s unflinching look at himself. It’s a song portraying a man’s selfishness in a relationship, then coming to terms with it, and admitting the mistakes.

“I have to block out thoughts of you/So I don’t lose my head/They crawl in like a cockroach/Leaving babies in my bed,” he sings, the images underlined by the matter-of-fact sing-song way in which they’re delivered. “It’s like, let me just kind of clue you in on what it feels like in my own brain,” he offers.

That brand of intensity is welded to wide screen sound that evokes an array of eclectic influences such as prog-rockers Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Flaming Lips, U2 and Coldplay, attracting a hardcore following who not only relate, but ardently sing along with the band’s songs.

“Our fans really make us what we are,” says Justin’s older (by 14 months) brother, drummer Jeremy. “We have a tight bond with them. Many have become our friends through the years. To see them sing these songs right back at us as we play them is amazing. It blows me away every time.”

“Into the Ocean,” with Delahoussaye’s seductive violin siren call and plucked mandolin, openly contemplates a death wish with so much honesty, fans write to the band, claiming tracks like this have prevented their own suicidal impulses.

“I love Justin’s lyrics,” says guitarist Hudson, whose early influences include such players as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. “He speaks the truth. It’s all real-life experiences everyone can relate to. Being able to work with someone like that is special. Our music touches people in the heart. I’m really proud of that.”

“If I have saved others, I don’t know what to say,” admits Justin. “But if I can do that for them, why the fuck can’t I do that for myself?”

It’s a reasonable question to ask for Furstenfeld, whose first musical memory as a child was hearing fellow Texan Roy Orbison’s plaintive “Crying.” That led to an interest in other melancholy groups like The Smiths, The Cure, Red House Painters and Idaho. Having been in therapy since he was 14, Justin turned to music to get away from his problems. Songs like “What If We Could,” about the longing of a true love that is seemingly doomed by distance and circumstance, or the apocalyptic “Sound of Pulling Heaven Down” and “Let It Go”, with its mournful Neil Young harmonica line halfway through, deal with that self-doubt in no uncertain terms, as Justin asks in the latter: “Why do I feel this way?/Why do I kneel?/How could I let it go?/Why do I feel?”

“I don’t remember writing these songs,” he says. “They just come out when it’s getting too much for me. It’s like getting closure. Now, I’m not so hurt about that relationship. I’m actually in a better place now. I’m just waiting to write that happy song. I welcome it with open arms.

After eighteen months of touring on History for Sale, a double-live CD/DVD, Argue with a Tree, which captured the amazingly symbiotic live relationship between the band and its fans, was released in February 2005.

Without any radio airplay or press, and after being off the road for more than a year, a fall ’05 tour was booked, resulting in sold-out shows in Houston, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Tulsa, Little Rock, Omaha, Chicago, Lawrence/Kansas City and Des Moines, proving the band’s audience was growing even stronger.

“I really wanted to be part of this,” says bassist Noveskey, a Michigan native who worships at the altar of Motown’s Jamie Jamerson and Sly and the Family Stone’s Larry Graham. He briefly left the band, only to return in time to record the new album. “It was an amazing process. Everything worked out the way it was supposed to.”

Foiled isn’t just about despair, delusion and dementia. “X Amount of Words” is “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with a lively New Order/Depeche Mode dance beat. On the other hand, “Drill a Wire Through My Cheek” is a harrowing glimpse into Justin’s Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde, a devil on one shoulder, an angel on the other, connected by the titular “wire through my cheek,” which Justin is willing to pull to defeat his dark side.

“That’s me at home, when nobody’s around,” he says sarcastically.

There’s an element of light at the end of the tunnel, a hopeful optimism that comes out in the album’s final two songs—the sweet soul of “Everlasting Friend” and the idyllic love of the sweeping “18th Floor Balcony,” for which Hudson wrote the music.

“That’s the first love song I’ve ever written without doubt,” admits Justin. “At least I know in my head I’m capable of loving. It’s great to know that my heart still works.”

“This really is our best record yet,” says multi-instrumentalist Delahoussaye, classically trained on piano at the age of four, violin at six and viola at nine. “We’re more accomplished in fine-tuning the way we want things to sound and what our mission is.”

You can hear Blue October’s collective heart pumping—alternately breaking, healing and breaking again—on Foiled. It is a sound you won’t soon forget.

Bio written by: magicofeet

Artist Forum


Discussion Topic	Creator
Review Rally DO you think we could be at the top if each of us wrote 10 review over the week. then all submitted them on the 1st in celebration of the dvd relase. but in the mean time still submit searches fro blue october and talk on the forum and click around the sight each day up till then too? anyone in?	magicofeet

Replys	Listener
Oh man..that'd be great! Let's do it! I'm in! That would be cool...wonder how long it would take for them to actually post them all.....	bluefreak
I don't know if I can swing the 10, but I will try to write a few.	tattoo_of_a_ring
Yeah, I'm not so happy about my review of Sexual Powertrip not appearing on the site... and then not getting a message either as to why it was denied.	chrisgregory
Send them an e mail, Chris....because then you can ask them why they haven't put it up there yet....did it disappear from your "pending" list? They should put it up....maybe we could all write and ask where your review is...I think there are a couple that they haven't put in yet....	bluefreak
ok, I'll do it in the morning	chrisgregory
hehehe the next person to get a review in gets a gmail invite from me! haha	chrisgregory
I just submitted a review for H4$. Let's see if mine gets put on. I don't know if I can write 10 different reviews, but I'll definitely write a review of the dvd and the cd to be posted.	etg00ag
Guess I need to start writing some reviews if we're sposed to do ten or so for the first of the month! Yikes! So...who else has theirs ready and set to go?	bluefreak
I will write 5 tonight and 5 tommorow night. I took a 4 hour trip to Ocean City maryland. One of the many random trips I take. Its only a 4 hour trip though 3 states. woo hoo. I think I will review the Answers cd.	magicofeet
i wrote a review for the college station show and i just finished writing one for the song 18th floor balcony though that one is pending	somekindaf-t
ummm yay:) I think	magicofeet
My review is up! Yeah!	etg00ag
Yay her review is up :) I vote for delaying the review bombardment to the 14th. Due to technical difficulties at home. Post here if anyone has submitted thiers already today.	magicofeet
Nope haven't even written them yet...so yeah..my vote definately goes to postponement of the review due date!	bluefreak
So etg00ag... are you likin' your new high capacity google mail account? Hmmmm????? :)	chrisgregory
Ahhhhh My computer at home is like dead. I killed it yeterday trying to fix it. Guess I just got to tinker some more!	magicofeet
ok, I submitted a review of the 21st!!! god i love that song!	chrisgregory
ok but 10 on the 14th ;)	magicofeet
Yes, I love my new account. I'm still learning my way around it, but I love it nonetheless. I posted a review of the 9/1 show and it's up. I will post as many reviews as humanly possible for me, but being a student and a teacher is tough work! Ok. The whining has ceased.	etg00ag